New England Adventures

As many of you know, we spent the last nine days in New England, visiting friends and family.  Despite the often oppressive humidity, to which we are no longer accustomed, and a pretty intense schedule, we had a wonderful time.

First stop: a visit with our friends Rebecca and Dan and their baby boys, Chase (first picture below) and Austin (second picture), who are adorable.

On Saturday, June 28th, my dear friends Lisa and Daniel were married in a beautiful ceremony in a beautiful Italian garden at the Codman Estate in Lincoln, Massachusetts.  Excellent food (including a fantastic cake from Flour Bakery in Boston) and a chance to see some of my favorite people.  Here's Lisa and Daniel, below -- the zoom on my camera isn't very good, so they are a bit small...

While we were waiting to go into the reception, four goats from a farm down the road decided to pay us a visit.  This was amusing until they tried to storm the tent.  Somehow, we managed to keep them out, but I did have the opportunity to get a few pictures.

On Sunday we threw my father a surprise 60th birthday brunch at The Blue Room, one of our favorite Boston-area restaurants (of course, we are a bit biased -- Stacey used to be the sous chef there).  The food was fantastic as usual, and as usual we ate way too much.  We also got the chance to see some old friends there, including our friend and wedding photographer Wayne, who was our server, and whose photographs are currently on display in the restaurant.  And my father was definitely surprised.

On Sunday evening, the three lovely Pearl Street Princesses (Emily, Leah and Julie) took us to dinner at TW Food in Cambridge.  We are still trying to decide which of the eight courses (and two amuse bouches) we liked the best -- right now, I think the buttery garlic scape soup with parmigiano reggiano is our front-runner.  I really, really wanted seconds.

Monday brought lunch with the ladies of the Boston library at Nixon Peabody and dinner with Brendan, Melodie and Wayne.

On Tuesday, we drove up to Maine to spend the rest of the week at my father's new summer house in Denmark.  Stacey and I made a slight detour to Ogunquit for massages at the Cliff House Spa and lunch at MC Perkins Cove.  We have wanted to eat at MCPC ever since it opened a few years ago, because the owners are known for running Arrows Restaurant, the local-food mecca of Maine (Bostonians, take note -- they have also recently opened a restaurant called Summer Winter, in the Burlington Marriott).  The food is great, and the view, below, is just as good, if not better.

My father's house in Denmark is every bit as relaxing as we had hoped, and we spent days doing nothing more than cooking, chatting, sleeping and drinking (with the exception of one very taxing game of miniature golf).  The weather was amazing -- mostly sunny, warm, and breezy.  It was pretty rough.  Here's the view of Hancock Pond from the lawn.

And here is the all-important hammock.

My father and Bernice used the proceeds from a yard sale last year to buy a little sailboat (aptly named Yard Sail) and this was the week to put it in the water.  Below, Susy and our friend Rick tie it to the dock after Susy gave it a test-row.  The mast and sail are obviously not yet in place.

Yard Sail at twilight.

The next day, it was time for its maiden voyage.  Bernice and our friends Rule and Elayne hoisted the sail...

...prepared for take-off...

...and sailed away!

Dad and Lucy (and I) watched from the dock.