Martha’s Vineyard Part 1

Last weekend we took a trip through Rhode Island and Massachusetts to get to Martha’s Vineyard for Kimmy’s 27th birthday.

We had to park up and get a shuttle.

The shuttle took us to the ferry which took us over to Martha’s Vineyard. The ferry is the main way on and off the island and the only way to take a car on or off the island although you can fly. We made a buddy on the shuttle called Jaime and she was late to meet up with her friends for a hen party, we were all sailing to Vineyard Haven but we needed to get to Oak Bluffs so we shared an Uber. None of us had used Uber before but it was very cheap, very fast and we got delivered safely to Oak Bluffs by our friendly driver Slobodan.

We stayed at a hotel in Oak Bluffs called the Pequot and there was a mermaid theme there which was fun.

All the buildings in Martha’s Vineyard look very pretty and follow a ‘gingerbread cottage’ theme and the hotel was no different.

Luckily we were able to check in early which was handy so we could dump our things in our room which was very cutesy.

The staff at the hotel were very friendly, after we’d dropped our bags upstairs we had homemade lemonade and cookies on the porch in rocking chairs.

Opposite the hotel was my dream house if I was still a child, all in purple.

So after all that the hotel offered to lend us deck chairs, beach towels and an umbrella and we went 3 minutes down the road to Inkwell Beach. It was great weather and we had a good swim.

I like to shell hunt on the beach and I found part of a quahog shell which was used to make wampum. Wampum was used by the Indians as money.

I added to my weird foot tan that I’ve been cultivating this year from my sandals.

After the beach we went back to the hotel to change and then our hotel had a porch party with live music, wine and cheese. Then we were back out again for a little walk around the park.

There was a beautiful dock we found on our walk.

Then we went to a restaurant called 20byNine that serves food that is like tapas but gastropub dishes.

We had some artisanal ‘deconstructed’ smores (who thinks of these things?).

And then we had a beautiful walk back to the hotel through the houses in Oak Bluffs.

It wasn’t too late so we got to partake in my favourite tv channel – the home shopping network. Yes. Really.

Plymouth, Massachusetts

Last weekend we were in Plymouth, Massachusetts for a wedding which was lovely and the day after we decided to take a wander around Plymouth with Kim’s parents.

My family is part American on both sides but down my mother’s father’s line (I’m a genealogy lover) we’re descended from this pilgrim chap below who’s my 8th great grandfather. I’d say we don’t look like him but then I’m supposing whoever built this statue of him had never seen him either.

This is the famed Plymouth Rock, it’s in a cage because people keep chipping bits off of it apparently. Supposedly it was the first thing the pilgrims stepped on coming off the ship but who the hell steers their ship into rocks? Seems unlikely to me.

It was quite misty out that day but but the gift shops were in full swing. There was a nice walk along the harbour.

They had a few artsy bits to look at… not pictured is the smelly crazy man who kept approaching tourists asking them to wish him a happy birthday.

We all tossed pennies in the pilgrim lady fountain and wished for my poor father in law’s back to get better as he’d been hobbling about that weekend with ice on his back after he threw it out.

And then we had a pleasant walk back to the car past a cool Indian statue which a bossy lady walking her dog angrily told my father in law was actually an ‘indigenous people statue’… I get being culturally sensitive is nice but I don’t see what’s so insulting about the word Indian other than the fact that we’re discussing people not actually from India the country. And now that I found out I’m part Indian I feel I can say it, sort of like how some black rappers use the N word or how lesbians are allowed to say dyke. But really, who goes to an indigenous people reserve or and indigenous people casino? No one, that’s who and I’ll say what I like. Perhaps I’m turning into my great aunt and in the future my family will be horribly embarrassed of my terms like my family is when my great aunt says how lovely the ‘darkies’ are over the road and we all cringe and hiss at her that she can’t say that! And she says what? They are lovely… oh dear… It’s odd how terms change in acceptability. In the UK you would never ever say the word ‘retard’ to describe someone with learning difficulties but here it doesn’t seem to be seen as insulting and I’ve heard plenty of people say it, in the UK ‘black’ is the acceptable term but here people seem to prefer ‘African American’.

After our exploration of Plymouth Kim’s parents left to drive home and Kimmy and I went to the Plimoth Plantation which is a living history museum where you can go in and out of the houses and everyone’s in costume.

