Mimi riding Sugar, New Palz, New York Photo by Barry Epstein
Cup Liquors, Newport Rhode Island Photo by Barry Epstein
excitement centered around this immense yacht. I am not sure how long it was but it took up the entire length of the pier. People were coming and going and the music was loud. We thought that we would walk onto this vessel and crash the party. We took a few steps and then stopped and we chickened out and
My horse: Spunky eventually went back to our hotel. A day or so later, we had read that Australia had won the famous America’ s Cup race and they were celebrating this win. Most likely all of the Australians associated with this race, like the skipper John Bertrand, the designer Ben Lexcen and Alan Bond, were on the boat that we almost walked on. Winning this race was a major event in Australia and the skipper was a folk hero. Interestingly, the Australian syndicate was represented by the Royal Perth Yacht Club.
Mimi had found a horseback riding adventure in a remote part of Cape Cod in Massachusetts in the Cape Cod National Seashore park. We drove the 4.5 hours to get there and we were so excited about this ride that went along the coast which we understood to be crystal clear water. When we arrived, we went to register for the ride and they asked us about our riding skill level. We said that we were intermediate riders. They then informed us that unless we were expert riders, we were unable to go on this ride. After trying to convince them otherwise, we eventually left and we were very depressed. We drove up further up Cape Cod to Provincetown, a small artist community with impressive galleries filled with local art that were so nice to explore. We then found a seafood restaurant and had a memorable bouillabaisse served to us in huge turtle shell bowls. There was so much seafood in this and it had a spicy red sauce base. This experience took the edge off of our depression.
Several weeks after returning to home, I secretly started looking for horses to buy in upstate New York. It took me a few months and I traveled up to see some of the horses many times without Mimi knowing. In New Paltz, I found two great horses that were kept in a very nice
My nieces Nicole on left and Meghann on right
facility. So I bought them both including their riding gear. I took one of the saddles and put a large bow around it and one morning I presented it to Mimi as a surprise gift and told her that there were two horses included in the present. She was surprised and initially against me giving her this unusual gift. That weekend we went up to see the horses and she fell in love with her horse called Sugar and liked my horse named Spunky. My horse was a barrel racer
BARRY STEVEN EPSTEIN- PhotoAutobiography DRAFT 63 of 156