Cape Cod, 2017
(or Escape to the Cape)
| 9/2 | 9/3 | 9/4 | 9/5 | 9/6 | 9/7 | 9/8 | Epilogue (9/10) |
September 2, 2017 (Saturday)
68 °F with scattered clouds; winds at 3 mph
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It's roughly 10:30 a.m. on Saturday of Labor Day weekend, and O'Hare isn't as busy as I would have thought. I had my worries when we parked in the Economy Lot (as misnamed as ever); we had to be directed in by attendants, and the construction going on in E lot isn't helping matters.
Victoria and I have boarded our plane, and it's pulling away from the gate. This is our first big vacation together and the first time visiting Cape Cod for either of us. We're traveling with our friends John and Karen, with whom we'll be sharing a cottage on the Cape.
It's also the first travel journal for me in more than a decade, and I'm trying to do all this via my iTouch, which is already frustrating the crap out of me. There's something wrong with trying to type with your thumbs, especially when the device tries to autocorrect everything as you type. I should have stuck with damn pen and paper.
Victoria is relatively relaxed. I'm just keeping myself occupied. And now that the plane is readying for takeoff, I'll pick this up later.
11:18 a.m., somewhere in the air—A recent epiphany: I'm now convinced that air travel is a mass psychological experiment. We're subjected to ads everywhere from start to finish. We're crammed into increasingly cramped spaces. The temperature in the plane is always either too hot or too cold. And now thanks to technology, I can't change or even turn off the damn video screen staring me quite literally right in the face. Are there buttons? Of course. Do they work? Not in the least.
Seriously, I wonder if this isn't some decades-long behavioral study.
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3:00 p.m. EDT, Logan airport—we arrived at Logan International Airport without incident and found our luggage straightaway. From there, we took the shuttle bus over to the rental car terminal. That was another story; mass chaos, cars everywhere, and apparently they ran out of at least two classes of vehicles. Fortunately, mid-size SUVs were still available. And from there, we made our way out of Boston toward Cape Cod.
So, Cape Cod may or may not be the "Vinland" described by Vikings. If you believe archaeologists, it's probably not. Cape Cod got its name in 1602 courtesy of Bartholomew Gosnold. Also, the Pilgrims actually first landed near the Provincetown tip of the Cape on November 11, 1620. Contrary to popular lore, they didn't even mention Plymouth Rock until 1715, and the first documented claim of Plymouth Rock as the initial landing spot of the Pilgrims didn't come until 1741. As usual, you can't believe everything you hear.
The village of Mashpee where we're headed has some historical significance as the largest (and one of the earliest) Indian reservations in Massachusetts. The Wampanoag tribe that lived in the region would continue to see their rights and lands encroached for the next few centuries. Now it's a tourist spot, but the town still serves as the headquarters for the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribal Council.
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We stopped around 5:00 at Mashpee Commons for groceries at the Stop n Shop. By 6:00, we're on Cape Cod outside of Mashpee at Maushop Village. We have cottage #24 in the seaside development. It's quaint. And the parking...well, the parking thus far appears to be haphazard at best. The assigned parking space for our cottage seems designed to invite other cars to back into yours.
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Victoria and I are staying in the bedroom upstairs, which is compact but charming. The bed is comfortable, and we have our own bath upstairs so that we can all get ready without stumbling over one another.
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We hit the Popponesset Marketplace around 7:30, where we started with a drink in the bar before getting seated at the Raw Bar for dinner. It's communal seating, so we were joined by newlyweds Sean and Nicole. Had a lump blue crab cake and part of a stuffed quahog. Also learned that "qhahog" is actually pronounced "KO-hog" (who knew?). Bonus note—dear God, avoid the pickled cherry shots if you ever visit. That has to be Bacardi 151 those things were marinated in. Speaking of marinated, this is my gal after a bit of rum punch, trying on a silly hat.
Discretion being the better part of valor, we all decided to return to the cottage rather than visit another bar. After a nightcap and some conversation, we turned in around 10:30.
