Here we go (in no real particular order actually – they were all amazing in their own right):
#12: Umbrellas in the Skies of Newport RI
I wanted to take a jaunt over to Newport Rhode Island to check out this marketplace that has umbrellas all set up hanging above one of the walkways throughout the complex. Got some amazing deals of some hoodies and shirts while we were there, so bonus. I also learned that two of the elephants from last years migration along the Breakers are now permanently installed over at the library a few blocks down so I had to check them out as well.
On the way back we hit our favorite vegan ice cream place in Providence. They have a vegan deli next door and I tried the “fake” ham and cheese. LD found she couldn’t eat it – it was just too “wrong” but surprising I was able to chow it down just fine, which is rather unlike me. I guess there really is no replacing the real thing!
#11: Doing Bunny Yoga For a Change of Pace
First off, I have to send out a Congratulations to my one and only, Ladydoc, for completing 5 miles of swimming to benefit the American Cancer Society! Awesome job! This particular morning I went down to the pool with her and watched her take the final laps and document the occasion for posterity!
The town of Dedham had some all afternoon bunny events. We chose Bunny Yoga! To be honest, as with all the other animals we do this with, it’s more about interacting with the animals than doing any yoga stuff.
#10: Historic Papermill Playhouse and Drumming
Finally got to check out the historic Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, NJ and saw a great show there called “Mystic Pizza” which as you probably guessed is based on the movie/book. I could easily see this show eventually ending up on Broadway. And we can say that we saw it first, haha! I also got to play some electronic drums which I was surprised at how good the kit actually is. Kind of amazing. I also want to explore Millburn more when the weather gets better, it looks like such a cute little town.
We’ve actually been to that pizza establishment in Connecticut a couple of times. Might do another outing to check it with some friends sometime in the future.
#9: Seeing John Cusack Live and In Person!
As one of my xmas gifts, LD got us tickets to see John Cusack down at the Emerson Colonial in Boston. Never actually been inside that theater before although I must of passed it tons of times. There was a showing of his movie High Fidelity and he was going to talk about it after the screening. Of course my all time favorite Cusack movies are Serendipity, Say Anything, and my All-time favorite, Better Off Dead. Anyways, he seemed like a really cool guy.
#8: A Happy Little Cape Getaway Weekend
We had a nice little weekend getaway down the Cape to help celebrate LD’s birthday month. Here’s some of my highlights. I will say it was an awfully windy weekend down there but it was beautiful. Some fun stuff we got to do were some Chocolate Sparrow trips, dinner at a great place we like called Island Blue Crab (where our favorite Bulgarian waitress works), hanging out in such a cute little Airbnb right next to the water, grabbing another Dedham Pottery item to the collection, checking out the sunsets and just overall chilling out. I do love the Cape, I think my best pictures come from there. So scenic.
#7: Love Us Some River Troll Action
Finally got a chance to visit Mrs Skipper troll in East Providence, Rhode Island. Thomas Dambo constructs his trolls from recycled wood with the goal of encouraging people to explore nature and value the environment. Many of the trolls’ narratives and expressions, often with a humorous twist, incorporate an environmental message. After that we grabbed lunch at a random locals place on our journey that we happened to be near called Rosa’s Tavern and it was actually very good! I got a chicken parm sammie and LD got this very good tasting seafood pot dish. I would go there again! Finished up with a quick jaunt over to Like No Udder for some ice cream and hot chocolate. I also scored a free rubber duck in pirate attire there, which was kind of cool.
#6: The Goatfather Part 2
On this particular October morning we got to hang out with some goats with our friends who live up in Georgetown. We got to dress them up in costumes, which was not that easy! Naturally I had to be the Goatfather. It really is a pretty cool feeling to hang out with these animals, and the babies are so warm and snuggly. Studies have shown that goats can distinguish human facial expressions and prefer to interact with humans who appear to be happy so they are pretty emotionally intelligent animals. A cat names Penny also appeared to be pretty attached to me, which was cool. After the mingle we went over to our friends’ house and hung out for a while and had lunch. Sat outside for a bit on the patio, it was pretty nice outside in the sun.
#5: Finding the Daffodil Fields
I finally got a chance to check out the Daffodil Field over down in Dartmouth. It’s at the end of a short hike over a scenic trail to get there. I believe there’s also something similar somewhere in Rhode Island which may be worth checking out some time. Anyways, according to local lore, the daffodils were planted by Raymond Pettey in the 1940s to sell during WWII when the U.S. was unable to get bulbs from Holland. The war ended and the flowers remained! This place required a little bit of a hike through somewhat rough terrain to get to, but i found it worth it! Maybe I’ll do this again this year.
#4: Pretty in Pink with Beautiful Skies to Match on a Rooftop Garden Summer Night
In late August we decided to go see Pretty in Pink playing as an outdoor movie at this neat little rooftop park in Cambridge down by Kendall Square. It was hot all day and there was a chance of rain but all our apps said it should be okay. We got in the parking garage and not a drop around. Coming out of the elevator of the garage to access the roof we were bombarded with a pretty heavy rainfall. Oh no! I said we should wait it out a bit. It started thundering. Still waited a bit. Finally we decided to cross the rainy park to this area on the other side that looked to be covered and had one of those pop up food thingies. After getting a burger and some mac and cheese with pulled pork (both were really good by the way!) the rain stopped and we were able to watch the rest of the movie!
Just as we were going to head back home, LD noticed that the skies looked pretty wild and there might be an opportunity for some interesting sunsety shots, and once again she was right! The sky had this amazing pinkish color to it and just the way that it reflected off the water of the river made it look like you were in some magical place, which I suppose we were.
