Seafood!

The best bit about Cape Cod definitely had to be the seafood! It was amazing!! I had the most fantastic scallops, prawns and white fish on the Cape. My favourite restaurant close to where we stayed was The Landing in Woods Hole but when we went to Provincetown we ate at a great seafood restaurant for lunch that served up the most amazing chowder I have ever had!!

Below are some pictures of my Dad's meal! He had Russian Oysters and then a seafood salad.

Steamers were also really popular on the Cape. I think I will be dreaming about the seafood for ever more!! It was delicious! My mouth is watering writing this blog at the moment!!!

All American!!

Don't my sister and Dougie look ridiculously 'All American!' ?? It's a great vibrant picture and would be a fantastic advert for Abercrombie and Fitch! (we all went to the mall the day before!)

Becky, Dougie, my Dad and I all climbed to the top (252 ft) of the Pilgrim Memorial in Provincetown, MA- which is right on the tip of Cape Cod.

I hadn't realized but before settling in Plymouth the Pilgrims on the Mayflower landed here for '5 weeks exploring the area around Provincetown and, most notable for the annals of history, drew up and signed the social contract that would govern their life in the new land, the famous Mayflower Compact.'

Once they decided it was too severe for them they moved on to Plymouth but I found it so interesting! They had a great little museum here too telling you all about the history of the Pilgrims... so I feel well versed in the history of Thanksgiving now!!

Sunsets!

Above are a couple of shots of the sunset from our house at Woods Hole. You can see our little dock in the bottom of the photos!

This was the sun setting as we got the ferry back from Martha's Vineyard to Woods Hole. Beautiful!! I felt so peaceful and it was really tranquil sitting on the deck! Although a little chilly!

Becky and Dougie outside our house looking out to the sunset! It almost looks fake! Like there is a blue screen behind them!! But I assure you it was very real!!

Martha's Vineyard and the start of Autumn!

I have always wanted to go to Martha's Vineyard ever since my friend Lauren's Mum, Linda McDaniels introduced me to the wonderful world of Susan Branch.

She is a fantastic woman who's life I would adore!! I enjoy a lot of similar things as her! But she spends half her year in Martha's Vineyard in a beautiful home where she paints watercolours and creates books on cooking and lifestyle living.... I adore escaping into her world of creating a home, her recipes and fabulous quotes!! I have often thought it would be fantastic to be the Scottish Susan Branch!! My house would be on the west coast of Scotland however and I would spend my morning walking in the beautiful scenery with my beagles to then return home to sit in my studio at the bottom of the garden and paint all afternoon before preparing a meal for Nathan and our children!! (maybe one day!!) If you too would like to escape into Susan Branch's world click here!

I couldn't help but think of Susan Branch as we took this photo in Oaks Bluff, Martha's Vineyard. Whilst we were taking the photo an entire flock of geese flew over- it was breathtaking! As the waiter had my camera at the time I was unable to take a photo of them I thought I'd missed out... but when i picked up this batch of photos I discovered he had captured them!! (top left)

Susan Branch has a quote in her Autumn book regarding the end of summer being signalled by the geese flying over!! And you know what I think she is right! Because we also spotted this conker tree in Vineyard Haven!! And a couple of days after this beautiful day the weather changed also as we got the tail end of Hurricane Kyle.

On this trip to the Vineyard we went to Oaks Bluff anf Vineyard Haven- each town was so different as was Edgertown which we visited with my relatives the next week. I loved the shops in Vineyard Haven but adored the gingerbread house in Oaks Bluff... I def want a multi coloured house! They look so cute and quirky! All the houses surround this meeting house.

Mornings!

I don't know whether it was the ferries leaving the Wood's Hole Terminal to travel to Martha's Vineyard that woke me up so early- they started at 6am! But every morning we were on vacation I was up at least before 7- sometimes before 6!! ..... at first I thought it was jet lag but it stuck with me all vacation!!

The benefit of this however was that I could take my coffee/ tea down to our little dock and enjoy the peace and tranquality. Also my Dad tended to be up before everyone else also and we had some nice early morning chats.

Once everyone was up and about my Mum made breakfast for us all- we ate pancakes/ french toast with bacon and maple syrup pretty much each day!! (So not healthy!!) But so enjoyable!!

Above is a shot of my breakfast one of the mornings we went out to eat. We all agreed it was the best place for breakfast in Woods Hole or Falmouth- 'Mongers' short for Fishmongers... the best time to go was 9am as that is when the work men working on the town's bridge stopped drilling!!

On Becky and Dougie's last day on holiday we got up early and went in the pouring rain (Hurricane Kyle had brought some rain.. my dad and I even have on our waterproof trousers in this photo!!) and we went to Betsy's dinner in Falmouth... Old school proper dinner... it was good fun but I only had a bagel as it was getting ridiculous the amount of big breakfasts I'd had!!

2 years!!

