Day 6--Hampton Beach, New Hampshire

July 31, 2008

Thursday, we kind of puttered around the house until almost noon. We were all hungry, so we got in the car and headed down the road towards Hampton Beach, with our swimsuits on. The weather was nice with a bit of a cloud cover. It was foggy/hazy out on the ocean when we got up. I love mornings on the ocean like that. They are kind of creepy, but very pretty.

We found Hampton Beach, got a parking place (it’s $1.50/hr to park there), put in a little over 2 hours worth of quarters, and started walking to find a place to eat. We found a little restaurant on a corner that had its menu posted all over the windows. Looked decent, so in we went. Christi and I shared a meat lover’s pizza and Stephanie had a “small” calzone. They said small. It was half the size of our pizza! We ate some of that, too. We all kind of shared everything. It was pretty good.

Then we went on across the street to the beach. It was relatively crowded, but not too bad. We saw it last year on a Saturday. I wouldn’t want to be out there on a Saturday. We put our stuff down and went down to get our feet wet. The water was chilly, but, as they say, “it’s not bad once you get in.” And that was true. The initial impact was rough, but when your skin gets acclimated to it, it’s really pretty nice. I got in about waste deep, and Christi and Stephanie went in almost as far. We just kind of walked around in the ocean water for a while, then got out a loaf of bread and started feeding the gulls. After that, we went back across the street, ordered so fried dough (it’s like a funnel cake, only with no funnel) and I went to get the car and picked up Christi and Stephanie at the corner. I got back to the car with 3 minutes left on the timer. How’s that for accuracy?

We drove back to the house, Christi went out and laid on the deck some more, while Steph and I lounged in the house. Around 5pm, I put some potatoes in the oven, then around 7, we cooked a couple of big steaks and had a nice dinner. Unfortunately, by that time, it had begun to rain, so we couldn’t eat outside. We did, however, eat at our kitchen table, right by the windows, so we could watch the occasional lightning flash out on the ocean. There was also one of those cargo ships out there and at dusk it turned its lights on, so that looked pretty cool, too.

During all of this, the California Los Angeles Anaheim Orange County Angels, along with their newly acquired Mark Teixeira, were beating the whatzit out of the Evil Yankees, which I enjoyed thoroughly, even if it was the Angels. The Rangers lost to the worst team in baseball, to split their series 2-2. Rangers remain in second place, now 12.5 behind the Angels.

Thank the Lord, the Sox had the night off. They needed it, after all the drama and the sudden trade maneuvers that occurred yesterday. Manny is gone. I don’t know if that’s good or not, but he had really pushed the envelope of “Manny being Manny” this time. Hopefully, the team can recover. They play Oakland tonight, and can help themselves and the Rangers at the same time. These three team deals are confusing, but I think I finally got it. The Sox gave two players to the Dodgers; the Dodgers gave those two players along with two of their own, to the Pirates, who gave Jason Bay to the Dodgers, who in turn traded Bay to the Sox for Manny. If you’re scratching your head, join the club. I’m still not sure I totally get it, but either way, Manny’s a Dodger and Jason Bay, whoever the heck he is, is a Red Sox. I saw his numbers, though, and apparently, he’s about as good at the bat as Manny.

BUT WILL HE BE AS MUCH FUN????

I think not.

Will he be able to throw someone out at second from that corner in left field?

I think not.

Oh, well.

Sigh.

Anyway, this is our last day/night at this house in New Hampshire. Don’t know what we are going to do. We may just lounge around and do nothing all day. We’ll have a few hours tomorrow that we have to figure out what to do with, because we are supposed to be out of the house by 10am, and our flight doesn’t leave Boston until 4-something. The car is due back at 2-something. And then, back we fly, to 100+ temperatures.

Ugh. I’m sweating already.

TTFN, y’all!