Question, do you know how far away Rattlesnake Island is? Well, the answer is REALLY FAR. I kept driving and driving, asking Ratty how much longer, but no matter how far I drove, we never really got any closer to our destination. It finally got close to 2pm, and having been under the impression that we should most definitely have been there already, I ask Ratty what the hold up was. This is when he decided to inform me that the directions he had actually were from KEENE, NH to the house. So literally this place was about 2.5 to 3 hours away from Boston. Say what?! I had at least another 45 minutes to go and my legs were cramping. And I was hungry. And I just really really really wanted to get there. This party better be worth it!
We finally arrived at the marina where we were instructed to park and called over to the house to have someone pick us up. Since Rattlesnake Island is indeed an island, we needed a boat ride. Ratty's mom was thrilled to hear we arrived in one piece especially after a few frantic text messages from her on the ride up to make sure we were still alive and didn't try to swim directly to the house. It took a while for someone to boat over and get us, I assume Joe was busy enjoying the party, but we eventually made it, to the delightful chants of the family telling us the party was over and we should go home.
While making my rounds, saying hellos and introducing myself, I see my friend Jeff, who grew up literally across the street from me in Cambridge. The two of us were like, um hi, what are you doing here, while Jeff's wife kept repeating 'he always knows someone!' Turns out, Jeff's wife's family owned the house next door, so she had been friends with Ratty's aunt and uncle for quite some time. SUCH a small world!
Once we said our hellos we sat down and prepared to stuff our faces with food. There were steak tips and lobsters and steamers and all the sides you could imagine. I absolutely devoured the steak tips and sucked that lobster clean. Legit. I even sucked the meat out of the legs and those little flippers on the tail. Waste nothing! Poor Ratty ate so much mac and cheese, against his mothers advice, that he couldn't eat his lobster. Should have listened to Michelle! They were so yummy!
The whole afternoon was filled with wine, food and good company. The house was right on the water, unfortunately I didn't take a picture, so we spent a good amount of time down on the dock enjoying the view. I got to see pictures of what the house had originally looked like when the family bought it in the early 80s and it was barely recognizable. They had completely transformed it into a beautiful vacation cottage, filled with wide plank pine floors and ceilings. Since the house wass on an island, absolutely everything had to be brought over each and every time they visited. There were no cars, no roads, nothing, just boats. Ratty's aunt told me that in the winter they just drive their car across the lake and park it on the shore. The whole idea of a lake freezing to 26" thick completely baffles me. Regardless of how safe people would claim over and over, I don't think I'd be able to drive in a car across a lake. I am terrified of bridges and roll my windows down every time I drive over one, just incase it collapses and I need to swim to safety. No really, this thought keeps me up at night.
Ratty and I made plans to stay at his cousin Joe's house, which was one town over right on the water as well. Joe had picked us up in his boat earlier that day, so when the time came to head home, we just piled in the boat, beers in hand and parked in the slip behind his house. How cool is that? I could definitely get used to that kind of commute!
Unfortunately not everyone had taken the next day off, so Ratty's mom and aunt had to head out around 9pm and make their way home. Since Ratty's mom lives right over the NH border in MA, it wasn't as long of a drive for her, but it was still a ways to go on a Sunday night. The rest of us stayed for a while longer, talking and drinking and soaking up the nice cool air. Joe's girlfriend also lived in MA and had to work the next morning, so her plan was to get up at 4:30am and drive home. That, my friends, is determination. I would have 1,000% called in sick. 4:30am?! To go to work?! Maybe to get a on plane to go on vacation or something, but DEFINITELY not to go to work! We headed out around 10:30pm and made our way back to Joe's house, via boat.
Joe was pretty much the greatest host ever and grilled up a bunch of burgers for us once he got back to his place. We sat outside on his porch and stuffed ourselves with cheeseburgers and chips. I loved that his porch had 2 ceiling fans on it. I felt like it was something that only existed on stately plantation homes down South. You know, and New Hampshire. We finally rolled into bed around 1:30am, and I felt so horrible for Joe's girlfriend, Melissa I think, who had to get up in 3 hours. I kept saying over and over, she is probably going to wake up drunk and not be able to drive home. Seriously at that point, is it even worth going to sleep? Better yet, worth going to work? The answer is always no.
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