crane’s beach – *the gratitude-a-thon

Sky was still dark from storm, but there it was, a perfect rainbow.

I have been whiney about my bad vacation weather and my tooth for all of July. My tooth, as of this weekend, when I finished my antibiotics, finally feels bearable, and not a moment too soon. That was SO NOT FUN.

So, I just want to give thanks to my weekend, which took a great big bite outta summer. It was damn well near perfect, in fact.

Peter and Ally went to D.C. to visit Peter’s dad and the cousins, and Jake and I stayed home. My summer assault started on Friday night when I met my friend Luciana at Barcelona Wine Bar for an outdoor drink and dinner, which consisted of food I could eat for the rest of my life everyday and night. It was really fun, because it was A) Spontaneous B) The light gave everything a beautiful glow, C) Luciana is so darn funny D) I stuffed myself with the most heavenly tomatoes from local Allandale farm, served with creamy herbed ricotta and the most delicious bread, as well as chicken pimiento, which has a bite that will make your lips burn.

The next day, my friend Colleen and I went to Crane’s Beach, which was packed, but perfect, and I ended the day with take-out from Barcelona (because I could not get the tomato and herbed ricotta plate from the night before out of my head and had to have a repeat) and watched a really good movie, The Lifeguard with Jake. Then yesterday, Colleen and I went to Crane’s AGAIN, and stayed until it closed at 8 o’clock, which meant that we stayed right on that beach during a storm. I wish someone could have taken our picture, because we took shelter under our beach chairs and it was pretty funny. After it rained, there was the most amazing rainbow, and then the black sky became totally sun-filled again with big, gorgeous, puffy clouds of all denominations. We ended the day with dinner at Woodman’s. I came home and watched the two hour season finale of The Killing.

A+ summer weekend!

Major gratitude. I am a girl of the beach. It is my church, and I am its disciple. Praise the sea. You saved me again.

crane-s-beach-ipswich — Ahhhh, the gateway to summer.

I christened summer yesterday with a day at the beach. This is up there on my permanent list of “things to be grateful for.” Give me the sand, the sea, and the sun, and I’m good. Add some food, and I’m better than good, I’m perfect.

It was pretty crowded yesterday, but within a few hours, it was more manageable.

Crane’s Beach is on the North Shore, nestled in the sweet New England town of Ipswich. It’s a protected by the Trustees of the Reservation, which maintains special places in Massachusetts, like this spectacular beach. It’s wide and expansive, with miles of shoreline and beach grass filled dunes as a backdrop. It’s also a wildlife preserve. These tiny little birds called Piping Plovers have chosen Crane’s as their nesting ground, so i have often been there when whole sections of the beach are cordoned off for the Piping Plovers Porn show. They’re funny little birds, who move quickly and who I can’t ever see without providing a running commentary of what I believe they are thinking. “Gotta go, busy, busy, busy, need to make babies. You look terrible in that bathing suit. Ever hear of a squat?”

piping-plover-img_8844mw — “Sex, sex, sex, gotta get to it.”

Anyway, yesterday was extra great because my friend Colleen and I were almost scared off by early weather reports that it would be raining in Ipswich, so we nearly didn’t make the pilgrimage, but then at the last minute, we saw an updated report and decided to give it a shot. The thing about Crane’s is that ,while the parking lot is pretty big, it’s not big enough for everybody who wants to laze around the shores of one of New England’s best beaches. So, if you don’t get up at the crack of dawn to stake your spot, you’re relegated to the inconvenient shuttle service, which forces you to park a few miles away and have little control over your schedule for departure. Since Colleen and I left at the tardy-for-the-party hour of 10:00 am, we figured we’d be as screwed as the prospective mommy Plovers, but we got lucky, and not only did we not hit any traffic, we actually scored parking in the main lot, albeit in the farthest, most distant area available, but hey, we were thrilled.

It was a great day of conversation and magazines, and eating good snack food, and drinking tons of water, our summer resolution, topped off with an hour walk on the shoreline. Welcome summer of 2013. I am so happy you’re here

Tag: crane’s beach

gratitude-a-thon day 186: a perfect summer weekend

gratitude-a-thon day 150: crane’s beach