Cape Cod and a taste of Boston (Columbus Day Weekend)

Our good friends Steph and David Harris-Cloake came to the US on an extensive ringing tour. Lucky for us, a lot of the towers in the US with bells are right here on the East coast!

We decided to join the tour on their trip to Cape Cod and Boston. Stephen and I have been keen to go to Cape Cod and thought this was the perfect opportunity. Cape Cod is about a five hour drive from NYC. We set off on the Saturday morning and made it to the Cape in time for a quarter peal at The Community of Jesus in Orleans, MA.

The Community of Jesus is a church community that is comprised of approximately 75 Sisters, 25 Brothers and 300+ community members. They have a new set of bells (barely a year old) and a very unique, ground level, open air ringing chamber. Stephen was fortunate enough to ring in and score a quarter peal on their beautiful bells.








It was an extremely cold evening and Esme and I were grateful to Sister Alicia for lending us some thick wool blankets!


One of the ringers on the US tour, Louise Pink, was a ringer that Stephen learned to ring with when he was young. It was nice for Stephen to catch with her and for Esme and I to meet her.


Stephen was brave enough to make the vertical climb up the bell tower so that he could get a look at the bells.



The new chapel at the Community of Jesus



The following day, our little family followed the advice of Sister Alicia and another community member and visited the New England town of Chatham. It had endless charm, lovely shops and a beautiful beach. We even had fish and chips in a quaint little restuarant. It was a lovely day.





There was a church straight from a postcard in the town center that was selling pumpkins. It was the perfect photo op.




That same day, we decided to drive out to Provincetown, the furthest point on Cape Cod. On the way we stopped at a cute and very popular little bakery called the Boulangerie. The line was long but was worth the wait. The olive bread we purchased was divine!


We finally made it to Provincetown and it was extremely busy (it was Columbus Day weekend, after all)! Discouraged by the crowds and lack of parking, we decided to make a loop around town and leave.

Guess what we found on our loop?! The landing place of the Pilgrims! We stumbled upon it completely by accident and were super excited to have done so! We stopped at this location because there was a big path of rocks leading out into the ocean that you could walk upon. After we finished our walk I saw a family taking a picture in this little park just across the street. Wanting a family picture, we went over to the little area and noticed a sign...


I wanted to visit the pilgrim monument and museum but didn't want to battle the crowds. This was even better!



The pilgrim monument



The walkway of rocks




Looking back on Provincetown (on the rock walkway).


We drove straight from Provincetown to Boston (about a two hour drive) and met up with the UK ringing group for dinner at the Cambridge Brewing Company. Stephen enjoyed the excellent (and cheap!) beers but the service was awful. It took us over two hours to get our meal and it was very mediocre. Good thing Stephen had good beer and we had good company to keep us in good spirits!

The outskirts of Boston are absolutely beautiful. We stayed longer than planned in Cape Cod and didn't have enough time in Boston to explore it properly. We decided to leave the city centre for another trip so that we could enjoy it and see all we want to see. We will definitely be making another trip there before we leave the East coast.

Monday morning, on our way back to NYC, we made a stop of the Samuel Adams brewery. Sam Adams is Stephen's favorite american beer and he was very keen to visit.

The brewery is very small and slightly disappointing (they only brew specialty beer and beer for competitions at this factory) but we still enjoyed ourselves. Stephen had the opportunity to sample many unique beers that we wont find in NYC or anywhere outside of Boston.


After the tour, we took a trolley to one of the oldest pubs in boston. As part of the tour, you can order a Sam Adams pint from this pub and keep the glass! We each ordered a pint (Stephen did the drinking;) and enjoyed a nice pub meal.




This lunch concluded our trip. All that was left was the drive back to NYC...and it was a long one. Holiday weekend traffic turned a 3 hour drive into a 5 hour drive! It was worth it- a wonderful weekend!

Family from down under! (Weekend of Oct 2nd)

Stephen has a lot of family members in Australia and, because of the distance, has not met many of them. His cousin, Glen, was recently transferred from Australia to San Francisco and decided to take a holiday to NYC. His lovely girlfriend, Aerliah, joined him and we were fortunate enough to get to spend a day with them.

