If historical accuracy has taught me anything, it's when I fail to plan any sort of an itinerary for a vacation it is pure crap and this one was no exception. The Mr wanted to go back to Martha's Vineyard and we also thought maybe Rhode Island might be interesting since we've only ever driven through there. Trying to find a place in RI was ridiculous. We couldn't find anything that didn't scream noisy misery so we opted to stay in Fairhaven MA at a place that was near nothing but on the water and an island in shoulder season so yes please. We knew we'd go to Mystic CT and Ogunquit ME as side trips too. We thought we'd go to the original Conjuring House as well. When I say we didn't plan anything other than the days we knew we wanted to road trip, that was it. I didn't have the capacity to and I wasn't going to ask him to in addition to work
When we arrived at our rental, we immediately noticed the bridge over to the island was being torn up. Did I mention the bridge was two houses away? Those trees that guarded us from the neighbors at the fire pit? Gone. Not that the wind would've ever died down enough for us to use it anyway. The neighbors on either side of us were doing construction as well as the one behind us and the other one behind us was doing open houses. So imagine the constant sound of trucks beeping from 6:45am to 4:30pm, drills and multi tools, landscaping chainsaws and being awakened every morning by blazing New England sun at 5:30am. In the first five days of vacation, I slept just under 12 hours total. I can't count how many times I cried from the stress of all of the noise around me. It was literally why we were getting away and it was like God doubled down. So road trips for peace, it was.
Mystic CT was probably our favorite.
Another day we went to Ogunquit/Wells ME and one of the stops is our favorite donuts in the world which we always have by the beach.
We just love walking Ogunquit Beach, watching the piping plovers and hanging out in the off season, which somehow seems to get earlier every year.
Let's not forget about the grief waves that showed up on our anniversary and the following day that brought the mood to zero. The Conjuring House sold out before I could book it. Traffic in Providence is so ungodly that it adds an hour onto anywhere you want to go so our excursion to purposely go there was nixed. We didn't even get to RI until our last full day to go to Newport to attempt the Cliff Walk, the whole reason for choosing that area, and it was a clusterf*ck of mass proportions. In addition to two sections of it being closed, the only place we saw parking already had over 500 cars and suddenly you're on a college campus and there's just nowhere to stop to collect yourself. I knew Thames St was supposed to be where shopping was so we headed that way and the most polite way I can describe it is NOT my vibe. We lucked out and found a non pay parking spot and walked around a bit. I could not wait to get out of there but let the Mr lead since I would've been just as happy to leave upon arrival. We found one cache so we could call it worth it, got some crappy ice cream, a horrible mini frozen ice lemonade from a "famous must get" place and finally a bland chili cheese dog before getting the hell out of there. We drove Ocean Ave since it was clear the Cliff Walk was not happening, spied a park across from the ocean, pulled in and rolled down the windows to enjoy the ocean's lullaby. Ahh, the sounds of nature... and the food truck compressor that pulled beside us 2 minutes later. *Twitch* The two good days we had the first week is when we were in Maine and Connecticut so that sums that portion up.
Then time to move on to Martha's Vineyard. We took the ferry over and went back on the rutty one lane road to our rental. There was some kind of moth ball-ish odor to greet us so I flung open three windows. I was instantly relaxed by the birds singing and thought "okay, HERE I can relax." Apparently Joe Bob next door also likes to relax by chatting with his roommate, brother, employee or whomever and speaks louder than I care to hear. Now this was an issue at the other house too which leads me to believe unless I have 10 acres somewhere which is bordering on illegal if you own more than 1/4 acre, that this world is just too loud for me. So after 45 minutes, I had enough and shut all of the windows. Any time we wanted to leave the house it was going to be bouncing around for 3/4 mile on a one way road praying you didn't come head to head with any of the other hill people who all had the same idea for privacy but weren't going to get it.
Adventure.
It is nice seeing all of the different main towns and how different they all are.
