From Gloucester to Middletown

(Please note: I'm writing this post on our new computer, a tiny Eee, so who knows what might happen!)

Gloucester, MA
Jane and Tom left for a weekend in DC, George and Jose picked up Jaeda for the weekend as well, so that left us all alone in someone else's house. It was nice to have some quiet time together after spending so much of it with friends and family, or walking about being all touristy.

Saturday brought us to Gloucester, MA, a place i've been very curious to see ever since working with crazy folk from there. :-) Actually, Kacy isn't crazy, but there's a something about her that i don't recollect ever encountering before. In a good way, of course.

Anyway, i was looking forward to seeing Kacy and she was real nice in wanting to see me after about 10 years of silence. She has an awesome kayak/snorkel shop and froody and i joined her 10am tour. Neither of us had ever snorkeled in New England so we didn't know what to expect. The algae was neat, no big forests but a healthy curtain over the hiding places of a million crabs and lobsters. I really liked all the "new" species of colonial tunicates and large solitary sea squirts. Not too many fish, but Kacy pointed out a flounder and some sand dollars (live!) and an urchin barren. Afterwards we lunched on some tasty striper and i caught up on all our friends.

Medford, MA
On Sunday we spent the day with Froody's parents and Jaeda. We helped teach her to ride her bike, played in the pool, and rode bikes some more. She really is a cutie-pahtootie, i tell you what! And full of energy-froody, his dad, and i all had to take turns running alongside her.

Middletown, NJ
Our final stop on the US portion of our trip. Froody wanted to visit a very good friend, who I like too, so getting up early and riding the train to the chinabus back to NYC and walking to the ferry station and the hour on the ferry and taxi ride to her home was not a problem. really. :-) Shannon graciously opened her home to us including her roommates Erika and Brian. Erika's sister, Sam, doesn't live there but hung out with us at dinner that night and all the next day. Redbank is a nice town which at first reminded us of our home in Carp. But the many high-end shops was more in line with Santa Barbara.

***bleh. something is being really slow so will link to all related pix later, so check back!