It's almost over...

Jay's mom flew up Thursday night and the two of them returned to North Carolina Friday afternoon. Six weeks have since passed since I went to pick him up in New York. Feels like he's been here much longer and it also feels like we didn't have enough time.

Wednesday we went to Castle Island for one last Boston funsie. My GPS couldn't find Castle Island and I only knew that it is located in South Boston. So I drove around and finally found it after about 25 minutes of cruising around the city.  We stopped by the ice cream shop there and got a couple of soft serve cones. I picked vanilla (my favorite) and he picked chocolate (his favorite --along with strawberry). The amount of ice cream they gave us was honestly downright ignorant. I scooped two thirds of each cone onto the ground (no trashcans) and Jay held a mini memorial service for his dessert. I don't think he knew I was going to discard so much but even after all of that, neither one of us finished eating what remained.

Castle Island is beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, that Jams and I are going there after we rescue her car from the tow lot and have breakfast. Fort Independence is on the island (or what used to be an island) and it's a pretty cool location. Other than the fort, there's a playground, and the flight path of landing airplanes at Logan Airport. The backdrop of the city across the harbor provides the most magnificent view and depending on when you get there, how far you go out, and how keen your eyesight is, you could find lots of crabs.

 The sky was so blue and the sun was so bright that I had to take a picture. Magnificent, isn't it?

 We found baby crabs! Or baby something. It certainly looked like a baby hermit crab but with a completely different shell. Maybe they outgrow these shells and find much uglier rock looking shells for adulthood.

I wasn't really going to drop that crab down his pants. I just wanted to hear him scream!

 Jay learned how to skip rocks and is really excited about going home to skip with his dad, uncle, and cousins. I'm hoping he teaches Al, too.

 Staked his claim at the fort. Now the property of Jay and Titi. Not that I mind. It might be cool to live in a fort. Not so cool to have tourists playing in our backyard though.

He looks ridiculously grown up here.

I miss him so much already. I can't wait to see everyone again in November.

Thursday morning we drove out to Rockport, MA. A really good friend of mine who lives in VA has a family vacation home there and we went up for the day. We arrived just before noon and didn't leave until 830 pm (not at all in enough time to pick my sister up from the airport but she didn't have to wait too long.)

We went for lunch in the downtown area -- ate the freshest crab ever. The kids played on the beach for almost three hours and Jay's little Southern blood managed to stay in the freezing ocean for most of that time. I was absolutely shocked! But it was great. My friend and I were able to catch up because we hadn't talked in a really long time but it was so easy to jump back in into the swing of things. Then we went home, showered and walked back into town for a quick dinner and ice cream. No pics. :(

Rockport is beautiful. I'm absolutely going back again THIS summer. There's no way that little piece of wonder can be only 35 miles away from Boston and I miss out. I love quaint towns with charming shops and really friendly people. It's expensive to live there I'm sure -- but it absolutely reminded me of Bar Harbor. Especially the ice cream!