I’ve been told that dogs are colorblind, that may be true. Another truth is that Grace here enjoyed this tranquil and reflective lakefront sunset moment as much as I did, even though I saw it more vividly.
I took this photo in August of 2019.
While enjoying some adult beverages, we walked the short distance from our family vacation home in Moultonborough, NH, to a public beach on Lake Winnipesaukee so that we could check out the sunset. We often saw Grace and her human family at the beach catching the sunset, socializing and savoring their own beverages.
It seemed to me as though Grace was digging the whole scene. She was sitting there very regal like, watching over everyone, all the while contemplating her dog issues. It’s no surprise that I took a bunch of photos of the sunset, which was pretty great by itself. However, as I was watching Grace I knew that I needed to capture her in the moment.
Here are a couple of more photos from the same night, these photos are okay, but the one with Grace is a keeper.
This is Toby, my brother’s black lab who loves little more than he loves being in the water.
No dog sunset. Dogs make (almost) everything better.
This photo is another that I took while I was out for a run. I was in Cuba with my dad, I went for a run along Havana’s ocean front walkway and seawall called El Malecón. The image I saw before taking this photo is one of those that I could completely imagine as a great photo. I initially ran right on by before it clicked in that I had to go back, it was only about 20 yards before I turned back to capture this moment. The fisherman in the forefront in complete shadow with the waves breaking onto him, the bright sun and the Havana skyline behind him, I had to have it.
The link below is a blog post that I published soon after returning from Cuba. The post will tell you all about our trip, why and where we went, it also has a number of other photos that you may enjoy.
I showed this photo to my slightly older and immensely wiser brother, Steve, when he referred to the building as Motif #1, I didn’t have a clue as to what he was talking about. I thought what the f*#k is a Motif #1. Now that I am writing this post I thought that it might be prudent to find out the origin of it’s moniker. So I googled it…
This Boston Magazine article has all the information that you will need-
To me this iconic red fishing shack is synonymous with Rockport, it brings back memories of summer visits on my father’s boat(s), as well as on my own sailboat, where we would just tie up to the pier and head into Rockport, usually for ice cream. I have even docked at the pier overnight on a couple of occasions. No one ever said we couldn’t and we never gave it a second thought. Now, I’m sure you would be asked to leave or you would have to pay some outlandish fee to tie up to this or any other pier in Rockport.
I took this photo in June of 2021. It was a hot day and we were still dealing with the effects of COVID 19. Colleen and I were off from work, EVOO was still closed and the kids classes were all online. We decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and have some quality family time. We headed up to Rockport, do a little sightseeing, a possible plunge into the frigid North Atlantic at Front Beach, followed by local seafood at The Lobster Pool.
Taking the photo wasn’t as easy as it should have been. We parked in a public lot near the Motif, not a hundred yards from where I took the photo. It was a picturesque day, I saw the little red building that I always associated with Rockport and I started directly to the end of an apposing pier, where it looked like I would be able to take advantage of what looked to be great photo opportunity. I didn’t get 10 yards before a professional looking woman holding a clipboard said that I couldn’t go any further along the pier. I shrugged and kept going, I wanted this photo. By the time I got to the end of the pier and quickly took my photos, the woman was right behind with the back-up of a couple more officious looking people, still yapping that I wasn’t supposed be there. She was saying something about having rented the space for the afternoon. I recall saying something about it being a public space and for her to have a nice day. After we backed away we noticed that there was a film crew there. I have no idea what they were filming, however I do know that they didn’t want to film me.
Anyway, I took the photos and they came out great. Now when I see the photo on Za’s wall, with that one shot, I have 3 generations of memories, my childhood with my parents and siblings, being there on my own sailboat, as well as being shooed away by some film people with my kids.
Recently a longtime guest of ours asked if they could buy the photo; they also claim to have some family memories of Rockport. Being a businessman, who am I to say no, we sold them the photo. Don’t worry, I have the original and have already ordered another enlargement to made, it will soon adorn the wall of Za once again.
In April of 2015, Me, Colleen and our kids Shane,10 at the time and Caitlin then 7, did a family vacation during the kids school April break. We first drove to Washington D.C. where we did all the usual touristy things. We visited the Lincoln monument, walked through and discussed the Viet Nam War Memorial. We got up at some ungodly hour for the opportunity to go in and up the Washington Monument. We also went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, as well as the Museum of American History. We strolled by the White House and waved to “Uncle Barry and Auntie Shelly”. It was a great few days, as usual I took many photos, none of which made it to the heralded walls of Za.
From D. C. we drove to NYC, well Hoboken, NJ, where My sister had a condo and was kind enough to let us squat for a few days. The location was great, very convenient. To get into Manhattan, from the condo it was a 3 minute walk, followed by a 15 minute ferry ride and boom there you are right downtown. As with D.C. we did all of the touristy things. Strolled through Time Square, did the Empire State Building thing, walked the Hi-Line, Had dinner at Jonathan Waxman’s (one of my favorite chefs) restaurant, Barbuto, in the Meat Packing District.
The next day the weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky, a slight breeze and temps in the low 70’s, we took a ferry out to see the Statue of Liberty. The statue was open and we were able to climb the stairs up to the observation deck in Lady Liberty’s crown. We had a great day, as I mentioned the weather was perfect, I was with my family and I got to go on a boat ride; not much could be better.
