From the Cape

So, I realize that I haven't been blogging like I promised I would try to do more regularly, but let me explain.  Between all of our travels, out of town guests, and David's busy schedule, we JUST got our desktop out of its box and all hooked up.  Because I had my iPad for things like email and Facebook, there was no urgency to get the regular computer back up and running.  Although I love my iPad, it is miserable to use to type things longer than a two-line email.  Forgiven?

In the past month we've been unpacking boxes, organizing, re-packing suitcases, traveling, unpacking, entertaining, cleaning, exploring...basically we've been very busy. 

The first 2 weeks or so after Anderson and I arrived on Cape Cod were spent unpacking boxes and trying to make order out of complete and utter chaos.   I'm not a great a miserable multi-tasker.  So I didn't really leave the house until it was unpacked, organized, and clean.  It was a bigger task than I was expecting because with this move we decided to have the movers unpack us.  In my chats with other military wives I'd heard that having the movers help unpack can really speed the process along.  They unpack the boxes and get the boxes and packing materials out of the house, and since it's all ready to go, you get things put away faster.  It's also not as easy to just pile the boxes in a corner and deal with them "later".  It's all unpacked and waiting for you to deal with it NOW.  In theory, this sounded like it could be a big help.  David and I talked about it and decided to give it a try.  BIG MISTAKE.  Now, I'm not sure if it was the particular movers we had, or if we should've been more on top of them as they were doing it...but it was probably the worst decision we've made in a while.  For starters, David was the only one at the house (remember, Anderson and I were relaxing on the beaches of Florida at this point!) and there were 8 or 9 people who arrived to unpack us the day after they moved everything in.  Everyone chose a room and got started.  David was in our bedroom, neatly unpacking and putting things away, assuming the same was going on all through the house.  It wasn't.  Apparently, unless you tell them differently, they just empty boxes and pile it up anywhere.  They throw stuff in drawers, load things onto shelves, pile it up until the stack is as big as a person.  Whatever is in the box, regardless of if it belongs in that room or not, gets taken out of the boxes and shoved wherever.  Or they'll just dump the box out and move on.  Once David realized what was going on he stopped them and sent them home, but by that time it was too late.  Half the boxes were unpacked and the contents just shoved, dumped, or thrown anywhere, and there were more boxes waiting to be unpacked.  There was no room to move around among the piles of already unpacked things, and when you tried to organize things and put them away there was no where to put them because the shelves, drawers, etc. were already packed with other stuff the movers had dumped there.  It was a HUGE mess.  HUGE.  My description of this does it no justice.  We moved from a 4000 square foot home to a much smaller place, so there WAS. STUFF. EVERYWHERE.  David, who never gets rattled, called me and he sounded so overwhelmed.  I felt so bad for him, but slightly relieved that I was in FL and not in the midst of that nightmare.  :)  By the time we got there he had things a little more under control. 

 

**This is our room.  I haven't taken any pictures of the house yet,

so I snapped this quickly this morning...it was the cleanest!  ** 

 

**Again, no pics of the front of the house, but for some reason Anderson snapped this one with my phone.  It's a picture taken from our driveway, looking at the cul-del-sac and the neighbor's house.** 

 

After we were mostly unpacked we started exploring a little.  There's a beach right down the road from us, so we went there a few times.  I found the grocery stores.  We started eating out at local restaurants, finding ones that we'd like to come back to another time.  We found a 10 mile seaside bike path.  We ventured to other towns and found shops and restaurants there.  We found more beaches.  Then, as people started visiting us we started finding bigger, more touristy things to do.  The Zooquarium, whale watching, museums, a Red Sox game.  It's been fun, and as the summer winds down I'm looking forward to having lots of time next summer to explore and experience MORE! 

**David got some free tickets to a Red Sox game from work.  Not the best seats, but it was fun.**

 

**Whale watch out of P-town**

Cape Cod is a very unique place.  Here are some things that I've found noteworthy: 

The traffic here is something like I have never experienced.  There's really one major highway that runs the length of the Cape, but other than that it's all smaller, two-lane, local roads.  Since the population here in the summer swells to 3x what it is in the winter, things can get congested pretty easily.  I had a doctors appointment in Hyannis, which is about 20 miles away, and it took me well over an hour to get there.  If you have to go "off Cape" you'd better plan what day you're going--if you try to leave or come back on the weekend you WILL get stuck in bridge traffic.  For hours.  No joke.  And there are traffic circles--called a rotary here--everywhere.  We had a big traffic circle where we used to live, and my dad taught me the correct way to navigate one when I was still sitting in the backseat.  By the time I got my license it was a no-brainer--you enter the traffic circle and move to the inside lane, when you come around to the exit you need you move to the outside lane and exit, using your signals at all times to let other drivers know where you're headed.  Well, here on the Cape it doesn't work like that.  There aren't any lane lines, so even though the road coming into the circle is two lanes, it's common to see 4 cars across inside the circle.  No one uses blinkers, and if you try to do it the "right" way and get to the inside of the circle...you'll never get out.  So I have chucked all that I know about traffic circles out the window and just stick to the outside lane.  The philosophy seems to be "gun it and go...and hope for the best".   It's nuts.  But...somehow a little charming. 

The accents...oh, the accents.  Need I say more?

I need to research this more, but Cape Cod has some kind of ordinance, it would seem, on big box stores and restaurant chains.  There isn't a McDonalds, Target, Applebees, or Home Depot to be found.  Again, I find this charming, even though sometimes it's a hassle to find what you need quickly.  There is a Wal-Mart on the Cape (ugh, I try not to go there unless it's an emergency), and Dunkin' Donuts seems to have made the cut.  Other than that it's smaller, local businesses.  I recently went into the cutest hardware shop I've ever been in!  And we've found a coffee shop right around the corner from us that is awesome.  We have to plan ahead more than we used to, since we can't just swing into Lowes on our way home and grab curtain rods.  Most of the businesses close at 5 and are closed on Sundays. 

The beaches here are lovely.  They are very rocky, and have a TON of shells.  Very different from the sugar sand beaches of Panama City, or the Atlantic beaches we're used to.  I think of it as more "seashore" and less "beach". 

**Marina in Harwichport, a town we found while exploring**

 

 

**Anderson at the beach at the end of our road**

 

 

**The marina right next to the beach at the end of our road.  These are the dingies that people use to get out to their big sailboats, which are anchored off shore to the right.  We came down to the marina to watch the sunset.**

So far we are really enjoying living here.  We miss our NY, FL, and OH friends, but we are getting settled and doing well here on the Cape.  Now that Anderson is starting school and sports, we hope to meet people and make new friends. 

**Bouys in P-town**