For April vacation this year, ideally we would have gone on a cruise, but we couldn't because John was still away at college. So we delayed the cruise by a few weeks until he was home, and Sam and I (and my mom) went to the Cape instead.
Unsurprisingly, this post begins and ends with selfies! And on the same beach, no less.
The light on the water was so pretty that evening.
It wasn't the only thing that was pretty that evening. 😉😁
This was on the wall behind me during breakfast at the Keltic Kitchen, and I thought it was funny. 😆
The aforementioned beach, "our beach," the one that's about a 10-minute walk from the house.
A cute little cottage at the resort by the beach.
We went to the Outer Cape and went for a walk on one of my favorite walking trails and then walked a bit over the dunes overlooking the ocean. On the other side is Europe! Spain, to be exact.
We had our "first encounter" with First Encounter Beach, where the pilgrims and Indians first... encountered...each other. I've been wanting to go here for years. It's just a beach, but it's neat to know that something significant happened here.
About half of these men are my ancestors.
I don't know if it's Massachusetts being Massachusetts (liberal, pilgrims were evil takers of the land, etc.), but I didn't like how the plaque is situated right next to a dog waste station. Seriously? And speaking of which, it looks like a dog had relieved itself on the bottom of the plaque.
I find the wording on the plaque to be a bit objectionable and one-sided as well. The Indians and pilgrims went on to help each other in mutually beneficial ways. The Indians didn't want Plymouth where the pilgrims ended up settling. They had totally abandoned it. What came later (King Philip's war, the terrible and unjust treatment of the Indians being killed or forced onto reservations) was not the pilgrims' doing. Someone was going to settle America as an official country, whether it was the pilgrims or a group from somewhere else. This in no way justifies what ended up happening to the Indians; it's a simple statement of fact. There was no way all of the land was going to belong to the Indians forever—that's not how human nature and history work. Conquests and wars are and will continue to be part of life around the world for the foreseeable future. Partly, this is because Satan rules here right now—this is his kingdom—but concurrently, I believe America being settled and established in the way that it was was God's plan for this land, where the gospel of Jesus Christ was to be restored in a place of liberty and progress and super-relevant history. And even independent of religion, I believe it still would have happened as it did, because that is the nature of men.
Relatedly, now that the gospel has been restored and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ grows ever nearer, I believe America will someday be invaded by another country (it's already happening, in part) and we may lose the country we know and love, as the Indians did. But, I have digressed quite a bit. My main point is this: this site deserves better than what's there right now.
I cropped the dog waste station out. Do a better job with this historical site, Massachusetts! 😤 #rantover
We stopped at a herring run that I had learned about from my editing job with Cape Cod Moms. I'd recently edited and published a great article about the herring runs on the Cape. I'm not sure how I never knew about this! This is one of the things I love about this job--I get to learn new things about one of my favorite places!
The scenery was pretty, and all of the little fish (herring) were cool! My pictures didn't capture them well, though.
I like ducks.
Okay, so you can't really see them, but there are tons of fish swimming upstream against the current in this picture.
(That's my mom on the bridge!)
(That's me on the bridge!)
We went to a Mexican restaurant near the house for dinner one evening, El Mariachi.
I've been wanting to try this restaurant for years, but for some reason I never did until now. I finally had a concrete reason to go—I was helping one of the writers with an article and an Instagram Reel she was doing about Mexican restaurants on the Cape to be published the week before Cinco de Mayo. I said I'd go to this one and get some pictures and video for her, which I did. It was fun, and the food was delicious! I'll definitely go back here again.
Muy deliciosa!
We did some other fun things that week, including shopping trips to Trader Joe's for food and the mall to get Sam new running shoes, Target (I got a new rug runner for the main floor hallway), Consigning Women, ice cream at Cape Cod Creamery, and we went to the movies to see a special screening of Interstellar, one of Sam's favorite movies. We did some not-so-fun things too, like yardwork. 😆 I successfully fought off a cold and started watching a YouTube series that Sam wanted me to watch, and the guy in it was adorable and funny. It really was a nice few days at the Cape, and I'm so thankful to always have it as a getaway option. My life isn't perfect, but it is full of blessings!
