Cape Cod Holiday

Our original plan to visit Washington DC was ditched but we decided to visit Cape Cod instead. We managed to get accommodation at the Provincetown Inn right by the breakwater. Sonya was happy that our room faced the ocean and there was a little patio area right in front.

We spent most of the first half of the day traveling and was quite lucky that traffic was smooth. Unfortunately, the weather had turned slightly cold by the time we got to the hotel but Sonya and Clara were still pretty happy to be at the beach wearing regular clothing plus their sweaters instead of their bathing suits.

Sonya and Clara started building their sandcastles but with the excess amount of water that they added to the sand, nothing stayed up.

Justin tried building his own castle too complete with the MIT dome. It looked more a prison than a castle to me :)

The receding tide exposed sea shells and the girls collected many that they intended to give to their friends.

Clara also did some drawings on the sand although she didn't know what it was that she drew. She has started to make more purposeful marks and her favorite thing to draw has progressed from what looked like rambutans to dinosaurs :)

Justin's castle was completed but not long after came a series of heavy downpour, courtesy of Sonya and Clara.

Ended the day with a mad stampede on the castle :)

After giving the toys a quick rinse in the sea, it was time for Sonya and Clara to have a shower before dinner. After dinner, we went to the Wellfleet Drive-In and watched Shrek 4.

We brought chips and beer (not for the kids of course!). Justin was in the driver's seat. Clara sat on my lap and Sonya sat in the middle of the backseats.

We totally enjoyed our first family movie together and this really should be the way to watch movies with kids :)

The next morning, after breakfast, the tide was so low that we could walk so far out from the beach.

We found large sea shells...

Dead baby crabs...

A hermit crab that was alive...

A sea snail that was alive too...

Lastly, we spotted a large clam.

We were unsure if it was alive so we brought it back to the hotel, put it in a bucket and waited for it to open its shell. And it did!

By the time we reached the edge of the water, the tide was creeping back in. It was quite amazing to see the water flow back towards the land.

Sonya suggested we stayed a few inches behind the water and followed it back. We did that for a while but gave up eventually.

After that, we decided to take on the 1.2-mile-long breakwater with a deserted beach and two lighthouses on the other end.

Sonya and Clara did great on the breakwater. They walked on the huge rocks holding on our hands and only needed help in the really tricky ones.

The breakwater was built in 1911 to protect the town’s harbor from the dune’s shifting sands. Sonya, Clara and Justin thought it would be easier to walk barefooted in the sand but the girls didn't want to hold their sandals so Sonya came up with an innovative way to get around it :)

Deserted beach at the tip of Cape Cod. It was definitely nicer than the private beach at our hotel but we couldn't stay for long as it was lunchtime and we still had to make our way back across the breakwater. Justin carried Clara all the way back and she fell asleep along the way. One of her pair of Crocs fell off somewhere.

After lunch at the Red Inn, Justin took Sonya and Clara to the hotel's pool while I made my way along Commercial Street looking for a new pair of slippers for Clara. I walked for about a mile before I found a pair of Diego flip flops for $1.

Here's Clara admiring her new pair of slippers :)

The water in the pool was really cold and we finally managed to convince Sonya to go to the beach instead.

There was a beautiful sunset but we couldn't stay outside for long with mosquitoes on the hunt for dinner everywhere.

We drove towards Woods Hole the next morning, hoping to catch a ferry over to Martha's Vineyard for a quick look around.

The ferry docked at Oak Bluffs, MA. Our first stop on the island was the Flying Horses Carousel, the the nation's oldest operating platform carousel and a National Historic Landmark.

Catch a ring and win a free ride. Sonya's arm was just not long enough to reach the rings.

Next was Ocean Park with the gingerbread houses. Sonya had thought we were going to see real gingerbread houses (the ones we made for Christmas) and was really sad and disappointed when she realized there were none.

The pair of Diego slippers were making Clara's feet really painful and she refused to wear them. Justin had to carry her for most part of the day. She was happy to be able to run on the grass barefooted.

We took the bus to Edgatown and met Olivia (Sonya takes the school bus back with her) and her family at the bus stop :)

Had an ice-cream break...

Hugged a dog statue with dog collar...

Admired mermaid ornaments hanging at the window...

And met a swan by the harbor looking for food...

Waited outside a restaurant while Clara went to the bathroom...

Saw a huge whale's tail in a garden...

Soak up the view at Edgatown Harbor before taking the bus to Vineyard Haven.

With a name like Vineyard Haven, we expected a beautiful place but was quite disappointed. We had intended to have a picnic at Owen Park while we waited for our ferry back to Woods Hole but the park was quite miserable. In addition, most of the shops and restaurants were closed for Memorial Day. We ended up grabbing something from Stop and Shop and took the next ferry back.

We really didn't find Martha's Vineyard enchanting. Maybe we didn't go to the beaches or we went on a holiday where everything was closed...