My View of Life on the Dock
The “lighthouse” at the end of the harbor breakwater on Bearskin Neck in Rockport has precariously tumbled away from its perch. Even though I live right down the street and go by this often by boat, I’m not sure exactly when this happened. Anyone?
We were on our good friends’ boat the other day with their 3 children, our two boys, and two additional cousins. As we watched all of the children laugh and chill on the bow while we made our way around the back shore of Gloucester, he said, “I love that these kids are all growing up so salty.”
Well, me too.
Today the boys asked if I would do a post in which they could talk about how they haul lobster traps. How do you say “no” to that! So, as they hauled some gear, I took a bunch of photos and they taught me what was up along the way.
This is what they had to say….
Thanks to Jen Helzberg who submitted this excellent photo of her Bernese Mountain Dog pup, Juno, taking the paddle board out for a spin last week in Oak Cove on Rocky Neck in response to my It’s a Dog’s Life post from yesterday.
Rockport’s “4th” of July Parade!
The funniest part of the Horrible’s Parade the other day, you may ask? Well, for me, it was watching one of the floats hand out dog treats while parading some furry friends along the route. That in itself wouldn’t have been funny, but hearing one of the women tell our very own Joey to, “Give the dog treat to his favorite pooch” while getting dangerously close to him with one of her canine friends was priceless. His grimace could have moved mountains….involuntary or not. If you’ve been a FOB for anytime….you know that Joey is not necessarily a Fan of Dogs.
I think you’re either a dog person or not…
I am absolutely a dog person…as are my boys. We have two German Shorthaired Pointers…Moby and Marlin. Finn, in particular, cannot pass by a dog while walking through downtown Rockport (or anywhere else) without patting it and asking 20 questions about its name, breed, age, hobbies, etc. So stay clear if you’re walking a dog and in a rush.
Consider this a call to dog lovers to submit your photos of dogs doing funny dog things.
Over heard at the Horribles Parade:
Senator Tarr to the Ciaramitaro Family, “Hey, if you’re all here who is taking pictures?”
So wonderful to see the Cape Ann Youth Hockey Float in this year’s Horrible’s Parade dedicated to Jim Muniz. Loved and missed by so many.
A little black dog was found near Russell’s Florist in Gloucester a couple of hours ago. If it is yours please contact us by commenting here!
Or at least that is what I saw in the clouds Sunday evening while exiting the Annisquam River to head home to Rockport.
Just your average weekend in Gloucester Harbor
For anyone who has grown up in or around Gloucester, the St. Peter’s Fiesta has clearly served as the true kick-off to summer. But, it is much more than that. The funny thing is that the importance and significance of Fiesta has probably also changed throughout each individual’s life time depending on their age. At times the religious celebrations have been of upmost importance… and later the rides. At times maybe the five day celebration was all about family… and later it was all about hanging out with friends. At times it was about hoping to get a glimpse of that certain “crush” under the ferris wheel and years later it was all about air guitar at Old Timers or trying to cut in line at The Gloucester House. Still later, possibly you’ve come full circle, and celebrating with loved ones makes the Fiesta a time to truly be treasured. At times the parade reigned supreme….and later, maybe the fireworks. For many years playing on the beach during the seine boat races was more fun than actually watching them….and later cheering for a certain crew was equivalent to the Kentucky Derby. The Greasy Pole has always been….well, the Greasy Pole. Whether you love it for the tradition or the insanity, the sport or the absurdity….whether you watch it from Pavilion Beach or by boat in the harbor…there is nothing quite like it.
I’ve been there for all of them. I have fond memories of the Fiesta that range from being a very young child, to a preteen, to a teenager, to a college student, to a bar-crawling 20 something year-old, to a “grown-up”, and now as a parent….who feels blessed to be sharing the experience with my own children. I have Fiesta memories that involve holding my grandfather’s hand as he guided me through the crowd and later memories of holding his hand as I supported him. I have Fiesta memories of holding the hand of long ago boyfriends and later Fiesta memories of holding the hand of my now husband. Maybe the best memories are the newest….as just today, I held the hands of both of my sons while jumping from ride to ride.
So, as the mother of a 5 and 7 year-old, St. Peter’s Fiesta to me so far this year has been all about the rides, the games, and the food. It is all about the color, the sounds, the smells…and the way they all seem to blur together. While I may have desired to capture other aspects of this year’s Fiesta and I would love to get that “perfect shot”…..I have found myself enjoying it through my children’s eyes.
