Despite the weather last year (remember? Tropical Storm Elsa?), we decided to have another go at a Cape Cod vacation this year and we had a BLAST!
For one thing, the weather was MUCH nicer. We spent Friday night at Todd's parents house because they aren't far from the Cape. We watched the Bolts win Game 5 against the Avalanche after dinner (unfortunately, that was to be their last win of the season) and then drove down to Hyannis/Craigville Beach on Saturday. It was a nice day, so we hit up the beach immediately!
Sunday morning, Todd got up for a SUPER EARLY 6:45 am tee time with his friends Rob and Ryan. At least they beat the heat, and then they went out for some breakfast afterward.
The other three Baileys were awake by the time he got back from golf and breakfast - but BARELY. So we packed it up and headed to the beach! I do not get in the water - it's entirely too cold for me. But the other three enjoyed the water all week!
Hello crazy people in 65 degree water!
This must have been the view from the water. I don't know, because I never get in! The house we rented had a couple of umbrellas to use, which was awesome. That June sun is strong!
Grant had some little crabbies nibbling at his toes in the water! He was showing me how one of them got ahold of his pinky toe!
As my dad used to say, "The sun takes it out of you!"
Todd and the kids made an excellent sand castle, complete with this dribble castle which was really impressive since the sand here is course and isn't really good for making dribble castles.
Here is the castle complex from our seats. It was devoured by the ocean in the middle of the night though!
We grilled up a yummy dinner (my new favorite thing is corn on the grill) and then went for a quick walk on the beach after dinner.
Nat couldn't keep her eyes open in the sun, two other Baileys have sunglasses, and Grant has enough hair that you can't see his eyes anyway!
The kids walked along the beach with us, inspecting the waves. We actually are at the edge of Covell's Beach, which is on the same strip of land as Craigville Beach. If you drive here, you need a locals-only parking pass, but we stay across the street, so we just walk.
We hung out outside after dinner, and spotted this little bunny friend in the yard.
Monday looked a bit like this with some rain in the forecast later in the day, so we went into Hyannis to stalk the Kennedy family. This is their private little street, Marchant Avenue. RFK's house is the last one on the left. Just past the house on the right is the one Taylor Swift bought when she was dating a Kennedy.
The kids wanted ice cream so sure, let's just have ice cream for lunch! Kandy Korner has a great selection of candy - including a lot of good stuff from the 80s!
This cute little cone is actually on the ground outside of Kilwins, another epic ice cream shop.
I see this little shop (Cape Bloom) every year, and every year it amazes me.
The real reason we were in Hyannis (to stalk the Kennedys of course) included our first visit to the JFK Museum.
The special feature at the museum right now is JFK's rocking chair from the 1960s. It's on loan from the Waldorf Astoria in New York, which is undergoing renovations.
This is a great little museum that ties in the life of the 35th president of the United States with the times he spent in Hyannis Port with his family at their compound.
This was an interesting photo selection at the JFK museum. We were all looking at JFK giving a speech to this group of people when Grant goes, "What is this kid doing?" Well, he seems to have a gun (hopefully a toy gun?) and he's pointing it to his own face, so I'm not sure buddy! Grant always has the fastest eye for the strangest things!
Then it was time to get an early dinner at Spanky's Clam Shack!
As we were walking to Spanky's, this little fella popped its head up out of the water!
Hello little seal! I hope there are no sharks with you!
I like that Grant was repping a Frenchy's t-shirt at Spanky's and then refused to get a Spanky's t-shirt ha ha. Out of the blue, Grant says, "Well slap my clamshell and call me Spanky!" And I almost died laughing. Only... that is a drink they sell that he apparently read off the drink menu. They won't tell you what's in the drink, otherwise they'd have to "throw you in the hah-bah."
Natalie just had some clam chowder, which she said was really good. But she had just eaten ice cream so she wasn't super hungry.
Todd and I were hungry though and he had some kind of mixed seafood with corn and a baked potato. And it was chilly down by the water on this cloudy day, so he's wearing my hoodie. Thief! (Just kidding... I had a long sleeved shirt on!)
We HAD to get us some Spanky's t-shirts (because really... who doesn't want a Spanky's t-shirt??) but Grant waited outside with this guy, who is apparently a mix of Chubbs from Happy Gilmore and the Gorton's Fisherman.
We walked back through the Village Green behind the Barnstable Town Hall on our way back to the car. Fun fact: Did you know that "Hyannis" isn't an official town? It's actually a village within the town of Barnstable! Natalie, please don't kick your brother...
Grant spotted this giant painted pizza outside of Palio Pizzeria.
We had to eat an early dinner because we had evening tickets to see the new Top Gun movie at the Cape Cod Mall! It was AWESOME! I can't even stand Tom Cruise, but this movie was REALLY good. We had watched the original just before our trip down to the Cape and I had forgotten how really awful that movie was. It was action packed and full of hot guys, but there was zero plot line. At least the sequel has a plot!
In an attempt to recreate the football scene from Top Gun: Maverick (I kid!) the next day, these cute guys set up the badminton net for a tough game where they fought the wind for 20 minutes before giving up.
The badminton shuttlecock is no match for southerly Cape Cod winds!
It was a valiant effort!
They gave up on badminton and moved on to a little beach volleyball (truly trying to recreate the beach volleyball scene from the original Top Gun, only they have shirts on and are not wearing jeans on the beach like Maverick did).
I got to one of my favorite chapters in the book I'm reading - hurricanes!
The kids hung out and actually enjoyed each others company.
After the great tsunami (read: high tide) of 2022, the Bailey dukedom was forced to rebuild.
This time, they learned about floodplain management techniques such as moats and seaweed flood walls.
Dinner on the grill: Kabobs, baked beans, macaroni salad, potato salad and of course--- my new favorite thing, corn on the cob on the grill!
The Bailey family enjoying a nice meal outside in Hyannis ... OH WAIT....
That's better.
After dinner, Todd set up the fire pit and we made some s'mores!
S'more s'words.
I'm probably making this face because I don't love s'mores. I might like them more if we could use Milka chocolate instead of Hersheys.
It was a nice end to the first couple of days we spent at the Cape! We also discovered a new favorite beach drink - the Finnish Long Drink! It's a gin based drink - the one in this picture is the cranberry one (not my favorite) but the grapefruit drink is really awesome!
Stay tuned for the second part of our second annual Cape Cod vacation!
