Woman in Real Life

On our recent trip to Cape Cod, we made sure to schedule a day for visiting the lovely city of Boston. While I wouldn't recommend spending only one day in Boston, it gave us a good taste of the city.

We will be sure to visit again in the future to spend more time exploring galleries and museums. It is a city that is clearly rich with history.

We naively arrived without specific directions, expecting clear signs on the highway that would lead us to Boston Common. We therefore passed by the city completely and had to turn around.

We also had to stop and ask someone for directions once we were in the city. Once we found Boston Common, though, we parked right underneath the park and everything was all good after that.

I think we paid about $23 for parking for the day. Not bad for the convenience of being in the centre of it all.

On our road trip to Cape Cod, we stopped overnight in Albany, New York.

As you can see, my family really knows how to move into a hotel room. This was for one night. Imagine if they were staying longer?

Note that my husband always complains about how much stuff I pack. Yes, that is his guitar along for the ride.

Now that we have returned from our Cape Cod vacation and are back to reliable Internet access, I want to share some more of our vacation photos. Maybe this is boring for you, like when you get stuck watching a slide show or dvd of photos at someone's house. If so, feel free to move on to something else.

We rented a cottage in South Yarmouth for a week. It was not inexpensive, at $1,550 US (on special). For that price, it could have been cleaner inside. I found it on Homeaway, where I have found three rentals in Florida and Nova Scotia in the past. They were all immaculate homes. We had the most gorgeous condo in Clearwater Beach. I wanted to move there.

This Cape Cod cottage has a lot of potential. With a lot of white paint, some carpet cleaner and some hedge trimmers, my husband and I could have gone to town.

Can my American friends fill me in on something please...where does the tendency to fly so many flags come from? Just curious, because we don't do that so much in Canada.

Somehow I manage to sneak in thrift store visits at the most unexpected times. I even went to a couple stores while we were in Cape Cod. I didn't find anything though.

On Saturday, we drove straight from Cape Cod to my sister's house in St. Catharines, Ontario. By the time we stopped at Wegmans for some grocery items and the Duty Free for some (very cheap) booze, we arrived at my sister's at about 11:00 p.m.

On Sunday afternoon, my sister (and partner in crime) suggested we go to a nearby Goodwill store. The Bibles for Missions thrift store that I had so enjoyed with her on our last visit is closed on Sundays.

The Goodwill has much higher prices than that store, but I found a few bargains nevertheless.

The first treasure we spotted was this Alfred Sung teapot, above, for $2. I decided to give it to my sister because she liked it too, but I snapped a quick photo of it at her house.



I bought this decanter for $2. What I like about it is the shot glass built into the lid. I also got the scarf it is sitting on (for $1.99).


I purchased this rather strange wooden jar. My sister suggested putting cotton balls in it, but we were surprised to find that it has a very shallow interior.


I got this cute watering can, which is actually plastic inside, as well as two of these colourful doilies. I have no idea where I am going to use the doilies, but I couldn't resist their upbeat cheer.


I guess I couldn't quite leave the beach behind, because I snapped up these shower curtain rings.


I then found this bathroom mat at a discount store next to Goodwill.



In keeping with the beachy/shell theme, I used a previous thrift store find to display some shells we picked up on a beach in Cape Cod.

How is your summer going? Are you making time to shop?

We bought several grocery items at Trader Joe's in Hyannis. I enjoyed touring a new grocery store. We made up this fruit plate back at the cottage.


We also made this stir fry with pre-cut veggies, tofu and rice noodles in a soy/teriyaki sauce.


I enjoyed this vegan burrito at El Mundo restaurant in Provincetown.


Breakfast. I brought these oats from the health food store at home. Delicious dried cranberries from Trader Joe's.



In this land of seafood, I was thrilled to find Box Office Cafe and its selection of vegan pizzas with Daiya cheese. I went for this one with the curly fries and veggie burgers on top!

I found a new love today. I wasn't expecting it when I woke up this morning. But it happened.

I'm in love...with Provincetown.

We are currently enjoying a week in Cape Cod, and today's visit to P-town was a definite highlight. So lovely, picturesque, colourful and fun. I love a town where you can browse some shops, eat some good food and enjoy an amazing view of the sea all within a few hours.