September 3, 2017 (Sunday)
61 °F with low clouds and rain; winds at 16 mph
Woke up leisurely this morning with Victoria. It started raining overnight, and it hasn't let up yet, with the forecast calling for pretty much wind and rain the rest of the day. It's not supposed to get past 65 today, and the chance of rain is at least 50% every hour through 7:00 tonight. Lovely weather if you're a duck, as the saying goes. Not a great start to the first full day on the Cape, but we knew the weekend forecast didn't bode well before we left. It did seem like Monday and Tuesday were supposed to be pretty fair, so we'll see.
We eventually stopped making excuses for staying in bed and went downstairs to help Karen and John with breakfast. We ate around 9:30 or thereabouts, a solid breakfast with eggs, sausage, fruit, and English muffins. All in all, it was a pretty lazy morning considering we weren't going to be doing a lot outdoors. I finally hopped in the shower around noon.
So now we're all looking for things to do indoors today, as the outdoors is altogether dreary. We're most likely exploring the shops of Mashpee Commons. And since we're getting ready to leave, more later....
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We arrived at Mashpee Commons a little after 1:00, parking off of Steeple Street. As a side note, what is it with people and parking around this region? Apparently if your car fits there, it's a parking space. Wow. Anyway, we stopped at Bob Byrne's for lunch; it was exceedingly crowded, and we wandered a few nearby shops during the 30-minute wait for a table. Once seated, I ordered the steak tips (which seem to be a locally popular dish). They were pretty good for what seems to be chunks of marinated flank steak.
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So after finishing lunch we did a little more shopping and then stopped by another grocery store for some more supplies. I also bought some sinus meds, as the weather had my head throbbing by that time. We left Mashpee Commons and went back to the village, where the weather had cleared just enough to take a walk down to the beach. Then we spent some time teaching Karen the basics of poker.
We made dinner in the form of a couple of frozen pizzas. The biggest excitement of the day was when Victoria and Karen apparently teamed up to nearly set a pizza and an oven mitt on fire during the cooking process. Happy to report no harm done. At any rate, we ate dinner, played a few rounds of poker to reinforce the earlier lessons (and I finally learned "Spit in the Ocean," which is basically 4-card draw with a common card).
Anyway, it's now about 10:30, and everyone's turning in. We're looking forward to better weather and vacation exploring tomorrow.
September 4, 2017 (Monday)
61 °F clear and sunny; winds at 12 mph
I've noted that I'm on vacation, right? So it's still not yet 7:00 a.m. EDT; why the hell am I awake?
Later—okay, so we finally roused around 9:00 for a continental breakfast mainly consisting of fruit and one of my new favorite breakfasts of champions, devil's food doughnut holes. We all sat around and chatted for a bit. I'm going to shower; the rest are taking a quick walk to the marketplace.
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It's supposed to be beach day today, because we've determined that Monday is going to be (according to local forecasts) the best weather of this week. I'm holding out hope that the water will be inhabitable, but then again, I reckon I'm a few hundred miles north of the Gulf Stream.
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We arrived at the beach around 1:00 and picked a nice spot a few yards from the entrance. The sun was high and bright for the first time since we arrived; it felt like mid-70 weather on the sand. Unfortunately, the combination of a steady 20 mph breeze coupled with probably 60° water temperatures pretty much ruled out any sane person taking a full-on plunge. I acclimated up to my thighs and that was about it.
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Also, there were horseshoe crab remnants liberally scattered along the beach. As near as I can tell from the time of year and a later Internet search, this is probably indicative of their mating season and represents a combination of molting and the 10% or so of mating individuals that can't right themselves during spawing and end up as gull food. There's no escaping mortality at the beach.
At any rate, we hung out on the sand for a couple of hours; I returned home with Karen and John while Victoria lingered at the beach for a little longer. We're discussing dinner in Hyannisport, particularly at a place on the waterfront called Spanky's Clam Shack, which I'm arguing sounds as much like a local brothel as it does a restaurant. I'm also concerned that my legs are starting to itch, which tells me I should have considered more sunblock (or at least more coverage).
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We regrouped, showered, and headed to Hyannisport around 5:00. Spanky's, despite the name, turned out to be a good call. I ended up getting their fried oyster sandwich, which I reckon was about 80% oyster and 20% roll. So I ended up just eating the oysters off the bun; they were delicious. Been a long time since I've had fresh fried oysters like that. Once we settled the tab, we wandered for a bit around the harbor, taking some snapshots of the local fleet and checking out the small art kiosks.
