Boston and Cape Cod

I just spent a wonderful week visiting D and his family, including a weekend in Cape Cod. The house we stayed at is a guest house belonging to a family friend of Julie's and was quite palatial and beautiful! We were not strictly speaking on the Cape but in Marion, MA just on the mainland side of the bridge that the locals consider to be the official boundary of the Cape. The weather was perfect, warm and humid but with a nice breeze. The guest house is part of a private community with its own beach. D picked me up from the airport and we drove straight to Marion, meeting Julie and the kids at a local Thai restaurant. The Boston area is known for a lot of good ice cream places and we discovered Oxford Creamery nearby. The place was packed when we got there after dinner. It was hard to decide on a flavour but I went with Death By Chocolate (which seems like a popular flavour in this part of the world).  On Sunday, Julie's mom and stepdad joined us. We hung out at the beach and went to the local dock where people jumped off into the water, including one guy on a bike. Lots of people anchor their boats out past the dock (the tide level changes a lot) and with the beautiful grand beach front houses with their flag poles and Adirondack chairs the whole scene was ridiculously picturesque! For dinner we went to Turk's, which was recommended to us as the place to go for seafood. The place was densely packed with a restaurant on one side and a recently added sushi bar on the other. The food was delicious! After dinner we went back to Oxford. This time I got black raspberry, another iconic local flavour, basically an intensely berry flavored ice cream with a purple colour.

On Monday, Julie had to leave early for work so D and I took the kids to the dock one last time. Although the water was at low tide, Austin did quite a few jumps off the dock! We headed across the bridge to Cape Cod proper, to check out Woods Hole and Falmouth. We met up with a friend of D and Julie in Woods Hole and had more ice cream, at Jimmies. Both towns are really cute with a great New Englandy feel to them, lots of local shops with picturesque facades. Because we had Taco with us, everyone wanted to pet him and ooh and and ah over him.

Back in Boston, D and the kids and I went to see the Hokusai exhibit at MFA. The wood block prints were beautiful but we were all shocked at how tiny the Great Wave print is. Also that it was part of the Fuji series! At the end of the exhibit, there was an explanation of how wood block prints are made. 

I also went to the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum. Our book group read The Art Forger this past year and I wanted to see the setting of the story (and of the famous unsolved theft). The museum is completely unlike any other. The art was hung as Mrs Gardner desired, covering the walls or displayed on tables. Furniture fills the rooms in slightly odd ways. Where a stolen item was hung, the empty frame remains with a small sign indicating what used to be there.

On my last day, D and I took Taco to Arnold Arboretum. What a beautiful park! And the weather was perfect, sunny and not so humid. I then went to meet my friend Diane who had just moved to Boston about 6 weeks ago. She and her husband had finally got their furniture moved in a few weeks ago and were starting to explore the area. After lunch, I met D and the kids in Harvard Square. We wondered around a bit (including one more stop for ice cream) before I had to head to the airport for home.

Here are some photos from the trip,