Last year after several of weeks of not feeling himself and tired, my Grandfather was diagnosed with acute leukemia. It was a terrible shock for all of us because that was the same disease that took my sweet Grandmother in 1979. Due to his old age, he decided to not fight the cancer with radiation and chemo. He was afraid the treatments would kill him. Luckily, he has been doing well the first several month after being diagnosed due to his healthy life style of eating well and exercising. A few months ago, the cancer showed its ugly face by wiping out a lot of energy from him. At the age of 85, he finally retired from his job as a radio engineer for a Classical radio station on Cape Cod and volunteered citizen police officer. He has a hospice nurse who checks on him regularly. He is getting by with blood transfusions every couple weeks as needed. Thankfully, the blood transfusions have been working for him and it has been several weeks since his last one. He has been able to do some gardening, some small projects around the house, work a couple hours at the radio station, etc. He is taking life one day at a time by making the best of it.
My Grandpa with some old radio equipment downstairs.
A couple weeks ago my brother and I bought some last minute airline tickets to Boston, Massachusetts August 2-6, 2011. My sister Karen was not able to come this year. It was a very quick trip not long enough for all of us but we didn't want to overwhelm him and my step Grandmother. We wanted to purchase our tickets months ago, but we were advised by our Grandfather not too in case his health got worse. More importantly, we all didn't know what to expect since he isn't aggressively fighting the cancer. Since my grandfather is dying, we felt it was important to see him this summer. I cannot imagine the guilt and grief that I would feel if he died without me seeing him this year. It has been over five years since I last saw my grandfather and I am not close to him as I would like to be. The distance in miles between us has made it difficult, but I have cherished my memories spent with him while visiting him on the Cape when I was a young girl, teen, and adult. He came out to see us when we were kids occasionally too but I was sad we didn't live close by each other. Over the years, we kept in touch by sending cards, letters, and phone calls.
My girly girls and me! Big Sister is getting very tall!
Ready Set Go! On our way to the airport!
Nate and me at the airport ready to check in.
~My Journal Entries: My Summer 2011 Cape Cod Trip~
Goals: Eat fresh fish every day and spend quality time with Grandpa and Grandma!
Wednesday August 3, 2011
We made it to Boston around 9:00 a.m. At the airport, I bought myself a ladies brown and pink Boston Red Sox cap and my daughters Red Sox t-shirts . We were shuttled by bus from the airport to our rental car agency (National). On the way down to the Cape, we stopped to see the Scituate Lighthouse, which is located on a very rocky shoreline. The stones were very scared there and we were not allowed to take one as a keepsake. What a beautiful harbor and shoreline in Scituate!
Rocky Shoreline near the Scituate Lighthouse
Scituate Lighthouse, 1636
Next, we went to Plymouth for lunch at Cafe Nicole. The view from this Cafe was breathtaking! We could see Plymouth Harbor! I ate calm chowder, fries, and a haddock sandwich.
New England Clam Chowder and Haddock Sandwich
To our surprise, we got a $15.00 parking ticket because we forgot to pay the meter, duh. Good grief, I had at least $5.00 in change!!! That was a terrible mistake due to lack of sleep and jet lagged from the airplane... We learned our lesson the hard way, GRRR! Finally, we made it to Marshton Mills later in the afternoon to see my Gramps and Grams Coleman. We took our stuff upstairs and talked outside on the patio deck for a couple hours. Then my grandparents took us all out for dinner at Wimpy's Sea Food Cafe and Fish Market in Osterville, MA. I tried swordfish with capers for the first time and absolutely loved it! I also had ginger al, dinner salad, rolls, baked potato, and squash.
Picture from ---->Wimpy's Seafood Cafe
On the way home, we stopped by 1856 Country Store. There are several cute souvenirs, decorations, gifts, books, candy, etc at the shop. My father informed me that he and my mother lived in the apartment above that store many years ago.
1856 Country Store
We all went to bed early that night since Nate and I were running on no sleep or nap due to traveling and sightseeing.
Thursday August 4, 2011
We woke up to the incredible smell of homemade blueberry pancakes, orange juice, coffee (for my brother and grandpa) and sausage for breakfast! Nate and I visited with our Grandpa and Grandma for awhile. We left the house around 11:00 a.m. Today we spent most the day in Hyannis, Massachusetts. We went shopping on Main Street. There is a lot to see and do on Main Street, Hyannis!
Main Street, Hyannis
There are rides for kids, modern art, a large Cape Cod beach chair, several shops, many restaurants, a church, and live entertainment. What a quaint place to hang out for a couple hours! I bought some sea shells , a beach tot bag, a salmon pink Cape Cod jacket, some popular nautical postcard and print by Robert Edward Kennedy at Kennedy Gallery, and small souvenirs. As for lunch, we went to an Irish"rustic shire" restaurant called Common Ground Cafe. The place was absolutely enchanting with handmade wood decorations! I felt like we were in the middle of a forest among hobbits! I ordered a fresh tuna wrap sandwich, chips, and bottled water. They make an amazing homemade dressing as a dip for chips or spreading on sandwiches/wraps.
Afterwards, we went to Craigville Beach. I was able to change my clothes at an old bathhouse. The ocean water was extremely warm and the beach was filled with sea shells and grainy sand. We enjoyed swimming and sitting on our towels soaking up the sun. There were a couple snack shacks across the street. Nate got a very yucky Coke there (fountain that was maybe expired). Since my brother is a sales man for Coke, he knows the difference between the taste of fresh and expired product!
