Boat Break
As much as we love revisiting our home State of California, the fun-ness is wearing thin. It's now, full blown Summer. School is out, the crowds are really starting to annoy me HUGE!! Again, I'm 5'2" on a good day! Good days in the crowd factor are increasingly becoming far and few between! Mike is awesome for the fact that he just plows through the masses with me hanging on his belt loops for guidance and direction. Otherwise I just have a very distasteful view of an array of belly buttons!! Kinda gross for the most part, so yeah, not a huge" crowd" person! Anyway...
We had a very fortunate invitation to the NorthEast Coast! I have only been there as a child and was really looking forward to a small boat break! Not from the boat, but from the throngs of people in SoCal!! Mike was looking forward to showing me his old stomping grounds. I love it when he plays tour guide! He has the best adventure destinations!! So this trip was for the volunteer movement that we are very involved with. Most people that know us or follow our blog, know we are Sea Shepherd members. We are currently not in an organized chapter, but SSCS is a global movement at present, so we call ourselves the "Mobil-Global-Chapterless, Chapter"?! We do what we can, where we can, when we can. Always, for the Oceans. So, with that said, we head to the NE coast of New England!! Never been! Can't wait!! Mike had dialed in our week. Miss Q went to a great facility (we had researched and visited in person, weeks in advance). I had packed and re-packed about three different times. I had charged all my camera batteries, emptied all my camera cards so I could take full advantage of every photo op that I could possibly think of. The departure date was dawning, I panic, unpack and repack AGAIN!! Like the 5th or 6th time?! The plane leaves at 7:00AM the next morning. I'm so excited I can't sleep! I laid there all stink'en night anticipating the alarm going off, am I watching it get light?! (In my crazy head, all I could think about was...why hasn't the alarm gone off? Did Mike set the alarm? Did he set it for the right time?! Dear Gawd, what if his battery went dead?! What freak'en time is it now?! WHY ISNT THE ALARM GOING OFF?!!!!!) When, I briefly doze off and, ALARM!!! Are you freak'en kidding me?! We're up, coffee, a quick run through the shower, grab bags and run to the rental car! OMG, this is really happening!!!
Did I mention, we hate flying anymore! Um, both of us, we have been with the airlines, our whole lives! Yah, been there, done that!! But, suck it up, as we must, we forage ahead through the lobotomized Gen-pop at the Airport, to board our flight.

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PEOPLE!!! About getting to the top of the escalators with WAY too many bags and small child like substances, then just STOPPING???!! Why do I have to even bring this up?! Isn't it obvious that the continued motion of FORWARD or TO THE SIDE, is paramount, in no bloodshed?! Shaaaaa!!!

Okay, had to be said...
Thank goodness it was pretty much a non-event getting to Boston! Noise canceling head phones are a huge must! Mike and I were in obscure middle seats in different aisles from each other, but It was actually a decent flight. We were now in Boston!! Whoot-whooooot!! I really liked it! Until, three hours of getting the Hell out of town and hitting an actual freeway came into play? Huge bowl of "get us the f#€£ out of here"!! Geeeeeeeze! The rolling hills were beautiful. It was a warm and fragrant (from all the vegetation) ride up to Woodstock. Legendary area, with a legendary long weekend of amazing people! Some old friends, some FB friends that just had to materialize. A new friend that we made, was "Piggy" and the incredible man that rescued him from the edge of death! Tod never had a dog before, when he found this broken, starving puppy. This pup had been hit by a car and left for dead. Tod was walking one day and found this tortured soul, laying in a heap, all his hair had fallen out, do to malnutrition and his leg that had been hit and crushed by the car had maggots eating away at the wound, only to ultimately help save his life. Tod was in a third world country, the Galápagos Islands. To save this poor soul took every resource this man had. Eventually amputation of the puppy's leg was necessary to save his life. Tod was now the proud owner of his very first dog! He named him Piggy, due to the lack of hair, and the similarity of physical characteristics of a pig. Understandably, "Piggy" had a new life, a new world and his forever family, Tod! Bless your heart Tod, and everything you do! I'm a better person, to have met you! To read about Piggy and his new Super Hero stature, Tod has created a comic book version of Piggy's life story;

http://comicsbeat.com/all-ages-comic-a-piggys-tale/

Piggy also has a website that's pretty cool too;

http://piggytale.com/

It's amazing, heart warming and real, (for the most part ;)