With the perfect conditions I was able to get some great shots of the statue, including this one. I had the photo enlarged and placed on the wall when we did our most recent renovations in 2021. This photo gets a lot of comments, including, surprising to me, “what is it”?. Since I took the photo I know exactly what it is and with a quick glance I can almost understand the question. Most people do figure it out quickly though.
This photo is of Buttercup, AKA Butter, Butters, Buddy, Mr. Buttercup, Bubs, Cutterbut and probably a lot more than a handful of other names. He is our dog, we got him, or rather he got us, in 2015 from the North Shore Animal Shelter in Salem, MA. Colleen and the kids wanted a dog, I did not. Poop, fur, stink was my mantra. Colleen and I had a beautiful Golden Retriever, Ginger, for 12 years, so I knew what it took to take care of a dog and I didn’t want to take on that responsibility again, especially because at that point I was sill working a ton of hours. However, after much badgering and reassurances from the kids of how they would help in caring for a dog, I gave in; after all I was out voted 3 to 1.
It was decided that we would get a dog from a shelter. The other prerequisite that I had was that we would name the dog Butter. Why? I’m not really sure, except that I wanted his name to be food related and who doesn’t like butter?
Off we went to the shelter to see what they had. There were several dogs looking for the right family, one of them was this happy, energetic, cute, slanty-eyed mutt, he already had the name Buttercup. We were all, including me, immediately smitten. We walked him around the grounds of the shelter and decided he was the dog for us. Shelters don’t just let you come in and grab a dog and go, there is a vetting process that you have to go through, which took 3 days. When we went to pick him up, the staff had us wait in a room away from where the dogs were kept and they brought him to us. When he came into the room he made a bee-line to me, jumping and wiggling right onto my lap, keep in mind he is not a lap dog. So much for the “poop, fur, stink” mantra, I was done, he was ours.
As for this photo, which I took in October of 2020, my brother-in-law and great friend Dan and I went for a moderate hike near Squam Lake in Holderness, NH. A good excuse for getting us and Buttercup out for a while before watching football, drinking beer and grilling some meat. As part of this particular trail there are some elevated platforms to get you over the wet and muddy areas. Butter, with his dog common sense, decided he wanted to jump in, so he did, no hesitation, just jumped right into the muck. This photo as well as the few others below are from that day and show the dirty dog results.
After he jumped in, in an effort to clean off some of the muck, Dan and I spent the next hour or so trying to get him to jump into the lake. It was a futile effort, he dove for the mud, but had no interest in the lake. We where traveling in Dan’s almost new, very clean truck, so as much of the muck that we could clean off beforehand the better. We ended up having to hose him and Dan’s truck’s floor mats down when we got back to our shared vacation home in Moultonborough, NH.
Muddy Buddy
The above photo of Buttercup was enlarged and hung at Za soon after I took it. He enjoyed his mud bath a lot more than Dan and I enjoyed cleaning up after it. Whenever I look at this photo it brings a smile to my face, so the clean up was worth it.
Buttercup is a bit older now, he still sometimes shows his puppy spunkiness, but for the most part he’s chill. Most days he gets out for a couple of miles walk, he is a great companion.
He loves the kids and I, but he is in love with Colleen, he follows her around the house, lies down in the office when she working. He gets up when she does, I could be up for hours and he won’t show his face until Colleen does. I get it, she is quite lovable.
This probably doesn’t need to be said, but the kids never did live up to their promises of taking care of the dog, no surprises there. They do give him lots of love, however rarely do they walk him and have never cleaned the yard of poop.
I am an avid photo taker, not a photographer. I take lots of photos, some of them have come out pretty good; with the amount of photos I take, I’m bound to get a few good ones. Over the years and throughout our travels I have always made it a point to take photos. Since cellphones have had decent cameras they have been my go to and only camera.
All of the photos on the walls of Za, with the exception of 2 photos of windjammer sailboats hung in the men’s room, are photos that I took with whatever cellphone I had at the time. The 2 windjammer photos were taken from an old 35mil camera of mine, back in the 90’s, before the prevalence of cellphone cameras.
My plan is to share some of these images on this blog, telling you a bit about each photo along the way.
Under the Zakim.
While working at EVOO and Za in Kendall Square I would fit some exercise into my schedule by either going to the gym located upstairs from the restaurants or weather permitting I would go for a run. One of my favorite running routes was to head out from EVOO through east Cambridge, Cambridge Crossing, under the Zakim Bridge, across the Charles River locks, through the North End, Faneuil Hall, City Hall, down Cambridge Street and over the Longfellow Bridge back to EVOO.
It’s a great route, Past an awesome skate park, along the Charles, next to the Gahden, looking out on Boston Harbor, past the old Houlihan’s space, where Colleen and I met in 1984. Past the Bostonian Hotel where I worked from ’87 to 97′. There’s a lot of things to look throughout this route including a bunch of American and personal history.
Taking photos during a run was not a one-off thing, you will see in future blog posts about Za photos. I would often stop mid-run to take a photo, there are several other running photos that have made the cut to be hung on the walls of Za. If I saw something that caught my eye, thinking it was cool or that I thought would make a nice photo, I stopped took a quick photo an moved on.
This photo of the Zakim Bridge was taken in August of 2019 and is one of those that I thought, hey this looks cool, so I stopped and took a picture. This photo has also made the rounds. I first had a canvas enlargement made for Za Arlington. we need something on the wall in the men’s room. I also had a copy made for home, to hang in one of our guest bedrooms. I then had a very large canvas made 30×48 and hung it at Za Cambridge for about 5 years until we closed that location. Now the very large canvas hangs in Za Arlington.