We returned to Mausop Village around 8:00, where we sat around gabbing and having nightcaps. We all turned in before 10:00; our independent excursions are happening tomorrow, and it looks to be a long day for all of us. Karen and John are taking the ferry to Martha's Vineyard. Victoria and I are headed up the Cape to visit Provincetown (making a brief lighthouse tour of it along the way). We might even try to visit Woods Hole, but that all may be a bit much to cram into one day trip.
Man, my legs got sunburned. My shins look like lobster legs. I don't think I'm going to be wearing shorts again this trip.
September 5, 2017 (Tuesday)
73 °F and mostly sunny with scattered clouds; winds at 16 mph
Woke up this morning well rested, although still a bit put out that I'm waking up before 8:00 on vacation. And the shins looked positively scalded from the day before. Sigh.
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We left the cottage a little before 10:00 and headed to the Whydah Pirate Museum in Yarmouth. A little history sidenote: The Whydah was a ship captained by local pirate Sam Bellamy. Bellamy captured the former slave ship in February of 1717 and promptly went about refitting her as his flagship. Two months later, the ship wrecked on a sandbar off the coast of Wellfleet with the loss of all but two of her crew.
The ship was then lost to history until 1984, when diver Barry Clifford discovered the wreck; the ship's bell confirming her identity was found in 1985. The building in Yarmouth not only houses the public museum but serves as the headquarters and lab of the conservation effort. Also, because of the Whydah's previous employment, it's as much a museum of the slave trade as it is a museum of piracy. Which makes a lot of sense when you consider that the Whydah was actually named after a West African slave-trading kingdom.
And those exterior shots above will be all you're going to see here of the museum since they don't allow interior photography within the exhibits. Bummer, because it's pretty well done. But you're just going to have to go see it for yourself.
Bonus funny observation—many hours of Assassin's Creed: Black Flag paid off when I recognized the sea shanty "Drunken Sailor" playing as part of an exhibit soundtrack.
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So we finished up our tour of the museum around noon and ate at Captain Parker's. They serve a good BLT and a fine cream of mushroom soup. Then we headed up the Cape on Route 28 to see some lighthouses.
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Our first stop was at USCG Station Chatham. It was a little underwhelming since, as an active station, it wasn't open to the public today. There are two tidbits to share about this station. First, it is the station responsible for one of the most daring rescues in Coast Guard history following the wreck of the SS Pendleton. Second, on a more morbid note, just the month before we visited, authorities had found the body of a missing Chatham resident inside an airtight compartment of the motor lifeboat. Apparently he'd gotten shut in while trying to take shelter from a storm—last October. Yeesh. Glad I hadn't read that before visiting.
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We continued up the road, stopping at the Cape Cod National Seashore Visitor Center Salt Pond along the way for a quick rest break. Then it was on to Eastham, where we parked for a bit and saw the Nauset Light and the Three Sisters. Interesting tidbit: the Nauset Light was moved in 1996 because of cliff erosion that had left it a mere 35 feet from the edge (it was originally 200 feet away). They transplanted it three years before the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse move. Also, the Nauset Light itself was a 1923 transplant of the northern tower of the old Chatham Light. And the Three Sisters, which had been replaced by the Nauset Light, are restored and sitting about 1,800 yards away after having been moved twice. It's all a bit confusing.
From Eastham we continued to Provincetown on the tip of the Cape. What can I say about Provincetown? It's like a larger Saugatuck, Michigan with better shoreline (according to the unimpeachable source of Wikipedia, Saugatuck has been occasionally referred to as the "Provincetown of the Midwest"). So I stand vindicated by my assessment. Also, it's where the Pilgrims first landed, which the current locals must find at least amusingly ironic.
