A few photos from the Cape

We are back from our Cape Cod adventure. It was definitely one of the best trips we've taken. We actually relaxed... Kai had a blast too. This morning while he was eating his breakfast I asked him to say "bye bye" to the beach house and he looked at me and said "mo!" (We're not sure why, when he can make the "n" sound perfectly, he insists on saying "mo"). Our trip back home was rainy but we managed to avoid any horrendous traffic and Kai was a trooper traveller. Hopefully he can repeat his stellar traveller performance when we head to New Jersey on Tuesday - a much longer drive. I'm a little bummed to be back home so I thought I'd upload a few pics of our trip to cheer myself up.

Ever seen these before? They're horseshoe crabs and they are all over the beaches at the Cape. Interestingly, they are harvested for biomedical "bleeding" and their male population is greatly outnumbering the female population currently, causing concern to naturalists. They molt many times in their lives which accounts for some of the gazillion we saw on the beaches. Kai thought poking them was pretty cool.

Pregnant lady on a bike!

Check out this enormous beach at low tide. Kai was in heaven with all the room to run, tidal pools to splash in and muddy sand to get dirty in.

Greg and Kai on the incredibly scenic Province Lands bike trail.

Doesn't he just look like he is scoping out the surf?

At first, Kai wasn't sure what to think of this boating idea...

But once out on the water, he was all smiles!

And even bigger smiles once he was in the water!

Provincelands bike trail

I can hardly believe we only have one full day left here at the Cape. I am a self-admitted anticipation junkie and I have been anticipating this trip since I booked it back in March. 7 whole days with just my boys and nothing on the agenda except beach. Greg has been worried that the trip wouldn't live up to my expectations. He was wrong. Even though our trip is being book-ended by hurricanes Bill and Danny, we've had great weather (knocking wood as I write this as Danny hasn't actually arrived yet). Even some of the horrible NE humidity has eased up and we've enjoyed the best of summer weather. We've mixed it up with day trip outings and hanging close to the cottage on our local beach.

Today we headed to the tip of the Cape, to P-town. We rode the Provincelands bike trail which was about 7 miles of twisty, turny paved trail through sand dunes and forest and out to beaches. It was one of the nicest paved-type bike trails I have ever ridden. Most bike trails of this type are rail trails which means that they are basically flat and straight and just a wee bit boring. And if the ups and downs and swoops and scenery of the Provincelands bike trail weren't interesting enough, avoiding the other cyclists definitely was. Our fellow bike path users ranged from training wheel tykes, teams of senior citizens on expensive bikes with rearview mirrors attached to their helmets, and folks on rental bikes who were struggling to keep the front wheel going in a straight line. And then there were the groups of buff guys in tank tops wafting cologne as they went by on their bikes (we were in Provincetown, afterall).

I guess we were a bit of a sight ourselves. We forgot our helmets at home so we definitely had the rebel vibe going on. This was probably accentuated by my 8 month pregnant belly. But I was pretty comfy on my beach cruiser although its steel weight and my extra heft made the short, steep hills tough, not to mention my flat pedals and flip flops! Kai rode along behind Greg in his golden chariot just chilling out, playing with his toys and watching the scenery fly by. After some lunch and sightseeing in P-town we headed back to the cottage for some r&r. One more full day of Cape'n and then we're back to Bedford :-(

Disclaimer: this post was written while watching a mountain bike movie so might not be entirely coherent :-~

Cape'n

Louise beat me to the punch for the previous post. Mine was going to go like this:

Bikes? Check.

Suntan lotion? Check.

Beach toys? Check.

Beach towels & mat? Check.

Great White shark? Check.

Hurricane? Check.

Cape Cod, here we come!!

Anyway, after a few days here, we're solidly into 'Cape'n'-mode. Cape'n is similar to Cottage'n, its Ontario-Quebecois cousin, but with more beach and fewer black flies. Most of our days are spent at the beach, collecting seashells, watching Kai run up & down, splashing aboot the water, trying to change Kai's diaper without scouring his legs with sand, then pedaling back home for a lunch and a nap attempt (he just took his first nap today). During his nap/rest period, L & I catch up on tea-drinking, book-reading, napping, and debates over what to do after Kai gets up - ride our bikes to get ice cream or ride our bikes back to the beach.

Unfortunately, we forgot to bring the camera cable, so pictures for our fervent fans will have to wait till next weekend. Sorry all!!

