3rd House Journal

Cape Escape

[On the windshield, Orleans, MA; 9/30/12]

We went out to Cape Cod over the weekend with friends from California who had rented a large B&B suite for Saturday and Sunday night out on the outer Cape. Unfortunately, it poured rain for most of Saturday and Sunday, but we had a nice time anyway.

[Nauset Farms store, Orleans; 9/30/12]

I took a walk on Sunday when the rain let up and the others were watching the football game. It was a quiet neighborhood, no doubt more so being off-season, but likely a welcome respite from summer tourist traffic.

[Cape Cod chair lift?; Orleans, 9/30/12]

Orleans is about 25 miles south of Provincetown up the mid-Cape highway. D and I left around half-time to drive up to Ptown in the rain, but we arrived just as the skies were clearing. We'd spent two vacations in Ptown in summer in 2009 and 2010, staying at a motel at the quiet West End near the moors, so we went there first to take in the scenery.

[Moors, Provincetown West End; 9/30/12]

The West End is about a 15-minute walk into the center of town on Commercial Street, which is lined with cafes, galleries, shops and B&Bs. In summer, Ptown center is bustling with tourists and, if you go during one of the gay festival weeks, some ebullient men in drag. An evening stroll is thoroughly entertaining. Off-season is obviously much quieter and walking along the street much quicker without the crowds. We parked in the center and had time to wander awhile before our friends came up to join us for dinner. 

[Provincetown Harbor; 9/30/12]

[Clouds over Provincetown Harbor; 9/30/12]

Monday morning we woke to clear and bright skies as we packed up to return home. We stopped first at Nauset Beach, down the road from the B&B, finding big waves and strong winds.

[Boardwalk to Nauset Beach, Orleans; 10/1/12]

D and I also stopped for lunch on our way back at the Chatham Bars Inn, a rather posh resort that has a restaurant with a spectacular view of the bay. We'd discovered it in August 2009 while looking for any eaterie on the water in Chatham -- not easy to find. It was a bit nippier this time around. The sun was warm, but the wind was strong, with gusts blowing over furled table umbrellas. We  had to hold onto our linen napkins to make it through our rather pricey lunch, but it was nice to be outdoors with the lovely blue skies and the view.

[Chatham Bars Inn, Beach House Grill; 10/1/12]

See more photos from the Cape in my Flickr set.

Waves

[North Beach, Hampton NH; 8/11/12]

The oppressive city air was far behind us, replaced by the cool briny breath of the ocean. The tide slipped forward wave by wave, greeting advancing layers of blue-gray clouds until finally they met and crossed, leaving for a long while a bright band at the horizon. Later, light rain washed the port of excess tourists, leaving locals to slide into worn grooves, cozying into familiar chairs and menus. I let it all spill over me, softening edges honed by the work week.

[Towards Boar's Head]

Spectators on Spectacle Island

[Into Boston Harbor; 7/30/12]

After circling much of Boston Harbor on foot this summer, following various pieces of the Harborwalk, we finally got on a ferry on Monday and headed out to the Harbor Islands. I had a day free, which was perfect timing given Monday's forecasted fair skies after an intermittently cloudy/rainy weekend. We decided not to try to fit in more than one island visit in the day and picked Spectacle Island, which boasts a cafe, a visitor's center, a beach, 5 miles of hiking trails and panoramic views of the harbor and the city from the highest point. It also has a pretty interesting history -- from its origins as two small drumlins connected by a spit of land (hence the name "Spectacle" for its shape like spectacles, though the spit was later filled in), its earliest use by Native Americans for fishing and camping, use by early Europeans as a smallpox quarantine, a site for hotels (later shut down for gambling), then site of a horse rendering plant followed by a trash incinerator and eventually, forgoing incineration, a place to dump trash (until it reportedly swallowed a bulldozer). It was finally cleaned up, capped off with clay from Boston's Big Dig project, and opened as a recreational area in 2006. It's come a long way.

[Spectacle Island Visitor's Center, beach and pier]

The ferry only took about 20 minutes to get out to the island, then we had almost 3 hours until our scheduled ride back (ferries leave on the hour). We grabbed a sandwich in the cafe, then trekked to the top of the North Drumlin to take in the views, which included Boston, Castle Island and Fort Independence in South Boston, Logan airport, and the nearby islands Thompson Island, Long Island and its bridge from Moon Island. The summit seemed to be inhabited primarily by red-winged black birds (I didn't even try to get a shot of them, but D got a remarkably sharp one - his efforts well paid off).

[Boston Harbor from North Drumlin on Spectacle Island]

We walked back to port by way of the west side of island, which has a seawall in place of the beach on the eastern side. It was all lovely, although we were wishing we'd worn hats to protect us from the sun. It was comfortably breezy and dry, but apart from a couple of shade shelters and an occasional pine tree, there wasn't much protection from the sun.

