Daytripping to Nantucket island and Cape Cod Baseball - Thursday, July 16, 2009
We woke up around 7:00 a.m. and drove to Hyannis for the high speed ferry to Nantucket. The ferry ride was uneventful as we were inside so really couldn't see anything on the way out of Hyannis nor into Nantucket. When we arrived in Nantucket, it was so beautiful. There are hundreds of little shops and boats. All types of boats (sailboats, yachts and regular boats). It's a very small and beautiful island. We were undecided about what to do and we thought of renting bikes, which is a very common thing to do there, but decided against it because we were afraid of the kids riding bike on the edge of the streets as there was lots of summer traffic.
We walked around and went through the shopping district. We even got to see the Whaling museum where we saw the history of whales, whale replicas, and the importance of whales to the area. Then, we took a shuttle to Surfside beach. Alex read about this beach in the "500 things to do with your kids before they grow up," which has guided us on this trip. They recommended this beach because of its beauty and also because it has a hamburger stand with awesome burgers. We arrived and immediately ordered lunch and then walked to the beach and had a picnic with our hamburgers, etc. It was beautiful. The summer has been extremely mild throughout the northeast. We've even had to take jackets and/or sweatshirts to some activities because of how cool it's been. This day was no exception. We were cold when we arrived in the morning and now at the beach with the wind, we were still very cold. We were too cold to go in the water, but my daughter wasn't as she was dying to go in. I changed her into her bathing suit and she went in the water. She had so much fun and was the brave one!
We played Kadima or just sat and relaxed and enjoyed the moment. We left there and went back to the town as we thought we'd take a tour, but the tour guide did not want to take kids as it was really for adults. However, he highly recommended for us to take the town shuttle to another town called Soskotchen via Poipus Road and we'd see most of the beautiful sites they see on the tour. He saved us about $100 and we thought it was great. We took the scenic shuttle over and took hundreds of photos of all the beauty. We got ice cream when we arrived, and walked around. We went through streets and streets of beautiful homes with roses growing on their facades. One of the houses had an outdoor dining table with beautiful candlescapes set up and it was located high on the hill overlooking the ocean. It was straight out of a magazine. We saw some kids on a bridge over a road throwing water balloons at the cars as they went by. I hope my children don't ever do anything like that!
There is also something we've noticed while traveling through the Northeast: beautiful and big dogs. We have seen many sheep dogs and other furry/large dogs that I can't remember the names of. We went back to the town, shopped some more, walked around and took photos. We returned to Hyannis on the 7:00 p.m. ferry. When we were arriving in Hyannis, we noticed just beyond the parking lot that there was a baseball game going on. This was another suggestion in the "500 things to do..." book. The author suggested seeing a Cape Cod league baseball game...and we did!
We caught it in the 6th inning. They have players from different universities playing together in this league who come from all over the country for the opportunity to play and spend a couple of months in Cape Cod. It was situated around a hilltop where we sat for most of the game. The whole vibe was very pleasant and Americana. It felt perfect in that it was the most typical and American thing to do. We loved that we stumbled upon it and were able to experience. As we look back, it is one of the top 5 experiences from this whole trip. After the game, we drove back to Plymouth. We tried to go to sleep early, but it didn't work out. We were up until very late again. By the way, we loved Hyannis and next time we'd like to stay there instead of Plymouth as it makes it easier with the ferries.
Showing posts with label Cape Cod. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cape Cod. Show all posts
Revolutionary War battlegrounds and Plymouth - Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Revolutionary War battlegrounds and Plymouth - Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Happy Bastille Day! We checked out of the Sheraton this morning. It was bittersweet as we loved the hotel and had a great time in Boston. However, we also wanted to continue traveling and learning about new places. I would love to live in Boston. I don't know why I didn't feel that way when I had the opportunity to move here eight years ago. When we came for the look and see trip it was winter and we didn't really look in the city. We looked mostly in the suburbs. It was super depressing. I remember telling Al, I would move only if we could live in the city. Then we had the opportunity to go to Nice, France which we both preferred, so we discarded the idea of living in Boston. I wouldn't mind doing it now.
We drove out through Cambridge to Lexington-Concorde. Our friend Melanie (the one from we visited in Arlington, Virginia) grew up in Lexington. It's a beautiful place. We visited the Minutemen National Park and learned about the battles leading up to and at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. We saw an interesting movie at the center, which reenacted the battles and from the perspective of a colonist. Later, we drove on what used to be Bay Road, which was the battle road and went to North Bridge. There we heard a Park Ranger retell the story. This was a very enjoyable and educational addition to our trip.
