Da...na....da...na......Cape Cod!

Much like Barack, Michelle, Malia, Sasha and Bo we decided to take our summer vacation in Cape Cod and 'The Vineyard' (that's Martha's Vineyard to the tourists). Oh..the Cape...how splendid! Sadly though, we were not lucky enough to have Air Force One so it was 6 hours on the Greyhound for us. Judy (my mum), Tugs and I were off.

The Cape is a mix of cute little summer cottages and massive mansions. We found ourselves the former and settled in for a relaxing week. There is an amazing network of bike paths which pretty much go from one end to the other. Perfect for a cycling holiday for those who might be interested. But we'd left our Goodies style three rider bike at home so we just drove around. There's heaps to explore including ye olde lighthouses at just about every town. And for the seafood lovers, there are lobsters and oysters aplenty. BYO bibs!


A drive and a car ferry ride away is the Vineyard, which much like the Cape is quaint, pretty and worth exploring. Lots of seafood and cute towns with ice cream shops - Edgartown was Tug's personal favourite (she told me to write that). We checked out the bridge in Chappaquiddick where Teddy Kennedy drove off the road after a boozy night out and killed his passenger - a young lady who wasn't Mrs Kennedy. Ummaa....


Now the beaches here are not quite Australian standard but are probably some of the nicest in the US. They don't come cheap though. Yes, that's right! Beaches are not free in America. I know it's strange - what with America being the land of the free and all. But you gotta pay to go. $15 per day will get you access to some beaches but not all. Some are city owned, some are state owned and then some are privately owned. It's all very complicated really, which is why many of the locals swim in the fresh water ponds instead. That, and the fact that the water temperature of the ponds is over 15 C. The beaches are not!

Provincetown (or P-Town to the locals), on the tip of the Cape, is the centre of the action and home to a sizable gay community. It's pumping with shops, clubs, bars, pretty boys in skimpy budgie smugglers and tourists aplenty. Judy just loved it there! I think her favourite was the transgendered busker singing old country numbers in a voice that didn't quite match the outfit....if you know what I mean!

Now for those of you movies buffs, you might know that the Cape is also where Jaws was set. And as if on cue, we arrived at a local beach to a shark warning. A 12 foot White Pointer was looking for lunch. Tugs, straight on it was over helping out the news crews. I preferred watching the whale way out the back breach and play. Poor old Judy couldn't see anything.

Headwear, haircuts and turtles

Yes, love was in the air again in New York as the doey eyed happy couple returned for a quick visit....and boy were they loved up! Bless.

In between gazing into each other's eyes endlessly we managed to see a few sights and even get amongst it with the "Ladies". But not before I was forced to have my unruley mane tidied up by the talented (and slightly tipsy) Leisl.

The girls were allowed to head off by themselves to explore Harlem. With guidebook in hand a nice safe walking tour route described we felt certain they'd be safe. But alas they found themselves somewhat lost in a large park (not on the walking tour) and unsure how to get out. As they started to worry about being mugged they noticed a young man and decided to ask him for directions. Fortunately for them they had stumbled across a beat. The lovely gay ballerina escorted them out of the park to safety. No more solo adventures for them!

Central park was considered to be a safer excursion and we all headed off for lunch at the boathouse cafe and then a little row around the pond. Lucky Leisl and I have been working out. No help from Nikki and Claudia other than giving directions (we ran aground twice!!).




Shopping, good food and we even managed to palm off some of our clothes on them to take home so we can buy more.

Liberty, Justice and Sangria for ALL.....

So where did I leave off??

That's right....Aimo's departure and the impending arrival of CLeisl.

In between we managed to squeeze in a weekend visit to the Nation's Capital and lend our personal support to President Obama and reassure him of Australia's continued friendship and support on behalf of Julia. Perhaps a tad premature given the current state of political affairs in Oz.

The weekend started off with a fleeting visit to the Native American Museum and a desire to return to the cafeteria to sample some traditional eats! Followers - be warned!.....the food sounds interesting and nice but really it's just a lot of corn stuff. Corn soup, corn dumplings, corn syrup....not so nice.. trust me!

Much nicer than corn soup was the free jazz concert in the Sculpture Garden at the National Art Gallery. Jugs of Sangria, a cool fountain to dangle your feet in and a perfect sunset. Ahhhh.......

The next day we checked out the Newseum which is a new museum dedicated to the media and coverage of significant world events. They had a hunk of the old Berlin Wall out could touch. Little Tugs was in her element and only closing time could get her out of there. She loved it sooooo much we had to go back the next day for more. Luckily the world cup final was on and they had the biggest tv screen I had even seen so I was happy too.

The Holocaust Museum was not so happy but very interesting. Well worth a visit...but bring a cardie, it was icy in there! I'm not sure if they were trying to give us an insight into how the concentration camp peeps felt in the bitter European winter but it was certainly enough to will us to escape!!


A visit to the Capitol Building was short and we didn't get to see the actual rooms where the actual politicians make the actual laws but we did get to see where Senator Teddy Kennedy got sick at one of the Obama inauguration balls. Old Teddy was rushed to hospital and then died.

Speaking of dead Kennedys we toured Arlington Cemetery where JFK and Jackie O are buried. Sadly so are several hundred thousand US soldiers which have been killed in all the US wars. And just to cheer this blog post up...Arlington is just one of a hundred such military cemeteries in the US!!!!

And what's a visit to Washington without stop at the Pentagon? And yes, it's just like it is on TV...big and five-sided. Being mere civilians were we unable to get an inside look, and photo's are strictly forbidden (I'm sure they had all sorts of spying devices positioned around the building - like men pretending to be shrubs that would follow us but stop the minute we turned around) so all I have is the 9/11 memorial to show.




With not much time left we managed to squeeze in a quick visit to the Air and Space Museum. One could probably spend about a week in there quite happily but with limited time I stuck to the essentials. See space ships and touch a moon rock! The hubble telescope photos of galaxies and stars were oh so pretty!