Cape Cod...the full version

After Lindsay's wedding, we headed for Cape Cod again! This time we stayed for a super relaxing two weeks. I so we Kara drove up with us from Lindsay's wedding and stayed with us for four days. It was great to hang out with her. Beth, Marc and Brock came and visited for the weekend. We played Clue(do), Monopoly, Poker, mini golf (putt-putt and a few games in between. The days were spent reading, clam digging, fishing (well for me anyway), Hannah teaching me the finer points of rowing and just general relaxing.





















Beth tee'ing off.

















Marc and me clamming. He found one.



Hannah, the master clammer!

It has been a warm October so the days were beautiful. But the evenings were chilly so it gave us a great excuse to make a fire inside every night - we first had to figure out that the chimney damper needed to be opened after almost smoking ourselves out the first night.

We woke up one morning to see that the cranberry bog behind Hannah's house had, literally over night, become a blaze of red and crimson. The cranberries were being harvested!! We went down and spoke to the farmer for about two hours where we learned the differences and merits of dry picking vs wet picking.

















The cranberry knocking machine
















The cranberry bog

After two weeks of great relaxation, we were ready to go back to New York City!!

Fishing report
The fall season is prime time for striped bass, but the fishing can be quite temperamental (conditions dependent) and it was. The bass can literally be thick on one beach one night and absent on the same beach the following night. I put in a lot of time for bass, but only got a few smaller ones. I did manage to get some decent bluefish (6lbs) so that kept any kinks out of my line. I fished for the blues right off a sandbank drop off and once the tide started pushing the blues would come right up onto the sandbank and chase baitfish. The tide would rise at 15cm over 15mins so the fishing time was limited. It was quite something having to leave while the blues were smashing baitfish everywhere. (Sorry, no pictures as I was fishing alone)

Connecticut

Lindsay is a good friend of Hannah's from uni. She was getting married to Karl who is her uni sweetheart and Hannah was asked to be one of her bride's maids. Jenifer kindly lent us her golf and so drove the 5 hours to Connecticut.Connecticut is a small state, but is the wealthiest state in America. Connecticut is very wooded and has a particultarly rural (and wealthy) feel.

Morgan and Kara, mutual friends of Hannah and Lindsay, were also asked to be bride's maids. We all met up at Lindsay's parents house in Enfield the day before the wedding. The wedding party had the wedding rehearsal and then the rehearsal dinner where I got to spend some time with Morgan and Kara. Beth and Marc arrived the following day from New Zealand. Brock drove them from Boston.

Kara, Morgan and Hannah all got ready at Lindsay's folks house and they all looked so beatiful. Lindsay was ready on time and the house was the most relaxed I've ever seen a pre-wedding house. The limo arrived and all the ladies piled in and it was off the ceremony. Wedding ceremonies always seem to go so quickly, but my endearing memory is Lindsay literally bouncing up the aisle.

The reception was held at a yacht club 45 min away. No expense was spared and the whole reception was lavish and most importantly, great fun! We all woke up a bit tired and sore the following day but I'm not sure whether it was the raucous fun the night before or the fact that nine of us packed into two hotel rooms meant me sleeping on two couch cushions. Smart money is on the raucous party though!

We wish Lindsay and Karl all the best in their life together!


















Brent, Morgan and Kara


















Hannah, Morgan, Kara and Lindsay!

















Karl and Lindsay!















The bridesmaids - don't they look beautiful!















The American sized limo for the bridal party















Husband and wife!


















The afterparty air guitar duet! Brock and Hannah in full flight.

Home to Greenbelt

After the wild ride of New York, staying with Hannah's mom and new husband Peter was a pleasant, relaxing change. We spent a restful two weeks, reading, discussing politics (Sarah Palin has been making serious headlines - goshdarnit!) and generally hanging out. We were well protected by Callie, the black lab, who saw off the UPS delivery man with loud, vicious barking every day! Callie also had an incredible ability to get food off shelves, tables and countertops that should be way out of reach for normal dogs! As cross as cleaning up a bag of flour off the kitchen makes you, one look at that labrador face melts it all away!

Callie, the dog!

Jenifer and Peter got married while we were staying with them! They will be having a big celebration in the Spring, but it was great to be able to share this important occasion with them.

Peter and Jenifer!

Hannah and Peter spent some time explaining the major rules of baseball and american football. In my opinion, baseball has a surprising number of similarities to cricket which I'll share with you over a beer sometime. Hannah and I went to go and see the Washington Nationals baseball team play against the Tampa bay rays. The Nationals took a bit of a pounding including a home run off the first ball - ouch! But it was great fun!

I went to the Maryland Bass Pro Shop. I was lucky to meet Harry who works in the fly fishing department once a week. He recently retired from the fire fighting department. He confided to me that the one shift per week at Bass Pro is to secure his employee discount. Harry invited me to go fishing with him for smallmouth bass. Harry organised an extra kayak and I met him at 10am for a day's fishing. Although we didn't catch any monsters, we caught a fair number of small bass and a lot of bluegill. Fishing while floating down the river on a beautiful autumn day is tough to beat!

Hannah and I also played disc golf at a local course. Disc golf you say?! Well, disc golf was invented for frisbee throwers who like to play with themselves! It follows basically the same rules as traditional golf. There is usually an 18 hole course whereby a disc is thrown as few times as possible from the starting tee to the basket. The person with the fewest number of throws wins! There are even different kinds of discs namely drivers, mid range and putters!















The tenth hole. Note the basket at the back and the woodchuck in the front!

Stand back amateurs!

It was a great two weeks, the highlight of which was really being able to spend time with Jenifer and Peter.

Next stop was a wedding in Connecticut!

(Sidenote: I am writing this in the car while Hannah is driving us to Boston. We took a wrong turn and Hannah did a sneaky uturn which all of us do occasionally. Unfortunately, it was a no uturn intersection and we got pulled over by the state police, blue flashing lights and all, "License and registration please!". Although she won't admit it, I think that Hannah got pull over just so I could see what it was like! "Welcome to America! Now please step out the vehicle!!")

Interesting animals seen so far...

1. Bald eagle
2. Black bear
3. Cayote
4. Horse head seal
5. Woodchuck
6. Chipmunk
7. Beaver
8. Woodpecker (woken up by one hammering on the tree next to our bedroom)
9. Wild turkey