Craigville Beach
We went home around 5:30 p.m. Grams made homemade chicken pot pie, baby peas, a berry/pineapple yogurt salad, and cranberry sauce. My grandmother spoiled us with her homemade hot fudge sauce over peppermint ice cream. We spent the rest of the evening visiting with Gramps and Grams until around 10:30 p.m. I enjoyed listening to stories about my Grandpa. Several years ago, he worked with the Boston Pops and met many jazz singers. He worked for a recording studio in Boston. He showed us his awesome man cave in the basement! He has a lot of cool toys such as vintage radio equipment, artifacts from the civil war time period, as well as several original paintings by my great grandfather.
Friday August 5, 2011
We had a light breakfast today cereal, English muffins, jam, and juice. Nate and I had a long day planned. We decided to check out some more lighthouses and hang out at the beach. Nate is extremely fascinated by the beauty of lighthouses in fact he has a book that contains the location and photographs of all the lighthouses in Massachusetts. We drove south to Eastham, Cape Cod. We saw Three Sisters Lighthouses as well as Nauset Lighthouse.
Three Sister's Lighthouses, 1838.
Nauset Lighthouse, 1923 was a twin lighthouse transferred from Chatham.
Next, we ate lunch in Orleans, MA at Lobster Claw. We shared a plate of fried calamari for an appetizer. As for my main dish, I ordered fried lobster, fries, and coleslaw. We loved the restaurant! The service and food was excellent!
The Lobster Claw (Postcard)
We drove to Chatham, Cape Cod to see the Chatham Lighthouse. What a gorgeous beach! The water was so blue and the sand was white! To our surprise, most of the beaches there were for locals only that required stickers (for parking) and there was no public parking near the beach we wanted to hang out at...
Chatham Lighthouse and Beach
So we continued our journey to find another beach near the coast. Along the way, we stopped at the old Eastham Windmill off 6A.
Eastham Windmill
Then proceeded down the road to First Encounter Beach in Eastham. According to history, First Encounter Beach is where the pilgrims first met the native Indians. The pilgrims stopped at Provincetown, then Eastham, and afterwards they headed towards Plymouth, MA where they settled in 1620. Anyway, it was high tide during that time of the day at the beach. There were a lot of sand dunes which were prohibited to walk on. I recall the sand was rocky. The water was extremely warm like Craigville Beach. Most beaches have very cold water and we were lucky to swim in two warm ones during our trip, Yay!
We headed back home around 5:00 p.m. Grams made a dinner reservation at Amari Bar and Ristorante in East Sandwich. The authentic Italian food was magnificent. I ordered shrimp scampi while Nate got shrimp parmigiana. We had tons of left overs for the next day!
After dinner, we drove out to Sandy Neck Beach. Nate and I walked on the beach for a few minutes enjoying the sunset. Sandy Neck Beach is extremely rocky compared to the other beaches. It is also cold to swim in, although it is a beautiful beach to sit and listen to the waves. There are beautiful sand dunes there too.
When we got home, we ate some lemon cake, played a game of Phase Ten, and talked way past my grandparent's bed time!
Saturday August 6, 2011-August 7, 2011
This morning, we packed up our things and spent some quality time with Grandma and Grandpa Coleman. We had blueberry muffins and juice for breakfast. Before we left, we had some of our leftover food from Amari Bar and Ristorante and took many pictures on the backyard deck of my Grandfather's home. I cannot believe how quickly our trip came to an end! It was so hard to say good bye! My grandfather truly appreciated the time we spent with him and Grams. We sure hope and pray he can be around for a while.
If there is another "next time" on the Cape in the future we would like to extend our trip another day or two. Travelling home was brutal! We saw another windmill on our way to Boston. We returned our car around 1:45 p.m.
We bought some last minute RED SOX stuff at the airport and were off to New York City around 4:00 p.m. Since we had a couple hours until our next flight, we ate dinner at a Sports Bar and Grill. We were able to watch the Red Sox versus Yankees at the airport restaurant. The Red Sox won that night 10-4, Woohoo! We proudly wore our Red Sox caps in the New York airport and boy did we get the glares! For dessert, I got some Ben and Jerry's sweet cookie and cream ice cream! Our next flight was so messed up in New York. We had no seats assigned to us luckily we were able the get the LAST minute row seats at the ticket counter since it was a FULL flight.
No surprise we were delayed, ugh!
Our gate changed on us three times. Our "plane" was taken twice by other flights. There were mechanical problems with the third plane. So around 9:00 p.m. we boarded a plane from Boston and sat on the runway for ONE HOUR! I need to remind myself to avoid the JFK Airport next time. Every time we fly from there we were always delayed due to the heavy airplane traffic. So the captain on our flight home to Utah allowed us to watch free movies and Nate got free cocktails. I slept a little, watched some TV, and listened to my iPod. My husband John and daughters greeted us around 1:20 a.m. near the Jet Blue pick up parking. I went to bed around 3:00 a.m. I was extremely jet lagged for a day and half later. Overall, we had a fantastic time! We saw many lighthouses, beaches, and windmills! We ate delicious sea food and Granny's home cooked meals! We went swimming and shopping. Lastly, best of all we made some wonderful memories with our Grandfather and Grandmother Coleman.
