Cape Cod Trip - Day Nine

Of course, we bought matching Cape Cod shirts!

We wanted a picture of our feet in the water, but the tide surprised us.

Today I felt kind of like our old horse, Bonnie, when she knew she was headed back to the barn. She perked up her ears and trotted home. We spent the whole day traveling back to Macon.  Janie and I had a wonderful time on our first bus tour, but we were also ready to return home. I am so glad she asked me to go with her. Who knows where we might go next?

We climbed up to the top of this lighthouse, but I can't remember which day!

Cape Cod Trip - Day Eight

Roar!

We continue to head west and stop in Cleveland, Ohio at the Museum of Natural History. I saw dinosaur skeletons for the first time: a mastodon, t-rex, triceratops, and velociraptor. Amazing!

Cape Cod Trip - Day Seven

This chair was at our Cape Cod hotel.

The next day we had to have our suitcases out by the door by 7:15. We headed out for Plymouth. At Plymouth, of course, we saw the rock. Actually, they said it was half the rock, because the rest was taken to a museum for safekeeping. People actually chipped off pieces of the rock for souvenirs, so it had to be protected. There was also a replica of the Mayflower there. The water was gorgeous blue. We went in a few shops there, but mostly we enjoyed walking by the water. Back on the bus, we were off to our hotel in New York.

Plymouth Rock!

A reproduction of the Mayflower

Cape Cod Trip - Day Six

The next day we took a trip to Provincetown or P-Town.  We stopped first at The Red Barn gift shop. I bought some souvenirs there made from Wampum carved from the inside of a shell. I also found a real shark’s tooth for Jaron’s “cool drawer” that he keeps all his treasures in. The time we were there flew by. The closer we got to P-Town, the better we could see the ocean. It was so pretty. We learned that Provincetown was where the Pilgrims actually landed first, but after discovering the land was not suitable for farming, they went on to Plymouth. We ate at The Lobster Pot with our new friends Joan  and JoAnn. We both decided to split a lobster salad panini. It was delicious. We climbed up to the roof of a dock and looked out over the water. A ferry was taking cars and trucks across an inlet and sailboats were moored in the blue water. We had fun shopping at the little shops that lined the tiny street. A local who owned an ice cream store shared his experience as a full-timer there. He said that people sometimes suffer from depression in the winter, due to the lack of socialization. He said the counselor always asks, “How were you feeling last summer?” 

I was determined to put my feet in the water, but the sand was so hot! Janie obligingly held all my purchases and purse as I hurried out to the water. To my delight, I discovered the water was cold! It cooled off my feet right away. I ventured out farther and saw a big crab a little deeper, so I did not go toward him. Janie and I were the last ones on the bus, even though we were there at the designated time. 

Our next stop was driving through the ritzy neighborhood of Chatham. The local news reports focused on sharks that had tracking devices on them. They were in the Chatham beach area, because the seals were there. Sharks eat seals, so they follow their food supply. 

 When we returned to the hotel, we had time to dress up and go out to dinner and a show. We went to a buffet that had delicious choices of seafood. I can cross another item off my bucket list, because they had sushi on the bar, and I ate it! We also had shrimp fixed several different ways. A Catholic priest in our group was on vacation, so he wanted to travel incognito and dressed in his regular clothes.  He sat by me, and we shared a table with the Wooten family and Eugene and Nancy Graham. After the meal was time for the show “At the Hop.” These two men sang and told jokes, inviting the audience to sing along. Of course, Nancy, Janie and I did! The funniest part of the show was when a girl came out singing, As she sang to men, she played with their hair, twisting it up into little points on the top. She sang to the priest, and we were all laughing hysterically. She went to Eugene, started to play with his hair, then just shook her head and patted the top of his shiny, bald dome.  Then she returned to the priest and actually sat on his lap. He just blushed, laughed and was a good sport. Of course, our group went wild.  When Nancy stood up to see what instruments they were playing, the entertainer joked, “A standing ovation…a small one.”  We left the restaurant laughing and singing.

Cape Cod Trip - Day Five

I loved the ferry ride!

Martha’s Vineyard Day  -  Janie and I were so excited to go to Martha’s Vineyard.  We rode the bus for an hour and a half to get to the ferry, The Island Queen. Janie happened to be standing right at the entry gate while she waited for me, so we got on first and went to seats on the front row of the deck! We were hot until the ferry began moving, then it was glorious. We eased out into open waters, then glided along.  Blue waters, sailboats. The trip took thirty minutes, but it sure didn’t seem like it. When we arrived at Martha’s Vineyard, we loaded on yet another bus, but this time it was an old school bus with no air conditioning. We were among the last to get on, so I was relieved to find a seat by Father Crique. We saw different styles of Cape Cod houses, saltbox, half Cape, three quarters Cape, and full Cape. Almost all the houses had shake siding made out of cedar, because the paint does not last in the sea air. Our guide, Terrible Tom or Terrific Tom, said paint only lasts about five years.

