For the three of you who read this blog, I’ll bet you’ve missed us!  Wait, you haven’t?  I know it has been a while since we last communicated with you, but it hasn’t been for a lack of love.  I thought to myself… do we even have anything interesting to write about?  And then I thought… since when has that been a criterion!?!

Picture of Dottie inserted for shallow attention.

Summer, friends, food, camping.  This post won’t really resemble a travel blog post – although we did a little camping; it’ll sound more like our answer to Cheech and Chong’s Sister Mary Elephant’s “How I Spent My Summer Vacation” essay request.

With heat and crazy weather across the country this summer, we sit here along the seacoast in NH, and although we are not immune from crazy weather, pretty much it has been way better than, well, anywhere else we have read about.  Sea breezes keep our temps here about 5-10 degrees cooler than even a mile or so inland.  The local meteorologist reported last night that the Boston area had only four days this summer where the temperature went above 90 degrees, and I believe that was back in June when it was hot everywhere in the country.

One of the big things for us this summer was enjoying our new space, having moved full time from Georgia into our cottage in New Hampshire.  The added space contributes to our marital bliss and gives us the room to have friends visit for a meal.  The new shed and revised outdoor cooking area helps, and to Karen’s delight keeps me out of the kitchen.

As we sit here this Labor Day weekend, we’ll try to reflect on how the summer just passed us by in the blink of an eye.

With a family scattered to the winds, we grab any opportunity to catch up.  With our son and his wife in Denver, we haven’t seen them (other than Facetime calls) since their wedding reception this past May.

And while our daughter spent a week with us earlier this summer (yeah!), we have no pictures to account. That’s what bad parenting is all about.  But what a great time.

We saw some escapees from the Inmate Correctional Facilities in Cobb County, Georgia earlier this summer, so we fed them and sent them back.  The ankle bracelets were a nice touch.  Nice to see our peeps from the hood.

There have been endless rounds of golf, or at least that’s what we call it.  Others might call it a tragedy.

In a perhaps not so classic New England fashion, we entertained friends here for a barbeque that included Sujuk and South Carolina Green Onion sausage, smoked Picanha and pork shoulder, grilled swordfish, corn-on-the-cob, and salad.  Perhaps you were thinking clambake, but no.  Crank up the smoker, boys!

When not entertaining, one of our favorite meals this summer was heading to a biker bar, Wally’s, for their twin lobsters on Tuesdays.  At about $18, this is a no-brainer.  At night (we have never been), there is regular entertainment.  The Outlaws doing a soundcheck for the evening’s performance.

For musical entertainment, our favorite venue has been Jimmy’s Jazz Club in Portsmouth.  The place only seats about 300 people, but the talent is fantastic.  So far have seen the Funky Dawgz Brass Band and Eddie 9 Volt, but more concerts in our future this fall.

The summer isn’t complete without a boy’s road trip down to the cape for our friend Michael McGuire’s annual gallery “opening”.  So good.  And a brief stop at the Beachcomber isn’t awful.

Closer to home, Karen’s friend Maureen invited us for a little outing.  We got out on her Boston Whaler for a day on the Piscataqua River – just beautiful!  Did I mention we finished the day with lobster rolls and a filet?  Whoa.

Keeping with that boating theme, one of my friends invited me out to go fishing from Gloucester.  I am clearly the last person you want to see with a fishing rod with a sharp hook in his hand, but who said judgment had anything to do with this.  The only thing we caught were some Mackerel, and they were just bait fish for stripers.  As you will see, there were some bluefish in the area who managed to find the Mackerel tasty.

 And yes, we went camping!  Halleluiah!  Karen made us reservations for a few days up in the White Mountains at the Dolly Copp campground, a campground just a few miles from Pinkham Notch, Mount Washington, and Wildcat.  We took time to go biking on the Presidential Recreation Trail, which was beautiful and gave us great views of the Northern Presidential Mountains.

Alas, another summer consumed.  We look forward to some fall visitors, camping and more fun!  Safe travels to you!