Whale Watch

Last Monday we had a very nice time going on a whale watch from Plymouth. We didn't see the whales super close, but boy there were a lot of them. Shara was so excited to go that when the whales started jumping, I think she was  a little disappointed because they were farther away. The boat can't get too close, and they didn't come right up to us. She did take a nap on the way back to the harbor, and has very happy memories of the trip and wants to go on another, so that's really the tell-tale sign of how much she liked it!

Shara feeding koi after mini golf

Here's a video of Shara feeding the koi and letting them nibble on her fingers after playing miniature golf. As she gave one of the last pieces of food one of the koi grabbed her whole thumb!

Cape Cod Vacation

Alan & Shara setting up the tent. After we got the site together, we went with Jill & Andy to Wellfleet to pick up sandwiches at the Box Lunch. We ate at the town pier, then headed over to Mayo Beach. Alan had everyone holding their ears with our Wheelies. Can't wait to get some WD-40! We had fun - the water was really warm, but the wind was fierce. Shara and I played some catch then took a nice walk down the beach - collected a few rocks, looked at tons of horseshoe crabs - yes, they were dead, and climed some rocks. When we headed back, everyone was already packed up and waiting for us. I guess the wind was a bit much!

We all went back to the camp site and decided what to do for dinner. The one thing Shara really wanted to do was play mini-golf, so we went to do that before dinner. We got out of the car, start walking to the office, and Shara wipes out on a speedbump. We changed plans and went to dinner instead. We ended up at Mac's Seafood Shack in Wellfleet. Shara wanted sushi and I heard great things about Mac's. We had a bit of a wait - 40 minutes, which wasn't bad considering some other people had over an hour and a 1/2. And it was just a Tuesday! So we sat around and drank some good wine, watched lots of people, and enjoyed talking to some of them. When we finally got our table, we ordered and the food arrived and we were done. Dinner couldn't have lasted more than 45 minutes, and we even had salads first. They didn't have Shara's favorite - sweet potato maki, but they did have salmon, and she liked that. I had lobster risotto, which was good, but overpowered by the Parmagiana cheese (I think). Alan had sushi too - one of the specials with tempura shrimp and another with cream cheese, jalapenos and tuna? He said it was good. I had a taste of the shrimp and it was great. We also split a 1/2 dozen oysters. They were very good but we still don't see what the big deal is. I guess we just don't get it. We didn't have dessert because it was rather late. We had a nice walk back to the car. Shara felt like it was Halloween - we were walking through the neighborhood to our car, which Alan parked at the pier. It wasn't a long walk, but it was chilly!

In the morning, Alan & Andy went to get doughnuts and coffee at the Hole in One doughnut shop. I tried a chocolate cake doughnut. It was very good. Shara had some of that and a chocolate frosted. We then got ready to go to Provincetown to take a walk on the Jetty. It was a little scary in places, but Shara did great. We went all the way to the other side, up to see the beach, and back. It was a 2 mile trip!

Jill and Andy went back quickly but we took a little more time. After cleaning up a little, we went into town for lunch. We ate at Cafe heaven. It was excellent. I had the banana, cornmeal pancakes with strawberries and maple syrup. Jill had the tuna melt w/ home fries, Andy had a Greek salad & home fries, Alan had a tuna boat (open face tuna melt on homemade English muffin), and Shara had 2 eggs over easy with sausage. We all agreed we'd go back.

This was basically Shara's first time in Provincetown, so separated from Jill and Andy and walked the streets, had some gelato and went into the kite store, the fudge shop, down to the water, and around until she got tired and wanted to leave. Can't blame her, she had a busy morning. Jill and Andy went to the Portuguese bakery and then headed back to their car, then to the campsite. We joined them there and then out to mini-golf. We made a stop for dinner first and ended up at the Jailhouse restaurant in Orleans.It was just ok. Shara liked the broccoli and cheese sauce that topped my open-faced turkey & broccoli sandwich. Alan had way hot Buffalo wings and Shara loved her mac & cheese. We went golfing at the place in Orleans. It was great and we all had so much fun. Shara got to feed the Koi and then sucked her fingers! After we got some ice cream across the street , then went to bed.

The next day, which was our last full day, we went to Wellfleet and checked out Lieutenant's Island. We had a walk from the car along tidal flats, over a bridge, towards a beach. Shara was truely freaked out by the crabs. She had a bad experience a few weeks ago at a beach with Tina. Shara didn't get bit, but most others did. So the way in was a bit whiny until she got over it, which she did, good thing. We saw lots of crabs and made a stop on the dunes to have a snack of beach plums. Good thing Andy was there because he knew what they were. The trail lead to a beach around a little harbor. It was so peaceful. Hardly any people were there. It did look like it was going to rain, so we didn't continue past the beach. We were about 1/3 of the way to the end of the hike and turned around to head back. That was a smart decision because about 1/2 mile from the car it started to rain and kept picking up. Shara was fussing, but then we started singing marching songs and actually had fun.