We had lunch/dinner at 4:30 p.m, at Neillio's Gourmet Kitchen Deli. We bought a turkey BLT, stuffing and cranberries, breaded chicken cutlet with mashed potatoes and mac-n-cheese. We drove off eating and happy we found the place. We continued our drive to Melanie's dad's house in Plymouth, MA. We arrived and it was amazing. The drive up to the house on their driveway is about 1.5 miles long. It is a heavily wooded area and the house is very nice. It's a two story house plus an attic from what I could tell. It had an adorable swing hanging in the back porch and gorgeous view of the ocean. As you get closer to the edge of the yard, you realize there is a huge drop to the sand and water. This house and all the others in the area, sit on a cliff, about 200 feet from the ocean. It is very steep and the kids wanted to climb down! It reminded me the mountain in New Zealand (actually volcano) that we did scree-running as it was scary.
Anyway, Melanie's dad buried an emergency key in their flower bed over one year ago. He told Al the location and said it shouldn't be too difficult. An hour later after speaking to Melanie, Melanie's mom and Dad and David, neither Alex nor I could find the key. Melanie's parents offered to bring us the key, but we refused as it would be a 2.5 hour trip for us or for them to get the key and get back. We thanked them for their gracious and generous gesture, but decided to just go to Plymouth and stay at a hotel as it was already getting dark. We looked for a hotel and found many "cheesy" hotels and motels, which I wouldn't stay at. On my GPS, I located a Hilton Garden Inn, with no availability and a Radisson across from the harbor about 1/2 block from Plymouth Rock. They had a room and we went. We ended up changing rooms three times that night. First, the room smelled like mold, so I started coughing. The second room overlooked an atrium with an indoor pool so the smell of chlorine was so strong I couldn't breathe. Finally, we found a third room with no unusual smells or allergens.
We went back to the hotel and did research to try to figure out what to do next. We went to bed around 3:00 a.m.
Happy Bastille Day! We checked out of the Sheraton this morning. It was bittersweet as we loved the hotel and had a great time in Boston. However, we also wanted to continue traveling and learning about new places. I would love to live in Boston. I don't know why I didn't feel that way when I had the opportunity to move here eight years ago. When we came for the look and see trip it was winter and we didn't really look in the city. We looked mostly in the suburbs. It was super depressing. I remember telling Al, I would move only if we could live in the city. Then we had the opportunity to go to Nice, France which we both preferred, so we discarded the idea of living in Boston. I wouldn't mind doing it now.
We drove out through Cambridge to Lexington-Concorde. Our friend Melanie (the one from we visited in Arlington, Virginia) grew up in Lexington. It's a beautiful place. We visited the Minutemen National Park and learned about the battles leading up to and at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. We saw an interesting movie at the center, which reenacted the battles and from the perspective of a colonist. Later, we drove on what used to be Bay Road, which was the battle road and went to North Bridge. There we heard a Park Ranger retell the story. This was a very enjoyable and educational addition to our trip.
We had lunch/dinner at 4:30 p.m, at Neillio's Gourmet Kitchen Deli. We bought a turkey BLT, stuffing and cranberries, breaded chicken cutlet with mashed potatoes and mac-n-cheese. We drove off eating and happy we found the place. We continued our drive to Melanie's dad's house in Plymouth, MA. We arrived and it was amazing. The drive up to the house on their driveway is about 1.5 miles long. It is a heavily wooded area and the house is very nice. It's a two story house plus an attic from what I could tell. It had an adorable swing hanging in the back porch and gorgeous view of the ocean. As you get closer to the edge of the yard, you realize there is a huge drop to the sand and water. This house and all the others in the area, sit on a cliff, about 200 feet from the ocean. It is very steep and the kids wanted to climb down! It reminded me the mountain in New Zealand (actually volcano) that we did scree-running as it was scary.
Anyway, Melanie's dad buried an emergency key in their flower bed over one year ago. He told Al the location and said it shouldn't be too difficult. An hour later after speaking to Melanie, Melanie's mom and Dad and David, neither Alex nor I could find the key. Melanie's parents offered to bring us the key, but we refused as it would be a 2.5 hour trip for us or for them to get the key and get back. We thanked them for their gracious and generous gesture, but decided to just go to Plymouth and stay at a hotel as it was already getting dark. We looked for a hotel and found many "cheesy" hotels and motels, which I wouldn't stay at. On my GPS, I located a Hilton Garden Inn, with no availability and a Radisson across from the harbor about 1/2 block from Plymouth Rock. They had a room and we went. We ended up changing rooms three times that night. First, the room smelled like mold, so I started coughing. The second room overlooked an atrium with an indoor pool so the smell of chlorine was so strong I couldn't breathe. Finally, we found a third room with no unusual smells or allergens.
We went back to the hotel and did research to try to figure out what to do next. We went to bed around 3:00 a.m.
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