When I awoke our first full day on the vineyard at 5am due to complete lack of window coverings on three windows and aimlessly scrolled for a while, and at 7am I was greeted by a familiar sound in the middle of the forest almost a mile from anything...beep beep beep. No, that's not a cartoon roadrunner but some frigging construction vehicle. I give up. Do I have to rent a damn sound deprivation tank for any kind of peace ever??? We drove the whole island that day and probably shouldn't have because then it felt like "now what?" For the most part, it was quiet off the rut laden road but I'm pretty sure it shook something loose on the new ride. You know how a belt makes that horrible screeching sound? Well, ours was about half the output of that but made that screech every time we accelerated from a full stop. Even in a new car, I can't get peace now. *hiss* We were amazed at some of the trucks that made it back there on that road. It was a real bummer that places we were drooling over going back to turned out to be real poopers on the quality front. It is SO EXPENSIVE there that eating crappy food seems like you should be eligible for a refund. I can still recommend Scottish Bakehouse, Fat Ronnie's Burgers and a new to us place called Biscuits but man some really popular places are coasting on old reputations. Despite it being windy a few days, we would head to Oak Bluffs daily and walk around the pier and town to get about 2 miles in. We knew even with the chaos of the weather some days, it was going to be the closest to tranquility we were going to find. We were talking about how there is nowhere to park in any of the tourist towns so I have zero clue how that place functions during the summer. It would be our version of hell on Earth for sure! I made sure to soak it all in because I'm pretty sure we're never coming back at least not soon. It's sad when in 7 years the quality and charm is stripped from a place. There are pictures I took of hand painted signs and stuff from the last time that are gone. I had them made into prints then and am so glad I did because I didn't expect them to all look so historical so quickly.
It's also where I spent my first Mother's Day without her. We rarely saw her on the day because of vacations so it didn't hit emotionally like you might expect because I got a lot of that out earlier on the trip. But when I was unhooking Mom from my neck as I did every day, glanced down and saw it was midnight, I said "Happy Mother's Day Mom... how is this my life now." When we started the day, my childhood bestie who lost her mom 4 years ago emailed me to check in. We emailed a few responses and after breakfast the Mr asked if we should go to Oak Bluffs earlier so we did. He didn't mention anything about mother's day so I didn't know if he forgot or was afraid to mention it so I told myself to just keep it together and not ruin the day. As we drove, I could see a cruise ship in the distance and knew it was probably full of people celebrating the day and got a pit in my stomach. As we approached the pier and I saw families together, I knew I was about to lose it so I texted my friend and asked if she was available for a quick call. She said yes and I had perfect timing. She answered and said hi and I squeaked out a cracking "hi". We chatted for about 20 minutes, talking and crying over how shitty it was our mom's weren't here and had each other laughing by the end which was just what I needed. Despite there being a constant invasion of pods going to and fro on the ship crowding the town, we still walked. Thank goodness we did. We ran into these two local ladies while we were sitting in the park and they struck up a conversation with us. The one in the walker was this feisty hippie and her friend went on about how she was a local legend and wrote a book. It's called
Casting into the Light if you need a summer read about a sassy feminist who showed the begrudging fisherman how it's done in the 70's and beyond. They've been friends for 50 years and talked about their adventures when they were "young and cute" and their energy was contagious. The one yoga teacher lady spied her cousins family from Scotland and that would've been our cue to leave but we didn't. We chatted with them and just absorbed all of the joy. Mom sent us a family. It turned out to be one of the best days of vacation.
We got in walking on two beaches our second to last full day and that was a mistake from a foot standpoint. The pain kept me up most of the night and I was a hobbling mess our last full day. I knew when we were doing it I was going to pay but I don't regret doing it. I was in stabbing pain every single day so what was turning it to 11 to send us off? I only hate how much I slowed us down the whole time. 😔 It was by no means the vacation we needed but as that nails on a chalkboard saying goes "it is what it is." The weight gain is shameful but I guess I can at least hang my hat on the fact that 85% of the time I got in over 10,000 steps per day when on vacations past, we might've gotten 2-3000k at most many days due to driving and not making a point to walk, not that it helped with weight gain but still. I sent 4 strength workouts to us to do and neither mentioned them to the other so they didn't get done so we continued the vacation tradition of ignoring them. These weren't long ones either, just 30 minutes and we had plenty of time to do them but chose to screw ourselves on the strength front.
I think I ground my teeth to nubbins most nights which feels good. The looming vein procedure, poon check for the VIN that got switched to my mom's birthday, an impending wedding Mom was heavily involved in, home projects waiting on us as well as an unpleasant consultation in our near future decided to travel with me in my brain. For those of you who actually are able to relax, please pass on your secret because I clearly can't no matter where we are. I hope the Mr at least got the mental break he needed while we were gone because we sure didn't get it when we got back.
Hello whatever the hell fell off of the bikes from the guy in front of us that shattered on our hood and chipped the paint of our 3 month old first 'grown up' car!
Hello ant infestation!
Hello computer monitor that died while we were gone that the Mr needs to telework!
*twitch*
Do you have a vacation in your future?
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