Finishing off Summer (09-20-23)

 After visiting Paul’s mom in Texas in August, we needed to get our rig to Fresno, CA.  I am flying to Boston to see family and Paul is going to wait for me with friends in CA. 

Tired of taking the same roads back and forth across the southwest, we detoured and headed to northern AZ, trying to stay somewhat out of the heat. It’s monsoon season in Arizona and we drove right into a storm.

We stopped for a couple of days to visit friends, north of Phoenix, where we did a lot of eating, a little bit of hiking, and spent a couple of hours at a small bar, listening to great music.

A few days later I was on my way to Massachusetts. Being on the red eye, I didn’t get much sleep, but I flew first class, so at least I was comfortable.

I spent the first couple of days at my brothers, celebrating my sister in laws birthday-which included lunch at a restaurant on the water in Gloucester MA.  

We liked the drink at the restaurant so much we bought the ingredients to make it at their house.

The following day, after lunching with some childhood friends, who I have known since I was two, I moved on to an Airbnb close to my son Stephen.

Having the Airbnb gave us a place to hang out, cook dinner, and relax. Of course, we also explored, and drove up to Gloucester for lunch. Without a reservation it was supposed to be over an hour wait, but to our surprise, they called us in 20 minutes and led us to one of the best tables in the house!

Reminiscing about his childhood and mine, we talked about our almost yearly vacations at the beach in New Hampshire. I started coming here when I was about 9, and the tradition continued until my kids were that age- Lots of great memories. We ended up booking a couple of rooms near the beach, so we could have two days to enjoy it.

Of course we had to buy books to read at the beach!

After spending a week with him it was time to move back to my brothers for a couple of days before flying back to CA. Along the way I met up with an old neighbor friend, her daughter, and her granddaughter.

The last hurrah before flying out was an afternoon with all my siblings.

One of my layovers on the way back to California was in Salt Lake City, which we flew into at sunset:

I thought it was hilarious that on the way to Boston, because of the time table, there were no meals served on either plane- but on the way back, for the same reason- we were served dinner on two different flights.

After spending another couple of days with our friends,  our plan was to move further north in California, to do some hiking, but Paul’s mom started having some health issues, so we turned around and went back to El Paso.

Spoiler alert- she improved and stabilized, allowing us to do some exploring- but not too far away. 

Late Winter, Late Spring (05/05/22)

You will notice that it is now June, and I am writing about February- April.  I am not a fan of blogging much when we are at the house, so I put it off, and off, and off, and here we are in June. The problem is, now that Paul and I are on the road for the summer I WANT to write about what we are seeing- but I have to finish other posts first. I also discovered part of my problem- ever since I got my iPhone Pro, I take most of my pictures with my phone.  That means I have a LOT more pictures to sort through in order to find pictures for my blog.  Very annoying, so, this summer I am back to using my camera. Anyway, to continue:

This year, winter lasted a very long time before springing into spring- the weather was cool, and windy almost every day.  That meant no heating the pool until later than usual, and very few days on the boat.

We did manage to have a good time though- here is what I remember of it:

February brought the fireworks extravaganza, back after a two year hiatus due to Covid.  We booked our usual RV site, and spent a lot of time watching the fireworks.

Our friends Debbie and Al, from Michigan brought their RV and visited for a while…

Our daughter Jess, who lives in L.A. has asked us for years to come to L.A. for her birthday but we hate driving in L.A. so much, we always put it off.  Well, this year I found an RV spot right on the beach, available for her birthday weekend.  We took the truck camper and towed the Jeep, which made it a little easier to deal with L.A.. Once we had our site, we told her the weekend was hers to plan and we would be up for almost anything. 

Our first night there, we went to one of her favorite restaurants (one with the strangest items on the menu, but then, I am not from L.A.) 

 

We shared several plates and had a glass or two of wine.

