An amazing Saturday!!

WHAT an awesome weekend. It was so awesome I had to do nothing for 3 days to make up for it. Here's the scoop:

I, um... I live next to the beach. I did not KNOW this when I moved, sight unseen, into my crooked apartment (measurements forthcoming). But it was a GORGEOUS day, and rather than bask in my own laziness I decided to take a nice bike ride and get a closer look at Winter Island.

I tooled down the 10-minute bike ride to the much-anticipated Wikiki Beach and found.... whoa.

I gawked, amusing a few locals. "I had no idea this was here!! I live next to the freakin' beach!" I feel like Maine is next to me, complete with rocks and itty bitty waves. I found a coastal bench and called Bob (Salem native) to gawk some more. As I was wowing, The Friendship, Salem's 3-masted ship, sailed by.

Can you believe it??  Me either. I was in heaven. Eager for more, I rode over to the Willows, an 150-year old amusement park. I have a fondness for old parks, I think. Not because they're tacky or run down, but because they're OLD. Maybe because I'm getting older I'm finding an appreciation for things that have lasted through tough times. This rugged old park has the typical York Beach style games, kiddie rides and popcorn, with a few Boston twists. Green Monster ice cream was a good find, as well as the local salt water taffy I plan on trying soon.

I settled under a happy tree on a low-laying cliff to read my beach book ("Drink, Play, F*ck", a hilarious take off the best seller "Eat, Pray, Love"), enjoy the quiet company of a happy-in-love couple with their 3-month old son (no really, they were insanely happy), and watch teenagers in groups jump off the pier. The water is COLD, and their reactions were outrageously funny- they went over like lemmings!

That evening I went back to Winter Island for the "Friends of Winter Island Picnic". Of course I became a member, and I hope they call me for gardening help soon. They also had local marine biologist students from Salem State showing off the local sea life. Did you know that the moon snail actually drills a hole into a mussel's shell to eat it alive? And there are starfish! They pry mussel shells open, stick their stomach inside the mussel, and then absorb it. Imagine the dental savings of that dude.

I also noticed that nobody locks their bike here. It's so weird not locking my bike... It's wonderful, actually...like people can relax a bit and trust others to be reasonable. Sure, I lock it at night, but on the whole, I haven't found much reason to worry, other than my own paranoia.

See more pics of my weekend adventures here. Stay tuned for Sunday's adventures, coming soon to a blog post near you!