Odds & Ends

We’ve been pretty chill lately.

I made us a fancy afternoon tea.

Kim threw her back out when we put our canoe away.

Luckily before that we managed to have a lovely paddle around our lake.

I love being nosy and looking at the back of people’s houses.

We visited the Saville Dam one weekend.

Which has a beautiful little turret over looking a reservoir.

I discovered an arcade chain called Dave & Busters.

Luckily it still had the same air hockey game as Kim and I liked playing in Great Yarmouth in England so that was great.

The weather is a lot less hot and humid thankfully and all the neighbours have their Halloween decorations up. We’re away over Halloween sadly so we won’t get to see all the little kid’s outfits.

The Big E 2018

Each year the state fair for all the New England states is on in the summer – The Big E. And Kim very thoughtfully bought tickets ahead of time and we decided to go one Saturday… little did we know it would be the day it broke the record for highest attendance ever! We got stuck in gridlock traffic for hours, for so long in fact that we gave up and went home only to return to try again the next day…

Luckily we were much more successful and there was no traffic at all (go figure!). Even better was that Kim’s parents could come along on the Sunday so we had some company.

 We had a great time browsing around all the animals and shops.

Kim visited her nemeses.

And we watched some chicks hatch. We got to pet a chick and it was so soft.

I got to see my favourite pig race. This year featured Jennifer Lopig, Britney Spare Ribs, Piggy Azalea, Kim Kardashiham, Kevin Bacon, Hamuel L Jackson, Mark Truffalo, Sowie Mandel and the star of the Starwars round…Ham Solo.

We went on a ride.

And looked round each state’s house. Kim’s Mom likes the Rhode Island House because they have a state trooper there in uniform and she likes their hats. We looked around all the big buildings where people sell all kinds of things.

And I had a dilly dilly dog which is a hot dog, within a hollowed out pickle in batter (without the pickle Americans call this a corn dog). It was very nice.

And that was the state fair conquered for another year.

Martha’s Vineyard 2018

We spent a lovely weekend away at Martha’s Vineyard a couple of weeks back. There was a lot of traffic driving down to Cape Cod.

But we finally made it onto the ferry, it’s expensive and there are limited spaces to take your car on the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard – also when you get there there is not a lot of parking so we just used Uber to get around like last year.

We stayed at the Pequot Hotel where we stayed last year – I’m not usually one to go on holiday in the same spot twice or stay in the same hotel but we had such a nice time last year and as it’s only for the weekend I think it’s allowed.

We were up bright and early Saturday to look round Oak Bluffs, there were a lot of dogs out. I think if you’re the type of person who likes to take your dog on holiday this is the perfect spot.

It was Tivoli day in Oak Bluffs so there was lots of market stalls along the main street.

We browsed the shops, and the houses. I saw a little skunk (lots of skunks on the island) meander past which I was very pleased about, Kim less so.

And then we borrowed some deck chairs and an umbrella from the hotel and went to Inkwell Beach for a paddle.

In the afternoon we took an Uber to Edgartown, a different part of Martha’s Vineyard, it seemed to attract a slightly wealthier tourist and a more nautical crowd.

We got some gelato and walked around the shops and town.

Murica was alive and well.

Then we found a lovely seafood restaurant that had a roof top terrace.

And it had a lovely view out over the harbour and over to Chappaquiddick (famous for the downfall of Ted Kennedy).

 Then it was back to our hotel.

We had a jolly nice breakfast, and then we toured the original gingerbread houses in Oak Bluffs.

All these beautiful decorations and some idiot puts up a Liverpool FC flag!

And that was our glorious weekend.