Category Archives: beach

the crew at the end of this adventure

Winter Vacation on the East Coast

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The day after Christmas I went out to lunch with my dad and some of his friends. Of course the dogs came for the ride…

Pretty awesome dogs.

Later I met up with Liz and headed down to the Mist with Molly, Ali and JC. We met up with the rest of the crew there. Yay for wing night at the Ocean Mist.

The next few shots are my attempts of taking photos of the ocean from inside. It was insanely windy and raining and just not quite nice enough to be out on the back deck…

 

That night we all crashed at the Hawksley’s, and ironically Molly and Luke were the only two that had to get up and go to work. The rest of us (Liz, Ali, JC, Chip, Amelia, and I) took a tour of the beach (RCB) and then had an indulgent breakfast/lunch at Chen’s. First thing first, checking out the destruction from Hurricane Sandy…

 

After our beach adventure in the mist, slight rain, and cold, we headed to Wakefield for a meal at Chen’s. I love Chen’s so much, and going there with Liz is absolutely the best thing ever. And drinking scorpion bowls. And eating their delicious food. So perfect for this dark, damp day.

 

The rest of that day was pretty mellow – had to be after eating the amount of food that we ate (unfortunately not shown in these pictures), but that night I went to visit friends from all the way back to elementary school, Amy and Polly. It was a super fun “girls night” type night – drinks, tacos, and chips while I caught up with Amy and Polly and friends. Really, really good time and so happy to have friends that I’m able to catch up with so quickly after not seeing each other for years.

The next morning I hopped on the commuter rail in Wickford, RI and headed up to the Back Bay station in Boston to meet my cousin Daria. We went to the Mario Testino exhibit “In Your Face” at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and then got some lunch, before I hopped back on the commuter rail home. Really cool trip. Some photos on the train, and random ones on the streets in Boston…

 

That guy was a great addition to all that I saw in Boston. He sailed down that street probably 10 times while we had lunch. I made it back to Wickford on the commuter rail, and my parents picked me up and took me out for a delicious dinner. We went to a local restaurant that uses almost all their ingredients from local farms and companies. I love this so much – wish more of our food industry was like that.

Then the next day I took off to Brooklyn, NY to visit my friend Leigh, who I hadn’t seen in 6 years! It was her birthday, so I went down to “party” for the night and catch up with her. It was supposed to be a big snow storm, but I got lucky and the drive really wasn’t so bad. I met up with Leigh just as she was getting off work…

Such a fun night. Hanging out with Leigh was so great, and her friends were all awesome and super nice to me. I played pool for the majority of the night and just was generally excited about the idea of being out in NYC. And out in the bars til 4am. Woo! Ha. The next morning (late morning, we’ll say), Leigh and I went out for brunch. Then I said my goodbyes to her and Penelope and headed back to RI…

 

And that’s pretty much that. I made it home in time to get some Kingston Pizza (yum!!) and eat it with my parents while watching the end of the New England Patriots game. Then a little more tv-watching (since I don’t have that at my place in Colorado) and then packing. The next morning my mom drove me to the airport and I was headed back to Colorado. Such an amazing time at home. Thank you to everyone who made my trip back east such a great adventure!

 

and another of brigus

home to RI, dogs, RCB party, beach visit

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Time to head home for the holidays! I was really happy that Chip and I were on the same flight. After going out to breakfast with Anna and her mom, we finished up our laundry, drank a mimosa, handed off my apartment key to Jack (thank you!) and caught the bus to the airport…

My brother Clay picked us up at T.F. Greene airport around 11:30 or so (thanks Clay!!) and drove us straight to the Ocean Mist. Ahhhh. It was super windy and raining a little, but I still made my way onto the back deck to watch the waves crash and taste the salty air. Then back in to take some cell phone photos…

 

We ended up getting kicked out after closing time and heading back to the farm to go to sleep for the night. The next morning I was happy to pull out my real camera to take some photos of the dogs, Beau and Brigus…

 

That day a lobsterman friend dropped off a bucket of lobsters for the Christmas lobster bisque. Time for cooking…

While we hung around the farm, Liz worked on her dish for the RCB party that would be happening later that night.

It was essentially bread slices with italian seasoned cream cheese wrapped in bacon. I’m not a huge fan bacon (unlike pretty much everyone else in the country), but I image that recipe couldn’t steer you wrong.

I also took a photo of a piece of the photo wall in the hallway at the farm…

Years of memories!

That night my Aunt Marcia and Uncle Bill took my brother and I, as well as some of Bill’s nephews and one niece, out to dinner. I went with a delicious pasta and seafood dish…

 

After the delicious dinner, it was off to the RCB Christmas Party. This year it was hosted by Luke and Molly at the Hawksley’s beach house in Matunuck. Such a blast…

As hosts of the party, Luke and Molly gave a speech…

 

After the party wound down and we did a little cleanup, people claimed sleeping spots. Chip and I ended up on the blow up mattress on the floor. He later told me that someone asked who he spent the night with on the floor… that person was probably surprised to find out it was, in fact, his sister (and not in some weird West Virginia/Kentucky type way!). Ha.

Anyways, we got up early and took a quick look at the beach. It was the first time I had seen our beach house after Hurricane Sandy…

Back home to the farm to get ready for Christmas Eve/Christmas. My dad does all the prep work for our Christmas dinner. So, here’s my dad in the kitchen…

 

And one last photo for this post… my mom recovered one copy of this year’s Christmas card so that she had one to keep (I believe she swapped out this one for a different version)…

So awesome… and Glen even got some photo credit (well, minus the credit) with the 180 nose grind picture!

the front row

Rhode Island in september – day 5 sunday the 16th

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After my butterfly hunting adventure, I headed back to the beach house for some breakfast.

Chip was there

And Clay and Liz……having cheese, crackers and red wine for breakfast. Ha.

Then Liz went home to get some stuff for the day. I went to pick her up and stopped by the bathroom by her house…

Liz and I took a trip down to the Umbrella Factory… so happy I fit this in before my vacation was over!

Saw another one of these at the gas station:

Then some photos driving back to the beach…

After stopping by the beach quickly, Liz and I made the trip out to the farm for football and dinner…We made the dinner using eggplants, squash, onions, garlic, peppers, tomatoes, (and maybe more?) from the garden…Marcia made the delicious eggplant parmesan and roasted squash. I made the salad and garlic bread/almost bruschetta-type bread. So good.

Then back to the beach for some beers by the citronella candle on the deck…

Eventually we decided to move inside and start up a card game…

Awesome game of asshole. And in the end I was the asshole because I had to finally kick my friends out sometime after midnight, because I had to wake up the next morning at 4am to pack and leave for the airport.

I did see some of the sunrise from T.F. Greene airport…

And then back to ColoRADo.

blurry butterfly

Rhode Island in september – day 5 saturday the 16th. Butterfly hunting.

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I was on a photo mission on my last day on the beach. Besides the sunrise, I really wanted to take pictures of the butterflies. I’ve never seen so many monarch butterflies anywhere in my entire life. And never this many before in Matunuck. They flew all round my beach house, the dunes, the beach. When I was in the ocean (which I went in every day!!), they flew around over my head. There was something magical and fantastic about their presence.

So I set out to take some butterfly photos. It was not easy at all – especially trying to capture them flitting around through the air. I did my best, though. Pardon the many blurry or out of focus images. And also, there are many non-butterfly shots that came out of this mission. And a special thanks to Lynne who came to join me for a bit on the beach while I was in the middle of this…

Then Lynne helped me find the “butterfly lair” and it became a lot easier to get some photos…

I read yesterday at the Denver Art Museum that butterflies were used to symbolize resurrection. I wouldn’t mind this being a sign that our beach will resurrect from 20-30 years of erosion. Anything to keep our real sand, our beach house, and this beautiful beach that means the world to me.

and still more

Rhode Island in september – day 5 sunday the 16th SUNRISE

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Sunday was my last full day in Rhode Island. I made sure to wake up a little after 6am to catch the whole sunrise experience. The waves were picking up and the sky was clear… perfect for a spectacular sunrise.

So let me ask you this… how many sunrise photos do you think you can handle?

Good luck…

DSC_0056_edit_resized

Rhode Island in september – day 4 saturday the 15th

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I woke up at a little after 6:30am and remember Sue had told me the sunrises had been so beautiful right around 6:30. It was overcast, though, on Saturday morning, and I was a little late, so this is what I saw…

All well. At least I had one more morning in the Rhode Island coming up.

Anyways, it was Meagan’s birthday! 30th birthday! Happy Birthday!!!

So naturally I met up with her first thing (and her house is about 50 yards away from my house… or less? I’m so terrible at estimating distance).


Meagan wanted breakfast at the Mist, so we waiting until a few minutes before 9am and then headed over. I will say, this was the first time I’ve ever arrived at a bar and had to wait for someone working to unlock the door for me because it was just opening up. Yikes. Ha.  It was a little cold at this point, so we stuck with a table inside, but right next to the windows.

We each got my favorite breakfast at the Mist – Something on a Bagel with a Bloody Mary. Doesn’t get much better than that.

While we were there, the sun started to poke through the clouds…

… so beautiful.

After we ate, we stayed for more drinks because a  few people said they’d come and meet us. Sara and Tim both showed up, to name a few…

After my second Bloody Mary, I was set and ready to get out of the Mist before it sucked me in any further (this can happen there on the weekends) So I took off before the rest of the crew and decided to walk back home along the beach.

This is the first interesting thing I came across…

That day we invited the family down for a day on the beach and a bbq. The weather ended up coming around enough that sitting on the beach worked out. It started with just Marcia and I……but eventually we had a big crew. Can’t believe I didn’t get a picture of the full line of chairs and people. Oh well!

After a bit, we made our way of the beach for a some steamers (clams), burgers, corn, potato salad, tomato salad, and more…and desserts…

Then some sunset photos on the beach…

clay and clamcakes

Rhode Island in september – day 3 friday the 14th

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I crashed the night before way earlier than Chip, so naturally I woke up much earlier… and then messed with him and took pictures until he woke up or responded.

The night before at the Mist, Rose gave me such spot-on awesome birthday present – by the works on Makala and Jus…

The morning was beautiful and the first thing I did was go swimming in the ocean. The waves were small and mellow, and just rolling around in them was so much fun and relaxing. By the time I got showered, etc., I was so starving. Chip and I stopped by Seaview to get one of my favorite sandwich in the whole world…
We drove down to the farm, and then I headed back to the beach after a bit. Got a little more time on the sand and then went with Meagan and Lynne to get a pedicure… why not? I’ve been dying for a foot massage lately anyways.

After the pedicures, both the Arcands and my family headed to Aunt Carries. We ended up at tables right next to each other.

How can I describe Aunt Carries… it’s a BYOB, paper plates and cups place with (sadly to say only) decent clam chowder and yet their clam cakes, to me, define what a clam cake is and should be. They also have delicious pie. And there’s something about the experience that makes me always want to come here when I’m home during the summer.

Rhode Island in september – day 2 thursday the 13th

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I love waking up at the beach. Even when it’s a little painful. I think I had a little too much fun the night before. So I whined to Chip who was in the next bunk bed over and eventually got out of bed.

First trip was to Meagan’s house. Her dad was getting ready for his 60th birthday present – a chance to fly a WWII fighter plane. The plan was for him to do a fly-by of the Ocean Mist and he was basically working on killing a few hours until it was showtime. Also, I met Jim:

I also got to meet Bingo!

me and Bingo

After a mellow a few hours sitting and relaxing on the beach, it was time to head to the Mist to get excited for Bill’s upcoming fly-by.

And then the WWII fighter plane appeared in the sky…

And that was that. So much fun to experience!! And then we hung out more at the Mist…

And back to the cellphone pictures…

And then Bill, the man of the hour, showed up at the Mist…

So beautiful.

Then some BloodWizard stokage…Hell yea!

And then just some more drinks, fun, seeing people, etc..

And then time to go home! Another night of fun and another night of falling asleep to the sound of waves breaking on the beach.

Rhode Island in september – day 1 wednesday the 12th

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Woke up on the farm. In fact the only morning of the whole trip that I woke up on the farm. To so much sunlight. And freshly-picked vegetables from my parent’s garden…I went to work with my dad for a bit. The barn is starting to rot close to the ground I believe, so they are rebuilding the framework basically.

