1st Father's Day

When Mother's Day rolled around this spring, Mike asked me what I wanted to do for my first one. I suggested dinner out and hanging out with the boys. My expectations were pretty low. Several weeks ago, I posed the same question to Mike for Father's Day. He said he didn't know and would think about it. A couple of days later, he came up with pretty grand plans for the day - A visit to Rockport, Ma, beach time at Good Harbor Beach and dinner at The Village (a favorite family post beach spot from his childhood). So, it was going to be a packed day.

Plans were revised the night before, by Mike, to start with walking around the grounds of the Crane Estate in Ipswich, Ma which I had been interested in seeing. So, we got up, packed up for the day (not a small feat given the grand plans) and headed out.

The day was really hot and muggy so it's a good thing we had gotten there pretty early. Because even walking around that morning, the heat was strong. Also strong were the mosquitoes! I, being a mosquito magnet, got virtually eaten alive (luckily I took the brunt away from Dylan who didn't seem to get even one bite). To add to it, I didn't know how big the grounds were and only had flip flops so my doggies were starting to woof after walking around for a long while. Despite these minor inconveniences, we had a really fun time walking around the grounds.

Back of Castle Hill, Crane Estate

Dylan Enjoys Touching EverythingCool Statue

Estate and Casino

Crane's Beach

View of House From Beach Area (About 1/2 Mile)

Crawling Around The Grounds

The Boys!

After our hike around the estate, we headed to Rockport. Mike wanted to try out a seafood shack for lunch that he had read about. We parked in the middle of town and started to walk there not realizing that it was about 3 miles. Given the poor shoe choice for hiking around all day, I sent Mike back for the car about half way there and Dylan and I finished the walk. The timing was pretty good and Mike, Dylan and I all arrived about the same time.

We opted for a seat indoors since we'd been out in the sun plenty already. While we enjoyed some great seafood (and watermelon), Dylan entertained the diners around us....mostly elderly couples that just ate his hammy behavior up!

Mmmmmmmm, Watermelon!

After lunch, we headed back to town, shopped around a bit and then called it a day. We were getting into afternoon nap time and didn't want to risk having an unhappy first experience on the beach. So, we'll do that another time. We'd had enough of the heat and the sun anyway. We headed home, Dylan napped in the car, Mike napped when we got home and Dylan and I enjoyed watching the crazy afternoon storm we got. The rest of the day was spent being leisurely at home.

It was a full first Father's Day but Mike had a great time and we all had a memorable time together.