This park is really cute plus it’s neat that it’s up on a roof. We didn’t get to go back to see the Goonies with one of our couples friends since on that particular day it rained again, this time all day. However, we will try to go again this summer depending on what movie they decide to show. Anyone is free to join us! They do have other stuff there as well like Pickleball.
As usual, you can click any picture for the captions.
#3: The Happy Goat Farm Visit
It’s springtime, baby goat season -at the time these little guys were born shortly ago, in fact while we were there a mother goat was giving birth to 4 babies (!) which I hear is unusual to have that many at once, it’s usually 2, or 3 at the most. Glad the rain stopped for us yesterday afternoon! My shirt says :The Goatfather” in the logo manner of the Godfather. It was a birthday gift from some pals of ours, I finally got a chance to wear it out. It’s also a nice feeling to have a baby goat just fall asleep in your arms, so trusting, and they are so warm. The one I had even started dreaming at one point I believe!
#2: Sunsets, Fish Shacks, Cape Porpoise Love
We headed off to Cape Porpoise for a little mini weekend getaway. I really enjoyed this trip. The Airbnb we stayed in was really great – I would surely return to it. It was so spacious and the hosts were super great. I think they were both in the military, spent some time in Alaska and I think maybe Iraq. The first night we headed to the town over called Biddeford Pool because there was a food/store place called Goldthwaites that we wanted to try. It was good and the views from their back outside area were wonderful. I noticed you could even see the Stage Island Monument in the distance. I do so love this area of Maine. We also saw deer and what appeared to be a company of black swans, but could that be true? This place and the B&B is surely worth another visit.
Next day we did a bunch of things. We hiked a part of the Carson trail, which is part of the Rachel Carson Reserve Wildlife area. It was kind of too hot to really do too much of that though plus it was a little buggy so we didn’t stay there too long. There were a ton of chipmunks around I noticed. For lunch we drove into Kennebunk and I ended up getting a burger at a place called Duffy’s. We then headed back for a little rest before hitting Goose Rock Beach for the afternoon. While there we saw piping plovers, a cool sandcastle that someone built, and a very cute Bassett Hound named Baxter that we had to greet. For dinner we got some good eats at Mabel’s Lobster Claw. All great places to try is you haven’t done that.
Next day we went to Sunday services at St. Ann’s Church, What’s cool is that they do the service right by the water weather permitting. It was a bit rainy when we went so the service was actually indoors but even that was pretty cool. I actually really liked everything about this location and plan to return for some other services soon, like in the Spring! We got breakfast at a place next to Mabel’s from last night called the Pantry. I decided to try the eggs benedict with lobster and it was damn good. Another afternoon at the beach afterwards I wanted to catch a sunset at the famous fish shacks. Thanks to LD for finding the perfect location for me to shoot from! When we visit the area next time I want to shoot more shots from that location.
The fish shacks – I was always curious about these buildings. After taking these shots we eventually found a place where we could get some eats (a pizza actually) which was a bit of a struggle to find food since it seems all the places around here close at 8 or 9 o’clock. I caught the tail end of the Valkyries WNBA game as they beat the Suns. It’s nice that this Airbnb had all the stations you could want, they aren’t usually like that in my experience.
Finally on Monday it started to get really hot. We checked out, hit Stonewall Kitchen for a quick bite and Yummies to get some candy fix. Our friends up in Georgetown were kind enough to let us stop by and use their pool for a bit so we could cool off before going all the way home. THAT WAS AMAZING, you cannot appreciate how much we needed that. We took a dip for an hour or two and were then on our way back home.
All in all, that was a fantastic trip! I probably left out a ton of stuff but these were some of the high points! So 2025 wasn’t the greatest year for a bunch of reasons, but seeing these events shows me that it wasn’t so bad either. It’s good to be reminded of that.
And before I get to the Number 1 here are some honorable mentions which could have been on the numbered list as well, also in no particular order:
- Happy New Year from the Shore!
- Having Fun at a Burton Charity Event
- Hitting the Amazing Mattapoisett Rail Trail. I’m doing this again for sure!
- May 2025 Cambridge Bike Ride
- Memorial Day 2025 Weekend Hangs
- Celebrating Michael Madness
- August 2025 Cape Trip
- Stand By Me: 40 years Later
- L&D’s After Wedding Party (not sure if posting a pic from this is allowed)
- Finding Turkeys in Brookline
- Seeing a play at the Vokes
- Visiting the Plymouth Seals Artworks
And now with much fanfare… onto the Grand Finale! It was tough to choose, but it had to be….
#1: Having a Blast at Our First WNBA Game
The high point was getting to meet a star player on the Valkyries, Veronica Burton Number 22. These women players are Bad Ass! As a bonus we even got to hang with her sister Kayla, who is a sports reporter and anchorwoman on the NBC Boston network and does the Celtics games too! Oh and their mom and dad too, who is also a big name sports reporter here in Boston. Mad props to Ginni for making it happen! Oh, and Suns actually WON this game and by a considerable amount so the place was going crazy! These fans are serious! (You can click on the pics for descriptions).
WOULD DEFINETLY GET TIX TO DO THIS AGAIN THIS SUMMER. I hear that they might be moving the team to Houston though, so that would basically suck. No more semi local play here.
What will this year bring us? Not sure but there are some things starting to show on my radar!
- More baby goats snuggles
- Another encounter with Capybaras in the spring (Dave B, if you’re reading this you *are* going with us so get ready!)
- More Mister History Posts
- Some more loving on Maine
- who knows what else!
Whew! Finally of you’re interested, here are some highlights from previous years:
