Friday: The J Crew bottom came!! We got home a bit late, but did end up finishing Hamlet finally. And taking a late night supermarket run…

Saturday: We had hoped to get up really early and get to the beach before the rush, but we didn't get out of the house quite as early as we had hoped. The traffic was disastrous -- I was starting to get worried as to whether or not we'd even find a patch of sand to sit on with all the people headed toward beaches!! It was a pretty hot and humid, and we somehow always managed to be in the slowest lanes of traffic! I kept telling Andrew to switch lanes and he'd say "They're ALL going slow, if we switch it'll just start going slow, too." I kept pestering though, and once we switched lanes he had to admit we had been in the slowest of them all!

Anyway, we finally reached York Beach, and it was swamped with people. The outbound lane was slow moving and bumper to bumper with people looking for the parallel parking spots on that side of the street. We were feeling pretty disheartened -- no places to park, a crowded beach, and lines of traffic. We turned around into the slow lane of traffic looking for parking spots, and miraculously got one when some girl climbed into her car and drove away! It was a great spot by the sandy part of the beach, too.

It was a great day to just relax on the beach. We lazed in the sun, read, and went swimming. It was the first time I really got all the way in ocean water and paddled around. It was funny because we kept getting more and more wet as each wave crashed on us and splashed us. The water was clear and not so cold once you'd gotten all the way in. Lots of fun!! Must obtain floaties for next time we go. I like traveling on the waves best.

Things we saw: a horrible father and little boy who spit on Andrew's chair (Andrew handled it well, in a WARM way, you might say), boys on surf-board-like-things picking up girls, packed beaches, a wandering golden retriever/dachsund mix, etc.

We had lunch on the beach, and I dozed awhile. Toward evening we decided to drive to Rockport for dinner. Saw York Harbor and got the scenic tour as we twisted our way down the backroads to the north shore. We got there pretty late, and didn't make the best choice for dinner... It was nice, with a view out onto the water, but for about the same price we realized that we could have gone to this fancy schmancy sort of place right out near the beach with outside seating and lots of twinkly lights and tablecloths. Next time though! And we had fun wandering around the streets -- violin players, great danes, candy shops...

The ride home was fun, listening to music and keeping Andrew awake. And we had time to watch a little of the rerun of SNL with Al Sharpton (which was not originally aired in Boston).

Sunday: Not the best weather, but we made the best use of the day! While it was overcast and cloudy, we slept in and then headed to the New England Aquarium. We saw EVERYTHING -- the sea lion show (roaring, dancing, waving, saluting, kissing, etc), seals, puffer fish, huge turtles (Myrtle the old turtle), feeding time at the big tank and for the penguins (some of which were molting), the northwest tank, lots of jellies, dragon fish things and sea horses (like at the Oregon aquarium)... We tried to see everything before we left.

We carried dinner over to Boston Common from Fanueil Hall -- found something akin to what Jeanne called "yaki noodles." Yum. We got to the park just in time to get a good spot for the last performance of Much Ado About Nothing. It was soooo lovely ... the weather cleared up marvelously and we had blue skies and sunshine. Gorgeous costumes, plenty of physical comedy to bring out the vulgar parts and the "groundling" humor," and well-practiced actors. Being so close some parts seemed over-acted, but I enjoyed it. And it's so amazing to see Shakespeare's plays acted out, while you're in an outdoors setting, surrounded by other people enjoying the show. Feels more authentic somehow.

Got home not too late, and had time to watch TV a little and eat dessert.

Monday: Busy busy day! Andrew's dentist appointment set everything back a bit, but we ended up watching Six Feet Under with Kory, which was cool.