Click Me!
In spite of a late night, the gentle dawn woke our daughter up like a soldier at reveille. My wife and I were a little more lackadaisical in our rising. The hotel had attentive staff, plenty of scenic beauty surrounding it and rustic charm to its grounds.
Soft beds and luxurious showers, on the other hand, it did not have.
It also had very large breakfast platters on which my wife and child dined while I sipped at my coffee.
My wife was not required to do anything for the wedding until late in the afternoon. We decided to start the day by finding some kind of entertainment for our toddler.
We hit up one of Gloucester’s parks. We ended up at State Fort Park, and it was a good choice. The playground there was huge. Some areas had obviously been installed in decades past when lawsuits were less prevalent and Darwinism was more evident. Some areas were very modern. The playground itself was only a tiny portion of the park, which had an incredible view of the bay. You could climb right up on the boulders surrounding the bay and get a bunch of good shots off with a camera. (Or a cannon as evidenced by some of the permanent installations on the park grounds. There’s a reason it was called State Fort Park.) Again, the town seemed to be equally eager to apply the laws of Natural Selection to sight-seers as well as children as there was a decided lack of railings or other restrictions preventing a nasty fall.
After a few hours, we were feeling a bit peckish. The bride had suggested to my wife that we check out the town of Rockport if we had the chance over the weekend. As we got into our car, we decided to head on over to check out the lunch scene.
Here’s a few things to note about Rockport:
- It is a tiny tiny town
- It has a LOT of parking meters. Bring lots of change.
- It seems to be primarily composed of one-way streets that loop around the town in a big ol’ circle. If you miss the shop you’re looking for, you’ll need to go all the way back to the beginning.
- It is popular with foreign tourists for some reason. You may just end up being the only one speaking English as you walk down the streets.
- If you’re there on a weekday and you’re under 50, chances are you’ll be the youngest person walking said streets.
- There are a lot of ice cream shops and fudgeries.
We ended up at a very nice restaurant whose name I can’t really recall but somehow involved the ocean.
After meandering around a bit, we headed on back to the hotel to try to get our daughter down prior to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.
That didn’t happen.
Oh, we got back to the hotel just fine, mind you. Our daughter refused to go down for a nap. Pretty soon my wife headed out for the rehearsal, leaving me to deal with little miss cranky-pants.
I ended up taking her down to the rocky beach and wandering there for a little while. She was quite amused by the tide pools left by the ocean as it ebbed and flowed. She was more amused by throwing rocks into the tide pools. Fortunately they weren’t very big rocks or big tide pools.
Soon enough, the rehearsal was over and it was time to head out to the party. We ended up taking one of the other bridesmaids with us.
Gloucester isn’t a big place. Maybe 30 minutes to go from one side to the other, if that. On our way to the restaurant, we soon became lost. Except we weren’t.
According to the printed Google directions and the Google Maps application I had on my phone, our car should have been somewhere in the dining room of the restaurant. We turned just when Google told us to. And there was no restaurant. We circled the block again just to make sure. Nothing.
On our second trip around the block it became evident that the car in front of us and the car behind us were also part of the wedding party. They too were lost. I’m pretty sure they had cars on the other side of them as well. We had inadvertently formed a wedding party parade, circle a block of the city where a restaurant should be but wasn’t.
After a few minutes of this, I think that every woman in the cars directed their spouse/SO/boyfriend/friend/male driver to pull over. And they all got out and asked directions. All the men stayed in their car and pretended not to know the women.
It turns out that Google was off by about a block. I’d been using their map software for so long I can’t even remember the last time something like that had happened to me.
Shortly thereafter we were ALL in the restaurant. There was the usual good food and friends. There were speeches and laughter and a few tears as we all toasted the couple.
My daughter struck up an instant friendship with a little boy three months younger then she was. Watching them together brought out two thoughts. The first was that my daughter was no longer just watching older kids playing. Nor was she parallel playing with other children. She was actively engaging that little boy. They chased each other around the room. They fed each other food from their plates. They laughed and giggled. It was touching.
The second thought I had was that I really need to invest in a shotgun. My daughter is going to bring me nothing but grief in a few years.
The evening ended early for me and my daughter. My wife elected to stay on a little longer and enjoy the post-rehearsal dinner wrap-up party. Within minutes we were back at the hotel. Unfortunately it was within hours before my daughter finally unwound enough to go to sleep.
One and a quarter more days left…
