A New Recipe ~ Aloha!

Since my eye bleck kept me from a Dolce Girl party on Friday night, I had ingredients to use up from the dish I was going to take. I wasn't in a cooking mood (again), but Al came by and offered to help make dinner! He went between the kitchen and watching the race with his Dad. : )

Hawaiian Curry Chicken with Pineapple Salsa. I just printed the recipe from Weight Watchers online, and can't find the link now for the life of me. But a blogger posted it here:

http://danjou.blogspot.com/2011/07/hawaiian-curried-chicken-with-pineapple.html

(Her spelling drove me crazy, and you cook the chicken for 20-30 minute, not 2-30 minutes. -_-)

The salsa. I put it in the food processor on pulse.

The coconut rice was very tasty too. We ate the salsa on the side since I forgot to put it on top of the chicken!

http://sweetpeaskitchen.com/2011/04/07/coconut-rice/

Ok, recipes are all fine and good, but I really like vacation blogging better : D

Winding Down

We spent the last two days of vacation lollygagging about, with a visit to the lighthouse and town center in Chatham, and walking around "our" neighborhood in Dennisport. And eating at Clancy's again ; ) Here are a few pics:

At the "Wee Packet" Irish restaurant in Dennisport. I had corned beef hash with real corned beef (not the canned stuff). It made me feel like I was back in Ireland with black pudding on the menu! (check out the hair. It was really sea breezy/windy that week)

MORE hydrangeas. I wanted to frame some of my pics, but none really turned out. Darn that misty hazy fog. And my lack of skills.

The Chatham Light. Seeing this picture convinces me I need to break out my Fuji and learn how to use it.

Super amazing "Bass River Mud" fudge sundae (coffee,chocolate, almonds and fudge) with fresh whip at the famous Sundae School. Their slogan is "Don't skip Sundae School"! : )

Just somewhere I'd like to live. *sigh*

Sooo reminds me of Ocean City, MD when I was a kid. That was darn good job, it was still on the beach in the evening!

So, that ends our Cape vaca. Jack started with allergies/cold the night before we left, and stayed jacked up on Nyquil for days. What a trooper, though, he drove everywhere and did the whale watch, Boston, the lighthouses, etc. while he was feeling really crummy. I got sick on the last day, whew. But my payback has been double pink eye and a longggg lasting cold/sinus infection. I don't care, I'm still going on vacations!!!

Hot in Boston!

Wednesday, July 20

Really. It was hot. But what a great day! We came to realize we had too many things planned for the day, so we just did our best. (just gives us a reason to go back!) Thanks to sage advice from friends, we drove to Quincy Adams metro stop (the "T"!) and rode the subway into Boston. That makes three subways for me! Maybe I'll make it a goal to ride a new one every year...

On the drive towards Braintree. We were having a fit about people driving in the breakdown lane! Finally, we saw a sign that said it's permitted between 6-10 am, Monday thru Friday. Crazy! We still couldn't figure out what would happen if you actually were broken down in the breakdown lane!

Let's start the Freedom Trail! We considered a walking tour, but followed along in the book instead. Outside Park Street Church.

Granary Burying Ground, where Paul Revere, signers of the Declaration of Independence and Boston Massacre victims are buried. This is a random grave; that scary winged skull is on almost every tombstone in every cemetery. Eeeek.

The Old Corner Bookstore. I love the warpy glass.

The Old State House and Boston Massacre Site, right smack in the middle of skyscrapers.

The famous Quincy market, across from Faneuil Hall. Funnn!

Watching folks chillin' at Rose Kennedy Greenway, while walking the trail up Hanover Street. I love the city!

 There are so many bakeries in the North End (Little Italy), we were tempted to stop at all of them! Sam told us not to miss Mike's, though...

Thank you Sam! Jack had his traditional eclair, and I chose a strawberry and cream lobster claw. OH. MY. GOSH!

This is Jack and Brian's idea of funny. What the heck, it's mine, too!

The Old North Church. "One if by land, two if by sea", you know!!! Btw, folks, it was Robert Newman who held the lanterns, not that ole Paul.

Jack and Brian walking the trail. Jack got tired of me stopping every two feet for pictures, so he went ahead by this time.

Across the street from Copp's Hill Burying Ground. Is it just us, or is that a tiny house?!

Jack's Graceland, The Constitution! The riggings were fabulous! We had a young sailor as our guide, who was fantastic.

A cannon on deck.

The port & bow. I couldn't fit it all in! Then we boarded the water taxi and headed back to the Aquarium.

