I had the opportunity to go up to Plymouth, MA for the Copley sale with my family this July. It was actually my first trip to the sale, as Becca and I had spent the past 4 summers working in Alaska. This has been my first real summer since the winter I spent in St. Thomas two years ago. Going out to coastal Massachusetts in the summer is pretty much all that it is cracked up to be. Just beautiful weather in a beautiful country.
The Auction was a lot of fun, saw some good friends, had a nice preview evening at the hotel. I sold a couple of miniatures and a whale to some old and new friends. Most of the McNair family was in attendance. Mom, Papa, Becca, Grandpa Roberts, Colin and the soon to be newest addition to the family, Kate, Colin's fiance. The auction was a success, with a few world records. I think that the biggest item was the Wilson merganser, I personally liked the Wilson eider with no paint and the Cobb brant. Becca and I picked up a few items at the end of the sale as things wound down.
After the second night of the sale we were all invited to Cap and Paige Vinyl's annual party in Duxbury. I had heard great things, and it completely lived up to expectations and then some. The food, the location and the hosts were just the best! Lobster rolls, wine and views of Duxbury harbor, it was a great evening. We weren't the last to leave, but close, and realized that if we had stayed, we probably might have missed out on most of the next morning with the wine flu. But we had things to do. Primarily go on vacation.
I had heard great things about Clark's Island. This is where the Mayflower landed before they went to Plymouth Rock in Plymouth Harbor. It is small and is only accessable by boat, and has no cars and maybe a dozen houses. We were lucky enough to rent a beautiful huge house that belongs to Steve's cool sister and brother in law. The amenities are simplistic, with only an outhouse (a pretty nice one though), power for a fridge and a stereo, but regardless it has everything that you really need. It is kind of like going back in time, but with a fridge. A big kitchen, beautiful views of the bay, clamming off the beach, and two badminton courts. So I was pretty much in heaven.
Steve Obrien (Colin's boss), now done with the auction, had some time to take us fishing. Well, we didn't just fish, we did plenty of catching as well. We went out two cool mornings in a row and in each outing had pretty constant action for several hours straight. It was all striped bass, 18-30" on light tackle as the sun came up. Absolutely perfect. Steve is a great captain, knowing the area from growing up there, and finding fish with what seemed like relative ease. I think that he also outfished me with his fly rod. The fish were feeding on squid, the seagulls were fighting over them in the air. There was also a little one that tucked up by the motor to hide. While most of the fish came in under the 28" minimum limit, Steve and Papa managed a double header of a 28 and 30" fish, so we had plenty to eat!
Badminton. Colin and I have been lifelong competitors. I have won the majority of the matches in our lifetime. Living in different places, we have not had much time to compete. It was time to see who would still reign as champion McNair (Papa has been out of the running for a long while). In the first match Colin doled out a pretty serious defeat. 15-6. In the second match Colin was up about 9-3, I was in a bad spot, and after being a several decade champ, the next few decades might not be such a bright spot. But, then, in a moment, I remembered how to play, seriously, it came back to me. I came back and won the next two games and the match. Colin said that he was worried about his older brother losing his touch. That thought might have crossed my mind as well. We played the next day, we were already pretty sore, having woken up some dormant fast twitch muscles. This time Colin took the match 2 games to one. He was a gracious winner. We left the island as equals, both champions, and both very sore.
Alas, it was time to leave. I was sad to go, I could have stayed a week, well, maybe the rest of the summer had I brought some decoys to work on. Mom and Grandpa headed up to Maine, Colin back to Boston, and we headed back to Old Lyme for the night en route to VA. We picked up some Lobsters and a couple of bottles of wine, because no trip to New England is complete without a boiled lobster, or two in my case.
It was a great trip, and we plan on going back next year, and hopefully doing it all again.