October 10, 2010

An interesting day - 10/10/10 - so definitely wanted to get my blog updated today.  It has been a while since I wrote last, as we took a trip to Nantucket last weekend and I've just generally been lazy about writing anything up.  Instead of the usual chronological order, I'm going to do it in reverse since my memory is better with more recent events.  We celebrated Jo's birthday this weekend - the number to remain undisclosed by it starts with a 5 - with some gift opening and a last visit to Fred's Shanty for fried clams and Dairy Queen for a Heath Bar Blizzard.  Both will be shutting down in the next week or two for the winter and it was nice to squeeze one more visit in.  On Friday, we had dinner with our friends the Pratt's and Bremer's where we got to see a lovely sunset from the Pratt's deck.  Saturday was the usual mix of chores and exercise with a little college football thrown in - Illinois beat Penn State (Yeah) and Wisconsin beat Minnesota (double Yeah) so it was a good weekend for the ole Alma Maters.  Today is a few more chores as we try to get last minute outdoor cleanup chores done before the leaves start falling from the trees.

The week at work was nice since Jo took some extra vacation time and only worked half days, while I only had 3 days in the office.  The coming week though is a full week for both of us, so it's time to buckle down.



Jo touching the Nantucket Sound (it's a theme)


Now to our Nantucket trip which was part of Jo's birthday gift.  We took the ferry over on Friday in the midst of a downpour - which it turns out might have been a clue for the weekend.  We stayed at a bed-and-breakfast right in town and only a couple of block walk from the ferry dock.  That night, we had a lovely dinner in town which included lobster tacos as an appetizer and a hot chocolate chip cookie with ice cream for dessert (who cares what the main course was) then back for a little reading before catching up on much needed rest.  Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny (as it turns out the last time to see the sun on Nantucket) and we strapped on our running shoes to see a little of the neighborhood.  After which, it was off to see the sights of Nantucket town.  We figured out pretty quickly that Nantucket is a expensive place to shop, but a wonderful little town.  We went sight seeing until the afternoon at which point we decided it was time for a nap and reading. 

Sunday we decided to rent bikes and tour the island.  The weather had closed in with heavy clouds and gale force winds (I might be exaggerating a little for effect, but it was really windy).  We biked from one end of the island to the other and top to bottom.  Spent five hours out riding in which we figured we covered about 40 miles.  We did stop for a few hikes along the way, one stop consisted of Jo doing her standard put her hand in the water (the photo above).  She has done this in bodies of water across the globe - don't ask me why it's just something she needs to do - and it usually consists of her getting her shoes soaking wet since many bodies of water have tides (she did manage to stay dry here for once).  We were tired puppies when we got back to the inn.  For dinner we got take out pizza and ate it in the inn's dining room - yum.  That evening we decided, on the spur of the moment, to see out an improv comedy show.  Unfortunately it must have been cancelled since the doors never opened even though there was about 8 people waiting.  It was fun to watch us try to use modern technology to figure out if the show was on - one lady on a cell phone calling while we were on Jo's Iphone checking out their web page (for you info, never did come to a conclusion - but since the doors never opened that answered the question).  Since that didn't work out we thought we would get another of the cookie dessert - again on the spur of the moment - and wouldn't you know it, the restaurant had run out of them.  So much for this spur of the moment stuff, we are going back to planning everything.

Monday was rainy and drizzly so after doing a walking tour of Nantucket town to learn about some of the buildings, we hunkered down in the B&B reading.  Very relaxing.  In the early evening we found the Nantucket movie house to see "The Girl Who Played with Fire" (Stieg Larsson's second book) as it seemed like the perfect thing to do on a rainy, drizzly day.  Then after a nice dinner it was time to pack up to be ready for coming home on Tuesday - which was also rainy.  All in all, a relaxing weekend and Nantucket is a lovely place to visit.  Would definitely recommend it for anyone, although food and shopping is on the high end.