Last Friday, I took the day off, because I have 11 vacation days that I need to take before June 30th. My work started this new rule last summer that you couldn't carry over any vacation days from fiscal year to fiscal year. So, that pretty much means that absolutely no one is at work for the month of June, like, no one. Great planning guys! Ratty had been saying that he wanted to get out of the city for a night over Memorial Day weekend, just to get away from everything, and since we are uber social butterflies and had so many invitations to BBQs and get togethers, Friday night was the only night that we could do it. His work typically has an employee appreciation event on each Friday before Memorial Day that gets over around noon, and then employees are done for the long weekend. Must be a nice place to work. Are they hiring?
I woke up, packed, ran some errands and then planted myself on a bench on Castle Island and read my new library book, waiting for Ratty's call to pick him up and scoot up to Gloucester. I grabbed him right by South Station and hopped on 93 and we were on our way to a nice, relaxing vacation. We had made reservations at the Blue Shutters Inn in Gloucester, which is right on Good Harbor Beach. I HIGHLY recommend it, as it was adorable, and the owner Ed loved us. On our way to the Inn we passed a liquor store and Shaw's and obviously needed to stop and stock up on some items for our stay. After buying cheese, crackers, beers, limes, plastic utensils, paper plates and chips, we good to go. We arrived at the Inn about 30 seconds later, Gloucester isn't that big, and we checked in. Our room was called the Widow's Walk, and had 2 little adorable windows that overlooked the ocean. Ratty had told me he brought me a surprise and when I walked out of the bathroom after setting up all my products in the shower, he was holding a bottle of champagne. He knows how much I LOVE champagne, and had brought a bottle PLUS 2 glass flutes for us to have before going out to dinner. We put the champagne in the fridge and heading downstairs to sit outside
We claimed our spot on two Adirondack chairs, facing the beach. We put our cheese and crackers on a little table between us and cracked open some drinks. Ratty was drinking Coronas, but I for some reason was craving Mikes Limeade. Shhh, don't tell anyone. We sat outside for the better part of 3 or 4 hours, sipping drinks, cutting our cheddar block with a plastic fork, which could have gone better, chatting with the Innkeeper Ed, and looking at the phenom view.
Fast forward about 8 hours and that right leg inside shin is hot pink. Apparently, because the sun was behind me, that area was the only one in direct sunlight. You'd think that after burning my shins at least once every summer, I'd learn. Whoops!
Around 5:30 or 6pm, after Ed had brought us out some beers from the local Gloucester brewery, Ratty and I made our way inside to get ready for dinner and to drink some bubbly. We cracked open the Korbel and sat admiring the fantastic view. Once we kicked the bottle, which didn't take very long, we had Ed call us a cab and headed to Latitude 43 for dinner. Somehow, during the 5 minute cab ride, we had completely convinced the cab driver that 'In The Heart of the Sea' was the greatest book ever, to the point where he wrote it down and swore he was buying a copy tomorrow. Once inside the restaurant, we found out there was about a 45 minute wait, so we grabbed two seats at the bar and ordered some martinis. Ratty got a vodka martini, straight up with a twist, and I got some vodka thing with a champagne float. I will drink anything with a champagne float. Ratty made friends with this older man next to us, who gushed his life story, starting from when he was 8 and used to ride the elevated green line to Allston to visit his grandparents. Two more drinks quickly follow the first and then before you know it its time for us to sit down. We are brought to this great little two top next to the windows that overlooks Gloucester Harbor. We order some shrimp tempura sushi with a side of spicy mayo, I DIE for spicy mayo, followed by lobster and pea risotto for dinner. For the record, I ordered the risotto first, and Ratty copied me. The food was out of this world. I mean it, it was so incredible. Each time the waitress came to check on us, all I could do was moan and motion towards the food. The sushi was so fresh and the spicy mayo, mmmm spicy mayo, so good. Ratty and I were both vying for the last piece and literally brought out a knife to cut it in half because neither one of us would let the other have it. The lobster risotto was straight up insane. The peas were so fresh, and when I read lobster, I assumed it was already mixed in, but no, there was a tail right on top! I wanted to bathe in it, it was so good. I couldn't let go, and even sucked the meat out of the little fins from both mine and Ratty's tails. I think the waitress took it away right before I was going to start licking the bowl. It was probably for the best. For dessert I ordered Brioche bread pudding but stopped half way through in fear of exploding. After dinner we grabbed a beer at a bar near by, watched the end of the Celtics game and called it quits for the night. Our jam packed one night vacation was far from over, and I needed to rest up for all the antiquing that was planned for Saturday. Yes, antiquing.
Some other photos from the day:
{We spend an unnecessarily long time standing at the end of the driveway just looking at the beach. Once I saw our shadows I raced back to my chair and grabbed my camera. Ratty dribbled a little bit because I kept saying 'come on Ratty, at least PRETEND you're drinking!}
{This shot was set up by Ratty. He's so artsy sometimes. Notice the awesome red civic outside. Whose could that be? Oh right, MINE! Isn't it cute?}
{Me. Champagne. Beach. Heaven.}
{View from our table at dinner.}
Remember the Lobster Risotto!?!?!?!??!?!?!
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