Well, we have returned from our Cape Cod vacation. We had a wonderful time and even managed to get a bit of sailing in on Wednesday. On our way out (we drove) we stopped at Niagara Falls, we had not planned that one, but thought as long as we were so close it would be a shame not to stop. In a word, breathtaking. We are very happy we were able to see the falls. If you are contemplating a visit I whole heartedly recommend purchasing tickets, very reasonable at $13.50 U.S., for the boat tour. The Maid of the Mist boat tours leave every 30 minutes and the ride lasts about that long as well.
From there we made our way to the Cape. It was as beautiful as I remember and the weather was very pleasant too. We visited with some friends and family, ate fresh seafood, golfed and last but not least hitched a ride on a 36 foot Catalina out to Martha’s Vineyard, where we took the launch to shore and treated ourselves to fish and chips at the Seafood Shanty. Yum!
I am officially giving up on golf. There I said it, what a stupid “sport.” To think of all those wasted years I spent chasing a ball around. Suffice it to say I did not play well and to make it worse our twosome was paired up with a couple of kids who had the very annoying habit of getting quite disgusted with themselves, if say, their ball landed six feet from the cup rather than three feet after launching a spectacular shot from about 250 yards out. So much for golf.
I discovered something else too. I like cod. Up until this trip I had thought that I hated cod, but as it turns out I only hate the cod that they sell in Minnesota. The cod we had for dinner Monday evening had been caught that morning rather than sometime in the previous administration as is typical of the “cod” they sell around here. Of course, our cod dinner was expertly prepared by our friend Carole which was fabulous to say the least. What a difference! Same goes for the scallops we had for appetizers which were wrapped in bacon. Wow! I thought I liked scallops, but now that I’ve had “actual” fresh scallops it will be hard to go back to the “fresh” scallops, that curiously, still are frozen on the butcher’s display shelf here at home. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Joan’s prowess in the kitchen as well, we both put on a few pounds thanks to them. So now it’s off to the gym, just kidding.
Our sail to the Vineyard showed us a variety of conditions, from light winds at the start, then becalmed in the middle and then a 20 knot wind for a perfect beat to Edgartown. On the way back the wind disappeared and was replaced with a steady rain which showed up 12 hours before it was supposed too. We returned under the iron genny as we motorsailed the entire way back. Ah, such is life. I did learn quite a bit from our captain however and we both enjoyed our sail immensely. More to come on this topic in a later post.
