I maintain there is little more powerful than weather. And the ocean is almost always humbling. Add weather like we have all had, an astronomical high tide, and you’ve got, not to make lightly, the perfect storm. Like it has for just about everybody in America, the last few days have represented some crazy weather… Read More Seacoast: Add Weather – Dec 2022
Intuitively, I know we had a great year this past year. But, as always, it is not until I go back through our journals that I recognize just how beautiful, complex, and in some areas stressful it was. I know many of you are expecting the crème de la crème this year to be our… Read More 2022 in Review – Dec 2022
If for some reason you are headed west from New England on I-90 and I-80 towards Denver, this post might be mildly interesting. If not, don’t say I didn’t warn you. We are spending most of our time on this part of our trip on interstate highways, which is not our usual MO. We are headed… Read More Heading West – Aug 2022
It feels odd to be summarizing the summer of 2022 on the first day of August, but we head west in just days. Think Lewis and Clark meets Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, perhaps absent the enlightenment. The route below will not exactly be our route, but we won’t burden you with details. … Read More Summer of ’22 – Aug 2022
Perhaps no one could choose a less likely activity for me on a beautiful sunny summer Saturday than to go explore gardens in people’s yards. When it comes to plants, I have been proven ignorant, unimaginative, and deadly. Plants consider our yard like hospice. So we ignored our own experience and enjoyed others! This was… Read More Pocket Gardens of Portsmouth – June 2022
We think nothing of traveling hundreds, if not thousands of miles to see beauty, interesting places, or random quirkiness. Sometimes beauty is right in your back yard, so to speak. This weekend, we walked about ½ mile down North Shore Road (and a little bit of Ancient Highway) towards the beach in our fair town… Read More North Shore Road – May 2022
Mind you – I am not a weatherman, but I have played a weatherman, so I am certainly a credible witness to this weather event. Prior to the storm’s arrival, the weather people were reporting that NYC would receive anywhere between 0 inches and 3 feet of snow. So really, how accurate do I need… Read More Blizzard of ’22 – Jan 2022
We don’t write a year-in-review post every year, but when we do, I always start by thinking, what the hell did we even do this past year? And after going through our pictures, I’m like – wow – we did a bunch! Of course, this is not an historical world view of 2021 – just… Read More 2021 in Review – Dec 2021
We travel 1,200 miles to get out of town, and who follows us? Our neighbors! Stalkers. And where does it go from there? Do they think we want to go out and see beautiful sights, eat lobster, shuck oysters and eat fresh seafood with them? I mean, what’s next. Seriously, we were delighted to have… Read More Out of Town Guests – Sept 2021
The surf on the NH coast has been up for the last two days as a result of some offshore storms, so I took my camera out to catch some of the sights. All of these pictures are from either Hampton, North Hampton or Rye. A few pictures are taken from the end of our… Read More Surf’s Up NH! – Sept 2021
Good morning, class. Good morning, class. Class? Class!? SHUT UP! Thank you. Now Sister Rosetta has informed me that your assignment for the last two months has been to write an essay entitled How I Spent My Summer Vacation. Who would like to read theirs before the class? Young man in the front row, please… Read More Summer of ’21
RUN! Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water… our kids found us! We have moved three times in the last few years, but they keep tracking us down! Next step… Witness Protection. We had Child Unit 1, Child Unit 2, and their significant others here at the cottage… Read More Invasion of the Child Units! – Aug 2021
2020 has been the worst year ever – right? Watching 2020 unfold was like watching porn. First it was titillating, then it felt unseemly, and lastly you got a sinking feeling in the pit in your stomach like you get two minutes after wolfing down a quarter pounder and large fry. No happy ending, so… Read More 2020 in Review – Dec 2020
I have posted several “heading west” blog posts over the years. But the truth of the matter is that if you live on the east coast, you inevitably need to, well, head west. I suppose you could go north or south, but really – who does that. Crazy talk. We headed west from New Hampshire… Read More Heading West – Sept 2020
You had to know I would be the one to point out there are meteorological and astronomical ends of summer. “How do you come up with this shit” should your first thought. The mind works in curious ways. So yes, this is the end of the meteorological summer – the 3 months of June, July… Read More End of the Meteorological Summer – Aug 2020
