Thursday, October 11, 2007

Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard

578806818_4a5b48ce36 This past June I got the opportunity to go out to Cape Cod and stay with some family at a house that was owned by some other family.  Amy and I'd never been to the east coast, barring Florida, so I thought this would be a great chance to experience "New England", and since my family offered for us to stay there for free I thought it would be great.  We took my sister with us, and made the 14 hour drive in 1 day (and night).  It was worth it, I'm a big fan of just getting it over with when it comes to driving, Sugar Free Monster soda and Ginseng supplements are my friend.

 

We stayed for the better part of the week, and got to chill with the fam... it was cool to get away, cool to experience a part of America I'd never known much about.  Martha's Vineyard is an island out there, and we took a Ferry out to it one day when the price was cheap.  I'd never been on a ferry either, the particular one we were on was big enough to fit 35 cars, amongst all the people who were with us, complete with a snack and coffee bar.

578727281_34276c0fc0 Me playing cell phone games, chillin' in one of the quieter parts of the ferry (it was a 30 minute ride)

578795604_a5e77d7fb9 Jax (my sis) in red shorts, at a park on Martha's Vineyard.  The houses face out on the inlet between Mass and Martha's Vineyard... amazing views

578732301_be0313fa6b One of the sickest houses of the mansions surrounding the park.  A shack, literally, on a 1/4 acre was listed for $895,000.  I can only imagine what this spot would be.

578735143_5aa39c6259 Can you tell we're staring into the sun?

 

We also took a drive up the little arm of cape cod to the tip, Provincetown.  It was really cool, the weather was cloudy/rainy and it was pretty cold, but we took time to hit up a couple of trails on the national seashore.  It was pretty amazing, everything was older... lots of history in the whole area.  I want to show some of the stuff we came across hiking and driving... just to document the stuff we came across :)

578800414_49964274b5 Starting out the day... Coffee was certainly a nice little boost. can you tell I'm tired?

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578842844_6bc909cc8b Here's come cool pictures I took while we were driving - the last one is in Provincetown, which reminded me of what I would think cities in Europe are like - small streets, small houses, everything was jam packed and the building look like they'd been around for a while.

578736617_7ff9443bc3 We hit up a spot close to us by the beach... when we came up there was a lady in her car with the radio blasting, and as we got closer I noticed she was painting the view.  It was pretty cool, she smiled back... I didn't want to take a picture cause I felt like that would invade her privacy even more.  Anyway - this boat was tied up in water that was ridiculously rough, waves bouncing up at least as high as the boat, with no oars inside it... I certainly wouldn't want to take the thing out on a pond, let alone the Atlantic.

578744763_24f6874ca0Amy on the Trail we hiked!

578805482_2f74576969 These are the little yellow flowers which lined the trail in the above pic.  I'm not much of an identifier, they were pretty though.

578810706_e2f6126e59 A cool flower

578747965_d0e7ab5627 We randomly came upon this house when we were hiking, and we thought it was cool.  As we cut through the yard, the front door was open and there was a sign that said "tours", so we went in.  The house belonged to a whaler in the 1800s, and there was an older couple who had worked for the parks service and now volunteered giving tours of the house, and telling it's story - it was a mansion for it's time.  The couple who gave the tours had taken the time to go through all the documents stored in the house, and the whaling captain's diary, and created a timeline of his adventures and family story. 

The couple had 5 kids, and the captain would take his wife and 1 kid with him when he went out.  His family would watch the other children while they were gone.  The trips were 3-4 years long, and they traveled and lived in almost every coastal part of the world... I could only imagine spending my childhood traveling the world, living in foreign lands, pillaging and raiding!!  Anyway, it was pretty cool.

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578827610_acd59f432b Then we found the coast...

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578768907_a5cafa5625 And these...

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578820532_01ee3ed639 And finished off the day at a winery!! 

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Wednesday at Work

I've been keeping myself occupied with a good amount of work, but lately I've been trying to leave my computer at the office when I leave. I feel like sometimes I need to not have the option of diving back into stuff when I'm getting ready to fall asleep, I need to take some time out and read and hang out with Amy instead of focusing on getting things done. This has lead me in the path of try to fall into as few distractions as I can throughout the day, and achieve a solid days work. All in All this has been working out pretty well. Today though...

I'm getting to the point that I want to take my camera with me more places - I think overall I'll be able to better characterize my Blog, and I often find myself in a spot where I'm thinking man I wish I had a camera.

The end of the month there is a big wowtcg tournament in Philadelphia, a Dark Moon Faire. I was going to not go, but the closer it gets I think I'm going to split gas and a hotel with a friend of mine... I really feel like I could do well, and to be honest I think I need the experience of a bigger tournament for the World Championship coming up at the end of November in San Diego. Amy and I have booked our flight and hotel, Hotel Solamar . It is a 4 star hotel, blocks away from the tournament, and right downtown. We're going to fly in Wednesday and meet up with my friends Chris Keck and Ben Jones, then Thursday we're planning on going to the San Diego zoo... I'm looking forward to the whole trip.

I've been trying to focus on losing some "extra baggage" I've gained in the whole getting older, moving into a desk job phase of life. Amongst eating fruit and homemade lunches throughout the week, and preparing dinner at home, I've been trying to run in the mornings I can get to bed early. So far, it usually works out to be Monday and then a random day of the week when I say screw it and go with 5-6 hours of sleep - but I'm working on it.

Cards tonight and this Saturday, Mental Afro show this Friday in Bloomington, at Max's place. Not the most happening spot in Bloomington, but I like the vibe, and I really like playing with the band. We've been together for almost a year now? I'll have to look into that. Percival Potts has been broken up for 3+ months and nothing from that side of my life is feeling left out, or lacking. If anything, it was a huge weight off my shoulders...

I'll leave you with a photo from one of Mental Afro's first shows at Max's place...