Crane Beach, Ipswich, Saturday.

[randomness]

It was 70F/21C on Saturday here in Boston. We don't usually get that kind of weather here in April, much less January. So it seemed like an excellent day for the beach.

When we got to Crane Beach, we clearly weren't the only people to think of this idea. There was a line at the entrance booth where we paid for parking.

There were a remarkable number of people in the water, which was cold, but not as cold as I'd have expected. Many of them were children, and nearly all were dressed in a way which implied that they had not actually arrived at the beach intending to go swimming. There were a couple of girls who ran into the water together in shorts and bikini tops, which I thought was an odd sort of half-prepared combination.

bedfull_o_books was particularly surprised to see the small children running nude around the beach. Again, it seemed as if they hadn't really planned to take off so many clothes. I wasn't sure what the big fuss was, but she kept babbling something about it being January.

One thing I only noticed as we were walking off the beach was that there was no heat rising off the sand. Usually, in spring or summer, the sand is hot. Here, it was late afternoon, and the beach was cool.

We had a great time.

As we walked back to the car, we overheard a mother telling her child, "This was a very special day, because it's not normally this warm in January. After this it will be much colder." He didn't seem to be paying much attention to her. Five year-olds don't, not when they have lots more interesting things around them.

The whole day was reminiscent of a winter day in northern California. Though it was a little damper than it would have been there. Oh, and many fewer people would have braved the beach in Half Moon Bay, I think.

And we even came back with offerings for lono_i_ka_makah!

Comments

[cityratbuddy.livejournal.com]

>The whole day was reminiscent of a winter day in northern California.

Ha! It's 51 F in San Francisco right now, which has been very typical of the weather here for weeks. A little bit of rain too. Definitely heavy jacket weather! :)

We don't get 70 degree weather, except during our odd Indian summer in October, which can get kind of warm.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

I guess maybe I'm thinking more Santa Cruz, or along the coast from there...well, like Half Moon Bay. But yeah, to quote a friend from Santa Cruz, "It's always butt cold in San Francisco!"

(BTW, I've seen you on my flist for a while, and I haven't known who you are, so I haven't friended you. If I do know you, and you'd like me to friend you, feel free to email me or something and clue me in. But it's also just fine if you just wanna stay anonymous and read my journal.)

The story of how I came here

[cityratbuddy.livejournal.com]

We've never met or anything. I'm just a person who likes travel and I came across a stray comment on rezendi's lj that mentioned you as someone who had travelled a lot. So I friended you. Not much more to it than that.

I've been enjoying reading little bits here of your journal about travel and non-travel subjects. I was thinking just the other day about the office situation you had in Germany where everyone took turns preparing lunch for each other. And I liked your comments on DSL in Cambodia. I'd love to read lots of LJ posts about comparisons between different countries. I recently gave my musing on cable tv in the hotels of various nations.

Friend me back or not. I won't take it personally if you don't. It's just a blog. Mine isn't much more than rare random thoughts and travel photos. Please don't think of me as anonymous either. :)

Re: The story of how I came here

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Cool. That works.

I recently gave my musing on cable tv in the hotels of various nations.

I'll have to go look at that.

I actually had a longish post drafted on cable TV in Cambodia, which unfortunately got lost when I lost the notebook it was written in. The gist of it was that there's more variety in channels in Phnom Penh than I'd have expected, probably because they're stealing it off the satellites. I spent a little while trying to figure out which Mandarin channels were Taiwanese and which were mainland.

I think I may also have taken some notes about Lebanese cable TV. There's actually some European hard-core porn available on various cable channels in Beirut, which was a bit of a surprise.

It's just a blog.

Yeah, some people do generate a remarkable amount of drama from friending and defriending.

Please don't think of me as anonymous either. :)

I won't. :)

[candle-light.livejournal.com]

It was a pleasant surprise running into you all at Fasika. I hope you enjoyed your meal. We might have tried to join you if my parents weren't joining us. As you said, let's try this *on purpose* one of these days. :-) See you this weekend?

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

It was a nice surprise to run into you, too! We'd wanted to invite you to join us, but then we realized you were going to be six more, so that would have worked poorly.

let's try this *on purpose* one of these days.

I'd love to get a meal with you sometime.

See you this weekend?

Possibly, though how much of this weekend I'll be around is still up in the air.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

Wait, Faskia is open again??? Where??? I tried to have my birthday dinner there last March, but they'd closed "for good."

[candle-light.livejournal.com]

They just reopened a few weeks ago in Somerville, on Broadway. The website has the new info: http://www.fasikarestaurant.com/index.html

It shares space with a dive of a bar, and now also has TVs and Keno. A very different atmosphere than before. The food was excellent though. I hope they survive the extreme change of venue.

[whitebird.livejournal.com]

There's a lot less swimming at the beach in northern California because, well, it's bloody cold in the water here, until you get south of Santa Barbara at least.

When I moved here from Michigan, we went to the beach and I immediately walked into the water and turned blue. Really. Blue.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the water was damn cold by any reasonable swimming standards yesterday. On the other hand, my expectation was that it would be near freezing. It did feel warmer than that.

[happyfunpaul.livejournal.com]

That's not what they mean by "Go Blue!"

- a fellow ex-Michigander

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

gravitrue and I went to Crane Beach over the summer.

I was busy Saturday or might have joined you. The friend I was visiting in fact had done a polar bear swim the last day of 2006. I was not in a place to do that with him then, but I might have joined the children had I gone with you:) In fact, G and I visited Revere Beach just the night before (I'd been having a hard time and being near the ocean generally makes things better for me).

At any rate, it was lovely to see you and bedfull_o_books Saturday night when I got home. Even better if I hadn't had to do things and then fall over from the tired:)

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was great to see you, also!

I have some thoughts that have been percolating in my head that I think you'd find intriguing if you're free sometime. They potentially have the makings of an LJ post or something, but I want to talk to people about it first.

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

I think I could be free sometime:)

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Yay!