So far, I'm impressed with the Cape. Traffic is pretty busy, as expected (and in keeping with the traditions of the crowded Northeast), but not overly so. If anything, its just forced us to slow down to Cape'n speed. The beaches we've been to haven't been overly crowded either, just enough people so we're not nervously thinking "Maybe we shouldn't be here..." as the "Jaws" theme music pipes up from the sand dunes. Speaking of Jaws, we plan on stopping by Martha's Vineyard (where the movie was actually filmed) on our way back home. 'Stopping by' means taking a ferry pretty early in the morn, but we're hoping our little sailor will enjoy the segue way.

Our little cottage is quite nice. There's an outdoor shower, small deck, grill, A/C (not really needed, but we still use it 'cause we got it!), skylights, and a nice, straight running strip for Kai to keep his wheels tuned up. ( Since the beaches here are a little softer and less flat than the ones we've been to in MA and ME, its a little harder for Kai to run.)

Looks like L is snoozing, so time to sign off and continue Cape'n. Aloha!

Just a little rain here...

This post is coming to you from Chatham, MA (the elbow of Cape Cod). Chatham has been the site of most of the news reports on Hurricane Bill b/c it seemed to be the spot that was going to be closest to it. It also made news the other night b/c of a Great White sighting. I was beginning to wonder what the universe was telling us about our plans to spend a week in Chatham! But after closely watching the weather reports on Friday and early Saturday we decided to come on down.

We woke the little man early and were on the road just after 7 am. Our early rising paid off as we were able to avoid most of the traffic chaos we expected, thanks to our friend Carrie for the great tip! Kai was excited about going on the "ip" (trip) not to be confused with "ip - chip" or "ip ip - dip dip" (known as ketchup to most of us). When we arrived in Chatham I asked Kai where we were to which he replied enthusiastically "ip!" We spent a little time on the beach waiting for our rental to be available and watched CNN cameras set up to film the waves and fog rolling in. I would have to say the mood around here yesterday was more excited than worried. Then we headed over to our "eek ouse" translation - beach house, to settle in.

During a leisurely stroll on Cockle Cove Beach last evening the waters were calm and there didn't seem to be too much to worry about. We are about 0.5 miles from the beach so we rode bikes (and towed Kai in the Chariot) down there. Funny how the pregnant lady can handle biking around but walking 0.5 mile is pure torture at this point! Back to the storm report: sounds like Nantucket got some high winds last night but as of this morning it is just a run of the mill rainy day around here. The tropical storm watch is still in effect but expected to be dropped later this morning as Bill heads up to play havoc with Shannon and Kip's Sunday kayaking plans :) Time for us to find some Cape Cod rainy day activities...

3 States in 1 Day and MASSCHAOS

Yesterday we took a trip up to Maine. To do so, we had to drive out of Mass, through some of New Hampshire and then on into Maine. That is one of the cool things about New England; the states are small enough and close together enough that it is really easy to go state-hopping! Our friends Wendy, Gary and Nick were staying at their beach cottage near Old Orchard Beach so we decided, based on the trusty advice of our GPS and google maps, to embark on the approximately 90 minute trip there and back in one day.

We quickly learned that all driving time estimates, particularly in the summer, need to be adjusted to account for the Masschaos factor. This happens in Massachusetts when just about everyone who lives here, and everyone south of us from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania etc all decide that they need to be at the beach (Maine) or at the lake (New Hampshire) on the same sunny Saturday. We spent our morning alternating b/tw being parked on the "freeway," to driving about 20 miles an hour to occasionally hitting 60 mph before slamming on the brakes again either to avoid an accident or to rubber neck one (along with everyone else) that we were fortunate enough to avoid. Throughout it all, we kept asking incredulously...."what is going on????? It's Saturday morning for cripe's sake!" Yes, and Saturday is the day that all the vacation homes switch over so folks head home, and folks head in. Perhaps some of these vacation home owners might consider staggering their check-in/check-out dates...might save alot of people, alot of headaches! I have already packed some tylenol for our foray down to Cape Cod next Saturday to check into our vacation rental, where I hear that what we experienced on the I-495 and I-95 yesterday was mere miniMASSCHAOS from what we will experience next Saturday.

Regardless of the nearly 3 hour drive to the beach in Maine, we had a great day. Kai is a definite beach bum as his little tanned legs and windblown hair can attest! For some reason he decided to call the beach "eek" yesterday (instead of "each," which is what he normally calls it). But whatevah, he had a great time at the "eek" digging in the sand, running everywhere, checking out seashells, wading in surf-less inlets, and running everywhere some more. I enjoyed my dip into the cool Atlantic and catching up with a good friend.

