Cape Cod

We left New York well rested and a few hours late after trying to sort out the car hire issue, but now we were on our way headed straight for Cape Cod, well as straight as Google Maps will allow us anyway. In hindsight we should have taken Flavio's GPS, but that would make me less of a man now wouldn't it.

Our drive took about an hour longer than we had wished for, but still arrived at Ray's house with some sunlight to spare and with a fantastic welcome. Ray's sister and his dog were there with a bottle of red to wash away the long drive. Laurie had also put together some fantastic quiche and cranberry bread so we were not to go hungry.

The wheels for that weekend were tonight set in motion as we went from bar to bar in Cape Cod. Not a remarkably big area, there is always a ‘happening' place a few miles away and a couple back road's home.

I somehow managed to plant a seed in Mike's head that we should go snowboarding in New Hampshire, he seemed pretty keen, and so we'll see how that pans out.

Ray couldn't possibly have let us stay at his house for free (????) so he had us working on the cranberry farm in the morning. He has built a greenhouse there to grow seedlings of various types of pretty flowers in the off season, when the cranberries don't require much work. So on this biting Cape Cod Saturday morning, Celia, Jane, Ray and Dieter (don't you hate it when people talk about themselves in the third person) got busy planting. It was definitely a case of many hands make light work as those few hundred seedlings were planted in no time, it wasn't even late enough to crack open the first cold one. We killed time by watching Ray's amazing greenhouse plumbing in action, which instead of watering the plants, just leaked a big puddle in the corner, nice!

The afternoon showers arrived, and that called for us to pack up, but not before I had negotiated the pathways through all the cranberry bogs on Ray's golf cart. Let me rephrase that, on Ray's working golf cart. He has behind his house a golf cart graveyard, ranging from the standard club car type to the more outrageous Harley Davidson golf cart. He keeps them there as he says he might need some spare parts sometime.

We had some great seafood that afternoon in a little village (don't ask me which – Hyannis maybe) and I got to try more of the local brew. So far I have been very loyal and stuck to my Sam Adams, but the Harpoon IPA I had that afternoon is not all that bad either. Celia ordered some ‘New England Steamers' or something to that effect which are these massive clams which have the texture of an Oyster and are not really my thing as the one I had went down with hooks and almost came straight back up. It seemed to have the same effect on Celia as she politely said she was not that hungry.

We had a fantastic BBQ at Mike and Jane's house that night with some of the tastiest sirloin I have ever eaten. Interestingly the topic came up as to why we have seen very few (I mean tens of) sheep in the US. It turns out that the cattle farmers completely took over and drove out all the sheep farmers. They don't know what they are missing.

The evening involved a trip to the Claddagh where Richard and Monika met, so really the visit was mandatory. They were currently experiencing some licensing issues so were not open, but they did manage to turn the kettle on and pour us a famous Claddagh coffee, which according to my taste buds, contains less than 10% coffee and the rest, according to Cathy, Frangelico, Kahlua and Whisky. A couple of those, and I needed the back roads. Fortunately Ray was driving and took us out to Sundancers where this U2 tribute band was playing and everyone was in fine form on the dance floor, so I joined them and managed to get a bite without even casting a line. I am a married man now so I just shook the hook loose and carried on dancing. It seems however, that I've still got it.