Lunch was simple because we couldn't think where to go. We ended up at another Box Lunch in Eastham. It was ok. They got my order wrong but it was still pretty good. Jill and Andy were planning on going to Race Point beach and we joined them. Shara was tired and needed to relax a little. We saw a seal when we were there, but not tons. Jill said they saw lots at Nauset Beach last time they were there so we went to Nauset next. I didn't realize how much time goes by on the beach. We didn't leave until after 4:30 and got to Nauset later than planned because I wanted to stop at this bakery - PB Boulangerie. OMG - I've never eaten such wonderful bread, which is all we got this day. Shara had hot chocolate - I'm sure it was just shaved chocolate melted in hot milk. Alan had a coffee and I had a baguette (we all shared a small one, hot out of the oven). We brought the remains of the bread to Nauset Beach to share because everyone has to try bread this good. We hung out at the beach for a few minutes, not seeing any seals, and planning our next move, which was Provincetown for dinner. Jill was interested in checking out Frappo66, which sounded good, but we ended up at their favorite pizza place - Georges. It was ok. I had an gyro and a salad. Alan thought his sub was great, Shara didn't eat really anything, Jill's pizza did look quite good, and Andy's salad looked ok. The best thing though was our parking spot. We got a nice spot on the pier and headed back after dinner to wait for the awesome fireworks that I had forgotten all about. The Pilgrim Monument was 100 years old and they were having a big celebration that day. Shara fell asleep on the ride back because she knew if she didn't try hard, there would be no tv for the ride home. We didn't bother waking Shara up but slipped her into her sleeping bag like a loaf of bread into a bag. She did have to wake for a minute because we needed a little help, but was then out again in no time. After getting ready for bed the grown-ups had a glass of wine and looked at the lovely stars.

For breakfast on our last day we went back to PB Boulangerie. We did have to wait in line because apparently everyone else knows about this place too. Well worth every second! Jill & Andy got there a little earlier and got hot chocolate for Shara so it would start cooling. Alan got a coffee eclair (pretty good) and a chocolate croissant (excellent). I had a raspberry croissant - raspberries baked on a bed of creamy cheese filling, over a super buttery, flaky dough. It wasn't too sweet, melted in my mouth and was just amazing. Jill had the olive batard, and I think Andy split it with her. Shara had a plain croissant with the most chocolatty hot chocolate ever. She actually didn't like it because it was too chocolatty. I asked for some steamed milk to make her a lighter version and all added some of the chocolate to our various coffees. After Jill & Andy went back to the site to get packed up, I waited in line again to get some things to go. They had put out a batch of almond croissants, so I had to get one and they also just put out a dark chocolate, candied orange brioche that looked great. And a 1/4 of a huge farmer's bread and a fromage e lardon batard. We had the batard for dinner and lunch the next day and the pastry for breakfast. The farmer's bread was used for a turkey sandwich and then grilled to go with the souvlaki for Saturday's dinner.

After the packing job, we decided to join Jill & Andy at the Chatham fish pier. Shara (all of us really) loved watching the fish come off the boats. There were also a bunch (at least 4 made it over to the pier) of seals. We could have stayed there for longer than we did. We had lunch from the fish market - we split a fried seafood platter and onion rings. Then we went back to watch more of the boats and seals. The trip home was uneventful and we actually got everything unpacked and put away in a very short amount of time so we were able to spend some time in the pool before having a light dinner. We had to save the s'mores until Saturday evening because the town was set to spray Friday, which they did. We played some Wii instead.

Another Vacation!?

Day 1 (Falmouth, MA) - Friday
Waited until morning to pack - only going for 3 nights. Also didn't have much of a kitchen so planned on eating out most meals. Got on the road earlier than expected but as hoped, about 10 AM. Shara got a paper cut from a book she was "reading" in the car. She made up her own words to her Clifford books. She knew she was making them up but didn't want to know the real words. Had to get band aid from the emergency kit. She noticed she got cut when she saw the blood and cried, "I have blood!" We then went straight to resort, assuming it would be oo early to check in but happy we were able to do so. Got settled, relaxed and played Cariboo, knit, had a snack.

We decided to look for he first geocache Alan had spotted in Woods Hold, near a playground. That sounded like a great location. First we stopped to eat - picked up sandwiches @ Pie in the Sky. While we wer waiting for Alan to pick-up, Shara & I went outside and enjoyed the sun, many butterflies, dogs, but not the bees. We sat on a set of steps and had our sandwiches. We made it back to the car with 1 minute to spare before the meter ran out. Went to the playground to find the cache & first had fun on the swings & playing on a sit-on back hoe.

We then went into town. Shara had no appetite, but did agree to eat a cupcake. She didn't really like it much, "the frosting was icky". She was right. We had a good time looking in the shops in town, especially the toy store where she and daddy played with an electric construction set. We then made our way down o dinner @ Liam Maguires. It was pretty good and Shara & I had fun coloring Sleeping Beauty's house. Shara did get upset when her water fell into her chowder and was surprised with how easy it was to clean off in the bathroom sink.

All nights we went to bed very early, seeing that we were in the same room, but that was ok - actually got a chance to write all of this!