They had a Wampanoag settlement

They had examples of summer and winter homes and hollowed out canoes.

All the historical actors were doing things like crafting or cooking.

And you could speak to them and they stayed in character and told you who they were and answered questions etc.

Part of the museum had crafting and cooking stations where people gave demonstrations (not in character).

And Kim gave the bee hives a very wide berth.

Then we walked over to the English village where all the actors put on English accents (some were better at this than others).

There were lots of houses you could walk into and the actors would be either in the house or in the gardens.

And they had a lot of farm animals milling about, the chickens kept wanting to go inside all of the houses and kept getting shooed out. We got told there was a pilgrim from Great Yarmouth and that we could quiz him about his life there because apparently all the actors have to memorise details about their back stories but luckily for him he must have been on lunch break because he wasn’t in his house.

I added a new squashed penny to my collection.

And then we browsed the tat.

Rob & Jen’s Wedding

It’s been a humid week this week, the kitties have been keeping cool in the shade.

I had a couple of job interviews (one I liked the sound of and one I didn’t) and I got offered the job for one of them (the one I liked!) so that’s good news, the job is 20 hours a week in the same town I live in so no commute (wasn’t looking forward to that when it starts snowing!). The job process is pretty much the same as here except here they are quite nosy about what all your previous salaries have been when you apply and you’re meant to send them a thank you card afterwards… even though you are the one who has gone to the trouble of going to an interview and filling out applications etc. I settled on a thank you email. I finally finished off painting the upstairs bedroom and made a start on the lounge. My brother messaged me to say Bruce Forsyth died, I refrained from telling Kim too much about Bruce Forsyth after I made the grave error of explaining who Cilla Black was when she died and then had to put up with weeks of Kim singing ‘surprise surprise’ and saying ‘ta-ra chuck’ afterwards in a dodgy accent that was meant to be Liverpudlian but came out Indian (as all her accents do).

This weekend we drove up through Rhode Island to Massachusetts to Plymouth to the wedding of Jen & Rob. Jen’s family lives next door to Kim’s family so they played together as kids and Jen has been a really supportive friend to Kim over the years so it was lovely to be invited. Usually long car journeys are a bit dull but the roads in America seem a lot more scenic than in England, perhaps it’s because it’s still a novelty but there’s a lot of forest surrounding the roads usually and big boulders etc. Also if you can get on a route that takes you through towns you get to see all the weird country shops and have a shufti at the houses… like this stunner.

When we got to the hotel in Plymouth (which as you can imagine is very Mayflower themed) we had a little pilgrim painting in our room which I thought was sort of funny because it looks like Jesus and an Indian are eating garlic bread together.

Jen & Rob had wedding gift bags waiting for us at the hotel and for Kim’s parents who were also invited. Kim’s parent’s neighbours are all really close friends so all the neighbours were there. The bag has a bit of a New England theme and there was some taffy in it I haven’t tried yet.

So the weather had been nice all day until immediately before the ceremony was due to start where upon it started to rain cats and dogs so they had to change the wedding venue three times to work around the weather. We were sat at a table with all of Kim’s parent’s neighbours and also some nice work colleagues of Jen’s who got chatting to us. We had a pretty good view of the ceremony and it was so so hot and humid because of the rain but we had a cool breeze from where the tent openings were so I think we had a good spot. They had a very good band there and also Jen’s best friend sang accompanied during the ceremony which was nice.

So they had the ceremony and then there was a cocktail hour which was fun and I met lots of people who Kim knew and they were all very friendly (‘oh Hayley I’ve heard so much about you’ etc.. whilst I smile and nod and have no clue who they are! Until afterwards Kim relates some story she’s told me, that’s so and so who did such and such – ohhh!). After the cocktail hour we had the toasts and then it was time for food, they had different stations buffet style so you could pick what you wanted which I was glad of because I’m a fussy eater and some well known dishes in the USA I have no idea about. There was a New England station, a carving station and an Italian station. I devoured the Italian station, I’m well known for hating roast dinners so I gave that station a wide birth and I wasn’t brave enough for the New England station. At a wedding you don’t want to fill up too much you see… have to eat strategically. I tried some of Kim’s cornbread and I still think it just tastes like Victoria sponge cake… I don’t understand why you’d want it with a main course.

