Cape Cod Vacation - Part II

 We were able to squeeze in one more great beach day (our best!) and a couple of day trips to the islands before we got hit (almost directly) by Tropical Storm Elsa.  Massachusetts shouldn't be getting tropical systems in July!  (Although I know we do, and have!)  On the nicest day of the week, I stayed back at the house to work while I waited for Grant's peanut medication to arrive.  FedEx said it would be there by noon, but it wasn't.

 Grant thought the seaweed growing on the shells was funny, and wanted to throw them at his sister.

Natalie, being VERY Irish, had to sit under the umbrella for a time.

The kids and Todd also made a fortress!

We need to discuss the floodplain management regulations about this one.

Grant and Natalie were very proud of their fortress!

I worked a half a day, but finally was able to join the kids and Todd at the beach. Thankfully, we signed up for text messages from FedEx who would text us when the medication arrived.

It was warm and considerably more crowded on this day.

"Mommy!  Take a picture of us as the waves hit us!"

Grant was getting a little bit of reading in (a fiction book about a boy escaping from North Korea) after playing most of the day in the water.

It was hot today, so I even got in the water!  And I never do that!  It actually wasn't too bad. Am I becoming a northerner?

Todd went back to get the medication and to wait for Kathleen to arrive while Grant tackled this National Geographic about the Titanic.

KK paid us a visit on the beach!  She lives nearby so this wasn't too difficult for her.  

After a fun day at the beach, we went back to the place we are renting and grilled out with KK.  This squirrel was eating one of the mushrooms in the yard - I hope this wasn't a magic mushroom!

We had a lovely sunset while enjoying a yummy dinner with Kathleen.

And THEN... it was time for Game 5 of the Stanley Cup playoffs and the Bolts were back in Tampa hoping to win the Cup at home. AND THEY DID!

So for the third time in 9 months, Tampa has won a championship.  The Bolts won last September, the Bucs won the Super Bowl in February and now, back on a slightly more normal schedule and in front of the fans, the Bolts won the Stanley Cup again! Champa Bay, baby!

On Friday, we got an unwanted visitor - Tropical Storm Elsa.  It didn't really do much except blow the plastic chairs around the lawn.

Todd and the kids went down to the beach to get their hair blown around a bit. I was working all day!

Some of the gusts got up to maybe 45-50 mph which blew Natalie around a bit.  We were in the windiest part of the storm, but not really the rainiest.  The rainiest area was actually over our home, where we got 3+ inches of rain!

Elsa definitely kicked up some good waves though!

Rough seas and spray at Craigville Beach!

Naturally, this tradition had to be continued.  Since Tropical Storm Elsa grazed Tampa Bay as a category 1 hurricane, Cory got to do the liquor pose, and so did Todd for Elsa's second landfall! 

Late in the day, we lost power so we went down to the Cape Cod Mall, which had an Eversource staging area in the parking lot.

We went to Ryan's so the kids could play games before seeing Black Widow and getting some dinner at Not Your Average Joe's.

And of course, because there was a tropical storm outside, it was packed. Eww.

The kids did a virtual roller coaster ride - which reminded me of the time they did this at Europa Park!

I will legit be surprised if someone doesn't get a breakthrough delta variant case here.

Saturday was our last day at the beach, and the lady we rented our AirBnB from said we did not have to be out by 11 and gave us a few more hours to enjoy our vacation - so naturally, we went to the beach.

It was a cool, breezy day, and while we weren't the only people on the beach, there were not a lot of people there!

The clouds looked ominous but it all stayed out to sea. 

Natalie and Grant swam anyway!

Panorama of Craigville Beach.

Grant was having a blast, dancing by himself and trying to work on perfecting the sandcastle bucket sand dump!

Finally, we had to say goodbye to our fun week at the beach. Peace out!  Because we got a few extra hours, we hardly had any traffic on the way back!

But when we got home, the excessive amount of rain we had gotten was very obvious in our yard as we had a field of mushrooms growing. This one was as big as my hand!!!!

Until next time, Cape Cod!

Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts

It's always funny to me that Nantucket is just made up of the town of Nantucket, while Martha's Vineyard (also known as Dukes County) is actually made up of a number of smaller communities.  For Todd and the kids FIRST adventure to the Vineyard, we hopped on a boat to Vineyard Haven.

We had wanted to get on the boat to Oak Bluffs but it was leaving almost as soon as we pulled in to the terminal on the bus.  The big Steamship Authority parking lot was full (no real surprise there) so they directed us to the secondary (read: farther away) parking lot.  So by the time we got to the docks, the Oak Bluffs ferry was leaving. But no worries, there was one leaving a few minutes later to Vineyard Haven.  Neither Todd or I were worried about it, the kids were melting down over it.  It's a chill day, no worries!

We were seated next to the moving van and dump truck.

As you set sail from Woods Hole, you pass by the big homes on Church Street, as well as the Nobska Lighthouse which is at the end of the point. The current lighthouse is from 1876 and while the Coast Guard maintains the lens and the foghorn, the town of Falmouth and the Friends of Nobska Light maintain the tower.

Me and my little buddy on the back of the boat out to Vineyard Haven.

I always wonder how these boats don't sink with all of this weight! (Just kidding, I know the answer to that!)

It was cloudy as we pulled into Vineyard Haven about 45 minutes later.

Vineyard Haven is actually a village within the town of Tisbury, and it's a fairly quiet community - not nearly as built up as Oak Bluffs.  One day, I'm finally gonna get out to Aquinnah!

And of course, it's home to the original Black Dog Tavern!

Vineyard Haven is quiet, but there's much more to do in Oak Bluffs so we took the island bus to OB.  But I forgot to bring my headphones to listen to Vineyard by Jackopierce!

