Cupcakes & More to Celebrate Toad Hall’s 40th Birthday!

An announcement from the good people at Toad Hall:

Toad Hall Bookstore’s 40th Birthday Bash!

The Toad Hall 40th birthday party will be on May 19th at Millbrook Meadow, 10:00-11:30 am. All are invited to meet at Toad Hall at 10:00 and parade to the Meadow. Children — young & old — are invited to come dressed as a favorite book character. All will be given a kazoo to have fun with in the parade and at the meadow. At the meadow there will be face painting, readings from some of our favorite books — and yummiest of all — CUPCAKES! See you there!


 

 

Italy Day 5: Praiano and Amalfi

A lazy start to the day after the huge feast at La Tragliate last night. Up for breakfast on the sunny terrace- cappuccino, croissants, grapefruit juice and sun!

The huge yachts look like small sailboats from our high perch above to Mediterranean. It’s 400 steps down from our room to the beach. You can stuff yourself with pizza at the bottom on the beach and by the time you work your way back up to the room you’re ready to eat again, lol.

The plan is to hop in the car and discover a few new Amalfi Coast cities. We get going around 11:30 AM and hit the first town of Praiano. Praiano is just south of Positano with stunning views back toward The Positano Bay. Praiaino is much more laid back than Positano but still very much a tourist place with lots of Hotels and Inns. We ate lunch at La Brace. Pretty sure it was a family operation with the father as your host, daughter as your server and son in the kitchen (total guess but that was how the dynamic between them seemed). The food was very good. A little on the expensive side but friendly service from the father and very good food with a gorgeous view of Positano. I’d return.

One of the most entertaining things about Italy is watching the way Italians talk to each other. We all know Italians talk with their hands and wear their emotions on their sleeves but the very best is watching this whole dynamic play out on cell phones when the person on the receiving end of the phone call can’t even see the caller but the hands are flying around like an overworked aircraft signalman on crack and their facial expressions tell the entire story without understanding a lick of the language.

Driving the Amalfi is exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. Hairpin turns and the most dramatic vistas I’ve ever witnessed. The thing is if we are to live to talk about it the driver (me) has to keep their eyes on he road. Made for a nice ride for the Mrs though. By the time the driving is done for the day you are ready for a good stiff drink to take the edge off for sure.

After lunch and walking around Praiano we head for their south to Amalfi. Amalfi is where the large cruise ships pull in. Definitely geared toward tourists with a bustling center and piers. There is a large space for buses to pull in and walk across the street to the shops, cares and restaurants. The piers are beautiful. Everything all along the Amalfi is very clean, people are friendly and you feel very safe. We have a cappuccino bounce in and out of a few shops, take a walk down the pier and head back to the car for the 45 minute or so drive back to Positano.

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It’s On Baby!

Post Italy-

Last night: Planks, Pushups and Lunges.

Hamstrings are not happy with me.

Breakfast: Two Egg Whites, Greek Yogurt. Stretching.

This is it baby, I’m in it to win it!

Motivated.  I’ll be ready to wear the new grape smugglers I bought on vacation in no time. Smile

Filling in home workouts with time at The MAC

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Gloucester Webcam of The Day- Schooner Adventure

VISIT THE SCHOONER ADVENTURE WEBSITE

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This Webcam and more can be found at www.gloucesterwebcam.com

This www.gloucesterwebcam.com local webcam portal project was an idea I had last year to have as many webcams streaming from local businesses or organizations as possible which highlight the incredible vistas that we as people that live and work here get to enjoy each and every day.

The idea was to have the organization install the webcam, have them embed the webcam feed on their own websites as well and have a link to each business website on the Gloucester webcam portal website to showcase their business as well.

Tim Blakeley from Gloucester Bytes provided the initial installation at ridiculously cheap cost because he believed in the project.

Free Tickets To Friday Night’s Berklee College of Music Herb Pomeroy’s Big Band Performance “To Herb with love” (a $40 Value)

A random person will be selected Wednesday evening at 7:00PM.  To qualify for the contest all you need to do is to follow my twitter account- @Joey_C

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The Concert will be Friday night May 18th so you can pick up the tickets Friday morning down at the Dock

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24th Annual Deck’s Day for Dubbers Golf Tournament

 

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L. Dexter Woodman Scholarship Tournament was played at Bass Rocks Monday May 14th 2012

Twenty six teams participated, making it a successful scholarship fundraiser.

Click Slide Show below:

http://www.woodmans.com/