Catching Up: The Summer So Far

It's hard to believe it's been three months since our last post -- we'll try to do a better job going forward. In order to catch up, we'll touch on a few Blue Shutters highlights from May, June and July. We've had a number of international visitors -- from England, Wales, Holland, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, France and South Africa to name just a few countries. The most interesting global combination -- a couple from Norway befriending a graduate student from Vietnam. We've seen a lot of old friends back for return visits -- Lee and Dick from New Jersey, Eric and family from Western Massachusetts, Mike from Connecticut (one of our first guests way back in 2007. We've welcomed many new friends -- Ann Marie's cousin Sue, Tony's friends from Houston, Sue and Joe from Ohio, and high school pals from Stoneham. We've begun collecting restaurant reviews, including one guest's survey of Gloucester's best chowder (the winner....The Studio on Rocky Neck). We also added a new screen house (last year's blew away one very winding evening), we planted more flowers in the beds around the yard, and we installed a ring toss game that's sure to get you "hooked". But our best addition: our new chambermaids -- Tina (Tony and Patty's daughter, spending the summer here before heading to SF) and Vicki (who'll be returning to college in Washington DC this fall). The summer has been filled with great beach days, beautiful mornings and relaxing evenings -- and one particularly action-packed July 4th weekend. There's clearly much more to cover -- but this will need to wait for "part 2". Stay tuned -- there's a lot of summer left.