My dad and Brigus

Grandpa Chet

My mom and Beau

A few more from the baby pic pile…

Back outside…

My mom, Marcia and I went to pick some things from the garden…

The numbers above (8036, 8039) were the current weight tally. At this point, my parents and garden volunteers had harvested over 4 tons of food from the garden this year.

After hanging out in the front yard for a bit, Marcia left with Grandpa Chet, and my mom, Chip and I took a trip down to the beach.

A few real (non-cellphone pics)…

back to the cell pics..

Time to head back to the farm…

Back on the farm.

Then off to Seven Moons for a family sushi dinner…

So delicious! And great times with the family.

Next, Chip and I made our way back down to the ocean in Matunuck to hit the Mist. So many people! Yay for reunions… and then we moved to the Joyce’s Pub and I took a few more photos…

Oh yea!

That was a FUN night. Ahh. I love being home, love being by the ocean, love my friends. So awesome. Chip and I made it back to the beach house, and Meagan and Frank hung out for a bit. We told jokes, listened to some music and laughed so hard. And then it was time for sleep. To the sound of the crashing waves.

Weekend tours with Gordon. Part 3 of The epic Cali roadtrip 2012.

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Gordon ended up taking the weekend off from work to act as our “skate tourguide”. Pretty damn rad. We started Saturday in the Oakland area, since I had to be back to shower, change and head to an engagement party mid-afternoon. The first few spots he took us to were just for sight-seeing, although we did say we would come back to a particular double set – we went back though.

So our first real spot of the day was one called “redwall” that both Jack and I were excited to check out.  This spot:

Jack warming up

hurricane

Gordo street-skating!

and he was killing it.

After this spot, we motored back to Gordon’s place. The dudes hung out and watched skate vids while I got ready for the party. I left them to head about 20 minutes east to Molly’s engagement party.

the ladies at the party

McGill crew: me, Shayda, Molly and Alia

It was SO awesome to see everyone. I’m usually lucky enough to get to see Molly and Shayda whenever I make it out to SF, but I hadn’t seen Alia since 2004! It’s been so long I almost can’t believe it. After the party wound down and I was filled with delicious finger food and desserts, I made my way back to Oakland. Sandy had a friend over and we all drank and watched a sweet and ridiculous Natural Koncepts video (I realized I had never seen one before – damn have I been missing out).  Eventually it was time to crash. One more day down.

On Sunday, Gordon picked back where he left off in terms of tour-guiding us around. Our first stop was on Treasure Island, which is the only exit along the Bay Bridge. Gordon showed us three spots, which are most likely the only three spots on the whole island. This was one of them:

I don’t know if you can see, but in the photo above on the pole there’s an Alena sticker. That was a skate shop in Montreal waaay back when I lived there, although at that time I had heard it was gonna close and just be an online shop. Not sure what happened in the end, but it was cool to see the sticker.

After checking out spots on Treasure Island, we moved on through the city of San Francisco to a sandwich/salad/cafe type place in Sunset for some food. Out next stop was this spot:

Even with the new fence in the middle, Jack still found a way to shred…So rad. The photo cred goes to Gordon, because I was busy learning how to film.

And then off to Baker’s Beach!

While I was busy admiring the view, Jack got to work…

At this point Jack started getting me prepped to film so Gordon took over with my camera…

Geez Gordon – thanks for the amazing Golden Gate Bridge shot. So beautiful.

From there we moved on yet another famous spot that I have never seen in person… Wallenberg. When we showed up we had no intention of actually skating here, but there was a little hucking that went down…

Jack surprised both Gordon and I when he kept rolling up faster and faster and faster until he finally just started jumping. Each time he kicked out, but by the last attempt he definitely cleared it. So crazy. Sorry for the crappiness of the pictures…

Jack ended up deciding that if he wanted to be able to skate at all for the rest of the trip it was time to call it quits. Then I ollied the bottom part (2-stair I suppose) with Gordon and then decided to try to kickflip it. After about an hour or so and approximately 100 attempts and a few lands, partial roll-aways and many many slams, it was time to call it quits. At first I admit I was bummed, but then we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge on the way home and ate at a Mac-n-Cheese restaurant for dinner. That and a bunch of beers, as well as coming home to these partying ladies……made up for it. Fun times. We watched more random skate videos, drank more beers and crashed. Woo. Thanks so much Gordon, you are a fabulous skate tour guide!