We have been back a while and I'm still behind on posting, so here goes a recap of the Boston/Cape Cod vacation we had! I think this is the longest blog post yet!

Pictured: Mark, Beth and Maddie Blackburn, Marie Heneberry, Meg Heneberry with Zac, Danielle, Chris & Kathy
We flew into Providence, Rhode Island and discovered they have the longest moving sidewalk EVER! It takes you from the airport baggage claim area to the rental car place. After an exchange of words at the rental counter, we were off to see Kathy's cousin, Marie's family. We had a nice grilled burger cookout! YUM!
We left from there to go to Kathy's cousin's Geri's house in Cape Cod. On the way we found DUNKIN' DONUTS! I was in HEAVEN until I realized they did not have the donuts I wanted. I told the girl there we had flown in from Oklahoma and could she please go look in back. She came out all excited and said they had them and packed up a box for me.
I left an extra good tip on the way out and then realized as we were back on the highway that she had discovered the wrong donut. I wanted the boston creme filling not the bavarian creme. Oh well..it was still Dunkin' Donuts!

We arrived safely at Cousin Geri's and talked for a bit until it was time for bed.

Pictured: Geri Medeiros holding her granddaughter, Eloise VanDussen. Jim Medeiros chats with Chris!
When we arose, she promptly pointed us in the direction of the nearest Kennedy-attending church and we were off to Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church for mass.

While I don't think I saw a Kennedy in attendance, one lady looked awfully Kennedy looking. So that counts! We then ran back to Geri's and changed and then took Kathy's 2nd cousin maybe removed or not? Luke with us to go to a whale watch in Province Town, MA. VERY interesting city.
We got totally lucky on the whale cruise! I was able to snap a shot of a whale-tale belonging to Coral the Humpback whale!
When we got back from the successful whale watching adventure, Kathy's first cousin once removed Katie arrived with her kiddos. After chatting for two minutes, all the kids decided to go swimming. I dipped nary a toe in the pool and decided that Cape Cod summers were markedly cooler than Oklahoma summers. The kids jumped in anyway, teeth-a-chatter, and had a blast and followed that up with a warm shower in the outdoor shower!

Pictured above: Luke, Teddy, Abigail VanDussen with Danielle & Zac!
The next day we took a mini-tour of Cape Cod and saw some Kennedy houses (Robert Kennedy's is shown), the Kennedy Memorial and capped off the day with some sunset photos on one of Cape Cod's smaller beaches.


While in Cape Cod we saw quite a few relatives, some amazing sites and capped it off with a sunset that warmed the soul (other than being swarmed by attack gnats!)!
Before we left, however, we were treated to an Irish jig! Thanks Meg and Abigail!

On the way out of Cape Cod we stopped at Plymouth Plantation. This is where you can see how the settlers "settled" at Plymouth. I can say they settled alright! They didn't even own their dirt floor homes. They just paid their employers until they made enough money to run away somewhere else. We also got to see how the Native People lived. It was pretty interesting. All I can say is thank God for air conditioning, furnaces and homes with floor and cable!


From there we moved on to Boston and the surrounding cities!
We went to see Marie and Fred Heneberry and have dinner in their house that was built in 1792! It is amazing that it is in such good condition when you consider wars, weather and time take their toll!

The next day Marie took us on a whirlwind tour of Boston. She had cleverly arranged the sight-seeing so that we would make a gigantic circle and end up close to where she parked. Close being a relative term...but that's Marie's and our secret! :)
We took a quick tour of homes that our relatives grew up in and even saw the closed down church where Grammy & Grampy Cotter got married!


After a little trip down memory lane, we were off to see Boston by foot, by car, by boat and train (or was that a subway..is a subway a train? Hmmm.....). Well, let's just agree that we did it all! You will notice some famous sites such as Fenway Park and the Swan Boats (which we rode!).



Now as an aside...while we were touring Boston we had an encounter with the mobster Whitie! I've never seen a Federal police escorted prisoner before...still haven't...you can't see inside the SUVs!
From this whirlwind tour we left for a visit to Uncle Joe and his family! We got another tour of the city! There is so much to do that you can't possibly squeeze it in, but we sure tried!!
We entered the city of Boston and amid all the high rises and modern architecture, this little dilapidated dock house still stands. I loved it! We then moved on to view some even older parts of the city...Paul Revere's home! We walked down hundreds of years old brick streets to see his house and in its day, it probably was a mansion. To me...looks like cramped quarters! We then continued on to see the church were the infamous lanterns were lit to announce that the "British were coming!"
Some more modern "commercial" sites were visit such as Quincy Market and we got to see the historic city hall!


We wrapped up our day with a fantastic view of Boston Harbour! What's not to love!
We got to see quite a few relatives on this juncture of our trip, but unfortunately we were not able to capture them all with photos...between the excitement of visiting and chatting, sometimes we forgot to pull out our cameras.
Pictured below are:
Lauren, Danielle, Shawna. Next is Patti and Bob. Then we have Liz and John. Uncle Joe. After that the group shot is Mary Beth, Uncle Joe, Patti with Kathy and the kids! The last shot is a the most unusual rainbow we've ever seen. It was mixed in the clouds and was floating over Uncle Joe's house when we left! Nice way to end a trip.





All in all, we had a incredible trip and we have to give special thanks to Geri, Marie and Patti who went above and beyond giving us tours galore. I don't know about them, but I got more walking in the 7 days we were there than I probably do in a month! ;)