There were all walks of life! ER Doctors, PHD Scientist's, Biologists, Artists from every medium, regular folk like us, bikers, Mother's and Father's with their children, the list goes on! As I look around at all these amazing people, a little hot prick goes off in my brain. I FORGOT MY CAMERA!!! Shut up!!! After all that planning and packing, I leave the big, good camera on the boat?!! Mike just shakes his head. So we are reduced to the phone-cam and ridiculous "selfies" for the duration of our time out East. In fact, I made fun of my dumb-ass self and just went "selfie" cookoo. What else could I do? Clearly that was one dumb-ass move! Anyway....Epicness! (My word, Webster's will eventually be contacting me for the full disclosure of entry in its next edition, right?) Despite not having my good camera, it was a weekend on the subdued and composed side, a weekend we will never forget. Captain Paul Watson was a gracious and very humble host. We were there to see "The Hammer", Peter Hammarstedt & Alex Cornelissen, present Paul Watson his new Admirals Coat, complete with a whole lot of gold braids!! "Admiral Paul Watson". It has a wonderful sound to it, I think! The lovely people that were there and made it possible, will forever be our heartfelt Sea Shepherd family. One word to describe it...."Amazing"!
After our beautiful long weekend, Mike wanted to show me the sights, we took an extra day to ride around and check stuff out. We went to an old Maple Syrup/Sugar Mill. We were able to pet, cuddle and give kisses to a bull calf that had been rescued, baby goats, rabbits and check out the whole Sugarbush Farm, that had been there for over 75 years, with the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generations, running the place! There were old wooden covered bridges crossing over small crystal clear rivers, the air was so oxygenated with all the beautiful trees, that you just felt like you were on a elevated level of life! It was magnificent!
Back on the road, we took off towards the city again, only to find that it was a total bust in finding any lodging for the night. Johnny Depp was in town and the movie set people were EVERYWHERE!! There was also a professional Body Building contest going on, a marathon (not the famous Boston!, something else?) and some huge political function! No es bueno! The only room we found available was a Motel (kinda questionable?!) with two twin beds, for almost 3 big Franklins a night! Muy, no es bueno! It was the perfect excuse to run over to a quaint little Sea Port Village and hit a room there! We lucked into this great cottage style Inn. We were once again in Heaven! I was smitten with New England! Why had I not come here before? What the Hell had I been thinking?! Mike had this really great grin going on, with that boyish face of his. What an excellent time!
Like all good things, it had to come to an end. "That's okay", Mike said. "We can always sail on up here when the time comes". I have the greatest Hubs!
Some more sight seeing and back to the airport we go!
Our flight was an early evening flight, so when we started to head towards the airport four hours early, I thought we were doing pretty good and being on the responsible side?! The traffic getting into Boston is on the insane side, even spastic! Everything was moving right along until we get to the tunnel action!! The tunnels there are disturbingly long!! I'm not claustrophobic, but this sitting underground in a tunnel breathing carbon monoxide for almost an hour and a half, to only go a mile and a half was freaking me out!! As I watch our departure time creep ever closer. No radio, because we are UNDERGROUND!! I was really starting to sketch bad!! Finally we pop out of the tunnel and there was all this merging and lanes dwindling down from four lanes to two lanes... Craziness, I'm telling you! Tick freak'en TOCK!!
The big cushy time frame we thought we had, was now under an hour until departure time! We had to give the car rental back and check in with a big bag to check as well.
The rental car hand off went surprisingly smooth, we raced down to catch the bus to the departure gates, checked in, checked the bag and then...SECURITY!!! TSA Gestapo Beaotcha from Hell!! I'm all for doing your job well, but let's face it, when you get those over zealous, self-empowered-God-complex nut jobs in control of you making it through the security line and to your flight on time?!! Well, that's when my lioness hairs get raised on the back of my neck! I'll spare the long "nails on the chalk board" tedium of this Barnacle-Bitch's crazy rant tactics to freak people out in order to cause nothing but stress and tension, but Holy Hell!! I bit my lip until, I made it through the line "Nancy"! How the Hell you got this position, "Nancy", I will never figure out! "Nancy"!! The most mind blowing part is that you made Supervisor?! "Nancy"!! You are rude, crude and professionally UNACCEPTABLE "Nancy"!! If I could have one Sam Kinison moment in my life (google Sam Kinison, you will love, or hate him. I personally thought he was a hilarious comedian!), I would have Sam'ed all over "Nancy's" world!!! Short of breathing fire, I asked for HER Supervisor, who was conveniently on break, made mention that she was a couple of watts short of a burned out bulb and went to the gate to board our plane. Not a big fan of "Nancy", TSA, Boston International Airport!! It's about the "Power of Love, not the love of power!" "NANCY"!!!
Once on the plane, we settled in. We had the fortuitous company of a lovely PHD of health and nutrition! It was actually a great conversation. We all had a cocktail, laughed and relaxed. I actually forgot about "Nancy"!! ....."Nancy" who?!!