On the way home, we stopped in Portsmouth, NH, to make it a 3 state day. We've been curious about Portsmouth as it is a potential future temporary home for us. We definitely liked what we saw. I would describe it best as a combination of Bar Harbor, Maine, and Halifax, Nova Scotia with a teensy little bit of Victoria thrown in for good measure. We saw centuries old historic buildings, cafes and restaurants, neat little alleys filled with trinket shops, coffee shops and ice cream shops (many of the non-chain store variety - woot woot!) and winding roads...all of it surrounded by ocean inlets and the Piscataqua River (sp?) filled with working boats, leisure boats, ferries and kayaks. We gave it a thumb's up and will definitely have it high on our wish list for our post-MIT move.

Here is Kai, hanging on the beach with the guys.

Getting Ready...

As of yesterday, we officially have *2* months left until baby Sibs makes her/his appearance. Last night we took a prenatal refresher course and had a tour of the birthing center where we plan to bring Sibs into the world. I have a feeling that Sibs might take after his/her older brother and show up a little early. I don't think s/he wants to miss the smell of Thanksgiving turkey (Canadian Thanksgiving that is!) I think by this point during my pregnancy with Kai, we were MUCH more organized that we are this time. But we have finally begun to gather some things together in preparation for Sibs' arrival. This time around we're going mostly the second hand route. These photos are of one of our great craigslist finds - a joovy sit and stand stroller (also known as the joovy caboose).

As you can see, Kai enjoys it quite a bit! We decided to buy this stroller b/c it seems to be capable of transporting two children while not really being a double stroller. Because you see, to me, it seems that pushing a double stroller seems like a statement to the world that you really have lost your marbles. At least with the joovy, while one of your children stands, you can convince yourself that you really only have ONE baby to take care of. It just makes it all seem more manageable. We also picked this stroller b/c Kai isn't really a big sitter and we figured this stroller would appeal to him. We've been taking it out for test rides to get him used to it. So far, his opinion is thumbs up!

Today for the first time, he did decide to test out sitting in the joovy and he was pretty pleased. It seems he found it quite entertaining to be able to watch his parents pushing him along.

So while we've been on our second hand treasure hunt we came across this great little kitchen for Kai. He's been helping out alot in the real kitchen lately so we thought he'd enjoy this. I have to say, I'm a little jealous. It is quite a bit nicer than the one Greg and I get to use everyday!

Really pregnant now...

Its amazing how the 3rd trimester really lets you know it has arrived. If I thought I was sore, achy and tired before... Now I have resorted to perching the laundry basket on the top of the stairs and letting it make its own way down. Not only is it hard on my back to carry it down, there really isn't enough room for me and the laundry basket to make it downstairs without knocking all of our running and cycling shoes off their perch on the shelf alongside the stairs. We really do have way too many stairs in this house. Last pregnancy I swore I'd never do it again without a king size bed (but I did). This time I swear I won't do it again without a bungalow (and I won't!)

And let's talk about pregnant sleeping. Not being allowed to sleep on your back leaves two options (and obviously tummy sleep is not one of them!): sleep on your side until your hip goes completely numb or sleep in an upright position propped up on as many pillows as you can scrounge from other beds in the house and the linen closet. I have to say, one benefit of continually throwing up for the entire pregnancy is that I can take my nightly dose of nausea-preventing-unisom and get a decent night's sleep despite all the pillows and numb body parts.

For whatever reason my babies like to hang out as close to their exit route as possible so that means that I can still breathe but my pelvis is only hanging together by a ligamentous thread and my already embattled lower back is creaking and groaning whenever I move (oh wait....maybe that is me doing all the groaning!)

I thought this part of pregnancy was tough last time. Of course I did. I was sore and tired and I napped just about everyday when I got home from work...in a hammock...on my lanai in Hawaii. And when I really felt whalesque, I jumped in the car, headed to the beach and floated in the ocean or swam some relaxing laps at our local, always seemed to be open when I needed it, outdoor pool. Little did I know it then but that was the luxury pregnancy! This time around I bend and stoop alot more than I should. A certain little person needs his shoes taken on and off about 10 times a day, his clothes need to changed while he wriggles and squirms and climbs all over me, he needs to be helped in and out of his car seat several times as well (and yes, it is still in the ever convenient Element...no minivan here yet!), mushy cheerios need to be scooped off the floor, and sometimes a certain little 30 lb person is just too tired to climb the stairs himself or decides that knees (sans hands) are a better way to get up stairs then feet. I do still get my share of water time except that this time around it is in a pool where I spend most of my time catching my 30 pounder as he flings himself into the water and then spend the rest of the time avoiding the flailing feet kicking dangerously close to my belly. Or I get to stand in a fake lake filled with lots of toddlers and their pee pee while mine joins in with the crowd.

Life will be easier when I'm not pregnant anymore eh?????