Cape Cod

Since Jackson works at the Orlando airport every other Thursday it has been easier to plan weekend trips. We drove MacK to Aunt Kathy's in North Ft. Myers on Wednesday evening after work then enjoyed listening to podcasts on our way to Orlando. 

Our/my current podcasts are:

-Revisionist History by Malcolm Gladwell

-Gangster Capitalism 

-Against the Rules by Michael Lewis

-Do the Thing by Melissa Urban

-Serial 

By the time we got to Orlando we were starving so we stopped in at one of their 75 Chuy's locations. Ok, not really 75 but they have a ton. I decided to celebrate national tequila day with a margarita that Jackson ended up having to help me with because it was huge. Any trip that starts out with dinner at Chuy's cannot be bad. 

National tequila day? Let's do this!

The next morning Jackson went to work and I worked from the hotel. He picked me up after he was finished for the day and we caught an afternoon flight to Providence, Rhode Island. We opted to stay at a hotel near the airport because we planned to do many single day trips around the area and it was super central. We had an easy flight on JetBlue (Jackson's client he had just worked for that day!) and soon settled in to our hotel for the next four nights. We nearly never stay in the same room that long so we actually got to unpack which was nice. 

It was dinnertime so we headed over to the Cranston, RI location of Legal Sea Foods which is one of my favorite restaurants in the greater Boston area. They had their famous lobster bisque and fish tacos so I was a happy girl.

LOBSTER BISQUE!

Fish tacos and Jackson dining on
calamari "Rhode Island style" with hot peppers & garlic

Please note that the temperature had dropped to like 77 and I was able to wear a sweatshirt for the evening. Rejoice! Rejoice! We actually came up this way just to get a break from the oppressive heat of a Floridian summer.

The area around the restaurant was really nice so we just did some shopping and just relaxed for the evening.

Shopping really kicked Jackson's butt

We never made it out to the Cape when we lived in Boston and whenever we visit we end up in Maine because I am obsessed with it so this time we made a real effort to see what all the fuss was about and visit Cape Cod. Our first stop? Breakfast in Sandwich, MA.

It doesn't get much more New England
 than this little restaurant

Jackson had a scone with cream and jam

There was no way I wasn't having a
sandwich in Sandwich!

The Cape Cod chips are a staple here in Naples due to the Bostonian invasion each winter so they've became a quick favorite of ours. We almost toured the factory but after the locals said it was less than stellar we decided not to waste our time. The chips with my sandwich in Sandwich were sure fresh, though. It was technically breakfast time but they had a cranberry chicken salad on their menu that I just could not pass up. The bread even had cranberries baked in it. This was one of the better sandwiches ever which pleased me to no end based on the town's name. Note: Jackson nearly killed me for my constant refrain of "having a sandwich in Sandwich" but whatever. ;)

From there we headed to Hyannis to get a feel for the place we all know because of the Kennedy family. Something to note about the good folks of Massachusetts and the greater New England area: THEY LOVE JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY DOWN TO THEIR SOULS. Because of this every Kennedy is basically royalty and darn near worshiped. Everywhere you look there is some kind memorial to the family or a plaque telling you that they dined here. 

Small town New England

JFK Memorial

For instance, this memorial took up valuable oceanfront property and no one seemed to mind.

The JFK Museum

Jackson had to be on a work call and doesn't share my deep love for museums so he took the call in the car and I spent $13 to walk around the JFK Museum. It is kind of like everything in life, the more experience you get the higher your expectations. This museum was really just photos and a few videos. It didn't even have anything about the assassination. They worshiped JFK calling him basically the center of everything good to happen ever. It was interesting, but I felt it was about $10 too expensive. While I did not learn a ton and they were militant about no photos being taken, it was neat to see it nonetheless.

We decided to go ahead and drive the entire length of the Cape so we headed for Provincetown which is the end. We stopped in Wellfleet at a highly regarded locals place for everything lobster. We ordered a lobster roll (think tuna salad but made with lobster meat), a lazy man's lobster (just lobster meat sautéed in butter and served on a warm roll) and the lobster macaroni and cheese. They also had fresh-squeezed lemonade. This feast set us back about $70 but we got to eat by the water and it was delicious. Also note that because they're near the water they do not use plastic straws anymore. Thank goodness I carry a stainless steel straw in my purse because paper straws are a nightmare and going without a straw is torture.

Lobster everything!!!

Lobster sandwich? Yes, please!

We drove all the way to the end of the Cape then realized we were now 150 miles from the hotel and would hit Friday evening traffic. Wonderful. We slogged our way back to Rhode Island taking all kinds of detours to miss the traffic coming out to the Cape for the weekend. We purposely came on a weekday to avoid the masses but got carried away exploring, stayed too long and ended up welcoming all the weekend revelers to the area instead. We decided that we kept exploring looking for something to make us say "oh, this is what the fuss is all about!" but we never found that spot. While it was pretty there, we are solidly Maine people and don't find ourselves anxious for a return trip to old Cape Cod.