I know I’m late on this update. Both of you that noticed will have to just deal with it.

Our next stop found us moving Southeast towards Cape Cod. After the busyness of Boston it was nice to do some relaxing. In Cape Cod we stayed at the Clapp’s Guest House. It’s a cute little place in the town of Harwich Port on the Cape. I was originally under the impression that we were staying in "Cape Cod," but that’s like saying you’re staying in the Gulf of Mexico. This photo is from the backyard and facing the main house. The guest house is behind me, but this shot really shows the greeness and beauty of the area.

Here’s a picture of our room. I show this picture for several reasons. It shows how quaint and interesting the rooms are, and it sort of felt like staying at Grandma’s house. The bathroom was tiny and there were a lot of bugs to begin with (but I killed them all.) The other reason I show you this picture is because of what’s on the television. That would be the show Myth Busters on Discovery. I am fairly confident I have now seen every episode of the show…ever. It totally rocks, and is a perfect example why we should never get cable tv…hmm, but it is educational right?

This is a very good picture of my hot wife. It’s 6:45ish on Tuesday, anyone like to take bets on how long it takes her to read that last sentence? Like I said, this part of the trip was mostly relaxing, so if you were expecting grand church buildings where wars concerning the fate of a nation were fought, you will be disappointed. This is taken out back in the beautiful backyard. She was nice enough to let me work on my photography skills (ie humoring me).

Because I like to keep you guessing, there actually were a few sites to see on the cape. There are TONS of lighthouses, and I’m guessing that’s because a cape was really easy for boats to run into or something. We visted a couple and saw some from a distance. This is the Highland Lighthouse which is about 100 yards from a really steep cliff on the sea. There was another guy there with some fancy Nikon taking pictures. There is a strange bond you feel towards someone else that has a similar camera, much like when I’d see other people driving a Ghia. I know nothing about them, but I feel like we have a connection is some odd way. Last I heard though his wife was yelling at him. As he went over the barrier separating the viewing area from the cliff all I heard was "Don’t worry honey, I won’t fall!"

One night in Cape Cod, frick, I mean Harwich Port, we went and saw a local baseball game! There were signs all over Harwich Port advertising the game, but it took us awhile to figure out what it was all about. The game was part of the Cape Cod Baseball League where college players come to play during the Summer. There were players from all over the country at various points in their college careers. We even saw several players from CSULB. The game was between the Harwich Port Mariners and their crosstown rivals, the Chatam A’s. It was a packed house, but Chatam was thoroughly thrashing Harwich Port. I kept the roster list so I can check back in 5 years and see if I’ve heard of any of them.

That is Cape Cod in a nutshell. Before the baseball game we went to a very tasty BBQ place with a funny old man called Dave’s Barbeque. We went to a Mexican place called Aye Caramba advertising "authentic Mexican food." Paul asked if the burritos come wet, to which the waitress replied, "I don’t know what that means." Yes, eating was one of the best parts of the trip.

Last update is yet to come…the big apple, New York City!

Before I post about our trip, let me say that I am flattered by the supposed power I hold in our blog circle of 10 or so people. Whether I am influential or simply have too much time on my hands, I love hearing about what is going on in everyone’s life. Kudos to Paddy for getting his title image fixed and super looking, Mr. Bakersfield for consistently posting great stuff, Amy’s super dooper Ecuador post, and Andrew’s cool Aquarium post. I still need to reply to everyone, just need a little bit to catch up. Now, on to our tour of New England.

We went a lot of places in Boston, but I’ve picked out the most memorable. One stop was Walden Pond where Thoreau went into the woods to live. We walked around this big pond getting bit by mosquitos and found the original site of his house. It’s no longer there, but there are a bunch of rocks that people have left from around the world paying tribute. There were also tons of cool mushrooms that I took pictures of along the trail.

One cool aspect of Boston was all the famous dead people. Below is a picture of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s grave, but we also saw Henry Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott (Little Women), and from a distance Paul Reveere and other Revolutionary War players. I particularly enjoyed Emerson in High School, and while I can’t recall anything specific about him or his essay on Self-Reliance, I’m pretty sure it set me on my path to conservativism.

A cool Revolutionary War site we saw was the Old North Church. This is where the whole "one if by land, two if by sea" thing happened. This was also special to us because it was on an episode of Treasure Hunters, haha. We also saw Paul Reveere’s house, but it wasn’t very exciting from the outside, and we didn’t want to pay to go inside.

A very cool tour we went on in Boston was called a Duck Tour. A DUKW (pronounced Duck) is an old WWII vehicle that could go on both land and sea. This particular tour took us all around downtown Boston and then into the Charles River. It was cool hearing about all the history in Boston and riding in vehicles that were used on D-Day. What you can’t see below the water is that there are a bunch of wheels!

Finally on our way from Boston to Cape Cod (the subject of my next post) we stopped in Plymouth to see the Mayflower II and Plymouth Rock. We were all very interested to see what exactly would be at "Plymouth Rock," because when you think about it, was there one specific rock that the original Mayflower landed on? Turns out over a hundred years ago somebody picked a rock and decided it was Plymouth Rock, and there is a small memorial with that rock inside. I have a picture of it, but it’s not very exciting, and it’s really just a random rock. Below is the Mayflower II which was built in England as a replica of the original. And you know who was behind the whole idea? Someone who shares my surname!

That was Boston in a nutshell. Overall I thought it was a gorgeous area. The old buildings and green landscapes are wonderful. Downtown Boston is sort of insane with streets going every which way, but some of the surrounding cities were quiet and relaxing.

It’s good to be back and blogging. Look for part two (Cape Cod) tomorrow.

Even though it’s Summer I’m feeling awfully busy! We leave bright and early in 5 hours for Boston, followed up by a little Cape Cod, and finally on to New York city. I am anxiously trying to organize songs onto the mp3 player and wasting what precious sleep time still remains. Luckily there will be a caffeinated beverage in the fridge downstairs waiting for me at 4:15 am when I wake up. We’ll be back in a week and a half or so, see ya then.