Ohhh, the magic of The Cape!

I started this post a while back without finishing….tying up loose ends now that I’m back in AZ.

One more night until I depart my serenity. This has truly been 16 days of peace & quiet in the most beautiful surroundings during a magical time of the year. Fall has always been a favorite season, because of my birthday being in November, but also because I love colder temperatures. The change of seasons, with leaves having SO many shades has brought a whole new love affair to fruition for this girl. The last few days have been cold & rainy. I wake up to wind swirling, leaves crackling, and the droplets of rain hitting my bedroom window in my cute cozy cottage in Orleans, MA. To recap these 16 magical days, I will do my best in sharing a glimpse through some stories & photos.

Upon arrival, I was greeted by the most beautiful sunset at Skaket Beach, 1 mile from my home. I had dinner at a crab shack with a lobster taco, made my way to grocery shop and get settled. Woke up to an incredible sunrise at Nauset Beach on the Atlantic. It was a Chatham Bars Inn planned workday. Pinch me, I am living a dream! The Jewish High holidays were upon us, and I found a congregation in my tiny town that hosted services in a church up the road. I was welcomed by the Rabbi’s mother who was in town visiting from New Jersey. I sat next to her and her husband, while their son Rabbi Gold lead the services. Crazy story…….mid way through the Erev Rosh Hashanah service an older gentleman and his wife were called to the bima for an honor of opening the ark, as they stood there the 85 yr old man fainted. With many doctors in the group they got him up and moved him to a seat, he fainted again……911 was called. He is better now, but this caused a lot of ruckus as you can imagine. It allowed for all of us to talk while he was being worked on. I met a couple behind me who lives year-round in Scottsdale, has a summer home in the Cape. Sure enough when playing Jewish geography we had many aquantaines in common. And the husband used to be the head guy at The Registry Resort in Scottsdale, before it closed. We discussed how our family always had special brunches at this hotel and had fallen in love with the many ice sculptures, which lead to all of us having one at our own bat-mitzvahs. They thought this was so funny, as they had 20 ice sculptures at their wedding. So many stories shared, new connections made, and a fun eventful evening at Temple, LOL. I went back the next morning for a 2 hour service, hence learning the older guy was out of the hospital at home resting. Phew!!!

By time the first weekend arrived, I was feeling settled. Max & Samantha drove up from Plymouth, MA ( 1 hour away) to have dinner with me and visit. They made it in time to enjoy the sunset over Skaket Beach, if you have not experienced this- I highly recommend adding it to your bucket list. Skaket Beach is one of my Aunt Marlene & CUJ favorites. They introduced me to it years ago. The special part is that the tide goes SO far out that you can walk the sea-bottom floor for miles out. So many people congregate here to watch the sun fall into the water, as this is the bay side of the Cape. The crowd claps every night after the sun is finished with it’s magical performance of beautiful colors. The 3 of us made our way back to my home to enjoy the cold on my deck in the backyard awaiting our 7:30pm dinner reservation at Rock City Grill. I had a yummy Cod for dinner with a cocktail served with a rubber duck floating inside. It was so nice to have quality time with them. Crazy, I was his nanny at 2 weeks old, he is getting married soon, time flies.

With this being my first weekend in The Cape, I was SO excited to be solo with no plans. I got to have a leisure morning of drinking coffee, reading, and finally watching some TV. I have not had a Television in many of the places I stayed, so I was excited to catch up with the world news, this crazy presidential campaigns, and I guess it was time to get out from under the rock I had been living in la la land. And listen to all the Israel news too…..I jumped back & forth between FOX & CNN. I like to stay balanced and open…it’s the tight rope I choose to walk. I then went to Chatham and walked my fav Main St stores, I was on a mission to find our Whitney her bat-mitzvah gift. Jewelry was the search. Of course I found some great clothing items for me, ha. The streets were lined with a pumpkin patch, fall leaves, some tourists, music playing, and fire pits in front of some of the cafes. I ended up at CBI taking in the views while sitting by the fire sipping on an Irish Coffee with whip cream. The plan for tonight was Netflix on my couch. I love when spontaneous plans appear. I received a text from one of the Adoption Attorney’s I had hung with in NYC, she was in town visiting her sister and invited me for after dinner drinks at her sisters Cape Cod home, SCORE!!! What a fun night out of the blue……3 jewish couples sitting around a fireplace sipping wine telling all sorts of stories. They were all mesmerized by my AZ roots and they think I resemble Ally Sheedy (funny). Two of the couples are dying to visit and possible buy homes in Scottsdale or Flagstaff. I arrived at 9pm and the night ended after midnight. I’m truly loving my east coast life. Sunday was an exercise filled day, so necessary. Long walks in beautiful scenery. Some down town reading my book at The Snowy Owl, my fav coffee shop nearby. I went by the fish market to stock up on fresh fish to have healthy dinners at home. I LOVE my air fryer. It was a netflix night…..The Laci Peterson documentary and The Mendez Brothers series.