And then for dessert I had some carrot cake. It’s funny the differences in wedding music when everyone was dancing and the popular ‘oldie’ songs compared to the UK ‘oldies’. There was even a shuttle to take us back to the door step of the hotel so we were very well looked after and it was a lovely night.

Weekly Goings On

I've had quite a bit-y week this week. We finished off decorating the upstairs bedroom.

We borrowed a plaster draw sheet from Kim's Dad which was the most annoying thing known to man because it kept sticking to the underside of my bare feet (and it is HOT here) as I painted so in the end I pulled it up with annoyance – next time we're just using newspaper.

This cupboard was a pain to paint as well. I'm not entirely sure what's even in the cupboard because there's just boarding behind it and behind that is insulation… a mystery cupboard.

But everything is sort of done, there's a couple of speckled patches I need to go over with a brush.

It's meant to be a sort of mauve but my half brother thoughtfully termed it liverwurst (I can only assume out of jealousy).

We browsed the farmers market last week (we avoided it this week as it's theme is 'child friendly') and the theme was corn (or as I now call it – maize). We picked up some hummus and baklava from a Lebanese baker and got a nice quiche from another stall.

They were giving out free grilled corn and you could pick toppings.

Kim and I had coconut milk and scallions which was so good. I picked up more corn at the grocery store. I really want to try Indian corn some time with all the different colours in them.

There was music at the market too and it was quite atmospheric country markety type music until the guy started singing songs from frozen… then we slowly started edging away.

I took a trip back to the hardware store for more paint for the lounge, we've been going there a lot for bits and bobs. You order the paint and they mix the colour for you there so you can't pick a can off shelf. When I asked for a can I was told it was called a gallon, and when I went looking for white spirit I was told it was called mineral spirits and we wouldn't need it as the paint washes off with water… not sure how reassuring that is… anyway I like to browse the gardening section when the paint is being mixed because they get a lot of huge butterflies visiting.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this little thing, I really couldn't figure out what it was because it looked like a little bird but then it was more like a large beetle. You get to the point as an adult I think where there's rarely an animal you haven't seen on tv and can't identify but I was stumped. Turns out it's a hummingbird moth that mimics hummingbirds, I'd never even heard of it! And nor had Kim even though she's lived here most of her life.

So that's been my week, I had a job interview Friday and I have another one Monday, even though I'm still waiting on my licence to go through I thought I may as well start applying. Job applications are so dull to fill out, I like the ones where you can just send in your resume.

Life in America is still a novelty to me, I still enjoy chuckling to myself when I see different signs and inspecting things in stores. The weathers been good most days and we've swam a lot in the lake which has been nice.

Farmington River Tubing & Hibachi

A couple days ago on Kim’s day off we decided it was nice enough weather to try out tubing on the Farmington river. It was an hours drive away and about half an hour into the drive there was a storm (that wasn’t on our weather apps!) with thunder and lightening so we were hoping it’d be finished by the time we got there and luckily it was but when we got to the car park someone had had a bit of bad luck. There were news crews there already to view it but no one was hurt.

The tubing place went down the Farmington river on a stretch called Satan’s Kingdom State Recreation Area, we paid $20 to hire a life jacket and a heavy duty inflatable ring and off we went. It was collllllddddd but it was such a hot humid day even after the storm that it was nice.

Of course I couldn’t take my phone down with me so I couldn’t take any photos but here’s one from their website. It takes about two to three hours to float down and there are three sets of rapids you go down. “Is it safe?” my mum asked on the phone when I described it to her. Not exactly no… you have to sign waivers before you can even pay and it’s just going down a regular natural river with rocks and drift wood and animals etc, the rapids are full of rocks and if your wife is holding onto your ring and steers you directly into a rock (mentioning no names… Kimberly) then you will fall off. But it was still really fun, I’d go again. At the bottom of the river it’s very shallow you can just wade over to the pick up point and you get on an old converted school bus that drives you back to where you parked you car. I loved all the wildlife, different beautiful birds flew across our path taking no notice of us, there were ducks and we saw two otters – I’ve never seen an otter in the wild in all my life so that was special. I think because the rings you float in just take you down the river slowly there’s not too much splashing or ‘human activity’ to scare off the animals.

