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On the cape. That’s where we went for the middle of part of our epic excursion. Did you know that is what locals say? They don’t say ‘We are going to the cape’ or ‘We are going to be in cape cod.’ They say ‘We were on the cape last week.’ Just trying to blend in…
Before I get too far into our cape adventure I should start with our drive there. Since we were going to be driving through multiple states we planned some specific stops so we could ‘count’ those states in our ‘visited’ totals. (Simply passing through a state does not count!) We stopped in Mystic, CT for lunch because we’d heard great things about their Mystic Seaport Museum. The museum looked like it was really neat but It was way over our budget ($70 per person!) given the small amount of time we could spend there. (Traffic was bad all over the place. What should have taken us 4 hours took closer to 7.) So we wandered around where we could, photographed some tall ships from afar, and continued on our way.
Our next stop was in Newport, RI. We went to visit The Breakers which was a mansion formerly built and owned by the Vanderbilt family. This place was so over the top. Beautiful view and property and just so huge on the inside! We loved that It was an audio tour that let us go at our own pace. (This was key because again…traffic.) So we could see what we wanted and skip the things that didn’t interest. Our kind of tour! While this place was really neat to see, I have to say that the drive through all the little neighborhoods (google sent us on small roads because…traffic) was just as fun. Loved seeing all those charming little salt box houses!
We managed to hit five states in one day. We felt pretty good about that!
You know how when you plan a vacation you have certain hopes for how it will go? When My mom, Joelle and I started planning this trip a year ago we all had certain hopes for this vacation. This trip not only met all of those expectations but it exceeded them too! It was perfect!
My mom managed to find a house that was big enough to fit all of us. No small feat since there were 11 of us staying there. Not only that, but my aunt and cousins stayed close by and this house was big enough for 18 of us to fit in the dining room for lobster feasts. Amazing!
The house was right on the ocean with it’s own private beach. So the views were incredible and since Hyannis is on a small bay the water was almost like bathwater. Warm enough to be lovely to swim in for humans and not sharks. (Sharks did not even enter my brain until my sister mentioned that she had an app for shark sightings and there were MANY around the cape while we were there. None in our little neck of the ocean though.)
Aside from two really high humidity days (95%!) the weather was delicious. Perfect temperatures, lovely sunshine. Just awesome!
We spent the first two days reading and recovering from our crazy time in New York. We then had fun visiting Provincetown which is at the very end of the cape. What a cute little town! Fun shopping and lunch there. On Wednesday we took a crew to play mini golf and drive go carts. Both highly competitive sports!
Our final days were spent back on the beach finishing our books, playing games on the porch in the afternoon and continuing the lobster fest.
It has been many years since I have seen my cousins and I rarely get to see my aunt too. I love that part of the magic of this week was getting a chance to reconnect and hang out with all of them. I’m so glad I brought my ‘big’ camera to capture all this togetherness in such a beautiful location.
Here are just a few of my favorites. I often get asked who takes MY family pictures. I did buy a tripod in New York so I could take my own, but a big thank you to Stephen, my brother in law, for taking them. I appreciate him letting me do all the set up because I am uber controlling and specific about what I want and he is so great at just rolling with it. Thanks Stephen!
And a couple more that my girls came up with…
A big thank you to Mom for pulling this trip together. Yay for a week of great family time! Can we go back next week?