Gloucester, MA

On September 7, 2014, Ed and I took our first East Coast excursion to Gloucester, MA.  Gloucester is a beautiful, quaint little fishing town 37 miles above Boston on Massachusetts’ North Shore.  Fun facts: the first schooner (a sailing vessel that looks like a pirate ship) was reputedly built in here in 1713, and “The Perfect Storm” was filmed and set in Gloucester (I hope that’s cool – I’ve never seen A Perfect Storm).

Someone once told me that many of the towns surrounding Boston have names of Native American origin, and I believe they included Gloucester in the list.  When they told me that, I was like, “Ha, WHUT.”  Because coming from Minnesota where almost ALL of the towns have names of Native American origin (Wayzata, Winona, Pokegama, Nisswa, Minnehaha, Bemidji, Chanhassen, etc. and of COURRRRSE Minnetonka), it’s pretty clear that Massachusetts has roughly zero.  Plus, I bet the Pilgrims were fairly eager to change the names of everything so the Indians knew who was Boss.  So now Ed and I are surrounded by places like Gloucester (pronounced Gloster), Portsmouth (pronounced Portsmith), Worchester (pronounced Wuss-ster), Scituate (pronounced Sitch-eau-it) and Ipswitch (pronounced…Ipswitch).  Add a good Southie Boston accent to any of those places and you get something like this:

Hi mah name is Bahbrah n’ I live on the No’th Sho’h neah Glostah.  Have you been to the Stah Mahket yet?  They got a real good bahgin on eahs ah coh’n.

Here’s a map!  Gloucester is faintly outlined in red in the upper right, Boston is down in the bottom left:

The population of Gloucester is 28, 789; the town is known for its fishing industry and its popularity as a summer destination.  Ed and I saw plenty of mansions and expensive, fancy looking landscaping on our drive along the coast:

There are lots of beaches to enjoy along the way as well, and our first stop was this one on our way into the town:

That little dark spot on the horizon is the Boston skyline.  Can you see it?  Here let’s zoom in:

Once we made it into town, we stopped at a visitors center and were stoked to learn that Gloucester has some pretty reputable whale watching tours.  They prove it with this whale skeleton:

Don’t you love the caption under the whale head?  “Unusual North Shore Resident.”  Lolz!  Funny whale people.  Since we were too late to join a whale tour (they guarantee sightings or you can keep coming back for free until you see one), we headed to Rockport (the tip of the peninsula above Gloucester) to relax at a beach.  I got really artsy with my camera while sunbathing:

This pic was actually quite difficult to take, I think it took us six tries. Nailed it!

 

A sexy lifeguard was on duty

After the beach, we headed to the only other attraction we knew of – the light house and the Breakwater.  Eastern Point Lighthouse is at the entrance of Gloucester Harbor and was first lit in 1832:

Eastern Point Light House

It sits on giant rocks and semi-successfully helped guide ships into the harbor up until 1905.  Extending out from the light house is a huge reef called Dog Bar Reef and even though ships could see the light from the light house and identify the shore, they would regularly ship wreck and run aground on the reef because they didn’t know how far it extended or didn’t even know it was there.  So in 1905 the town completed a 0.5 mile long granite jetty and named it the Dog Bar Breakwater (locals just refer to it as “The Breakwater.”  As do Ed and I, faux-locals).

Looking out at the breakwater from the light house

The Breakwater cuts the wind in the harbor by half, protecting the boats anchored there, and successfully prevents vessels from shipwrecking on the reef.

Boats safe in the harbor

The walk down the Breakwater is so fun – all of the giant blocks make for a treacherous hopscotch.  There are locals sunbathing on the rocks and lots of recreational fisherman.  Some men walk at the bottom of the blocks, looking for and collecting treasures from the water.  Each block in the breakwater weighs 12-13 tons.  Here’s a treasure hunter and a good view of how huge the rocks are:

Me, still being arty

It takes about 15 minutes to walk all the way to the end:

 

Mr. Massachusetts

We worked up quite an appetite for beers while exploring, so we headed back into town and found a little bar with Allagash on tap.  Allagash is like Blue Moon but one thousand times better (sorry mom).  It’s brewed in Maine and is my favorite beer, of all time.  Here’s me enjoying one:

Ed got fancy and ordered something with fruit in it:

We asked the bartender where we should eat dinner and she told us to go to the Fisherman’s Cape Anne Brewing Co.  We do as the locals say, so off we went.

This place was a true gem.  The whole interior was decorated in a fishing motif, per the town’s pride, and they brew all their own beer.  We shared a sampling flight:

How fun is that?!  We had these exotic flavors: vanilla, rhubarb, pumpkin and spruce tip.  SPRUCE TIP.  It was like tasting the magic of the forest in a refreshing glass of beer.  But better.  Had we known we’d never see it again, we would have purchased as many cases as we could fit in the trunk of our rental car.

Arrow is pointing to spruce tip, our favorite

For noms, we had seared scallops with fancy mashed taters and some of the best, freshest fish tacos I’ve ever eaten:

Ed’s been to this plate, which is why it is half empty

OM NOM NOM

After we ate, we drove back to the city and that was that.  Two snaps up!

And Juicy if you’re reading this…

1) I have not seen the Cambridge turkey in a REALLY long time.  So long that I’m wondering if there even is a Cambridge turkey anymore.

