Dad, Brother and Sonday

My Dad, even at age 96, has an incredible curiosity about what is going on in the world, and especially what is happening at his old favorite haunts on the South Shore of Massachusetts where he and my Mum raised our large family. Almost everytime I visit him we go on long drives to see his favorite places. When my dear daughter-in-law, Alison, told me recently that one of Mum and Dad's favorite restaurants of years past, Bert's at Plymouth Beach, had re-opened under new management, I just knew I had to arrange to get Dad there, and I wanted to surprise him. Making it even better was that Dad is always on a quest to find a good place for lunch with a water view! Bert's has been reincarnated as Stoneforge Plymouth. Below is the view from our table where we had a delicious lunch yesterday. A surprise for Dad fell in to place nicely and was made even better because my brother, Ev from Balitmore, was "home" for a visit as part of a business trip.

I arranged for Ev to pick up Dad and tell him he was going on a mystery tour. When they arrived at Stoneforge, LM, my son, Jason and wife Alison, and I were there to greet them and Dad was so happy. His first comment was about all the memories we shared there as a family. My grandparents used to take us their as children and we just loved to play on the beach, finding treasures and skipping rocks.


These lovely cosmos lined the walk to the entrance. Hardy critters to survive the salt air!
Jason, me, Ev, Dad, Alison (and baby??)
LM, moi, Ev, Dad and Alison
Alison and Jason - he looks so much like his late father that it is eerie!

A misty but beautiful view across Plymouth harbor to the Gurnet Lighthouse and cliff which marks the harbor entrance. The light is actually at the very tip of Duxbury beach and connects on to Saquish which juts into Plymouth Harbor from the back of the Gurnet cliffs. That beach and Saquish are only accessible by 4-wheel drive vehicles and I have many wonderful memories of times camping there with Jason's father, Teddy when we were first married. We had friends who owned a cottage there and we had an open invitation to stay on their property. Ah, so long ago now. Lots of memories for me yesterday. It was nice to share a lot of it with LM.
Alison and Jason in their hotrod getting ready to head home after a lovely time.

It was a great day. LM and I headed back to the Cape with happy hearts and gratitude for our dear family. On to a new week.

In an aside....today LM had a car swap to do in Maine. On his way back, he stopped for fuel at a station in New Hampshire and as he pulled in to the place, he suddenly realized he was right next to a car driven by no other than my brother, Ev, whom we had been with yesterday! Ev had just stopped for coffee. They were both blown away at the happenstance and got on the phone to exclaim it to me! I love those two men!!