After tubing we drove to Kim’s parents house to see them and they took us out to dinner at a Japanese Hibachi restaurant called Sakura Garden. Hibachi is where they make the meal in front of you with some tricks. We started out by picking what we wanted then it all came in small courses. We all had some miso soup and then a salad with a nice dressing.

Then our chef arrived, a Japanese guy in a cowboy hat, very enthusiastic squirting sake in everyone’s mouth (or juice for one kid), at another table we saw him go to after there was a pregnant lady and he said no problem and whipped out a baby’s bottle which was funny. This was the volcano he made out of chopped onions.

It was really fun though, I got some nice tuna (you can see it cooking on his grill) Kim hates tuna and the kitties don’t like to share theirs if I open a can for them so I don’t get it often. Kim was stuffed after her meal, she ordered noodles and thought they came instead of the egg fried rice but she got given both alongside chicken and prawns (or shrimp as they call them here).

This waiter had games he liked to play with the sake and was steering this guy into the girl. All in all it was a fun day of new things.

I Passed!

A lot of you know that in England I worked as a registered nurse and that Kim is a registered nurse in America, however neither qualifications translate to the other country annoyingly. When we looked at moving to the USA at first I started the long long very long process of getting my qualifications compared to USA qualifications. In the USA nursing is a four year degree that covers adults, children, mental health, learning disabilities and midwifery and once you graduate you have to take a test called NCLEX. In the UK it’s 3 years and you pick a specialty (I chose adult). So as you can imagine I’d probably be short a few hours of tuition and placements in comparison, I don’t fancy going back to university so I played it safe and decided to request to be a licensed practical nurse instead of a registered nurse and the state said that I could. The NCLEX test is reallly hard, it’s an adaptive multiple choice test so some answers are right, but some answers are more right. The computer also decides which question you take next based on the answer to the last question – so I had a lot of studying to do. I’m a pretty lazy student so I’ve been procrastinating.

I got a few cake mixes to make, I’ve been running errands including a disastrous trip to the Bank of America to open a new account for me. We got assigned to a poor fresh faced young ginger guy who was just out of college and a little nervous and was still in training. It was so complicated because none of the bank staff seemed to have much experience of UK documents and they were really confused so I felt really sorry for the guy training because we were the worst people to start with as we had 3 new accounts, Kim’s name change, change of address, ordering new cards and cheques… it was endless.

We went for a movie date to see Dunkirk which was such a good movie I’d really recommend it.

Did you know they don’t sell sweet popcorn in most US cinemas? I usually like half sweet half salted mixed. They just have salted and a pump of butter you can put on top of it – yeuch.

It’s been hot again mostly this week so we bought new floaties to swim in the lake with (Kim’s is the unicorn).

Eventually though 2 days ago it was time to take my NCLEX, it was a very strict exam taken on a computer in complete silence, I had to show photo ID, get my photo taken, scan the veins of both palms 4 times, I was video recorded at all times, I couldn’t take anything into the exam – you’re not even allowed to take scrap paper or a tissue! I had to pat myself down and roll up my sleeves before I could go in and show my ears under my long hair to prove I didn’t have any ear pieces!

I had 5 hours to take the exam and there would be between 75-205 questions (depending on how you answered), I only took an hour and got about 80 questions or so – so I was thinking this probably wasn’t a great sign. Then there is a 2 day wait to get your results. Kim bought a fondue set so I could console myself with cheese.

Yesterday we had a storm with torrential rain and even some hail and I was perfectly happy inside until I got the life frightened out of me with a weather warning. Apparently they just get sent out automatically to everyone’s phones but I didn’t know that so a little siren started going off from my phone and I was quite confused.

After the storm there was a lovely mist over the lake.

The house across the street is getting renovated, in the neighbour’s front garden is an apple tree and we’d been finding little apple cores and assuming it was squirrels or rabbits or something.

Until we spotted this little fellow this morning, our very own groundhog and his wife (I like to assume they’re married). I love all the wildlife near our house.

Finally after the long wait I got my results this morning that I passed, I am SO glad I don’t have to retake the NCLEX although I have up to 6 weeks to wait for my licence I can at least start looking for jobs and no more studying yayyyy. I have a lucky streak with exams of winging it so I guess it saw me through again.