Cape Cod

Flying across the country with a 5 month old baby was a new experience for us. Thank heavens we have the happiest baby on earth because our long trek to the Cape went well. We left on Saturday, August 12th at 6:15am to make it to my parents house and leave with them to the airport. We did not make it to Cape Cod until about 10:00pm Eastern time or 8:00pm our time. (Andrew had to wait in line for AN HOUR to get our rental car. No wonder it was so cheap...) It was a long day! James slept a decent amount on both flights though which was nice. The worst/hardest part was probably the two and a half hour drive from the Boston airport to Cape Cod. We finally stopped at McDonald's, so I could feed starving James. 

First plane ride. I brought baby earmuffs so he would be able to sleep through all the annoying flight updates.

Most of the week was spent in the water and I can't complain about that one bit. Rob's parents live within walking distance of the bay and this area was private. It made it so nice because there weren't big crowds. 

Worth the long day of travel

The bay was so warm-- like 75 degrees. It was interesting because the tide changes every 12 hours, so sometimes there was no beach and other times you could walk close to a mile out where the beach once was. I am proud to report that James, Andrew, and I did NOT have to deal with sunburns which was dreamy and surprising after spending so much time in the sun.

This picture shows the tide and how the water disappears

James misses all the attention

Chilling

Our baby doesn't mind getting dirty

Everyone laughed that Andrew went out floating on this.

It was even funnier when he was oblivious to the fact that he was headed right into trouble.

Rob took me sailing. The breeze was so nice!

This was quite the workout.

Our adventure was cut short when we saw that Rob found a horseshoe crab, so we rushed back to see 

My Mom holding the crab

Going to the ocean was harder than expected. Lots of the beaches in Cape Cod seem to be private beaches which makes sense because it's such a ritzy place. We tried to go, but couldn't park there because we aren't Massachusetts tax payers. (I guess we could have parked in a far lot and taken a shuttle to the beach.) What we ended up doing was renting bikes and riding on a beautiful trail to the beach which ended up being about 8 miles. My Mom was in "nana mode" and offered to play with James, so Andrew and I both could go which we really appreciated. We enjoyed it so much that two days later we rented bikes again and did the same thing. The beach water was freezing! I believe the sign said it was about 60 degrees. We dipped our toes in the water, but we were spoiled after basically sitting in bath water at the bay.

A walk on the beach? Yes, please!

Mom told us to send her pictures when we made it to the beach while she was back watching James. This is what she got.

Second bike excursion. Andrew stayed home and watched James. Pictured Mom, Me, and Heather.

Talking about Cape Cod without mentioning the food would be a mistake. Unfortunately I'm not much of a fish/seafood person, but I still found plenty of things to love. There was an ice cream place that I miss so much. It was right by where we stayed and we went at least 3x. I could really use a scoop of their reese's peanut butter cup ice cream right about now. Rob's family had us over for dinner twice and they are huge cookers. They spent the day making homemade pasta sauce, french bread, meatballs, etc. so we could have a taste of Italy. 

My parents rented a large home for all of us to stay in. It wasn't as clean as it should have been and ended up having mice, but it was fun to all be together. James got to try out a swing for the first time in the backyard which was a success. Jess, Jill, and I enjoyed the hot tub as well. 

Pure joy

We almost forgot to take this pic and when we did, James was sad. Look at those red eyes.

The trip home was even longer with a layover that was 3+ hours long and a delay. The journey from Cape Cod to the Boston airport also took about 3 hours with traffic. Being away for a week made me extra excited to come home and sleep in my own bed. Having a baby on vacation was different than what I'm used to (and may have made me grumpy/stressed at times), but it was wonderful to have so many hands to help. James couldn't have been better though and slept like a champ while we were there which Rob's Dad, Dave, attributes to the fresh air. Cape Cod is beautiful and I will always cherish the memories we made there. Stay tuned for Jill's wedding post.