Actually, Provincetown is fairly lovely, if a bit cramped in places. The town hosts a ton of attractions, including the Pilgrim Monument, Provincetown Art Association and Musuem, Race Point Light, Expedition Whydah campus, and Atlantic House, which is apparently the oldest gay bar in America. We didn't visit any of those venues, sticking to main pier area. Apparently this is home to Captain Ralph Wilkins and the Odysea, which is featured on the National Geographic series Wicked Tuna (which also means nothing to me, but there's a sign calling attention to it on the dock).
So we wandered the pier for a bit and grabbed some snapshots of the various boats and whatnot before aiming for Ciro and Sal's, an Italian restaurant of some repute in town.
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And what a place it is. Ciro and Sal's is quite literally the basement of a former doctor's office that was a former residence. It's a little like eating in Montresor's cellar from The Cask of Amontillado. But our waiter was great, the Bellini was fantastic, and the pesce al limone (cod, because, you know, Cape Cod) was a great choice. Damn fine meal all the way around.
So we finished up with dinner and wandered back to the car for the 60-mile trip back to Mausop Village. We made it back to the cottage in about an hour and a half, arriving before 9:00. We had a quick goodnight chat with John and Karen and turned in for the night. Tomorrow we venture into Boston.
September 6, 2017 (Wednesday)
70 °F and mostly cloudy; winds at 10 mph
Woke up early again for our excursion into Boston. If the weather report holds up, rain is probably going to crap all over our chance to see a game at Fenway today. Anyway, we left Mausop Village and hit the highway back west. At one point, the rain was bad enough that people—including us—actually started pulling to the shoulder to let the downpour pass through.
It seemed to calm down by the time we got into Boston, however. On the other hand, we are now pretty skeptical of Karen's Waze app, which appears to have become self aware with a somewhat sadistic sense of humor. That was the most roundabout way to get to Fenway that we could have taken.
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At this point, I'd like to use a map to illustrate just how screwed up the city of Boston is to drive in. You can see how everything seems to angle off of everything else. Really glad I don't have to drive this every day. So we eventually found some decent parking that would let us leave the Durango parked all day, including the game, and we set off for the train from Kenmore Station.
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We started with lunch near the Boston Commons at Stoddard's, which was established in 1868 and survived the Great Boston Fire of 1872. That makes 48 Temple Street one of the oldest surviving structures in that district. After lunch, we made our way to the north side of town and took a tour of the Old North Church. There's a ton of fascinating history about the Church, but as usual, it's a small detail that has caught my eye—the memorial plaque for Major John Pitcairn of the Royal Marines. Pitcairn was widely respected in Boston even as the British soldiers were viewed with increasing hostility. He died at Bunker Hill. According to lore, his body was interred in the church but later moved for burial in England at the request of his widow. However, local lore has it that the locals sent the wrong remains and that Pitcairn is still at rest in the church.
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From Old North Church, we walked down Paul Revere Mall toward St. Stephen's Catholic Church (formerly the New North Meeting House built in 1714), then swung down Hanover Street to make a pit stop at Modern Pastry, which one of the guides at Old North Church had recommended. From there, we backtracked to take a quick tour of Paul Revere's house, which has been remarkably preserved considering it was about 100 years old when Paul bought it. I'd have more pictures, but like the Whydah museum, photography is verboten inside.
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Anyhow, we stopped next for a beer or two at the Green Dragon Tavern, known colloquially as the "headquarters of the Revolution" for frequently hosting the Sons of Liberty back in the day. The bar is charming and has a lot of Revolution-themed decor, as one might expect.
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Following that, we headed back on the train to return to Fenway Park for the start of the game. Yep, Fenway and Wrigley are the last of the old ballparks left. Hard to believe that Dodger Stadium is now the third-oldest, having opened in 1962. We took our seats in the club section along the first base line and watched as the Red Sox started slowly but eventually started thumping the Blue Jays with a four-run 4th. Then the rains started again in the 5th inning, and we decided that was a good enough excuse to pile back in the car for the two-hour drive back to Mashpee.
And here we are, back at the cottage. It's been a good but long day, and everyone basically called it a night once we made it inside. Somehow the weather cooperated enough for the Red Sox and Blue Jays to finish the game without much of a delay; Sox downed Toronto 6-1. We don't have a lot planned per se for tomorrow, probably just some shopping and dinner plans with John and Karen.