We ate lunch at the The Fish Shanty . We had fresh fried shrimp outside on the deck by the water. We shopped for a little bit and then had to get back on the bus for more riding! It was better than I thought, though, because we drove by the water and saw some huge fancy houses. One was Spike Lee’s. We saw where Jaws was filmed. Back in the village of Martha’s Vineyard, we took a quick walking tour of the Methodist Camp and all the quaint little cottages that encircled it. The story goes that they used to have church camp meetings, and people would pitch tents in a circle around the open air meeting house. They then built little houses instead. They do not own the land, just the houses.  That was my favorite part of the on-land tour! The tiny dollhouse-looking gingerbread houses were painted bright colors - red, pink, blue, etc.  The temperature was in the 90’s, unheard of for this time of year on the Cape.

We got back on the ferry for the ride back, and we enjoyed it thoroughly.  On the bus ride back Terrible Tom described in gory detail how to crack a lobster. Janie and I began to giggle. He asked us if we were taking happy pills. "No," I replied, “Now I wish I had ordered the Lazy Lobster instead of the whole one!” (another option on the menu).

We returned back to the hotel, showered and dressed for our lobster dinner at The Irish Village. It was such a treat! The staff was actually Irish! They had an adorable accent. One black-haired, handsome young man said, “What can I get for you luve (love)?” Two male singers performed on stage while we ate. They sang Irish songs, as well as songs from the 70’s, so I was grooving with the tunes. They soon brought our bright red boiled whole lobster out, and with a quick twist and pull, the white meat piled out on my plate. We cracked the claws ourselves. I was surprised to find that I liked the sweet meat. I would highly recommend this restaurant for the food and the Irish atmosphere.

Cape Cod Trip - Day Four

     The Cape Cod sun rose along with our excitement. We headed out on the bus to Hyannis. We saw the Kennedy Compound, or as much as we could from the street, which was mostly a big gate. We also caught a glimpse of our first beach, but did not get to walk in it! The huge house in front of the Kennedy Compound was that of the owner of Old Navy and The Gap. We ate lunch outside at the Fresh Ketch. It was my first New England clam chowder, and it was delicious, so thick and creamy, nothing like you get in a can. 

To the right of us in the distance is where the Kennedy Compound is located.

We went into the John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum, which includes over 80 photographs of family and friends from the years 1934-1963, as well as a short documentary narrated by Walter Cronkite. One of the women at the museum said John, Jr. used to come to there to look at the photographs. She also said she sees Eunice Kennedy attending the St. Francis Xavier Church. She shared that the locals do not bother Mrs. Kennedy. We toured the church and saw where President Kennedy sat when he attended. Rose Kennedy sat on the front row, of course. This is the church where Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver were married in 1986.

Off we went for another quick stop at Veterans
Memorial Park in Barnstable (pronounced Bonstable, our tour guide informed us), just a short drive from downtown Hyannis. The park hosts memorials to John F. Kennedy and Korean veterans.  Janie and I hiked down to the beach to put our toes in the sand for the first time. 

We also toured the Sandwich Glass Museum in Sandwich, Massachusetts, where a glass blower created her art. We would back on the curvy roads to Tommy Doyles Irish Pub and Restaurant in Hyannis for our dinner. We were pleased to see our original bus and bus driver waiting for us there. The funniest part of the evening was when our friend Eugene said, “These are the lumpiest, most tasteless potatoes I ever ate.” Our dinner companions informed him it was a ball of white rice!The dinner was not the best, but we were in good company, so we had fun anyway.


Nancy and Eugene and his lumpy potatoes!

Cape Cod Trip - Day Three

The people at the restaurant were very gracious to let us hang around.

This is our rescue bus.

Broke down in Syracuse! We had a big day of traveling planned. Unfortunately, our bus did not cooperate and started sputtering near  Syracuse, NY.  It limped along to a Denney’s in Syracuse. Our bus driver felt terrible about it, but it was not his fault. We had a leisurely lunch, before another bus came to pick us up. The bus drivers and men transferred our suitcases to the rescue bus, and we set off on our adventure again. The Adirondack Mountains were a pretty green.  We ate dinner that evening at the Ninety Nine Restaurant in Worcester, MA with our new found friends, Joan and Joanne. We arrived at our Hotel, the Mariner Motorlodge at 11 p.m., later than planned, but still in good spirits. We were finally in Cape Cod!!!