And this is how they see it.
Get on down here!
I don’t know much about the restaurant business, but I’m guessing that it isn’t common practice to “copy” items from other restaurants’ menus. That having been said, could someone PLEASE add this to their menu on Cape Ann?
We had an early dinner at the Brant Point Grill at the White Elephant on Nantucket and I could have eaten 10 of these! So unbelievably delicious!
If anyone happens to be looking for Thurston and Lovey Howell, I found them on Nantucket. Not that surprising I suppose!
Of all the ships I ever sailed
“Friend ships”
have brought me
to the safest harbors
As we begin our 3rd annual Nantucket Romp with three amazing couples and their equally as precious children, I can’t help but think how fortunate we are. It is 9:00 in the morning on our first full day in Nantucket and I’m sitting on the expansive patio watching the newest of parents in our circle dote lovingly on their 7 month old son. Simultaneously, one dad is playing whiffle ball with three of the boys while the others jump, splash, and laugh in the pool and hot tub. (Which we realize is not intended for young children so is set for a low temperature and they’re only in for short intervals). The dads and several of the children were up and out for a 6:00 trip to the beach for some surf casting, I managed to sneak in a shower, and two pots of coffee have been brewed and more was brought home by our fisherman along with fresh, warm donuts from town. A little bit of work is getting done, it is a beautiful 73 degree day and life is good. When I say that we’re fortunate it is not because we are able to be at this beautiful home on this beautiful island….it is because we have been able to foster, continue, and treasure these amazing friendships that have spanned decades and have been passed to their spouses who have been welcomed from towns other than Rockport….and now onto the children who are becoming faster friends with each passing year. Our children, giggling as I type, range in age from the little guy at 7 months to the leader of the pack who is unbelievably a whopping eleven now. One couple has been together since high school and the newest grew up together and were married just three years ago. One couple met in college and my husband and I met, fittingly at the Rhumb Line back in 1998. All of the husbands have been friends forever. Friendships like what these men have (along with countless other kind, generous, and phenomenal friends who did not make this trip) are what life is all about. Sure, being here on Nantucket, in a home that is nothing short of dreamlike, helps create the warm fuzzies…but it was the story telling, laughing, and the camaraderie that we enjoyed until the wee hours of the morning and will continue to be what drives these friendships for years to come. I feel beyond fortunate to have landed amongst this group of merry men and their wives…and to have my children growing up in their midst.
At home, on Cape Ann, many families just like ours are settling in to enjoy a fabulous St. Peter’s Fiesta Celebration and others are simply heading to the beach or having barbecues with dear friends and families. Some friends are sneaking out for a quick beer or glass of wine, friends are getting together to go shopping, or play a round of golf. Whatever it is, and whomever’s company you are enjoying…I hope that you feel as fortunate as I do.
We have all wrestled with the fact that life can be far too short in the recent years and as we continue to grow up….it is even more invaluable to know that we are truly treasuring every moment. As this group likes to say after a enjoying a fishing trip to Costa Rica…Pura Vida my friends.
We’re trying something new in the bait bags this season. I wonder how we’ll do? Daddy told him it was good luck to wear the bait bag while setting gear….as if he needed a reason to strap that sucker on!
Wing Nut.
He also happens to be turning 5 today! Birthday Boy in a Bait Bag…tune in.
Oh, for the love of God. Not that kind of flasher. Keep it clean.
Are you a flasher when you see a police car parked on the side of the road? Do you warn approaching cars of the hidden police car parked around the bend or up ahead?
I used to be. I’m not any more.
In my 20s and maybe even my 30s, I would warn other cars by flashing my headlights in the hopes of saving them from an impending ticket. Now, after having seen more than my fair share of super crappy drivers, I think that if you’re going to speed or drive recklessly then you deserve a ticket. I now, as a driver who has two young boys in the backseat of my car 97% of the time, support the police officers in their mission to keep our roads safe.
The other day, while driving from Rockport to Gloucester via Thatcher Road, the car behind me was so spirited with its flashing, I couldn’t help but laugh. He surely had some type of super hero complex. Clearly on a mission to save the world from speeding tickets. What would that Super Hero’s name be? Driving in front of him was reminiscent of walking into Spencer’s at the Liberty Tree Mall circa the 1980s. Surely someone out there knows what I’m talking about?
His exuberance made me start to think…..which side of the law do most people fall?
