Plum Island

Mike had his last day at his old position on June 30th, and doesn't start his new position until July 25th (hooray for three week vacations!), so we decided to spend some family time at the beach! We rented a house on Plum Island, which is a little island off the coast of Newburyport (about 45 minutes north of Boston). G Pa flew into town to spend some time with us, and we lucked out with great weather while we were there.

The house was wonderful - great space, perfect sunset views over the salt marsh, and only 2 blocks from the beach (of course, the entire island is basically two blocks from the beach, but that is OK!)






A lot of time was spent on the deck. Relaxing:


Eating:


And watching the sunsets:




We were at the beach every day. Henry LOVED it:












We spent a morning in Gloucester:






And another morning at the wildlife refuge on one side of the island:




The horseflies were VICIOUS there. Mike attempted to keep them off Henry by doing a crazy dance around him:


But nothing would stop them. They were evil.

For the 4th, we hung out at the beach and then had a BBQ for dinner. Right before we ate, however, am insanely severe thunderstorm moved in and we had to evacuate indoors:







The house had an incredible view of fireworks - we could see the displays from 3 different neighboring towns (plus, most of the neighbors put on their own displays).

We spent time in downtown Newburyport:











And our friends Aly and Mike, and their son Jack, came to spend an afternoon with us:






Jack and Henry had a ball together. It was so much fun to watch!

There was also a whole lot of food - our favorites were the Clam Box (famous, of course), and Bob Lobster's, right down the road from us (nothing like loads of fried sea food!):











Thanks to G Pa for travelling here and spending some time with us. It was a great time!