tuesday marked the beginning of the KT and Mdog on the Beaches of New England portion of vacation. katie and i had made plans on venturing to the small cape cod town of sandwich while rachel photographed a tuesday wedding[!]. as it turned out, rachel's gig was... where? ohhhhhhh, yeah. sandwich. thanks, God. we arrived in the morning and made our way to the library's town archives, searching for information on katie's ancestors, who had actually helped found the town[!]. apparently, this particular family had some rebellious quaker roots: let's just say there was an article regarding prison time[!] and leave it at that. then we strolled around town for awhile before stopping by the dunbar tea shop. i was a little worried. i don't drink tea, and i was picturing servings of tiny cucumber sandwiches that would leave me ravenous in an hour. fortunately, i was wrong [i even had BEEF], and it was a lovely place without being too, you know... girly.

 

after lunch we parted ways, as katie and i dropped rachel off at the wedding site, and we set out to find the boardwalk and town beach. we stopped by the seasonal restrooms[!] and drove out in rachel's trusty car, georgio. we ran the gauntlet of high schoolers standing along the boardwalk, then settled down on the beach. a bit pebbly, but a beach nonetheless. katie ventured in the water to about her ankles, while i numbed my legs from the knees on down. we got back out and blissfully [uh, huge biting flies aside] baked in the sun for about an hour. i distinctly remember this being the first point during vacation [and a long time in general] when i felt i was able to do absolutely nothing. and better yet, get paid for it. so wonderful. after a bit, we packed up our stuff, took one last wade [in the waaaaaaadddaaaaaa... c'mon, you know you were singing it], and wandered up and down the beach, taking pictures. we decided to take georgio for a little spin up the coast, then finally moseyed our way back into town, scrolling through pictures and waiting for the master photographer to join us. since she had enjoyed a schmancy meal [steak and/or lobster, i think], she took us to a pizza place in southie where we picked up some sandwiches [but not before an impromptu urban decay photo shoot in front of a nearby wall]. we got home and settled in watch/fall asleep in front of a movie... then more wine [of course], then bed.

 

wednesday was another trip outside the city limits, this time to gloucester. so far i've heard three distinct pronunciations, though none by true locals: 1) "glou-ster", 2) "glaw-sta", 3) "glah-sta". i just avoid saying it altogether unless i'm clearly overexaggerating. we stopped in andover for a panera lunch slash client meeting for rachel, then made it to gloucester and THE LARGEST rotary [roundabout!] i have ever seen. you could host football games in the middle but for want of parking. we drove out to a rocky beach and took in the deep blue water hitting the clear blue sky, a lighthouse barely visible in the far off hazy distance. photos, of course, were being snapped during all of this, including pictures of katie and i "flying". pretty funny. after a while, we drove back into gloucester and wandered up and down a quaint little street for the rest of the afternoon. on our way back into boston, rachel navigated us through side streets to avoid quite the backup on i-93. that evening was our first ali sighting of the trip, and dinner was indian food a la trader joe's, followed up by, of course, ice cream. rachel and ali bravely sat through Vacation Pictures: Parts One and Two, unfiltered, unprocessed, and unrotated, even. and i believe we finally finished off that wine.

 

i think we're in the pre-homestretch, people.