We walked to Lookout Tavern for lunch and Grant looked like he might kill everyone for that ketchup.

My children simply cannot make normal faces.  But let's hear it for crab cakes and fish tacos!  Natalie did not like the crab cakes, unfortunately.  I was kind of disappointed because that's one of my favorite seafood meals.  At least she tries new things!

Nobody at our table ordered lobster, but TELL ME you aren't so sad to see this little guy down here.  Literally the best part of the lobster!  Someone must have been so sad to lose it!

After lunch, we went down to the Oak Bluffs fishing pier, which I didn't realize was only built in 2014.  At the time it was built (and perhaps still?) it was the largest recreational pier in Massachusetts (superlative, check!)

Let's go see what's going on at the end of the pier!

The beach was a bit cool and foggy.

Baileys on a pier on the Vineyard.

This is completely all three of their personalities.  Grant was actually posing here.

The kids were freaking out because it looks like this boat is heading RIGHT for a crash landing on the beach, but there's an inlet there that leads into the inner harbor.

Hello large fishy under the pier.   Was it a striped bass?  Hard to tell.

After lunch and a trek to the pier, we made our way back into town so we could ride the Flying Horses.  I'm not obsessed with hydrangeas. No, not at all.

What?  What kind of crazy superlative is this!?  I love it!  Flying Horses... America's Oldest Carousel!

Watch Hill, Rhode Island also has a Flying Horses carousel, but it was established almost 20 years later.  The Oak Bluffs Flying Horses were built 100 years before I was born in 1876! 

Four tickets, please.

The ride isn't that long, but the line is pretty long and there is no air conditioning, obviously.

Grant and I were waving to people out on the street.

All right!  Let's do this!  Superlative, check!

Sure.  Let the tall girl take the taller horse!  This is an old carousel.  These horses don't go up and down like the newer ones do!

My boys, ready to ride!

So we were about 3 "go rounds" before I realized the kids in front of me were grabbing rings as we spun around.  At first, I was like, "WHAT?  What are they doing? They're going to break something!"  Oh.  But this is totally ok to do.  Phew.  So I started grabbing rings, and sometimes could grab two in one pull.  The last one I pulled?  The famous brass ring! The one who pulls the brass ring is entitled to a free ride, whether that's now - or a ticket for a later ride.  Duh. I chose now, because who knows when I will be back to Oak Bluffs!

Look at me. I'm the winner.

Me taking a picture of Todd, waving at me as I took my free ride on America's Oldest Carousel.

This is the thing you pull the little rings from as you spin around.

It's not fair that Mommy gets another ride, so we should definitely get some cotton candy.

 My sweet family after riding the Flying Horses in Oak Bluffs.

Natalie had done a little research about Martha's Vineyard and really wanted to see the Gingerbread Houses so we headed that way after our horsey ride.

Eeek!  (I might say that a lot in this post!)  There are 318 of these cute little cottages which were all originally built in the mid to late 1800s as homes for people attending the Methodist camp meetings.

Originally, the attendees of the camp's summer revivals stayed in tents, but I'd say this is WAY cuter and more comfortable.

Yes, I would like to paint my house hydrangea pink, please.

Most of the homes are named, and this one is called Lazy Dayz.  Grant loves Lazy Dayz, that's for sure.

There's not a lot of real estate surrounding these homes, but they all definitely do the best with what they've got!

This little area is actually now called Wesleyan Grove and it's a National Landmark Historic District.

So colorful and cute!

We walked around many areas twice - this one is one of my favorites. I love the detail around the windows and of course - a compass!

I'll take one of each, please.

These homes look really tiny - and some of them are.  If you look online, you'll find most of them are about 500-800 square feet and priced somewhere between $500,000 to $900,000.

Purple homes are my FAVORITE.

Pretty colors around Trinity Circle.

There's so much detail around the roofline and around the porches.

This view isn't too bad either!

I think this was my favorite row of homes.

And for Natalie and I, THIS was our favorite!  It's Wizard of Oz themed!

If you look closely in the garden, you can find the cast of the Wizard of Oz!  We couldn't find the Tin Man though.

Pink and turquoise, squeal!

They still have a large covered area known as the Tabernacle in the center of Trinity Park where the Methodist church (that is behind us and to the right) holds outdoor services. I bet this came in super handy for the last year and a half.

Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place! Or at least just the presence of a little boy!

No, no, no... THIS was my favorite!  All purple, all the time!

These homes really look like little dollhouses.

We went to sit in Trinity Park for a bit to rest our feet.  Sometimes they get along.

Trinity United Methodist Church sits right in Trinity Park.

Most of the homes are over 150 years old - like this one built in 1868. 

This is the Pink House Natalie was dying to see.  No, it really is named that! SO cute. Look at the flower boxes!

Rightfully so, most of the flowers outside of the Pink House are... pink!

More pink flowers in front of the Pink House.  If you Google 25 Butler Avenue, you can see inside because it just sold and it is AMAZING.  They even had a pink toaster!

I LOVE the detail in the railing around the porch at the Pink House.

Panorama inside of Forest Circle.  Not as clear as I would like it to be but it was so cute (and kind of more private than some of the other streets.)

We went down to the Black Dog outlet to see about some shirts, and went behind the building to see the boats.

Everything feels too crowded to me these days, so we decided to head back to the boat.

Just as we got to the boat, it started sprinkling so it was good timing on our part.  This is the Oak Bluffs Town Beach, and the dock for the Steamship Authority is right here.

We saw so many fish under the (believe it or not) parking lot.  I guess there was no real estate on land, so they built this parking lot over the water!

Vacationing is SO hard.  

Until next time, Martha's Vineyard!