Cape Christmas 2011 - Christmas in July? Why not???

One thing that the East Coast has that the West Coast does not have is the ability to zip out to local beach towns on any given weekend through the wonderful gift of mass transit.  Last year was the first time Mike and I ventured out to Cape Cod and over the course of the weekend, it quickly became our favorite coastal town.

This year, the Keohane family was extremely generous in opening their home up to the Mobleys & the Bucks for a little holiday we've invented called "Cape Christmas".  The concept behind the weekend was essentially to celebrate our favorite holiday with a little nautical flair.  And since we can't REALLY go to the Cape in the winter....we celebrated Christmas a few months early this year.

But outside of the festive holiday we invented, it was my favorite weekend of the summer (so far).  The five of us (plus Winston) started out our trip caravan-ing together after work.  We arrived in Cape Cod  relatively late, so our first order of business was a midnight beach walk complete with cocktails and cozy sweatshirts.  Words, nor pictures can describe how spooky Cape Cod is at night time.  The mist, the darkness, the woods, and the summer breeze all made for a haunted adventure.  It felt like a scene right out of "What Lies Beneath" mixed together with "Jaws"...and we LOVED it.  Good thing we brought along our guard dog in case any crazies came out of the woods!

For our first full day the crew got up nice and early to head out to rent bikes, which we took on the ferry over the water to Martha's Vineyard.  It was close to 95 degrees on the Vineyard, but that didn't keep us from biking 7 miles from Oak Bluffs to Edgartown for a delicious lunch of lobster rolls & cocktails.  A few of us were a little overheated to get the bikes back to the ferry (where we all tried our hand in feeding sea gulls), but we made it back to the Cape just in town for a sunset swim together.  We finished the evening in festive nautical attire at the Silver Lounge over many many cocktails.

While we were a bit slow in getting up on Saturday AM, we were quickly cured by nature's hangover cure...the ocean.  It was a good ol' fashioned beach day, complete with floating chairs in the water, a little bit of beach football, and an extremely haunted summer thunderstorm.  When the clouds cleared we headed out to Wood's Hole to hit up every novelty Cape Cod bar and enjoy a few Dark and Stormys and steamers in town.

But the highlight of the entire weekend, and my favorite part of the trip was our Cape Christmas night.  We all donned our red & green tropical Christmas attire and played the steel drum Christmas music for a merry evening at home.  We enjoyed cocktails on the back porch watching an amazing sunset while steaming lobsters & corn-on-the cob.  Rather than eating inside, we all took our lobster bibs and claw crackers outside and ate dinner by candle light on the lawn in the backyard.  The food was delicious, the company was even better, and the setting was like something out of a movie.

 Despite the handle of Mount Gay rum that we polished off, it was a night that we'll never forget.  These weekends with our friends mean the world to us and we're so blessed to have such amazing people in our lives.  I could have stayed out there with everyone until dawn.

As usual, we were all so bummed to leave, including Winston.  But the memories of our kite flying, backyard gymnastics, late night game playing, and early morning ocean dips will make me smile for months...until we go back at least!