Tyson's Visit 7/8/2021 - 7/11/2021 |
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Thursday 7/8/2021Tyson arrived mid-afternoon after spending a couple of days with friends in Lunenburg. We greatly enjoyed catching up after two years of not seeing one another. He is friends with Craig's mom on Facebook and wanted to meet her, so the four of us went to the Border Cafe for dinner.It was our first time eating inside a restaurant since the pandemic began. They had reduced their capacity; tables had space between them and the air circulation was very good. It made us comfortable to eat inside for the first time. It was so nice to sip margaritas and chat. Friday 7/9/2021Today Tyson wanted to go to Mystery Train records in Gloucester. Since we would be in town anyway, we contacted Steve and Lori to see if we could stop in for a visit and have dinner with them.It was absolutely pouring down rain all day. I was glad Craig drove us because the parking situation in downtown Gloucester (parallel parking on a busy, narrow, one-way street made even narrower by outdoor dining spaces) was enough to give me lots of anxiety. Mystery Train was a lot of fun; I haven't been to a physical music store in a long time. We flipped through bins of records, some new 180 gram releases, some older and collectable. It was interesting to note that the tides have turned and vinyl is now in fashion once again, with CD's really becoming a medium of the past. Whereas once records had been the cheaper item, now CD's were. Tyson found some interesting vinyl and we bought a bunch of used CD's. The prices were comparable to what they were when Tyson and I used to go used music shopping in high school. After making our purchases, Tyson was hungry and got a piece of pizza at Virgilio's next door. I bought some chocolate chip cannolis to bring to Steve and Lori's. I wanted to go to the Fisherman's Memorial, as I had never been. Craig drove us over to the boulevard and Tyson and I walked to the statue. It seemed appropriate to be at this memorial in weather like this, the remnants of a tropical storm. We did a little more local shopping, until Steve and Lori were done with work for the day. Then we headed over to their house. Tyson, Steve, and Lori share a love of botany and dogs, and had much to talk about. Lori went to get cheesesteaks and chicken wings from Destino's. Delicious! And then we had coffee and cannolis for dessert as we continued to chat. Many laughs were had by all. Saturday 7/10/2021Today Tyson and I went shopping. We started at the North Shore Mall, where we shopped for clothes and shoes. Tyson bough a fabulous black fuzzy sweater and a hoodie at Macy's, and I bought a pair of shoes at DSW. There was also an Ecuadorian store at the mall where Tyson bought a shirt. We also went to Newbury Comics, where we bought some music. We each bought a Funko Pop figurine, even though in general we aren't the biggest fans of them. Still, I couldn't resist Willie Nelson and Tyson couldn't resist John Waters. We had lunch at Hop + Grind, where Tyson had a burger and I had a mac and cheese bowl.Next we went to Trader Joe's, TJ Maxx, and Burlington Coat Factory. Then, on the way home, we stopped at Wild Birds Unlimited. Tyson had been admiring our bird feeder pole, and had been considering getting one for himself. As we were eating breakfast this morning, the mail arrived...containing a 20% off coupon for Wild Birds Unlimited! This was a sign; Tyson would get the bird feeder pole and a squirrel-proof baffle. We came home with all of our purchases and relaxed for a while before going to Pho Paris for dinner. Craig and I had pho and an order of carmelized tofu, Tyson had bun and springrolls. The restaurant was empty except for one other couple, but they were doing a brisk takeout business. After dinner we went for a sunset walk up to the reservoir. When we got home, we watched "Jaws". Tyson had never seen it and enjoyed it very much. It was a very topical movie, as we slide into the second summer of the pandemic, where destinations have to weigh safety vs. the potential for profit. Sunday 7/11/2021After breakfast, Tyson shuttled all of his purchases and bags out to the car and hit the road to Utica at around 11 a.m.It wasn't hard to say goodbye because we would be seeing him again in less than a week when we would head out to Utica to see him and David! |
 Dinner at the Border Cafe  Fisherman's Memorial, Gloucester  Takeout with Lori and Steve  Dinner at Pho Paris |
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