This may be a lot about naught. We are, after all, largely in shutdown mode. Being retired as we are, we have nothing to complain about, given all the unemployment, health, emotional and psychological tolls, and the myriad of issues young families face. But if you wanted to be depressed, you’d simply turn on the… Read More Summer Sequester – Aug 2020
There is something mystical about buying and trying a new meat smoker; a new device to smoke meat, a new technique to improve cooking results. What do you suppose was the genesis of slow cooking? Do you suppose cavemen (cavewomen, cavepeople?) sat around the fire and said, “Hey, let’s smoke this brontosaurus leg low and… Read More New Smoker Ooh-ee-Ooh – June 2020
OK, we weren’t really in Atlanta and we didn’t really go to Boston. But you get the idea – we headed north. In our never-ending search for the perfect climate, we have departed the Atlanta area and have headed north to New England. Nothing says leave Atlanta better than 90+ degree temperatures. Our first stop… Read More ATL to BOS – June 2020
“Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy; he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! (Hamlet) I have told my wife and kids that the next time I move out of this house there will… Read More Honey, I’m Home! – Aug 2019
And so castles made of sand fall in the sea eventually Jimi Hendrix Technically, they will be removed by a bulldozer. But not just yet. And I guess technically they are not sandcastles. Alright, have your way. Check out these sculptures from this year’s Hampton Beach (NH) Master Sand Sculpting Classic! We continue our Northeast… Read More Castles Made of Sand – June 2019
We hoisted one yesterday for a guy named Bob. Maybe we all know someone named Bob. The Bob I’m talking about was special in that, in many ways – he wasn’t special. He was unassuming, quick to share a story or two from growing up in Maine, quicker with a smile, and under any scenario, would… Read More This Guy Named Bob – June 2019
Many people are not aware New Hampshire has a seacoast. I mean, let’s face it – on a map some people would be as challenged to point out New Hampshire as they would the Sudan. It’s kind of like me and Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska… it always takes me a little orientation to figure out… Read More New Hampshire Seacoast – May 2019
For those of you who have wasted the last four years as a result of reading this blog, you know that I previously went under the knife and had shoulder surgery. I am doing it again in a week. I’m doing it with a real doctor this time – no more hair stylist interns performing surgery on… Read More Shoulder Surgery, Again! – Feb 2019
What comes to mind when you hear Hampton Beach (New Hampshire)? If you are familiar with Hampton Beach, you’ll probably say the beach, the boardwalk, casinos, bars, night clubs, food stands, miniature golf, water slides, concerts, and maybe a roller coaster. If you don’t know Hampton Beach, then maybe you think… ahhh… I don’t know, a beach,… Read More Hampton Beach – Jan 2019
We took a road trip (20 minutes for us) to Portsmouth, NH earlier today. Portsmouth is a port city, one of about a half dozen sea coastal towns on the less than 20 miles of New Hampshire’s Atlantic seacoast, and we had a blast!. This is just a taste of Portsmouth – our couple of hours… Read More Taste of Portsmouth – Jan 2019
I am home alone – time to get into mischief. Karen, with a whiff of good judgment, left me. Before she breezed out of here, she said something about an airline ticket, Bermuda, a bathing suit, and the fact that there was enough food in the freezer to last a month. I didn’t catch it… Read More Home Alone – Dec 2018
Sadly, I must report a short pause in this year’s ski season. Let me tell you my latest real-life experience. As I think I may have mentioned previously, if you are a resident of New Hampshire and are older than dirt, you can ski for free at Cannon Mountain during the week. That, my friends,… Read More Slight Pause in Ski Season – Dec 2018
Not a lot to say – just a few pictures from this weekend in and around the salt marshes in Hampton Falls (NH)… hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!
More accurately, this post could have been labeled “Everything Within 5 Miles of our House”. OK, so we haven’t done a lot of traveling in the last few months. Well, except for moving 1,200 miles north. So this post is really more about our November. The Airstream is winterized and tucked away in our yard for… Read More November in New England – Nov 2018
I know, I know, we have been remiss posting for a while. Sometimes life gets in the way of reporting on life. This will be a short post, but just wanted everyone to know we are alive and well! We successfully closed on our new house in New Hampshire several weeks ago, and we are… Read More New Digs – Oct 2018