Blanche & Lucy finally arrived in Newburyport

This is the cute little house Blanche & Lucy will be staying at for the month of September. with a great back yard deck and big yard with 2 big oak trees.

It's 3 floors with the living room, kitchen and one bedroom and bath on the  2nd floor and the master suite & bath on the 3rd floor.

The first thing we did after unpacking was to walk down the street to the waterfront to watch the boats and sunset.

There's a great walking path that's a couple of miles long along the waterfront that leads out to the ocean and the view is great .

There's marsh along the edge of the water and piers that we can walk out on to get a closer look at the boats and sea life.

I'm not a 'birder' but I think this is a Blue Heron that we spotted also watching the sunset and people walking along the waterfront.

The second thing that Blanche & Lucy did along the path was to find the local 'dog yappy hour' at the park on the waterfront.  Here Blanche is 'meeting' Tommy a 6month old puppy while Cheryl chats with Bruce - Tommy's owner in the background.

Since this is our first day at the dog party - Blanche just watches the big dogs roll around - next time she may get closer.

All the 'medium' sized dogs - including B & L play chase together.

Alot of kids are also playing with the dogs - here a big brown lab gets a tummy rub and Blanche is going over for a piece of that action.

After an hour of doggy play we continued our walk along the waterfront -heading towards the center of town.

As we near the center of town there are more boats moored here.

The pathway along the waterfront also passes in front of some great condos.

All along the path closest to town we find beautiful sculptures.

We couldn't resist perching the girls on the bronze hands.

We started the month of September with a birthday celebration with some of our friends in Newburyport. Left to right: top, me, Nicki, Cheryl, Dawn, Deb, seated: Steve, Chris, Paul & Cheryl's sister, Cindy.

The party started with yummy appetizers made by all.

Cheryl supervises the chef Dawn.

There was Salmon, Steak, Chicken, Corn on the Cob, a Caprese Salad (with tomatoes from their garden) and a Tortelini Salad.

We had 2 birthday girls tonight - Cheryl & Deb - both born on the 2nd of September - so we sang to both.

And of course there was a great cake.

The birthday girls share a laugh.

And Nicki generously brought a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Champagne to toast the birthday gals. Great champagne!

Steve & Chris - a cute couple.

Well this may be the 'first' birthday celebration - but not the last - we will celebrate Cheryl's birthday for the whole month of September.