Well I really dislike blogging out of chronological order but I have been so busy trying to find my allusive job and getting settled back in to live in Edinburgh I have not been the best!!.. my camera is totally full and I haven't had a chance to download any photos so I can get my blog up to date!! Sorry!!!

I still have the rest of our Cape Cod trip, Duncan and Rebecca's wedding and loads of other goings on to get you caught up on! Not like me but I will get round to it! We still don't have the PC out of storage so it's making it harder!!

Anyways I couldn't let today go past without acknowledging that it was 2 years ago today that Nathan and I got together!

Where does the time go!! Here's a cute wee picture that he sent me on e-mail earlier!

It made me smile!

I'm off home now to cook a nice tea and get snuggled up together- maybe watch a movie... we don't have anything special planned just spending time with each other and reminiscing about the last 2 years!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY NATHAN!!!

Pirates- Ahoy there Matey!!

Before we went to the States on holiday my Mum had planned the trip on the Columbia for us and her friends and Colleagues in the States. There was a lot of banter on e-mails before hand as both my Mum and Dougie wanted to be pirates when they were little.

I had thought our sailing experience would be a lot more sedate and would involve sailing into the sunset with gin and tonics in our hands- as you can see from the photos not so!!

Therefore I kept my little surprise until after our trip. I'd considered bringing everything out at lunch but we dinned in a beautiful elegant restaurant and thought it not really appropriate. Unfortunately for the restaurant we went back there for coffee and to warm up after we arrived back on the wharf and so ended up sitting at their bar dressed in some very bizarre costumes!!!

Becky and Dougie making pirate faces!! I got Dougie and my Mum pirate bandannas and inflatable parrots as they were the chief pirates- or pirate captains- if you prefer!! Lots of fun!!!

Mia and Kerry with their Pirate gear on!! There was a promise of driving all the way back to Boston with it on.. but I'm not too sure if that happened!!

I think I look about 5 here!! Best anti ageing formula- wear a pirate outfit after 4 hours in the fresh sea air!! So if anyone wants to dress as a pirate for Halloween I still have a few hats and eye patches left over....

Columbia (12 Meter US-16)

Our group getting ready to go on the Columbia: Dougie, Becky, My Dad, Me, Kerry, Mia, Chris and My Mum.

My Dad in his waterproof gear that we got him for Christmas- usually only used on his wee dinghy.

My sister and I. Thankfully I brought two waterproof jackets so Bex could borrow one and keep her dry. She was really chilly but then we had only arrived the day before and were pretty jet lagged.

Chris Janney and Mia.

Kerry and Mum.

Becky and Dougie cuddled up trying to keep toasty. Dougie had his shorts on- very brave!!

We sailed up to these two class 12's that were racing each other- they had wooden masts and gorgeous cream sails- they looked so old school. We watched them race all the way under this bridge. As our skipper said it's kind of like a game of chess... move to soon and you might regret it. It's so tactical it was quite hard to follow at times but they were so beautiful on the water!

Holding myself up on ropes and any surface I could!! Thank goodness for the waterproof trousers!

Dad and Dougie grinding the spinniker (not sure that's spelt right!) It looked like hard work and they pretty much ended up in the water each time as the boat would tilt to almost 90*!!!

We sailed up beside this class 12 so our skipper could arrange with the skipper of this boat when they were leaving on Thursday to sail down to New York together to compete in a sailing competition. (I think it was New York) they seem to have a great community with all the 12's that sail out of Newport. It is also a great shot as it gives you an idea of what we looked like!

Looking up to the sails of Columbia-

In 1958 a new class of sailboats, the 12 Meter class, was introduced as the racing class of the America's Cup. Off the coast of Newport, Rhode Island sleek and fast, Columbia (12 Meter US-16), stunned its competition with a sweeping win of the first 12 Meter America's Cup, proving that 12 Meters were justifiable competitors in the coveted America's Cup! To find out more information on the Columbia and it's history click here.
The Columbia as we docked in Banisters Wharf, Newport after a great 4 hours sailing!

Woods Hole, MA

Well I have SO so many photos from my holiday in Cape Cod- it's going to be hard to summarize!!

The house my Mum rented was beautiful!! So stunning! It was right on the water- about 2 houses down from the ferry terminal in Woods Hole that goes to Martha's Vineyard.

The view of our house from the Ferry. It was on two levels and had alot of out door space to sit out and enjoy the weather. We also had our own little peeble beach and jetty.

Above is the local bakery in Woods Hole- on the first morning my Dad and I went down to get breakfast for everyone. You can see my Dad behind the Open sign.

Woods Hole is totally franchise free (loved that!!) You could even buy a bumper sticker to support it! About 3 miles away was another little village, Falmouth- which was very quaint and like a New England village should look.

I could honestly move to Cape Cod tomorrow! It is alot different to other parts of the states that I have been to... it's pretty Liberal, very few big chains and just beautiful!! The sunsets were stunning!! I have never seen anything like it!!

This was the view from the house on the first evening that Becky, Dougie and I arrived.