Monday July 14. Mr 8 became Mr 9 at 8:14 pm Monday evening. Long before that we had spent the day at Hampton beach NH. In & Out of the water- shopped around at all the cool stores- I got a couple of new leather thong bracelets- 4 years ago I started wearing one of these permanently tied around my left wrist. Not for any particular reason. (well- there was the part where a former [extremely creepy] Neighbor of mine thought I was his type of woman because he never saw me in make-up or wearing any jewelery [mostly because I was still adjusting to being the single mother of 3 kids & working 45+ hours a week to keep them fed & didn't have time to put on make up - or conscious thought available to give to what earrings/necklace/bracelet matched what I was putting on] I tried to start doing so again- just so he would leave me alone & not cast aspersions on whether I was a ‘good’ Christian or not- I’m not- I knew this- I wouldn’t even presume to call myself a Christian- merely a Unitarian/Pagan!- telling him that kept him far away too- thank goodness!) I just started wearing it because I liked the tiny braided leather piece & I wanted to see how long I could wear one before it broke. That was pretty much all I bought myself in Hampton because money was so tight on this trip! We did have fun though. The ocean was too cold for me to even bother to put my bathing suit on though. After that we drove down to Salisbury & took Route 110 to a great restaurant which we tried 2 years ago but couldn’t afford to go to last year when there were 5 of us instead of only 3. It’s called the Sylvan Street Grill & though Mr 9’s avowed favorite restaurant in MA & greater New England is any 99 restaurant – we were supposed to go there with my mother the following night & she’d already reacted poorly to 9’s idea that he’d like to have the wait staff sing him happy birthday- so we did it that night at Sylvan Street instead (especially since it was his actual birthday) Then it was time for the long drive back to my Mother’s. We drove up to my cousin’s town first- but she apparently didn’t get my text messages that we were in the area until the next day & so we missed seeing her & her family on this trip :^{

Tuesday July 15. To honor my promises to the kids & buy myself a little more downtime we went back to the beach for Tuesday & after

a very satisfying sub lunch at Ft Revere. I rested & read my book on the beach while the kids played in the water. As everyone knows I’m pretty fat & the first day at the beach had pretty well soured me on being in my bathing suit in public. Somehow it’s just different in VA. I know we’re in the Mid- range of the states which have the largest proportion of fat people but it’s not even that. People in MA just don’t care & will say things & stare. Hard. I have found- as I’ve aged- that the best thing to do is stare right back (not challengingly or with a mean look- just like I’m wondering if I can help them somehow) until they get embarrassed & look away- But when you have to do that 15-20 times in a day it gets a little wearying- especially if you’re wearing a bathing suit. (Next year I’m getting a suit with the granny skirt- even though I hate those) Dinner at the 99 was great. Mr 9 enjoyed his favorite restaurant & my mother- 12 & I had a pretty good time too. Then it was back to my mothers for Nova Now on PBS & an early bedtime.

Wednesday July 16. We were up & out fairly early for a vacation day today due to the fact that we were going to Boston! This is often the highlight of our yearly vacation & it was a lot of fun. We left my mother’s just after 10 am & drove to the Quincy Adams Subway station & took a train into

Boston. We were all hungry by the time we got over to Fanueil Hall marketplace & so did our traditional everyone gets what they want from the food stalls & eat in the middle of the hall. Everyone else does the same & it took awhile to find seats. Add to that it was quite hot even for Boston (somewhere around 88-90 most of the day they said later on the weather) After a lovely lunch (I had lobster bisque- not quite as good as the Plymouth Lobster hut – but pretty darn good!) we walked around & looked at the things for sale. I was disgusted to see that there are even more chain shops in the side buildings than other years. I mean really- why go all the way to Boston to shop in stores which are the same as the ones in your local mall. I could have stayed home & gone to C’burg or Roanoke & taken the kids to the Gap- B.Moss & American Eagle (if we ever frequented those stores- which we don’t) When I started going to Fanueil hall (I Know I’m not spelling that right – but spell check is as clueless as I am- it wants to change it to Emanuele !) The shops were cool places like a shop with all left handed stuff. A shop with hearts on everything- a natures jewelery store- (though they’re still in existence mail order last time I checked) & a place with purple everything. Now it’s all uber-high end stores where I’m afraid to do anything more than window shop. & places which- as I said before- I could go to my local mall in VA & visit. Enough ranting. We had fun but had entirely too little money to be able to last long. We sat & people watched a lot & 12 especially had fun getting trinkets for her 3 best friends. 9 was having fun but got tired of being told no about all the things he really wanted but I couldn’t afford. We all swore up & down that as soon as Christmas is over this winter we’re going to start saving money for next years vacation so we can have a great time! (I also swore that I was going to start walking at least 3 days a week- so far it’s been once- Monday night) We were all hot & tired & at 3 I said we needed to make a decision- either stay in town until 7 or go back to the south shore before the rush hour traffic got heavy & have dinner somewhere on the south shore- the kids chose take the train right then so we did & drove around a little by ourselves before having a very nice dinner at Chilis. Which sort of broke my usual rule to not go to anywhere we could visit in VA while in MA- however though people have told me that there is a Chilis in Roanoke I’ve never been able to find it so I absolve myself of breaking the rule.