Girls' Cape Cod Trip Report - Episode 208

This week Danielle and Hayley are recapping their recent beach girls' trip to Cape Cod. 

Want to plan your own adventure? Danielle would love to help. Reach out to her today at daniellegriggs@fantasticalvacations.com to get started!

Mickey with Minis podcast outro music

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Hello. I just saw you like a couple of hours ago.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

I know.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

We hung out in real life all weekend. It was so great. So, guys, we meant to do on the goes, but we like didn't really coordinate them. And so then when we ended up sending them back and forth to each other after the fact, I was like, this is not a podcast. This doesn't tell the story of a trip at all. This doesn't make sense at all. This is a sewage calendar.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

It's full of holes. So what we we're doing a little post trip. A little post trip. Well post-trip. Immediately post-trip. So where were we? Yes. We went down the Cape this weekend for a girls' weekend initiated by Auntie Karen. Thank you, Auntie Karen, for getting the ball rolling. Um, so we went with it was me and Danielle, um, her three girls, my two girls. I also brought Luke, even though he's not he's making all sorts of noise right now, too. Um, even though he is not a girl, I go back to work and leave this week and just couldn't really wrap my head around also spending the weekend away with him. So um I brought him with me. And mom and her sisters Karen, Mary, and Joyce, and her sisters-in-law Kathy and Shell, and then um Auntie Karen's granddaughter Riley, who our girls just adore to pieces. So that was really nice. Amazing. She yeah, she just has an instinct for like zones in on a baby, and it's like, hello, I'm Riley, let's play peekaboo, and they like melt. Yeah, um, just too hard. So we went down the Cape, we stayed at the um Riviera, which is owned. So the Red Jacket brand owns, I think, four hotels down the Cape, I'm pretty sure. Uh they oh they have the Red Jacket, the Riviera, the Blue Water, and the Green Harbor. And the Blue Water and the Riviera are right next to each other on the beach. So they pretty much share amenities, and then the red jacket's a little bit further down. Um, they pretty much share amenities, and they both have pools, they're both right on the beach, which is awesome. Um, does the blue water have an indoor pool or just the outdoor? Do you know?

SPEAKER_01 3:17

No, I think that there is an indoor pool, but I also think it's in the basement. Okay. Remember when we walked by those skylights and we were like, kids don't stand on the skylights? Yes. I think the indoor pool is down there. Okay. So the riviera had both blue water has also has a gym, but the re um the Riviera doesn't. But you can use it at Blue Water if you wanted. And they have also more sit-down restaurant situations. So they they seem to be a little more amenity-heavy.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Yeah. So we went down on Friday. We meant to leave earlier, but the baby had a tough night, which is kind of very unusual for him right now. So I was like dead on my feet, basically, having been up with him. So we meant to leave around nine. We ended up leaving around noon, um, and got there about 2:30. So about two and a half hour ride without traffic, it should be like an hour. Um, but you know, a Friday afternoon in the summer, you kind of never know what you're gonna get. So two and a half hours is not too, too bad, all things considered. My room is not ready.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Um, from here, even though I'm further away from you. So I seem to have skipped some traffic.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

Um two and a half hours is what I expected without traffic. I also got on the road later than I meant to because my work is just like kind of ambiguous on Fridays and there was a ton of stuff happening, so I couldn't get out as early as I wanted to.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

Yeah.

unknown 4:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Um, so as soon as we got there, our so you check in at the Blue Water, um, which was fine. I just wish it was a little better marked because I wound up parking really far from where I needed to be. Um, so that you for some reason they don't have a lobby at the Riviera right now. It's just all over at the Blue Water. So we checked in there. Um, I do wish there was a little bit more clarity at check-in, and we'll talk about this a little bit more later. But one thing they implemented for this summer was they gave you a card for each person in the room that would get you a towel. And they didn't really explain anything about it at check-in, but um, the only spots to get the towels were was down on the beach. So if you're going to the pool, you first had to hike down to the beach to the towel shack and get your towels, then come back up to the pool and swim, and then go back to the beach um to turn in your towels to get the card back. So that was kind of a pain. And then also we just found out today if you didn't turn in all of your cards when you checked out, you would get charged $15 a towel. Um, which they did not explain it, Justin. So that was that was probably my major complaint for the weekend. So uh obviously it was like a pretty good weekend, but the towel, the towel thing was pretty annoying.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

Uh yes, yeah. No, so you guys got there and just kind of like went and got ready for the indoor pool, right?