[Queen Anne's Lace at the seawall, with view towards Long Island]

When we got back to the Visitor Center, we had time to rest in the Adirondack chairs on the porch a bit before our ferry arrived to take us back to the city. We stopped for a nice bowl of chowder and a cool beer/wine at Legal Seafood on Long Wharf to top off the day.

Here's the photo set from the ferry ride and the island.

August

[Race Point, Provincetown; 8/17/2009]

This is the August photo in my Provincetown calendar this year. Taken during our first vacation together -- three days in Ptown in August 2009 -- I can still feel the heat and that long climb back up from Race Point beach in hot, deep sand. (More photos from that trip here).

Beach Day

[North Hampton State Beach; 7/6/12]

We took a day trip up the coast on Friday, a glorious beach day, not too hot or humid. We were lucky to find an open parking spot at our favorite beach, which not only has lovely views but the creme de la creme of ice cream & sandwich stands right across the street. After we grabbed some lunch, D promptly fell asleep in his sandchair under an umbrella, while I went wading in the cold but not achingly cold ocean. That salty cold feel of my skin from a dip in the North Atlantic is something I've relished nearly every summer of my life.

Since Portsmouth is just a scenic few miles north from the beach, we couldn't pass up a stroll around town and a light bite of dinner later on.

[Pier at Prescott Park, Piscataqua River Bridge (I-95) in background]

[Wine in fishy glasses, Oar House Dock]

It never feels like a real summer vacation for me unless I've been to the beach and had dinner dockside. And I'm hoping to do it again before the summer's out.

A handful of photos here.

Quaint and Reaquaint

[Motif #1, Rockport Harbor; 6/23/12]

Rockport is an impossibly quaint seaside town 25 miles north of Boston, particularly so around the touristy Bearskin Neck area that lies along one side of the picturesque harbor. Even all the cheap t-shirt and trinket shops can't take away from its ubiquitous eye-candy charm, especially on a sunny summer day. Even Motif #1 (above), "the most often-painted building in America," presents itself irrestibly for yet another photograph. Rockport's proximity to Boston also makes it a convenient destination for a short, last-minute drive for a few hours of scenic wandering, as D and I did yesterday.

[Harbor with rental kayaks]

I believe this was our third trip to Rockport in three years, our first visit being in 2009 when we were first dating and again last summer. Those previous trips were in mid-July (same weekend each year! oh so habitual) at the height of summer heat and tourist season, whereas this time the weather was less stifling and the tourists fewer. This year's Rockport candy box yielded a few new treats, including a view of the Shalin Liu Performance Center's grand piano silouetted in view of the bay.

[Shalin Liu Performance Center, from the street]

Since the week's scorching heat wave had broken and the weather was comfortable, we took a walk over to the other side of the harbor, up along Atlantic Ave. At the end, we found a public access path that lead us onto the rocky Headlands, which presented a panoramic view of Sandy Bay -- from the Straitsmouth Light due south, up to the breakwater and harbor, to Bearskin Neck, and north towards Pigeon Cove. A few fishermen were casting their lines off the rocks as seagulls wheeled around them, white sails dotted the bay and a few colorful kayaks skimmed the blue waters. Like I said, pure eye candy.

[Sandy Bay breakwater from the Headlands]

We joke about following each previous year's footsteps, returning again and again to previously visited spots, sometimes eating in the same restaurants we liked last time. While revisiting places can get stale, missing that delight of a surprising new find, there's something to be said for reaquainting oneself with an old familiar place, especially when you take the time to see it from a new perspective.

Here's my Flickr set from this year's Rockport visit.

Spring Arrives

[Spring blossoms, Smith College Plant House Bulb Show; 3/17/12]

We drove out to Northampton for the Spring Bulb Show at the Lyman Plant House at my alma mater on Saturday. Even though crocuses, scilla, and even daffodils are already beginning to bloom on lawns outdoors in our continued unseasonal warmth, it was lovely to see (and smell!) all the beautiful flowers in the show. The drive out was dreary - gray skies and dull brown landscape all the way out, no sign of the predicted sunshine breaking through on the western horizon - so walking into the plant house was like walking into a candyland of color.

[Lilies, tulips, jonquils, and more]

The sun did finally come out later in the afternoon, and we enjoyed walking around campus and the shops in  town, along with a delicious mid-day meal at Viva Fresh Pasta, our favorite Northampton eaterie.

Yesterday, I'd planned to sort through and clean my spring/summer wardrobe and put away winter clothes, plus other spring cleaning, but another warm sunny day intervened. D and I went to Harvard Square and walked along the river and before I knew it, it was late afternoon before I got back to my apartment, too pooped to do all I'd hoped for. But I did get most of the clothes sorted, which will make getting ready for work (and packing up on weekends) easier. And yes, I did save some warmer layers for the inevitable cold snaps. But the forecast is for more record-breaking warmth - into the 80s this week - just so utterly wrong for March in New England. Not a good sign for the coming summer.