2) Last week, a 1980 HBS-alum-turned-hedge-fund-magnate donated $400M to the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).  That is the largest donation in Harvard’s history.  The fact that this guy has $400M to donate at one time speaks to the volume of his overall wealth – which happens to be $11.2B.  And I have a hard time ponying up my $5 charity donation in order to participate in casual Friday at work!  SEAS was only established in 2007, so it’s a fledgling program and not very well known.  When I first heard about this, I was like, “Why don’t you just cure cancer instead?” but after discussing it with my boss (also HBS alum – no donations), we figure he probably wanted to kill two birds with one stone and position Harvard to develop a world-class engineering school to compete with MIT, and make sure the kids who get an education there eventually do end up curing cancer.

3) Ed turned 27 on June 3rd; he is officially in his Late Twenties!  He’s not thrilled at all about it, but I am.  To celebrate, I’m taking him to a Florida Georgia Line concert in September (they’re a country band), and we’ll be using Airbnb for the first time ever.  I got us a room in some guy named John’s house right on a lake so we can kayak and paddle board around the morning after the concert.

4) I read in Cambridge’s monthly newsletter that people of my generation are referred to (I’m not sure by whom) “Digital Immigrants” and people of my future nephew Atlas’s generation are “Digital Natives.”  I guess that’s accurate?  The article also mentioned that the incoming generation Z will be the smartest generation ever, and proved it by saying Harvard University accepted a record low of applicants for the class of 2019 – only 5.3 percent of 37,305 applications.  Ed said it’s a good thing HBS accepted 10% of applications, as that’s the only way he was able to sneak in.

5) I’m going to my cousin’s wedding in Minnesota this weekend and can’t WAIT!  JUICY GET READY

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Boston Based, Boise Bound

<stands up>  Hello my name is Emily and this is my blog that I’ve neglected for the past seven months.

My last post was a thorough and detailed recounting of Ed’s and my first week at HBS; it is now June and our first year at HBS is over.  I realize now that I had very high and unattainable blogging hopes last fall.  Reality has since introduced itself to me and I’ve learned that it is very difficult to be an involved partner at HBS, a top-notch girlfriend, a full-time employee and an up-and-coming blogger all at one time.  So, no blogs.

However!  I have found true Japanese mind feng shui in the past few weeks and my blogging hopes have returned.  Are they unattainable again?  No one knows yet, it’s like living on the edge!  The only thing I do know is that Ed is in Boise for what feels like years and I have extra time to kill and watching Dateline is definitely not a good way to use it.

I guess we’ll reacquaint ourselves with the basics: I am living in our same Harvard housing apartment this summer and Ed moved to Boise, ID on Sunday, May 24th.  He’ll be there until mid-August working at Albertsons on the Albertsons-Safeway merger.  I will consult with Ed about what that means exactly and give a laymen synopsis at a future date.  Need-to-know facts: Albertsons and Safeway are grocery stores and Ed is a VIP intern at their headquarters.  Headquarters has a full-size tree indoors.

When we first learned that Boise was the location of this internship, we pictured something remote, something a little desolate, something full of potatoes, something like this:

Now, that’s not a bad view, but it’s not fair to Idaho.  Our ignorance of the state before Ed’s move was vast,  much like the vista above.  My prior judgements of Idaho now feel like others’ judgements of Minnesota when I first arrived in Chicago for college.  I remember being asked “are there real buildings in Minnesota?” and “is it just moose and pine trees there, or what?”  I thought they were losers for asking those things but just look at that photo above.  What do I know!  As it turns out, Boise is actually like this:

That’s downtown Boise, a thriving, outdoorsy city nestled in what the locals call “the foothills.”  The two things non-residents seem to know most about Boise is that 1) Boise State has a football field with artificial blue turf called Albertsons Stadium and 2) Sun Valley is absolutely beautiful, which is a ski town that is not near Boise at all but is still in Idaho.  So really, people only know one fact about Boise and one fact about another town in Idaho.  One other thing: despite Ed seeing a young male get arrested right in front of his apartment this past weekend (underage drinking manhunt turned successful), in 2006, Farmer’s Insurance ranked Boise as the #1 most secure place to live.  How great!

Here is a picture of the exterior of Ed’s apartment:

He’s renting the studio apartment above an elderly woman’s detached garage, and that is his private staircase to heaven.  The two car garage underneath it is all his, in which he parks his silver company car.  In the remaining car stall, he likes to sit with a Coors Summer Brew and watch the neighborhood activity unfold (there is little).  Sometimes he switches it up and sits on that front porch in front of the top door.  The only character in the neighborhood of note so far besides the fellow who got arrested, is the guy who lives directly across from Ed – he’s a large Hawaiian man who wears a do-rag, name currently unknown.

Last week the Blackhawks were playing and Ed doesn’t have a TV so he wanted to go to the local bar and watch the game.  Prior to leaving, he called Crickets (the bar), and made sure they were willing to play the Hawks on one of their TVs.  The bartender answered and said no problem, come on down.  Ed journeyed the three blocks and watched the game in the company of the bartender, as he was the only patron in the bar the entire time he was there.  Shortly into the game the bartender told Ed that if he wanted another Coors, just come outside to the alley and let him know, he was gonna go hang out with a buddy back there.  Guess who that buddy was?  The Hawaiian do-rag-wearing neighbor.

And because I can’t be left out, here are two sunsets Ed and I were #blessed with before he left for Boise:

Snapchat translation: Sunset on the banks of the Charles River

Sunset off of our balcony, overlooking Harvard Square

For cute!

E

 

 

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