A very clever street performer at Quincy Market. We went back there and ate at the "mock" Cheers, because we were too tired to walk to the real one! Very cool!

Next up: An Irish breakfast & trendy Chatham!

Thar She Blows!!! (you shoulda figured that was coming...)

Tuesday, July 19

WHALE WATCH!!!

We scheduled our tour for the earliest one of the day, and kept our fingers crossed for good weather. We got it! The ladies ahead of us in line on the pier gave us a tip on where to sit, so we sat on the port side, close to the bow. Off we go!

We took Dolphin Fleet Tours of Provincetown.

 Some call him Ishmael. I call him Captain Ahab.

A humpback! We saw a few before this guy, too.

Dorsal fin!

So happy I got this pic of the flukes!

This chick was showin' off her pecs. Her name is Niles : )

Choreographed just for us! She's on her back.

See her white markings under the water?!

Showoff.

Thankful for the great weather and photo ops!

One of my favorites!

Hiiiii!!! : )

They smack their pecs on the water for various reasons, one being playful. This gal wouldn't stop, I was getting worried! Our guide said they sometimes slap them till they bleed! : (

She swims like me, lays on her back and chills. (I'm not a great swimmer)

Jack just told me humpbacks have two blowholes. (I get involved in picture taking and don't always catch everything. Yeah, that's it.)

Niles pal Barb came to play. (He's a boy; apparently they're not named after people) So sad that we had to go!

Coming back to Ptown. Told ya there's a lotta lighthouses there! (One of three in Provincetown alone)

Made a pitstop on the way back to the timeshare. They even have Right Red & Right White wines to support the whale research done from Ptown.

My kinda humor.

Tomorrow: Boston!!!

Cape Codders! (us, and the drinks, too!)

Ok, this is it. My last vacation this....summer! The opportunity came knocking, so we tagged along with Brian to the Cape. I kept telling everyone we were going to "Boston"; Jack realized a few days before we left that we weren't as close to Boston as I had led him to believe. I just figured we were going to spend more time there, but it was a 90 minute drive one way, which really was a haul. Regardless, it was an awesome trip, and over my birthday, no less! If ya know me, you know I love my birthday month! I think of this as a vacation provided by Mom, since we had gotten free airfare when we took a "bump" coming back to FL from her funeral this past November. Jack and I had agreed that if we got bumped, it was a sign from Mom; well, I was assigned seat C13 on the flight that we took home instead, which is Mom's lucky number : )

As much as I DO NOT like flying, the views are always amazing.

Dinner the first night was at the Ebb Tide Restaurant across the street from the timeshare. It was quaint and very nautical! Now to walk off a fabulous meal...

There was a real beach! Right outside! These stuck-together shells have real little mollusky things in them! I didn't realize it till I pulled them apart : (

An evening walk on the beach yielded this view from the back of our place. It seems each condo/timeshare/hotel/motel has its own private beach area. Ours was 365' wide. LOL! I was wondering how they keep it "private"...they don't.

Our first full day is Lighthouse Day. There are TONS of them on Cape Cod, who knew?! These folks were painting outside of Cape Cod Light a/k/a Highland Lighthouse. The lady on the end in the red apron was painting an, umm, interesting interpretation...Jack said she was painting with rage! The whole picture was in squares and all in RED! Ok, lighthouse it is!

Cape Cod Light in Truro is the oldest on the Cape. They moved it from its original location in 1996, back 450 feet from the eroding edge of the cliff. This was the only one we climbed during the week.

A view from the top, looking at either the Atlantic or Cape Cod Bay! I love the old door!

We wandered (drove) up toward Provincetown, at the tip. This is Provincetown Harbor.

Provincetown has a really fun vibe, kinda Key-Westy!

MacMillan Pier, where we would go the next day to whale watch!

I don't know what this place was....but it looked interesting. In Ptown.

Nauset Light in Eastham on the way back down. Caught a glimpse of the Three Sisters Lighthouses in a clearing by here. It was pretty darn humid and hazy.

A house on the walk down Chase Avenue before dinner. It's hard to tell whether these places are B & B's or private homes! They're all striking. Again, hazy...the camera wasn't happy with it, the lense fogged up alot.

The celebratory birthday dinner was at Clancy's in Dennisport. THE best seafood I've ever had, really! Check them out if you're ever nearby, but be prepared to WAIT! Definitely worth it, though!

I hate to bore anyone with toooo many pictures, so I'll add some more tomorrow!