We met up with them, had lunch at the Route 66 diner in Hell's Kitchen and enjoyed a long stroll around central park. They are both lovely individuals and we look forward to keeping in touch with them over the years.





Stephen and I "discovered" a park in Bayonne that we did not know about. We wish we would have found it sooner so we could have enjoyed it over the summer but better late than never.

The park has swings and other toys for babies and is the perfect place for a walk along the water. I have also been told that there is a bird sanctuary down there and we are keen to have a look some day.






My cheeky little angel

Just Esme!

At around 8.5-9 months I had to start supplementing with formula. I was really reluctant to do so but my body forced me. The pregnancy reduced my milk supply and Ez was getting frustrated and started to bite! Not fun. Around this time she also started eating a lot more finger foods. She is very good at chewing (despite not having any teeth) and loves to feed herself. A few of these pictures show how good she is at it!



One of my favorite things about Esme is how she raises her eyebrows when she eats something new. She arches her eyebrows and examines the food between her tiny little fingers. It isn't really something I can capture on camera but I assure you- it is priceless.

Esme LOVES broccoli! It is the perfect finger food for her!


She also adores mandarin oranges. It is really cute to watch her eat them. She sucks all of the juice out and discards the bits she doesn't want. This picture shows her "mandarin orange graveyard."


Esme also stopped sleeping on her back and started sleeping on her side and stomach. She tosses and turns just like her Mama!


Ez pushing Savannah in her radio flyer wagon. Ez really needs one of these!


Ez in her "hogwashers." Grandpa Gordy would be so proud!

Michelle's Visit to NYC (9/14-9/18)

Grandma Michelle made a visit to NYC. Michelle is my dad's first wife and we have maintained a close relationship.

She booked her tickets a few months before she came and I made a boo boo! Tickets to England were extremely pricey this time around so the minute I saw a good price I jumped on it. Unfortunately, I forgot to check Michelle's dates before I booked and she was due to arrive at our place in NJ three days before we got home!

It was all a bit stressful but in the end we changed her arrival dates and all was well. We got home at midnight one night and she arrived at 7 am the next morning! Because I messed the dates up, her trip was a few days shorter than planned and we had to cram a lot of sight seeing into a few days...I think we were pretty successful!

We saw the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island


The old train station in Jersey city with great views of Manhattan and The Statue/Ellis Island


I love this picture


The old train station (you can take the statue of liberty tour from here as well- we took it from battery park in NYC).


We saw Times Square, including the M&M store, and the giant Toys R Us with ferris wheel inside. I have always wanted to ride this with Esme but never had the chance. We did it and we got to ride in the Toy Story car....pretty awesome!



On the ferris wheel...you can see the characters behind us!


We had lunch in Little Italy during a huge street fair. There were tons of vendors and carnival games so the streets were packed. A couple from Oregon stopped us and commented on how cute Ez was. They also gave us a giant Winnie the Pooh that they won at a carnival game because they had no room in their luggage to take it home.



I took Michelle to see the 911 memorial at the end of the peninsula we live on. She thought it was spectacular and also couldn't believe the size of the ships that dock down there. It is a shipping port and also a cruise terminal port.

One of the things Michelle was looking really forward to was seeing central park. We had a stroll around and even had a bit of an event! Michelle fancied a water and bought me a popsicle (I crave popsicles when I am prego). I dove straight in and my tongue got stuck to the popsicle. Im not talking stuck for a few seconds....I am talking kid in a Christmas Story stuck to the pole kind of stuck. We had to pour water over it several times before it finally came loose. It was a terrible and painful experience. The man selling them informed me that they keep it cold with dry ice and that was probably the problem. GREAT!

Ez in central park


After the popsicle defrosted a bit, I decided to give a Ez a lick. She had been teething and I thought it would feel good on her gums. She loved it! She didn't love it, however, when I took it away!

She is watching the popsicle but thinks I am going to give it back...


Once reality sets in the tears start flowing!


On the last day of Michelle's visit we went to the Empire State building. We almost ran out of time but I refused to let her leave NYC without going up! She was very glad that I insisted.

I love this pic with all of the cabs! Very NYC.


It was sad to say goodbye but we had a great visit and hope Grandma Michelle comes back soon! x