Good Morning Gloucester

The Gloucester Fleet

“MISS TRISH II”

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Do you remember Shutes & Merchants, Reed & Gamage or the Slade Gorton fish companies? They’re gone now but their legacy continues.

Sponsored by the Phyllis A Marine Association

Supported by the Awesome Gloucester Foundation

Those early morning “seat savers.”  You know them, you’ve seen them, maybe you’ve even been one of them.  I’m not going to lie…we’ve done it before.  But, is it ok?

So, here’s the deal.  After months of horrific weather, the Schrafft family, like so many others, had finally had it.  With a time share week soon to expire, but 4 plane tickets during April vacation week too pricey for our pockets, I started to look at warm weather destinations within reasonable driving distance.

While searching, I discovered a nice little resort in Virginia Beach. The resort looked super cute and their website described it as, “a Key West-inspired resort.”  On a whim…with much less research than is typical for me…and a bit of trepidation, I booked it.

With prescheduled obligations Saturday morning, we couldn’t leave until 1:00.  We hit tons of traffic in the New York area, stopped more times than is ideal, and finally arrived at about 1:30 a.m. Sunday.  We were pleasantly surprised with our spacious suite.  Having booked really late, we weren’t able to get a two-bedroom suite, but the boys have never had a problem sleeping on the pull-out sofa in the living room when need be.  Having two bathrooms and a full kitchen is always a bonus when traveling with the kids…and ours were updated and lovely.

The resort is fairly small….only three floors with maybe 90 suites total.  In the center are two lovely pools, two hot tubs, some nice landscaping and waterfalls, a gazebo, a pergola, and maybe 50ish teak lawn chairs and some umbrella tables.

We spent the first day getting our bearings straight, lounging by the pool, finding a grocery store, and having an early dinner.  We quickly learned which pool the boys preferred and where the best seats were located so as to watch them safely when not in the pool with them.  The pool area was lively, but not necessarily crowded.  We easily scored perfect chaise lounge chairs by the pool’s edge and had a great day.

The morning of our second day we all slept late and then I took a run on the board walk while the boys rollerbladed.  We returned to our suite for breakfast and lazily made our way down to the pool at 11:00 to spend hours relaxing and swimming.  The next day was much the same. However, upon stepping out onto our balcony at 7:30, I noticed a line of pool chairs already “spoken for” without a swimmer or pool-goer in sight. Awfully early for claiming territory.  The chairs that were taken happened to be the entire front row along the main edge of the better of the two pools.  With stone work being done along the other side….several other chairs were out of commission.

We went out for a run/roller blade and made it down to the pool around 10:30.  The chairs in question were still adorned with bags, towels, goggles, water shoes, etc. but yet….still no people. 30 minutes later…still no one.  Finally, around 11:45 a father and three young children appeared. The stuff and evidently the chairs were theirs, but after digging through the bags and rearranging a bit…they were off again.  We saw them intermittently…near the chairs…cruising by the chairs…taking things off the chairs…putting different things on the chairs…buy yet, never actually sitting down upon the chairs.  It wasn’t a huge deal, I suppose, but with seating kind of limited and their belongings taking up a large slice of the pie, we had to maneuver around their stuff and their chairs to get to the water’s edge.  By 3:00, the father hadn’t sat once nor had any of the children.  The mother sat with her newborn for a few minutes and was then gone.  I couldn’t help but think, if they really just needed a place to put their things…they could have easily just taken two chairs, rather than five!  Throughout the day several other pool goers walked back and forth while searching for a place to sit.

So, I ask you…  What is proper resort etiquette?  Do you sneak out early and reserve your seats? Do you loathe those who do?  Is it sometimes ok?  Thoughts?

Pool area view from our balcony

Our pool view. Empty seats…claimed all day long.

The seats in question. Prime real estate…wasted

Photo Kim Smith

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