Saturday was “the big day”. Her 32nd birthday, and the party that goes with it.  She wanted to have a bonfire party on the beach behind our camper. She invited about a dozen friends, and the original idea was that we would make dinner and margaritas.  As used to entertaining as we are, feeding 15 or so people  100 yards from our rig made no sense.  So, we did make the margaritas, but we ordered food from a Mexican restaurant.  The weather was perfect for a beach party and everyone had a great time.

The highlight of my weekend was meeting this guy.  Noah was 9 months old at the time, and SO adorable. He had never touched sand before, so I was fascinated watching him learn about it.  At first he tried to get it off his fingers, but within minutes, he was sifting the sand through his fingers and watching what happened.

He also enjoyed playing cornhole.

After sunset, Jess  and her friends left to go out and hit the bars, and Paul and I got to relax.

Sunday was a quiet day- we spent some time at her apartment, where Paul could handle some “Daddy Do’s” and then we had dinner at the camper before leaving for home the next day.

There is always something going on in Havasu, and March was no exception.  In addition to our usual outings, we attended the rodeo for the first time.  Quite fun!

We also attended Mustangs VS Camaros at a local restaurant.  The owner of the restaurant drives a 1968 SS Camaro and invites all Mustang an Camaro owners to come show off their vehicles.  

Of course we had to bring Thelma. 

Paul and I took the camper and Teryx to Alamo Lake State Park- its only about 3 hours from Havasu and has some really cool off road trails.  We spent a fun few days taking the Teryx through some slot canyons. 

At one point we got into a bit of a pickle, trying to head up a steep incline.  We had to back down, which put the Teryx on very uneven ground. So, it was time to get out the winch, to make sure we didn’t tip it.

When the canyons got too narrow, we explored them on foot.

In April we started making tentative plans for the summer, and it didn’t include heading to the east coast, so I flew out for a week to spend time with my son and my siblings. I do love flying into Boston.

Stephen and I took some day trips to our favorite places- including Gloucester- where we used to spend a lot of time when we had our boat in MA.

Easter Sunday was spent with my siblings- this was my first time seeing them since Covid.

Back home, it was Jess’s turn to visit us.  She brought several of her friends for a party weekend at the PPP.

We ended April with a trip to Fresno CA, where Paul went to college, and is still friends with many of his fraternity brothers.  We were celebrating 75 years of Sigma Chi, and 100 years of Sigma Tau, the original fraternity.   We had a great time celebrating with them.

And then it was May- but May deserves its own post.

leaving home

         They say that home is where the heart is. If that's the case, I guess I have several homes. My heart is partially with my daughter in Muncie IN, and of course, partially with my son and family in Boston. Plus, I am very partial to the people I met while I lived in Canton, MI as well. BUT, really, overwhelmingly, Boston is my home. I grew up here, my parents are buried here, most of my family is here, and the ocean is here. I know the ocean doesn't really count, or seems like it shouldn't, but to me, the ocean is home as well.               

 Whenever we come to Boston, there is never enough time, and I am never ready to leave. There are so many people I want to see and so many things I want to do, it's impossible to fit it all in.

 Really, I want to be here long enough to casually call a friend and say, "hey, let's do dinner some night". I don't have that luxury anymore. Instead, before I even arrive, I call people to see if they are available on "X" day at "X" time, or to at least give them a heads up that we will be in town for a specified period of time. My retired friends laugh because they are available most of the time, but the rest of my friends and family have to fit us in, in the evening and on the weekends.

   This time, in addition to family, I managed to meet up with two women that I have known since before I could walk. We haven't seen each other in the last 20 years, but because of Facebook, we keep tabs on each other.  This trip, we managed to meet for breakfast and a walk along the beach in Gloucester.   What a great time!  I talked so much I had a sore throat by the end of the day.

There are other people that I wanted to see, and meant to see, but couldn’t quite manage it.  Hopefully next time.  Or, better yet, they could fly out and meet up with us along the road somewhere.  That would be awesome!

      Naturally, the weather took a turn for the worse again, while we were in MA, but Paul and I just put our feet up and enjoyed the show.

