The Finest Hours Movie Set

In February of 1952, a tanker called the Pendleton split in half in bad weather off of Chatham, MA. 32 of 33 people were rescued during this huge storm. There is a new film coming out in April of 2016 called The Finest Hours staring Casey Afleck.

I cannot say that I have seen any of the movie stars, but the town has been buzzing with movie production for the past couple weeks. Bobby and I finally went down to Stage Harbor today to see some of the "props". Various parts of town have been "snowed on". I touched the snow on the cars today. It was like a thick cottony foam. Very realistic looking! There was a lot of ice on the ground for the ground snow. This is an 85 million dollar Disney film. It is amazing that Disney could pay for the crappy weather we have had for the last week. Haha, I actually bet they saved money by not having to make it rain since Mother Nature took care of that herself. They could not have asked for a more stormy week to film!

I cannot wait to see my town on the big screen and pick out the extras/townies who were cast in it!!

Sharks are Taking Over the Park

A brilliant person in Chatham (probably during the long winter months), decided it would be fun and profitable for people to buy "wooden sharks" and decorate them, place them in the park downtown and then have a big gala to auction them off!

So there are 50+ sharks in Kate Gould Park. People, groups or stores sponsored the sharks and local artists decorated them. B is standing next to the shark that was done by a High School Senior for the store my mom works at. It is definitely one of our favorites!

There are so many fantastic sharks, each of them a bit different thanks to the different mediums and artists.

The shark with the pink boots was sponsored by the Women of Fishing Families and 3 of the women from the group were the artists for it. 

You can still come see the sharks in the park until June 28th. After the 28th,  they will be relocated around town. In August, you can try to bid for one! Who wouldn't want a pretty shark in their yard/house?!

Happy 5th! (Or Parade Round Up)

Chatham celebrated it's 300th Birthday yesterday in style with a parade that must have been at least 2 hours long. This is my view from being on a float (actually I was walking inbetween our floats). It's totally not the best video, but it sure gives you the vantage point from being part of the parade. Hope you all had a fun, safe day!

Frag'n Friday

Welcome to the last Friday of the school year. 3 1/2 days and counting!!! Yes, Midwesterners, we are still in school..... Go check out Mrs. 4444's for random thoughts from lots of good people.

*Bear news: The bear was taken off the Cape earlier this week and relocated to Central Mass. I hope he finds lots of girl bears there. The reason they wound up taking him off Cape was not because he was causing any trouble, but too many people were trying to get a glimpse of him! Celebrity Stalkers!

*This is a YOLO (you only live once) face, if you wanted to know. This is what happens after you do a project for school of how to make and eat crepes and you've had just a little too much sugar and there is a swim bag laying around.....

*Just want you to know how classy I am. I needed another table for P's party last weekend, so I used 2 saw horses and an old shower door. Maybe I should just call myself creative? And yes, I put a lovely table cloth on it, voila!

*I was watching the news this morning and listening to how many millions of dollars Obama and Romney made in fundraising dinners just last night. Is it just me, or do you think it is a little silly to raise all this money for a campaign where the money could go to much better use in so many other places?

*Chatham celebrated it's official 300th Birthday on Monday (there are 300 days of things to do, so you haven't technically missed all of them). There was a lovely ceremony at the band stand and later in the afternoon they opened a time capsule that had been "buried" 50 years ago at the 250th celebration. It was funny how unexciting the stuff in it was. There were a lot of names of people in different groups around town, a plate celebrating the 250th birthday, a recording of a meeting, and a picture of a bunch of men in beards. In my eyes, the best things were a 4 cent stamp and a map of Chatham from 1962.

A new time capsule was filled with much more exciting stuff like photographs, menus from restaurants, church bulletins, information about fishing, books, an iphone and a guest book that everyone at the event signed. In 50 years, I can go to the next celebration and say, "I was there!", see there is my name.

This man did a re-creation speaking as if he were the first Chatham settler, William Nickerson. Fantastic!

*In exciting family news..... the high school had a night of excellence the other day( um, night). We knew ahead of time that K and P were getting an award. It was very exciting and a proud moment for me, but the real kicker was when K got the Blue and White award. Basically, the teachers picked a good for the school, good grades, all around good kid in each grade to win this award and they picked K!!!! She received a paper signed by our state representative and a gift card to Amazon! The look on her face was priceless! Total surprise and my faced mirrored hers!

*Phew! That was a lot to get off my mind! Hope you have a great weekend!

Sundays in my City

Chatham celebrated Spring Fling this weekend with the Blessing of the Fleet, a "tour de Chatham", lots of activities downtown and tours of the lighthouse. I had never been up in the lighthouse before, so I dragged P and my nephew J with me. (K was working, B was at MIT making robots). The view was fantastic and I really wish I had more room to move around up there. As a bit of advice, do not wear a skirt when you are climbing up a lighthouse ladder. I am sure I gave the retired Coast Guard man a peek along with a few other tourists. (You are welcome or I'm sorry).

This is Lighthouse Beach.

This is a picture of the actual light in the lighthouse.

P is now very used to me saying 'stand over there and smile'.

This is another lighthouse in Chatham (Stage Harbor Lighthouse) and you could see it from our bird's eye view.

P's down there at the bottom. Should have brought the other lens so I didn't have to stand across the yard just to get this picture.

I know that they have tours often in the summer, so if you are down, head on in! Remember, just don't wear a skirt.