P.S.—Cubs managed to squeak by the Pirates tonight 1-0 on a one-out triple in the 9th by Alex Avila with a man on second. So they're still leading the Central by 2 over St. Louis and 2.5 over Milwaukee.
September 7, 2017 (Thursday)
66 °F and overcast; winds at 14 mph
Happy birthday, Mom!
Well, it took six days, but I finally woke up on a vacation day after 9:00 a.m. Today is going to be kind of lazy, and that's just dandy. While it hasn't been an overly busy vacation in total, the last couple of days have been long ones, and we're all looking forward to just taking it easy the day before we're supposed to go back to Chicago. Also, I'm glad we're going to have a weekend to recover before going back into work.
Talked to Mom and Dad for a little bit this morning. As a side note, you'd think it wouldn't be as difficult to get a decent cell signal out here, but where we are, I've been lucky to get more than one bar all week.
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At any rate, Victoria and I made it into Mashpee Commons again for some shopping in the morning. At Soft as a Grape, I bought Victoria a lovely sign for our future kitchen: "I like to cook with wine (sometimes I like to put it in the food)." We also stopped in a gallery and bought a couple of Forrest Pirovano original small prints for the eventual house. Of course, we had no choice but to buy a painting of JFK's sailboat Victoria. C'mon.
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After finishing up our shopping, we met Karen and John at Siena, a nice little Italian restaurant in the Commons. I had the bourbon-rosemary steak tips, which again seems to be a dish particular to the greater Massachusetts region. To help describe it, there's a decent post on the Cabinet Stew blog. They were good (if a little chewy).
We had a good long dinner and headed back to Maushop Village. It's been a good trip, but it's almost time to go home. Everyone's going to bed early for what could be a long travel day tomorrow.
PS—Hurricane Irma has been tearing up the Caribbean since Tuesday. While we don't anticipate it impacting our travel back to Chicago, it sounds like Florida is preparing for the end times this weekend. It's currently a Category 5 storm with winds of 165 mph, moving WNW at 16 mph, about 150 miles north of Haiti. Yikes.
September 8, 2017 (Friday)
55 °F and sunny; winds at 5 mph
It's departure day. Victoria and I woke up around 6:45 a.m. to pack, shower, and do all the little cottage cleanups before leaving. John and Karen were already out the door en route back to Boston.
We left Mashpee around 8:25 to head for Logan ourselves. The trip wasn't too bad, but it was about two hours. We dropped off the rental car without too much ado at 10:20, checked in at the terminal and had a quick bite at McDonald's to tide us over. One thing to look forward to—thanks to the airline, I'm in 36E while Victoria is in 36B across the aisle. We'll see if we can swap with somebody after boarding
2:45 p.m. CDT, descending into Chicago ORD—Nope. This flight has been one thing after another. Victoria is still across the aisle from me; somehow the math didn't work out to where we could switch seats. I'm stuck beside a young lady who seems nice enough, but for whom these seats were absolutely not designed. We had turbulence on takeoff, and damn if we aren't hitting turbulence on approach to O'Hare. I'd actually pay to parachute out of the plane right now.
3:10 p.m.—On the ground and taxiing. Been a while since I've been this happy to be done with a flight. Still got to make it to a gate and grab our bags.
5:20 p.m.—Back home to the apartment. At last. Made a trip to Mariano's to grab some food for the weekend. It's been a good trip, but we are both bushed.
EPILOGUE—September 10, 2017 (Sunday)
I used to have a lot more to say at the end of a trip, but we're right back to work tomorrow, and I'm not waxing as philosphical as with some of the past efforts. Still, it was a good trip for both getting to know new friends a little better and taking a bona fide vacation of our own (every trip up until now has been for either a wedding or a parental visit). Turns out we travel well together. That is, when the airline can be bothered to seat us together.
For my usual closing observations:
- Remember, no matter how it's spelled, it's pronounced "KO-hog."
- I've seriously underestimated the impact of the Gulf Stream in making the ocean fit for swimming in September.
- This hurricane season sucks—especially for anyone in the Caribbean or on the Gulf.
- Steak tips are apparently in the eye of the beholder.
- As usual, no matter where you go, there's still nothing like returning home.