Meet my hero! I love this guy! If you need some work done on your house you’d be crazy to not call Matt Gardner. Last year I saw a small platform deck on the sweetest little house in Nantucket and I took one distant photo from the end of the home owners’ long driveway.
With that photo and lots of babbling about what I love….and I what I really don’t like, Matt Gardner saw my vision (even when I wasn’t completely sure I could see it) and created what I consider a true work of art! I am so smitten with our new deck I can’t even stand it! Not only is he completely skilled, but he was patient, honest and reliable…which made working with him really wonderful.
A few people have asked me lately how I like contributing to the blog and while I’ve answered in better detail, the answer that is actually screaming inside my head is, “Cigarette Butt at Panera!”
“What in all holy heck?” you may ask. Well, allow me to explain.
Since I started contributing to GMG, I have discovered that intentionally or not, I look at things differently. Things that I may not have thought twice about, or even noticed, are now potential blog posts. I rate funny things I hear in everyday conversation as “blog worthy…or not so blog worthy.” Friends are beginning to learn that they can’t have a bite of their food or a sip of their drink before I photograph it. Even my own children ask, “are you going to put that on the blog?” when something makes me chuckle. I have found myself parked on the side of the road on Nugent Stretch at 7:25 a.m. because we know that there will be a train barreling alongside of us at 7:26. While I thought that video would be “blog worthy” it wasn’t as cool as it is in real life. I’ve found myself turning the car around to go back and try to capture a particular shot…and I’ve found myself photographing porta potties because I thought they’d make somebody laugh. I’m self diagnosed as “apostrophe intolerant” in that I feel mildly queasy when apostrophe’s are misused. See what I did there? If I ever send out a Christmas card that says, “Love the Schrafft’s” shoot me. So, I have found myself noticing grammatical errors on menus, store signs, and even on a window of a local restaurant and thinking, “does that make a decent blog post?” I told someone that I find myself looking at things through “blog-colored glasses.”
I digress. Back to the cigarette butt at Panera. With my older son off on a play date and the little guy in dire need of new baseball card holders for his big binder of cards, we headed out to Staples. After waiting in line for an eternity behind a woman with what felt like hundreds of questions (and pondering, “is this the makings of a blog post?”) we felt we had earned a Panera Mango Smoothie and Frozen Lemonade. I distracted Finn as we walked past the minefield of baked goodies in the display case in hopes of keeping his eyes on the prize. Five minutes later we were headed back into the sunshine and I was enjoying some long overdue one one one time with my boy. As I watched him hold the door for a lovely older woman, with a smoothie the size of his head in his mitts, and was in the midst of a “what a good boy he is moment” I looked down and saw a cigarette butt at his feet. Finn’s keen little eyes spied it at the same time. Not uncommon you may think, right?
Allow me explain this a bit better, so you can maybe understand why I found it offensive. When you enter Panera, you go through two doors. You’re on the sidewalk…you open a door…you take 3 steps… and you enter another door…this time leading into the actual restaurant. Someone had taken it upon themselves to chuck their cigarette butt down, right there on the carpet for the love of fire hazards, between the two doors. I mean, if you have to chuck your cigarette butt on the ground with the wildly inaccurate assumption that it isn’t actual garbage, then at least do it outside! Why in hell would someone chuck a cigarette down on a carpet….1/2 way inside a restaurant. I have an issue with cigarette butts being discarded anywhere other than an ash tray anyway. I have nothing against cigarette smokers, just their assumption that it isn’t trash. I am equally addicted to my cup of morning coffee…but, I’d never throw the cup on the ground. Likewise, on a similar scale, I might not say “no” to a Hershey’s Kiss…but I wouldn’t throw the little silver wrapper on the ground when I was done. Little or not…it’s still trash.
So I looked at the cigarette butt, Finn looked at the cigarette butt, and then a man began to enter and we stepped out of his way. In my head I was thinking, “go back…take a photo…blog post in the making”…but I was carrying a smoothie, holding my little bag and my car keys, and enjoying a moment with Finn in which he deserved my full attention. But, wouldn’t you know that as soon as he was buckled in and I had started my car, the little guy said, “Mama, you should have taken a picture of that cigarette trash and put it on the blog so more people would know not to do that.” Cigarette Butt at Panera. Enough said.
And….since I didn’t photograph the cigarette butt…here’s a photo of some serious porta pottage. Caption it if you’d like!!
Good Morning Gloucester 