Cape Cod 2022

We are back from vacation!  Well, technically we have been back since Sunday evening but somehow this week has flown by and now it's Friday.  

We started our journey to the Cape on Thursday evening (July 14th) after Dan finished work.  We made it to Chambersburg, PA where we spent the night.  We were up early and on the road to MA by 7:20! We arrived to the Cape house around 4:30ish.  

Dan spent Saturday doing chores around the house and I helped where I could.  I also managed to get out early for a morning walk and snapped a couple of pictures of the scenery. It's much nicer to take a walk when there are water views.

Sunday morning we headed to Mass at St. Francis Xavier and in the afternoon Sarah and I hit the beach for a little fun in the sun.

Later in the afternoon, Sarah and I dropped Dan and Peter off to do a little fishing and she and I walked around Hyannis. 

On Monday morning we headed to Falmouth with our bikes and hoped on our favorite part of the Shining Sea Bikeway.  Well, I say favorite, but we've never done the rest of it but I can't believe there's a better stretch of it!  :)  We biked the 3.5 miles to Woods Hole where we had lunch and then biked back to Falmouth.  It's always a fun day and if you have to do a bike ride, it's the best: it's flat and the views are lovely!

 

On Tuesday, we headed off Cape and into to Boston to pick up Dan's uncle. After we picked him up Uncle Bob we headed to Gloucester to pick up Dan's other uncle (who isn't technically an uncle but is his uncle's bestie from seminary.  He spent all holidays with Dan's family and it's just easier to call him Uncle Ron. It was so nice catching up with the uncles as we enjoyed a delicious meal in Gloucester.

After we got the uncles back to their respective homes, we spent the rest of the afternoon tooling around Boston.  We tried to visit the Constitution.  When the kids were younger we attempted to tour the ship several times but it was closed for a long time for repairs and once it reopened we never got around to touring it.  We decided while we were in town we would finally check it out.  But low and behold when we got to the ship there was a sign up that it was temporarily closed.  We were so disappointed.  They have a really nice museum there but we've already toured it and didn't really want to go through it again. So off we went...

We stopped for a quick show in front of Quincy Market.There were some funny street performers who were doing acrobatics and jokes and getting the crowd involved.

 

Sarah wanted a Boba tea and we shopped through Urban Outfitters and walked around Beacon Hill and then headed back to the Cape.  We stopped for dinner and found a really good Mexican restaurant in Plymouth.

On Wednesday we just went to the beach and did a few more things around the house. Wednesday evening we headed out to Gray's Beach for the sunset.  

We've done this for the last several years and it never disappoints.  

On Thursday we were up early again and headed off cape again.  We spent the day in Newport, RI. We arrived a little before noon and walked around the wharf area before having lunch. Then we walked around the wharf area more and the old town area.  

I guess we are true southerners.  When we go to RI we get the Texas BBQ.  :) I thoroughly enjoyed these pork belly sliders. 

Michel Corne is the person credited with bringing the tomato to America!

The Newport Tower dating back to the mid-1600s.

We then hopped on a little boat and took a tour of Newport Harbor.  We saw several mansions and lots of massive yachts.  We also enjoyed coffee cabinets on board.  Apparently in Rhode Island they call milkshakes cabinets.

After the boat tour we got back in the car and gawked at all the mansions on Bellevue Avenue. Then we stopped along Ocean Avenue and took some pictures on the beach. A storm was about to roll through so it made for cool pics.

 

 

We got back pretty late in the evening and stopped at Captain Parker's for dinner.  Their clam chowder is the best!  It wouldn't be a trip to the cape without a bowl.  

Friday morning was mostly a work day.  We had to clean everything, wash and pack all the clothes, get the bikes packed up, head to the dump, etc.  After ice cream we always drive around the last night and the past couple of years we've stopedp at Bay Street beach for a few more pictures.  It's always funny to me the things you do once and then the kids want to keep doing them.  And it's also interesting how the things change from year to year.  

And that was our cape vacation!  And lest you wonder if we took multiple trips for ice cream and had our traditional first night and last night Toly's pizza - we did!  As the kids get older, our time at the cape seems to go by faster and faster.  And now we are back home scurrying around getting everything ready for both kids to leave for college.  

Here is one last picture.  We were trying to get a selfie at the boat dock on Englewood Beach and a nice man offered to take it for us.  

And here's one last shot:

Isn't she pretty?

What have we been up to? I'm glad you asked. Let me tell you....

On the 3rd of July, we had Jennifer and her family over for a cookout.  We had burgers, hot dogs, hash brown casserole, and baked beans with hamburger - my mom's baked beans are the best baked beans you will ever eat! Jennifer brought her awesome jalapeno popper dip and patriotic rice krispie treats and we also had banana pudding and fruit pizza.  It was all so good and we had the best time!

Then my brother put on his fireworks display.  It gets better every year.  The show lasted 45 minutes!

After the fireworks, Peter put on his cowboy hat and boots and then serenaded us around the bonfire with a bunch of new country music he has learned.  

This past Friday, Dan and I headed to the movie theater to finally see Top Gun: Maverick.  We both really enjoyed it.  It was the right amount of action and nostalgia. ( I also appreciated that there was no gratuitous sex scenes.  Why do they always have to ruin a good movie with that?  Nobody wants or needs to see that. Do you agree or are Dan and I the only ones that feel that way?) 

I can not believe that the original Top Gun was released in the spring of my junior year of high school. It is mind blowing to me that 36 years has passed so quickly.

Grainy movie theater selfie or it didn't happen.  

It's been so long since we've been to the movies that we were shocked that the seats were recliners with heaters in them.  Also now you have to order you tickets online and you get to pick your seats. That was really nice!  I guess these old fogies need to get out more often!  And you know that Dan complained about the ticket prices the whole time!  :) 

Here is a picture of Sarah on the guard stand at work this past weekend.  She was promoted to guard manager this year and she is really enjoying her new role and the additional responsibilities. 

I made a cherry yum yum this weekend for Sunday dessert.  It was fabulous!  I used a different recipe than normal. Isn't she pretty?

I mentioned a few posts back that I was thinking about getting a window bird feeder so I could officially become a crazy bird lady.  Well, I ordered it right after I wrote about it and it took FOUR AND A HALF WEEKS for the birds to find it. But we had heard that it could take them a while. We were sprinkling seed around it and making a little path to it and it still took almost five weeks. But they've found it and I love to watch them eat.  Someone else loves to watch them eat too...

There's a park less than 15 minutes from our house with a walking track so last night after dinner Dan and I headed there to do a couple of laps.  I'm trying to get back into walking.  I stopped a year and a half ago because I had a raging case of plantar fasciitis.  After over a year of wearing ugly orthopedic flip flops practically 24/7 (I would even put them on in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom), my feet are finally almost back to normal.  I say almost because I still have to wear fairly sensible shoes.  I miss going barefoot. 

My feet were sore right after our 30 minute walk last night but feeling pretty good this morning. I'm hopeful I can start getting back to regular walking soon but I've really been enjoying my YouTube workouts for old menopausal women.  They are only 20 minutes and I can do them without having to leave my house. I have been pretty consistent with them and I find them fairly enjoyable so I will probably just continue to do them for the foreseeable future and go on the occasional walk.

Here was the view from our walk: 

That's all that's been happening around here.  But I would like to leave you with this little heart shaped bread crumb I found when I was cleaning the stove.  So cute!