A Couple of Rainy Day Activities

Castle Hill Light, Newport, RI

Going through some of my archives and I came across this picture I took of the Castle Hill Lighthouse in Newport, RI that I thought was pretty cool so I thought I’d post it up and see what folks think of it.

Heading over to the supermarket this morning I noticed some chips that I had seen mentioned on the Phantom Gourmet the other day in my channel surfing. They are Lays chips but with flavors taken from other snacks, such as Lays chips with cool ranch Doritos flavor, and one with Cheetos. I picked up those two. They also have Funyuns and Fritos flavors but I didn’t see those. These are supposedly only available for a limited time. I’ve thus far tried the Doritos flavored and it’s pretty good, especially if you like cool ranch flavor.

Like I mentioned in the previous post I started reading a book about the two kids really (at the time) who created Doom and basically started the first player shooter sensation. It’s a pretty amazing read and I highly recommend it. It came out in 2003 so it’s not pricey. Having lived through and experienced many of the same things at the time growing up that these kids did made me really soak up this book. Brought back memories in the 80s of buying computer magazines at the time that had program code in it’s pages that you’d have to type in in order to play the games. And of course, I’d always make a typo somewhere so it wouldn’t work and I’d have to painstakingly try to find where it was, and the code was always a confusing mess of letters and numbers. Anyone remember that? I had totally forgotten all about doing that back in the day!

Night Grilling, Women’s Basketball, and a Date with Mr. Do

Had some friends over for a BBQ cookout last night. We decided to do kabobs with some shrimp, chicken, and veggies. LD had forgot actually how much work it is to prepare all the food and our guests arrived a little bit early but it was all good as they helped out and everything actually came out really good. I was a little bit nervous trying to get the timing of everything right, but it all went swimmingly. Maybe I’m really getting the hang of this style of cooking! Ended it all off with a chat around the firepit.

Today I planned to really take it easy. Watched the Dallas Wings (a WNBA team) this afternoon as they’re in the playoffs and the mother of one of the star players is actually LD’s trainer, so we’re rooting for her. They forced a game 3 this afternoon over Connecticut and I like to root for the underdog so that was neat to see. It’s pretty cool that they even got this far and that we know someone connected to that organization. They’re playing on national television this afternoon for God’s sake! Next game is on Wednesday to see if they can advance to the 2nd round. Wishing them luck!

Gametime: Lately I’ve rediscovered an arcade classic from my youth. Mr. Do! It’s like Dig Dug only harder. You have to collect all the cherries while avoiding enemies. You have a ball you can toss to knock enemies out and get bonuses but while the ball is out of your hands you’re vulnerable. Just like in the arcade I can never seem to get past level 5. I think I might have had this for my Colecovision console back in the 80s along with another classic, Ladybug. Both were designed by the same man.

Buzzards Bay Part 2

Went down for another trip to hang out on Buzzard’s Bay this afternoon. The water in the background of these shots is where we swam, I’m calling that Part 1. Had some nice subs for lunch and some good conversation and like I said, a bit of a swim, although the water did seem a bit cooler today than last time. I’m glad we went because even though all the weather reporters said we’d mostly get rain, it appeared to be no rain and all and the sun even stayed out for us, so that was a win.

My Only Tax Free Weekend Purchase

This weekend was the weekend that the state of Massachusetts decided to hold it’s sales tax free weekend, so people generally use it to buy up some things to take advantage of the savings. I could have went with a new sound bar that I’ve been eying, or this moon globe lamp that I thought looked really cool, or the beach cart that I think would be useful. For me though, my only purchase was going down to the Home Depot to buy a new Carbon Monoxide detector, and that was only because last night the old one started chirping (had to first figure out which machine was making the noise, très annoying!!) and it said it had basically reached the end of it’s life. Not so exciting, huh? Strangely the store wasn’t as busy as I thought it would be. Perhaps I just happened to be there at the right time, around four o’clock in the afternoon. I did also try looking for some furnace filters to have a little bit of a stockpile on hand but they never have the size that the one we have uses, so I struck out there. Is the tax-free weekend even really worth it that much? Maybe a little bit, but I don’t think it’s really all that big a deal, especially since it’s capped at $2500 and can’t be used on the certain items that really would make a big difference.

Calling to Me (Sun’s Out, Hot Dog Buns Out)

Calling to me.

Firstly, here’s another pic of the Nubble from earlier in the week. A classic Lighthouse destination and one of our favorites.

Saw this hot fog food truck was around that I wanted to try. Ended up going with one that had grilled corn, queso cotija, crema mexicana, with some chili lime salt on top, and it was pretty good! Then it was off to Wellesley for a mail pickup where I ended up eating some cod. Guess I was a little hungry this afternoon!

I also spent a bunch of time nodding off in my gravity chair out on the back deck in the sun. Totally relaxing!

Finished the day off with a night by the fire pit. Ah! Finally ended out the evening by watching the documentary “I Just Killed My Dad” on Netflix.

Plug 🔌 time: Smooth Sailing now available for purchase. Wouldn’t it look so nice on your wall?