unknown 6:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

Or no, you were trying to get ready. This was another little bit of a pain point. There's only one outdoor changing area, like outside of your room. There's just a single stall bathroom in the indoor pool. So if you're checking in and trying to get into swimsuits so you can go swim while you're waiting for your room, you're waiting in this line for this one singular stall. Or, like today, if you're checking out and you swim in the morning and you want to get changed to head home, same situation, which with five you know kids together, that's like a 45-minute adventure. So that was a little annoying. But you guys had gone and like gotten ready by the time I got there, and I you had done the check-in, but I still had to go to the front desk at the Blue Water to get our parking pass for my van. Right. And that even was kind of a weird vibe. They like seemed to not be able to like find my reservation. She was kind of like, Well, your room's not ready, so like, why do you need this? And I was like, Well, I'm still physically present. I'm still just kind of weird. I don't know. I they've just got some weird infrastructure issues, I feel like. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Um that would be easily fixed, I feel easily fixed. Most of them would be really easy fixes. Yeah, I was also a little frustrated. I tried to call the day before we checked in um because I wanted to make sure that they would have cribs available, which they did, but they did charge over $20 a day for a crib. Um, so but they did have them available. I was able to confirm that, and I wanted to make sure we were going to have a first floor room because our our mom has mobility issues and we were in a second story room two years ago and it did not work out. So um, I didn't know.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

I think it actually I think I think I knew that we were on the first floor because there's a limited number of the room type that we have. Gotcha. So I think I think when I booked it, I knew it was first floor because we only have like a couple of those family suites.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Sweets, yeah. Yeah, but it did take me almost 40 minutes to get a human on the phone to answer my questions. Yeah, so that was that was that was frustrating, but that's okay. Um, I feel like this is starting off very negative and I don't have a negative opinion of the weekend. We had a great weekend. It was great. So then we swam, which was lovely.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Well, yeah, so I got there like 20 minutes after you started out the parking pass, got my kids finally changed, met you guys at the pool. Yes, and and it was great. It was, I mean, they've got a really nice outdoor pool, it's not huge, but it's it's manageable. There's a little mushroom, you know, rainwater thingy, it's zero entry on one end, so that's nice. Which is great. Good amount of seating, although they were all taken that afternoon. Yeah. Um, and also lots of umbrellas, so you have shades. I feel like that's great.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

Um, yeah, so that was great. So we swam for like two and a half fish hours. Oh wow. We swam for a long time.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

Yeah, which was great. And then we had gotten a text that our room was ready, but like everyone was still happy. So we were just kind of swimming and doing that.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

So then our room, they advertise it as a family suite, and what it really is, it's two connecting rooms, which was perfectly fine for us. Yeah. Um, one room had two queen beds, and the other room had a queen bed and a sleeper sofa. And each room had a few, which was cool.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

Yeah, yes. But there isn't, and it this is kind of hard. You can't really tell online whether or not there's a kitchenette situation. Oh, I look at you too. Oh my god. Yeah. Um, you couldn't really tell online if there was gonna be any kind of kitchenette situation. It said there was like a dining area, so I was like, is that the thing? It's no, it's a very small table and a beverage cooler that actually is not very cold at all.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

The stuff was literally coming out room temperature. The beverage cooler wasn't not doing its job.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

Yeah, definitely. This is not like your Disney beverage cooler. This is like you can't put breast milk in ice in the back of that and hope for it to not spoil. So but you know what? Definitely fine. We just we really just we didn't really need it, it was fine, so yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

It was fun, and um, so then after the pool, we we got settled in the room and then we all changed into like cozy's to go down to the beach, which is my favorite. Yeah, yeah, I like the beach beach, yeah, for me, yeah. Yeah, we had dinner over at the the grill at the blue water, which was fine. It was like chicken tenders and burgers, and honestly, my tacos were awesome.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

They their menus really if you haven't spent a long time listener. If you go back a couple of years, we did a weekend down at the same hotel later in the season, like I want to say mid to late September, a couple years back. Late September, yeah. It rained the entire time, like torrential downpour the entire time. So it's a very different trip. But we went to the same grill for food because it's under the inch. And I feel like last time it was just like burgers, hot dogs, chicken tendies. And now it's standard, and they have like a lot more um, seems like kind of Mexican. They had like an elote appetizer, they had salsa, guac, they had a bunch of different kinds of tacos. I got the tacos alpha store, they were great, they were totally respectable. I was I was pleased. And I think the burger also looked really good, so you know it's a growth, it's kind of good. Yeah. And the drinks from the area is good, and they had live music going, which was really nice. I'm snobby, I'm not picky. I like to have to be good.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