I got a great picture of the lightning show, although I definitely cheated. I took a movie and made a still from it.

Gloucester....so far.....

The last week has been a flurry of activity, even though it really hasn't been. I mean, overall its been busy, making plans, calling people, driving around, shopping, etc. , but really its been all about relaxing with friends so although it seems busy, the days were spent relaxing. We have been to my favorite town, Rockport, several times , and may go once more. We used to go to Rockport when we had the boat here. Its a great destination. Its a small harbor town, known for its granite. It has a small, beautiful harbor (several pictures in my slideshow) a lot of trails winding around the shore, several beaches, lots of little shops and restaurants, and of course, Motif #1. Motif # 1 is a small shack, with colorful lobster pot buoys decorating the outside walls. It is one of the most painted scenes in this area. We used to tie our boat to it for the weekend, which was really cool. You could walk over to Ray Moore's Lobster, order what lobsters you want for dinner, then come back and get them at the appropriate time- and eat them in the comfort of your own boat. But I don't like lobster, so I usually get clam chowder there. we haven't spent much time in Gloucester yet, since most visitors prefer to head to Rockport. However we did spend two afternoons with Stephen, in the inflatable, floating down the river to the beach. It brought back a lot of memories and was a lot of fun. Stephen was here for 4 days, which was awesome (and part of the reason I haven't written anything before now). He went back home last night, after we all had dinner with my brother and sister in law. We have visited with quite a few friends, but our time seems really short here. I would love to come back next year for longer, so I wouldnt feel so much like I have to make "appointments" to be able to see everyone. Tomorrow we are going out on our friends' boat for the day. They have the same boat we had, but a year older, and we bought them at the same time. They are what we refer to as "boating friends" - people we are really close to because we spent weekends with them all summer long, for years. We are headed to Misery Island for the day- an Island we used to frequent by boat, when we lived here. In the early 1900s it was inhabited by cottages and a resort, but in the 1930s a fire burned most of the buildings down, and the island was pretty much abandoned. The foundations are still there and the island is interesting to walk around. Plus, there is a lot of sea glass there, and I want to get some! Tuesday we leave for Maine- two days in Portland, with an old friend- he has a cottage on an island, and we've never been there so we are looking forward to that. From there its on to Acadia National Park for a week. In the meantime, we are staying inside to avoid the ferocious mosquitos, and we still can't drink the water, so we bought gallons of bottled water. There is no end in sight to the water problem, which was annoying to deal with all week, but at least no one got sick!

and the visiting begins....

Today is Saturday...we arrived in Gloucester yesterday after spending 2 days with Stephen in Sturbridge..it was really hard to say goodbye to him- the only thing that made it easier is that he should be able to spend a couple of days with us in Gloucester. The ride here was uneventful and easy, unusual for a Friday in the summer. Usually the traffic would be a killer, but I guess when they are predicting hurricanes, people don't head to the beach....Go figure. Our first day here we spent cleaning, shopping, etc. and just walked to Wingaersheek beach, a mile or so down the street. Its sooooo awesome to be here where we can see so many friends/family, and be near the ocean. We can't wait to get the inflatable out on the water. Hopefully the weather will clear eventually. No actual hurricane here, but tons of rain and wind today. Gloucester is having a problem with the water- there is potentially bacteria in it, so everyone has to boil their water. We had water in our tank so we have been using that up, and haven't had to use the town water, but it won't last much longer. We really don't want to put that water through our pipes if we can avoid it. Hopefully they get the situation squared away soon. This afternoon, my brothers Rich and Ray, and my sister-in-law Dawn came over. We ate lunch here, then went bowling this afternoon. It was actually pretty fun, since most of us (except Rich, who bowls in a league) haven't bowled candlepin for years. We went to dinner at the Gloucester House, a well known restaurant, afterwards. Tomorrow more friends will be here. The next week or so will pretty much be visiting, although there is a schooner festival this coming weekend that should be interesting...