Buzzing Around on Buzzard’s Bay

Got to hang out in Fairhaven with friends yesterday and pretty much made a day of it, swimming in Buzzard’s Bay, having tacos for lunch, and a great dinner outside as the sun started to set and a beautiful full moon rose.

Good hang and good food with good friends, you can’t ask for anything more. Thanks for having us!

Birthday Shenanigans in a Treehouse

Nubble!

Too many things to say about my birthday getaway right now. But the highlights were hanging in an Airbnb in Dover NH that had an actual treehouse overlooking the scenic Piscataqua River, watching baby robins being fed by their mother in another tree in the back yard, getting clean in the shower that had two showerheads almost opposite each other which was really cool, grabbing burgers at the BRGR Bar in downtown Portsmouth, getting some shots over at the Nubble, hanging out and swimming at Long Sands beach, eating clams at Bob’s, and getting a gravity chair that I wanted and a book about Rumi that I also wanted to read! It was really hot outside but it is Leo Season as they say! Naturally I must thank LD for making my birthday amazing and every day, as always!

I’ll need to expand upon this at a later date, but all in all, totally amazing!

Love to Sail

Sailing

Went to a farm today, picked up some fresh produce to cook on the grill tonight. Ended up taking a nap in the afternoon, for some reason I felt tired and the map for an hour really helped pick me up. Dinner ended up being excellent though: salmon, corn, carrots, and a delicious peach and nectarine salad. Top it all off with this shot of a sailboat moored in Cape Cod bay at sunset. Perfection. Ended up watching a documentary on Netflix called The Girl in the Picture. My heart aches for that girl.

Friday Frolics For New Kicks

Enjoying life one lighthouse at a time.

Watched this documentary last night which was about the debacle that was Woodstock ’99. Crazy crazy! This afternoon LD and I went down to the New Balance Factory Outlet and bought matching sneakers. She thought it a little ridiculous but I think it’s cute. Maybe we’ll both wear them at the same time! Haha!

Here’s a flashback photo of me visiting one of my favorite places along the eastern seaboard, Pemaquid Point in Maine.

Running with the Sunset 🏃‍♀️

Just running with the sunset

Spent the day at the beach today. It was, in a word, glorious! One cool thing was watching all the piping plovers run along the shore. They are so small little creatures, but they can run on those little legs of theirs pretty fast. Anyways, by the end of the day for whatever reason (perhaps it was the sea, the sun, lunch, and eating a huge lobster roll) we were pretty zonked. I mean, I could not keep my eyes open. When we went to bed we slept the whole night solidly.

Backstroking Into the Week Like…

Chatham Fish Pier

Here’s a pic from the Chatham Fish Pier. Now this is a working pier so during the day they really don’t want you hanging around here because the fisherman are trying to do work, bringing in their haul and all that jazz, and there are signs all over to that effect. However, if you go, like after 5 pm, you can just go into the lot and take a look around. This is a great place to see seals for free. Since this is where the fisherman unload their stuff these guys think they may get a free meal out of it, and a lot of times some of them will just be milling around hoping for some grub. Naturally you can’t find them, that would be a bad idea, both because it’s not good for them and also that they could bite you. Anyways while we were there these three seals were swimming around and this particular one seemed to be having fun literally swimming on his back just breaking the water line. He was putting on a little free show for us! So, if you don’t want to pay for a seal tour and hope to get a glimpse of these guys just head down to this pier. Sooner or later you’re bound to see them!

Hiking the Coastal Trail to a Scene of Beautiful Paradise

What did we do this morning? After a quick dip in the pool, we went over and hiked the Eddy Trail, probably one of our favorite locations to hike of all time. As an added treat they had the story of The Lorax all laid out along the trail, a page or two every so often along the way. The finale (well, really the half way point since you have to walk back) is ending up upon the cliff face. It just so happened to be high tide, so we got to see various boats floating along the flats. We even got to see a baby bunny along the trail. Of course it was scared but very cute as we said hello and went on our way.

Currently Reading: From a little library in Chatham by the lighthouse: Hell’s Half-Acre: The Untold Story of the Benders, a Serial Killer Family on the American Frontier. I think I might have heard bits of this story before but not really sure. You can look it up on Wikipedia, talk about a strange family.

In case you missed it, I decided to add my shot Where Time Has No Meaning to the shop as well. A nice relaxing Cape scene I think I captured pretty well.

A Full Day in Dennis, Harwich and Chatham

Where Time Has No Meaning, also available on the shop for purchase!

Another day at the beach! Swimming, Sunning! Earlier in the day I hung around the Bass River and checked out some of the sights around there. The majority of the day was spent as West Dennis Beach, like I said, swimming and sunning, and then swimming again until late afternoon. Finished it off with a visit to Mac’s in Chatham, hit a couple of Little Libraries (have you tried to new mobile app for it yet? It’s pretty great – much better than dealing with the website), then back to the condo for some chill out time. We were literally out practically all day from sunrise to sunset. Damn, are we tired! Tomorrow, we plan on doing our usual hike through the Brewster forest that leads out to the cliffs overlooking the flats.

Great Beach Day

Breakwater Beach

Too tired to describe everything that happened today. Highlights were spending most of the day at West Dennis Beach, playing in the surf and then just enjoying sitting in the sun and soaking up the breeze. This afternoon really did seem like the perfect beach day. After all that and grabbing a pizza it was off the Breakwater Beach to catch tonight’s sunset. Here’s one of the shots from tonight.

“Beach, Please!”

Skaket Sunset

Went down to the Chatham Fish Pier tonight and was greeted to quite a show as a bunch of seals including a harbor seal swam around on their backs and made us feel lucky to see them. I’ll upload a pic of them in a few days as they were captured on my DSLR and I cannot easily upload them to the site until I get back. Got some dinner in Orleans and caught a sunset at Skaket. Saw some cool whale art installation in Chatham center as well where you could also bid on the artwork. We also got to see a large heron fly over our heads which was really cool.

Wellfleet Wellness (Day 02)

Typical Wellfleet Harbor views

All the fun things we did yesterday with a couple of guests we had over for the overnight.

  • Swimming in the outdoor pool in the afternoon to cool off a bit
  • Getting lunch sandwiches from a local deli
  • Checking out our favorite spots at Nauset
  • Heading over to Macs on the Pier in Wellfleet enjoying a dinner on the beach
  • Passing by an amazing property and then noticing some crazy cottages and their asking prices for essentially a unheated shack
  • Heading over to Rock Harbor to catch the last rays of sunset
  • Grabbing some desserts at the Sparrow as per our usual routine!
  • Winding down with the charcoal grill doing up S’mores and turkey burgers and washing them down with beers
  • As always, illuminating conversation!
  • Falling asleep as midnight approached

All in all, a quite full day!

Crosby Beach Sunset (Day 01)

Crosby at sunset

Well, we made it down here by mid afternoon. Not too bad. Got a early dinner over at Mac’s (one of our favorite places). LD got some pool time already. Night swimming! Just before that though we headed over to one of the nearby beaches as sunset approached and I took some shots. Unfortunately I’ve discovered that the converted Chromebook does not seem to recognize the DSLR camera so the high res shots will have to wait until I get back but it does recognize my cell so that’s what this shot is from. I think we’re going to be having a full day tomorrow so I’m going to end it here for now.

Ready for Adventures Ahead!

Adventure ahead

Today ended up being running around to get a bunch of things. First I needed to go down to HQ to sign some paperwork that was outstanding and for my trouble they gave me a fifty dollar gift card for gasoline at a local station here in town. Pretty nifty. Then later in the afternoon I got a call that my equipment which had been on back order for months finally arrived at the Tactical store so I could finally go pick it up and I went ahead and got that done. That place doesn’t scare me anymore after being there a number of times now. Funny how it all came together on this one particular day, almost all at the same time. Kind of weird. Anyways, it’s all done and I’m ready to move forward. More excited about getting ready for an upcoming trip. This is going to be good because besides the usual sights and fun, we might have a couple guests visit. I’ll be bringing the travel Chromebook so I can do updates from the road, like last month.

From Here to Tanglewood

Visiting Symphony Park in East Somerville, MA

From the sculptor: “‘We Are Still Listening,’ was created from a magnificent regal tree which once stood in front of the Hadley-Conant home, a family of musicians of the 1880s. I wish to dedicate this sculpture to the honor of the Hadley-Conant family, the residents of East Somerville, and those musicians who will continue this tradition through musical performances and events in Symphony Park.”

I wanted to check this thing out after hearing it mentioned about a week ago as they did an unveiling. I also did a little lookup on Henry Hadley, I had no idea. That’s what learning is all about! He would later go on to create Tanglewood, and to think it all started right here in East Somerville!

Firepit Party Night Leads to a Beach Afternoon

Meeting the Day

Had a fun night last night having a friend over. I grilled trout, something I’d never done or even eaten before, and it came out great. We finished it off with turkey burgers and zucchini. Our guest also brought over one of the most delicious salads we’d ever had! Thanks so much L! As the night wore one we did a fire pit and enjoyed some s’mores. It was a beautiful evening. We definitely hope to do this again. Wonderful way to spend a few hours together.

This afternoon I was jonesing to go the beach so we went and spent some time in the sun and the waves. I was feeling hot and getting in the water just cooled me right down. I will say that the beach was pretty packed today. Guess everyone had more or less the same idea. Grabbed lunch over at The Green Harbor Lobster Pound again, love that place. I went with the clam plate and LD went with, naturally, the lobster roll.

Visiting King Tut: The Immersive Experience

Finally got a chance to check out the Immersive King Tut Experience over at the South Boston Sowa Power Station. It was interesting, definitely focused more on the religious afterlife beliefs that the ancient Egyptians had, after you learn a little about the Boy King’s life you watch him go on his journey through the Afterlife. We went with another couple friends of ours. Afterwards we hit a famous Quincy restaurant with has great views of the Bay and had lunch there on the deck. It was a beautiful day!

Currently reading: For One More Day by Mitch Albom. A little library find from a visit to some of them a few days ago. In a bit, I’ll list a series of books both new and old that I’d like to get a chance to read over the summer and maybe why I’d want to read it.