A full work week before my last visitor arrives. I work from The Library, CBI lobby, The cool coffee shops, home, and my fabulous deck. The Chatham farmers market is on Tuesday’s, I ventured to explore and got some yummy scones and the most delicious smelling candles. Stephenne arrived on Thursday night. I picked her up in Hyannis, after she landed in Boston and jumped on the bus. It is truly an easy trek to make if you don’t mind a long travel day. I was thrilled to be the tour guide. Stephenne and I met 14+ years ago while working in Adoption together. She is a social worker, the mom to 3 boys, and we have never spent 3 solid days together. She had never been to the East Coast before and was so looking forward to being on the Dora Explorer marathon. I had created a long list itinerary for us to try to cross off as much as possible. Let the Games begin!!!

Friday was our Nantucket planned day. We made our way back to Hyannis to catch the hour long Ferry, it was a cold day. We sat by 2 couples, one with a brand new puppy. Of course we chatted the entire way learning everyone’s life story. Upon arrival we walked the cobble stone covered main st, had a yummy lunch where we shared a lobster quesadilla, had cocktails, and wandered all the stores. I found Whitney’s gift here, gold earrings from Nantucket! We toured all the fancy 5 star hotels on the Island, and made our way to Cisco Brewery. Nantucket is a place out of the movies that everyone should visit. ON the ferry ride home we sat next to two Mainers, who are home builders on Nantucket. Their story was fascinating, as they commute from Northern Maine often. They were not gonna get home until after 1 am. I’m blown away by how people live this adventure called, LIFE.

Dinner tonight was in Dennis Port at the famous Ocean House, my all time fav restaurant on the Cape. Saturday we made our way to all the main stops, I won’t bore you the details, as I wrote about them last year. But we did make the drive to the very tip of Cape Cod to visit P- Town (Provincetown). It was Transweek, quite a sight to witness. Always a crazy party time of people watching in this alternative sex filled town. We stopped along the way at many cute bakeries, coffee shops, and a few stores., after touring the 5 star hotels in Cape Cod. We had to make it back by sunset, as Steph needed to experience a Sunset at Skaket beach. Dinner was out again at The Barley Neck Inn restaurant with all the locals and live music.

We enjoyed my neighborhood farmers market, a lunch at Chatham Piers (my last lobster roll- oink oink), and a leisure morning with home cooked breakfast, hot coffee on the deck bundled up in winter gear, before getting on the rd to take her back to Hyannis. We had time to kill for a sandwich before she boarded her bus back to Boston Logan Airport. I spent my last Sunday at CBI reading my book by the fire and catching up on work. I had 3 days left of my Take 2 east coast adventures. One more Chatham farmers market to soak up, long walks under the ever changing colorful leaf filled trees and drives to take in this fall scenery. Life is truly but a dream!!!

I’m writing this now from Starbuck at Kierland in Scottsdale. If you don’t follow me on social media I wanted to share 2 publications I have been lucky to be a part of recently. One is a podcast interview I recorded while in NYC, it just dropped last week on Spotify & Apple. I was interviewed by Becca of The Adoption RoadMap, one of my fav adoption podcasts. Listen to my episode here. It’s one hour with 2 commercials. And, my recent article in Jewdicious came out yesterday on Shabbat. It is about a few experiences while on these recent travels in NY.

I’m back in Arizona, after celebrating our Whitney becoming a Bat- Mitzvah. We just had such a fun-family filled week. All my cousins from CT were here to celebrate. Lots of drinking, eating, dancing, playing games, etc. Such a wonderful way to experience re-entry after living my dream life, Now back to reality here in Arizona. I hope to see you all soon. Stay tuned for Dora’s next adventure! Hugs and Kisses to you all!!!! XO XO XO

Love Laurie Sue

AKA- Dora The Explorer! ❤️🍁🎃😘