What was the best vacation you’ve ever been on?
I always think of Stephen’s and my honeymoon. To date, it is the only REAL vacation we’ve been on together (excluding the trips we’ve taken to visit family). We were twenty-one and twenty-two, college grads of a whopping five weeks, and absolutely, madly in love. Our destination of choice? Cape Cod, Massachusetts! We wanted to visit the ocean, and Cape Cod sounded like the perfect romantic getaway.
After spending two nights in a hotel at home, we jumped in the Cavalier and headed for the East Coast!
Standard road trip food—”Vermont’s Finest” Ben & Jerry’s.
Finally arriving on the Massachusetts coast, we were impressed with the nautical beauty of Cape Cod. What we didn’t expect? It was still cold in mid-June (not quite tourist season yet)! One of the first things we did was stop at the mall and buy Steve a sweatshirt since he only packed tees and shorts :)
We are pretty frugal, so it was something special to eat out every night! At Spanky’s Clam Shack in Hyannis, we both had our very first tastes of lobster! It was good, but I don’t think either of us have eaten it since ;)
Eventually, we found our way onto the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard—it was gorgeous! We bought ice cream from two different shoppes, and this began our “Let’s taste all the ice cream!” honeymoon goal :)
On a visitor’s map, we saw that there was a lighthouse nearby. We started walking, and walking . . . and walking . . . and could not find it! We realized that the map wasn’t drawn to scale, and so we gave up and returned to the ferry. It’s hard to feel let down while taking a walk through Martha’s Vineyard on a beautiful summer day :)
Martha’s Vineyard reminded me a lot of Door County, Wisconsin—my favorite childhood vacation spot (and also where my grandparents lived).
I’m so glad that I got photos of the places we visited and dined. I hope that we can return to Cape Cod someday and revisit all of them!
Since it was too cold to spend time at the beach (let alone swim in the ocean), we had to keep ourselves entertained. We visited all of the little towns we could, window-shopped at the boutiques, and I wasn’t kidding when I said we set out to sample all of the ice cream we could. If we saw an ice cream place, we stopped. Among others, we tried “Sundae School” and “Schoolhouse Ice Cream”—both in Harwich Port. Yum!
And we finally did find a lighthouse! This is Nauset Light in Eastham—and is known for being the lighthouse on Cape Cod Potato Chip bags!
Steve hadn’t seen the Atlantic Ocean before, so we had to get photos of him in the freezing cold water :)
This ice cream at “Katie’s” in downtown Hyannis is “Cape Cod Sand”—we had no idea what that flavor meant (no one does—they’re famous for it), but it was delicious!
Our last day in Cape Cod was rainy, so we went to the mall to see a movie. “The Proposal” was a perfect choice! We still love that movie and all of its Alaska scenes. (Alaska’s on our list of future vacations since Steve was born there!)
That afternoon, we toured Cape Cod Potato Chip factory. In the photo, Steve gave me a disappointed face because they weren’t actually making any chips that day. But we did get free mini bags at the end of the tour :)
After our last dinner, we got ice cream. . . again! This time, it was Cape Cod Creamery in Yarmouth. (I promise Cape Cod ice cream is not endorsing this post :)
So, needless to say, we each gained about five pounds on the trip!
Gosh, I wish I could relive this vacation! I loved the newness of being married, and I was so excited to travel for the first time alone with most incredible man in the world! Sometimes I wish we had chosen someplace tropical. We may never get a chance to do go on a cruise sans-kids, but I know that our Cape Cod honeymoon was absolutely perfect for us, and it is filled with such wonderful memories. Xoxo.
Linking up with Andrea today!
