We arrived at the Atlantis for our off-season beach vacation late yesterday afternoon. One of the risks of beaching it off-season is that your view might look like this:

Most of the time, that large tube snaking off to the left is pouring out a dark sandy slurry…I guess either the beach didn’t have enough sand, or the ocean didn’t have enough water. At night it’s illuminated by the lights on those tall poles, so if you leave your glasses off you can almost imagine that it’s a lovely waterfall. I think they need to add some colored lights, and maybe a giant sand sculpture of a tiki to get that holiday beach grotto effect.

Fortunately, we can just turn our heads a few degrees and still see this:

We had a nice, if messy, Valentine’s Day dinner last night at The Crab’s Claw. Messy, because we got a steamer pot of crab’s claws, mussels, clams, and shrimp, the kind of meal that’s served with moist towelettes (but not, thankfully, with bibs). They also served one of my favorite wines, Katherine’s Vineyard Chardonnay from Cambria. And we came back to chocolates:

The mardi gras beads are for the Gloucester Mardi Gras party, which we stumbled upon last year and enjoyed it enough to give it a second look this year. Barry wants to get there earlier this year, though, to get some more of those fresh North River oysters.