September 27, 2024 - October 11, 2024 -- Old Chatham Road, Cape Cod to Normandy Farms, Foxboro
Written By: Wendy
We traded one iconic New England coastal town for another as we headed to Cape Cod. Cape Cod was especially exciting, though, because our campground was just 15 minutes away from where one of my closest friends from high school now lived. I eagerly awaited the time we'd get to spend together and catch up.
On our first full day in Cape Cod, it was Caroline's third birthday! She loved the beach, so we spent most of the day at the beach, letting the kids roam free, hunt for shells, dig in the sand and play in the surf. It was a surprisingly warm and sunny day, and we all enjoyed a laid back beach day to celebrate our little girl. The next day, my friend, Steph, hosted her birthday party at her house. We told her to invite all her friends and that we would make pizzas and pies, of course. She had a wide variety of friends, and we enjoyed meeting new people while serving up fresh and hot pizza and blueberry pie, per the birthday girl's request. We ended the weekend with our hearts and bellies full and a renewed energy for fulfilling our 50 Pies mission by bringing people together.
After all the birthday celebrations were over, October was just around the corner, and our week-long Halloween event that we were planning was less than a month away. Yikes! It was crunch time! The campground we were staying at was not great, but luckily there was plenty to do close by. We spent most of the week trading off with taking the kids on adventures around the area to beaches or parks or on hikes while the other person would work away in the trailer (no room at all to set up our clam tent here!)
My favorite excursion that I took the kids on this week was to the Plimoth Patuxet Museum. It was a living history museum in Plymouth that re-created a Native American village from the 1600s and the original Plymouth village from when the settlers arrived in 1620. I adore living history museums and all the actors in period clothing throughout the museum. Scott stayed back to work, but I met up with the Herd family, and we shared a delightful day exploring a traditional Native American wetu (winter house), watching staff build a mishoon (a dug out canoe), and going in and out of all the settlers' houses. Both Parker and Caroline surprised me with their inquisitiveness and thoughtful questions that they asked.
Parker: "How did they build the wetu?" "What trees is it made out of?" "How did you protect yourself?" "How does your armor work?" "Where are your weapons and how did you use them?" (Of course that Y chromosome just has to hone in on all things war and weapons!)
Caroline: "Where do the babies sleep?" "Why do you have a fire?" "Why do the babies sleep there?" Next house, "But where do the babies sleep?" Next house, "Where do the babies sleep here?" (And of course that double X chromosome just hones in on all things baby! We really truly tried our darndest to raise gender neutral kids, but genetics is so powerful!)
After the museum, we went into Plymouth to see the historic Plymouth Rock. You just have to see it if you're this close, right? Well it was, unmistakably, a large gray, rock. Yep, just a rock in a cage next to the ocean. And the sign next to it said that this rock might not have even been important to the colonists until the 1700s. Glad I paid $3 in the parking meter for that. If you go to Plymouth, you can skip the rock. There are plenty of other rocks out there.
We took a break from working one day and all four of us spent the day exploring the National Seashore along the Cape Cod eastern most coast. We saw epic beach vistas and hiked along the Atlantic White Cedar Swamp trail on a boardwalk through a swamp. We drove all the way up to the northern tip of Cape Cod and spent the afternoon in Provincetown. We loved Provincetown, we loved it so much. It was so incredibly quirky and free and just seemed to pop out of nowhere as a haven to anyone and everyone. I could have stayed in that town for a full week soaking up the accepting, unique, and beautiful vibes, but the sun was setting and we had to make it back to our little trailer home. We had yet another lobster roll (I was determined to find the best lobster roll in New England - so far Connecticut was winning) and headed back south down the coast, soaking in the sea breeze while we could.
On our last day in Cape Cod, we went to the Wydah Pirate Museum. It is a museum dedicated to the only actual found pirate treasure in the world that was found off the coast of Cape Cod in the 1980s. It was a fascinating museum, and I learned a lot about pirates and the golden age of piracy in the 1730s. One of the most interesting things I learned was that all the slightly different variations on the skull and crossbones flags represents actual pirates from the 1700s. A specific arrangement of of the skill and cross bones meant Blackbeard or Sam Bellamy. So interesting! Parker, being a self-proclaimed pirate himself, soaked up every second of the museum. And guess what the name of the restaurant right next to the pirate museum is - Captain Parker's! Parker strode into that restaurant in his full pirate getup like he owned the place, because well, in his mind, he did own the place.
After we said our goodbyes to my friend and her family, we had a short travel day inland to Normandy Farms Campground. This was another much anticipated location. We had booked this campsite over a year ago as it is dubbed one of the best campgrounds in the country. We were staying there Sunday-Friday since it was cheaper during the week, but we did not know that all the programming and kids activities were only on the weekends. It was a bit of a let down, but the campground was still beautiful with two huge playgrounds, three outdoor swimming pools, an indoor pool and hot tub, hiking trails, and a bike park. And after being separated from the past several weeks, we met back up with our travel buddies, the Herds, at this campground. The kids were all overjoyed when I took all four of them to the playground shortly after we arrived. All the adults were busy setting up our sites, and I think I definitely got the east job that afternoon since the kids were so happy to be together they paid absolutely no attention to me. But shhhh, don't tell Scott, Heather, or David that!
Normandy Farms was also in a great jumping off location to go the big classic Massachusetts destinations. We spend one very long day exploring Boston. We started at the USS Constitution ship and followed the Freedom Trail throughout downtown Boston, stopping for tasty local foods, grabbing cannolis, peeking into Paul Revere's house, and just standing in awe of the incredible historic greatness that Boston has to offer. We were able to meet up with another friend from college there that we hadn't seen in years, and he gave up a thorough tour of the city while we chatting about life and what we've all been up to for the past 8+ years. As the sun was starting to set, we debating trying to race back to the car and squeeze in dinner after the long 45 minute drive, but traffic was looking bad and the kids would definitely be cranky with that option. Should we stop on the way? Nah, traffic seems too bad to leave right now, so we opted to grab some pizza for take out and bring it down to a playground that was right on the Charles River. It was definitely the right decision. We watched the sunset over the river as the kids happily played and snag a bite or two of pizza when their playing would allow it. Scott and I both breathed in deep and happy contented sighs. This was a lovely end to a great day. By the time we left, traffic had cleared and both kids were worn out, which made for an unusually peaceful drive home.
One of the benefits of traveling with friends is that you have more flexibility with childcare options. We loved our regular date swaps, and we loved our moms nights and dads nights. This just made life with little kids all the more manageable to have the much needed build in breaks. It takes a community, right? When Scott and I originally planning our East Coast fall, we were planning to be in Salem for Halloween. The perfect spooky Halloween place! After taking some east coasters, though, they steered us away from Salem in October, especially with little kids because it would be way too crowded and too scary. We relented and decided we'd save it for another time. But, when I discovered that we were only a 1 hour drive from Salem, I threw out the idea of a moms night out to Salem for dinner and a ghost tour with Heather. She jumped on the idea, and 10 minutes later, we had ghost tour tickets booked for later in the week. "Wait a second!" said David and Scott, and they quickly one upped us by booking a hotel in Boston to go spend a night partying in the big city. All of thoroughly enjoyed our kid free evenings out on the town. It was much needed by everyone to have a night to just relax and explore somewhere new.
After our quick whirlwind at Normandy Farms, we left Massachusetts and headed north to where almost everyone heads that comes to the east: Maine.