[Harvard crew team practices on the Charles River; 3/18/12]

It's been a busy few days - my group at work went out to lunch yesterday, then last night I met up with friends I haven't seen in a long time for dinner. Tonight I have to go the hair salon after work. I could use a rest. At least the daylight lasts longer into the evening - I may get home before dark.

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You can see more spring blooms from the Spring Bulb Show here. Happy Spring!

 

Small Business Saturday

[Market Square, Portsmouth, NH; 11/26/11]

My mother and I used to go shopping in Portsmouth the day after Thanksgiving (aka Black Friday) when my parents lived at the beach, 20 minutes away. It was often ungodly cold, and one year we bought warm wool hats in the first shop we entered. The first couple of years, there were few other shoppers, everyone else having gone to the malls while we poked around the little shops filled with non-mass-produced things. It got more crowded over the years, but we still had a great time shopping and stopping for lunch or a coffee in the cozy cafes. 

Yesterday, D and I took a drive up from Boston (about an hour) on an unseasonably warm, 60-degree day. I had a Small Business Saturday $25 credit to use and a few of the local shops were participating. I prefer the small shops anyway, and I did find a cute shirt on sale at one shop (alas, it wasn't participating) and used my credit on a scarf in another. It was just nice to be out wandering the familiar streets and enjoying the sunshine.

Ogunquit

[Dock, Perkins Cove, Ogunquit, Maine; 8/20/11]

A couple of weekends ago, while in the healthy eye of these ill winds we've been enduring, we took a drive up to the beach in New Hampshire for a couple of hours and from there a further drive northward to the resort town of Ogunquit in Maine. It was spur of the moment, and we didn't have time to do much, so we walked down from the parking lot to Perkins Cove. The Cove has been a tourist trap for as long as I can remember, with tacky trinket shops and bland seafood restaurants decorated with lobster traps and buoys. The mile-long road between the Cove and Village is now studded with upscale restaurants and shops, many catering to the summer influx of LGBT visitors (who I suspect wouldn't be caught dead in the Cove). But habit sent us to the Cove, which is not without its charms.

[Oarweed Cove (the other side of Perkins Cove)]

[Stairway in Perkins Cove]

The Marginal Way, a well-traveled trail carved along the craggy coastline, runs northward from Perkins Cove to the Village and beach. We intended to walk just a bit of it at the Cove end, but once partway along the trail we couldn't decide whether to turn back or go "just a little further" and then cut up one of the residential streets up to the main road. Which we did, but anxiously - it seemed so much farther than expected, and D was quickly tiring and fretting. Anyway, some locals (or perhaps tourists) we passed assured us the main road was yonder at the bottom of the steep hill we'd climbed (phew!). But it was a lovely view along the trail and the light was spectacular in the late afternoon. We really have to go up and stay up there some weekend to really enjoy it.

[Along the Marginal Way]

Summer Rain

[Beach cabins, North Hampton Beach, NH; 8/25/11]

I left work early on Wednesday to drive up to a friend's place (not shown above!) in North Hampton, NH. She and her husband bought a beautiful place up there last fall, about a half a mile from the beach and not far from where my parents used to have their condo that they retired to. I'd asked to take Thursday off from work and alas, as the day approached, the weather was already looking iffy. But it was an opportunity to have a girlfriends hang for the evening on Wednesday and get onto the beach for a little while on Thursday. I do miss being up there. I miss the beach smells, the air, my feet in the sand, the beautiful views along the coast.

The drive up after escaping work was, despite some slow traffic, beautiful - the crisp late afternoon light as the landscape flattened out nearer the coast, a herd of black cows grazing a wide flat green meadow, then the broad and simple plains of white barnside, green pasture, blue sky. I made it to the beach around 5:30, meeting my friends on the beach in sand chairs, bundled up against the breezes off the ocean. I told them how one of my dogs used to like to run around the beach pushing her nose against the sand she just loved it so much, and how I almost wanted to do that myself at that point.

After much dawdling at the house, we ended up driving to Portsmouth for dinner. Though we arrived after dark, I led them anyway to my favorite spot down by the tugboats on the river. The view wasn't quite as spectacular as in daylight, but the food was delicious.

[North Hampton Beach; 8/26/11]

There was also much dawdling at the house on Thursday morning, so we didn't get to the beach until noon or so. A handful of vacationers braved the surf, while seagulls braved us, trying to snatch any food we might have. We lasted maybe an hour or so on the beach until dark clouds and thunder threatened and we had to pack up and leave.

[Little River Chapel, across from my friend's house]

Before I left work on Wednesday, my manager was shaking her head about the luck I'm having this summer, given that the prospects for my beach day off weren't looking good. Yup, a little cloud does seem to be hovering over my head the way you see them dot themselves over islands when you're flying. But I think we've managed to make the most of the beauty around us, rain or shine, healthy or otherwise.

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These clouds and thundershowers had nothing to do with the approaching hurricane, which will likely be a tropical storm by the time it hits us tonight and tomorrow. We'll be battening down the hatches in Boston today, then holing up at my place tonight. I hope everyone out there stays safe.