Happy Easter, GMG friends! With Love from the Schraffts down in the Bahamas.

My View of Life on the Dock
Happy Easter, GMG friends! With Love from the Schraffts down in the Bahamas.

The Gloucester Meetinghouse Foundation is pleased to present young Korean organ virtuoso Joonho Park performing an all-Bach program in a progressive organ recital. He teaches at the University of Texas at Austin and is the winner of many international organ competitions. Joonho Park has been hailed as an amazing talent with exquisite technique and exciting musicality. He will be playing some of the most technically demanding and beloved organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach.
The first half will be performed in the Meetinghouse, home of the Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church, on the distinguished 1893 Hutchings pipe-organ, restored by world-renowned Gloucester organ-builder Charles Fisk in 1962. George Hutchings built the original Boston Symphony Hall organ in 1903 and his instruments are known for their beautiful tone colors and powerful foundation stops.
At the intermission, the audience will stroll next door for the second half of the concert in St. John’s Episcopal…
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Join us for a gentle walk and meditation in nature and experience the health benefits of shinrin-yoku. On this leisurely walk you will be encouraged to use all of your senses as you allow the beautiful setting in nature to lower your stress levels, boost your immune system and improve your overall health. No experience with meditation necessary.
Simple breathing relaxation and meditation exercises will be taught.
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The view from the boardwalk on a spring day – can you spot the two new homes?

animation 1 of 3 (first 24 homes, just past the old hotel)

animation 2 of 3 ( Laughing Water and next 25 homes )

animation 3 of 3 (next 24 homes)
Long Beach panoramic (click picture to enlarge) view at low tide, April 2017. The barrier rip rap is mightily exposed. At other times the large boulders are buried beneath deep sand.

This spring awakening is calm. Most of the homes remain prepped for winter.
The view from the beach at low tide (ocean at my back) in two parts.


I love stopping in to visit Maria and Nina at Caffe Sicilia anytime of the year, but especially during the holidays. The bakery was humming today, with their regular customers as well as regional and international travelers, and their refrigerator brimming over with special Easter orders. Folks are still purchasing raffle tickets for Caffe Sicilia’s giant chocolate egg to benefit children with autism. What a gorgeous day for shopping downtown Gloucester. Happy Easter and Happy Spring! 

Saturday afternoon and Haley is working like mad to fill everyone’s Easter basket. She has so much finesse and makes it all look so easy. I’m a messy cook and would after only a few minutes be covered in chocolate. Not such a bad thing, though.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BS6l5t-lUHM/
Caffe Sicilia is raffling tickets for an enormous Easter egg. The funds raised are going towards autism. Did I mention the egg is DARK chocolate 🙂
OK kids…anyone up for a new hobby? If I didn’t have such a love-hate relationship with flying insects (they love me, I hate them) I would be all over this. If this is up your alley, the folks at Harvest Lane Honey whose products are for sale at the Building Center have some great How-To videos to check out. Happy Honey Making!

I’d like either Cape Ann Coffee or Lone Gull or Willow Rest To Open Up At Logan. Please and Thank You.
So we get through the TSA screeners and inside the Delta Terminal. With the 2:45AM wake up time a Kate and I were looking forward to a coffee. Her order- Iced French Vanilla. She heads to the gate with the two youngest, and my oldest The Bean stays back to get coffees with me.
There’s about six or seven dining options including Fresh City Wraps, Friendlies, Dunks and some burrito place, all serving breakfast. Line at Dunks is 40 deep. Biggest line at the other spots is 3 people max.
I go to Fresh City Wraps because they are serving breakfast and ask for an iced coffee, they say they don’t have iced coffee. They’re serving coffee. They have ice. But they won’t sell me an iced coffee.
Go to the next stall, the Burrito place which is also open, serving breakfast. “Can I get an iced coffee?”
“No, we don’t sell iced coffee.”
But they’ve got coffee, and they’ve got mountains of ice.”
They just won’t put the ice in the coffee and take my money completing the transaction like a normal business would.
We all know and have become accustomed to getting ass raped by shtty airport food pricing not to mention shitty airport food, but I can’t for the life of me figure out why in the world the management of these chains have decided that it’s a good business decision to not take my money for stuff they have at their fingertips even when they could have porked me at overpriced airport pricing.
Meanwhile at the very next stall to the Burrito place Dunks has a line 40 deep and they are twiddling their thumbs at Fresh City Wraps and The Burrito place.
Only thing I could think of was that maybe Dunks has a deal where only they and Starbucks can sell Iced coffee? Could that be? Otherwise the management at Fresh City Wraps and the Burrito place need to be fired immediately for not offering overpriced airport iced coffee when they sell coffee and have ice.
Am I crazy for thinking this is crazy?