And then we walked down to the beach and hung out in the sunset, and it was lovely. The kids did get um significantly more sandy and wet than anyone anticipated. Yes, that is that's on us. We did not realize that was coming, and seven kids later, we should have known better. I mean, um, but it was great, it was so nice. We just kind of hung out. The kids looked for shells, they had like the best time. It was very nice.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

And I think then last night didn't Audrey and Ella go with Riley to the swings or something.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Oh, yeah, they went to play on the swings for a while. So there's like uh two beach swings, which are really nice. I wish they had more of them actually. I know. Um, but they're very cute. You can go like do swings on the beach, which is fun.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

They didn't think maybe like bought ice cream or something. I don't remember. Oh, they went to I think they went to the indoor pool or something. I don't know. They were Auntie Karen for like a while, and then they went back to Auntie Karen's room because they had an interview with the balcony because they just had a right screen. So they the kids out with um the big kids went out with Auntie Karen and like hung out on her balcony in a ocean for a while. So when we got to our room, Emma had like dunked her head in the sand and in the sand was planning to share a bed with me and Gloria, and I was like, Well, that's happening in the car. So we gave the three little girls a tub, a big bubble bath, a bubble bath, bubble bath, yes, extremely cute, and then Emma a book for bedtime, which was on her kindle.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

That's adorable. It was really cute. And then once we got everybody to bed, um, Danielle and I, so like we had a little patio, and then we also had right across from us a little grassy area that had some picnic tables, which some people were out there during the day. Like, I think there was a big family group. Seemed like a big family, yeah. Yeah, so they were out there a lot during the day. They had like speakers and cornhole and stuff set up, but at night there was no one else out there, so we went out and had a couple drinks and just chit-chatted. And then just as we were getting ready to head back in, it was just about midnight. At midnight on the dot, I don't even know how to describe this. I I was so aggressive. Every sprinkler in the corners of the little grassy area turned on in like incredible fashion. We were aggressive to our underwear within seconds. Like this was not a little a little dampness. We were soaked through.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

There was no warning. There we were given no warning. No, in retrospect, I'm thinking about this. That's a small patch of grass. Why are we having a lot of water for that?

SPEAKER_00 15:10

There was a sprinkler in each corner. There were four sprinklers going off on this little patch of grass, and every time we tried to start running toward like a corner to exit, the sprinklers would shift. I was like right in my face. I was like shoving my phone down my shirt because I was worried my phone was gonna get ruined forever because it was getting so it was that wet.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

And like, I feel like maybe we could like have some more flexibility on towels and spend less on hydrating this triangle of grass. Of grass. I I just don't and we were we were laughing so hard that we couldn't effectively it reminded me of after the race when we were like trying to get up and we were laughing too hard, and then people thought we were in distress. So like I that's what this was. We were laughing so hard that we couldn't save ourselves. It was so hysterical.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

24 hours later, the shirt I was wearing, which I immediately hung up to dry in the room, was still completely soaked through, fully soaked through. Which we'll we'll we'll get to that later. But yeah, that's how soaked we were. It was hilarious and insane.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

I really wish that someone else had been up to like see this happen. Is there security camera footage we can get? Like, I want that.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 16:34

But we don't we don't currently have a record of that.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

So that was funny. So we got up on Saturday. Um, we didn't get up super early. The baby woke up around six for a bottle, but thank God he did go back to sleep after, which was lovely. So I feel like we got up at like what 8:30-ish?

SPEAKER_01 16:53

Woke up at like 8:30, which for me is like three hours late. So that was pretty smooth. Yeah. The kids like they had their breakfast snacks, they had their iPads. People and they were up late too. Like, my my kids are usually in bed way earlier than we had them in bed all weekend, and yes, they were tired too. So I feel like everyone should be supposed to start is lovely.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

So there's this restaurant that our mom absolutely loves. It is called the Pancake Man. Pancake Man. And we had sort of a hilarious series of disasters trying to get there. Um, my aunt and my mom were texting, and they said we would the baby, sorry, meet at 9 30. And my mom thought we were meeting like at the room to all go over together, and they thought we were meeting at the restaurant at 9 30. So around 9 45, everyone started texting each other, being like, Where are you? Where are you? Um, and then we realized so we hopped in the car and left, and then we thought that they had a table.

unknown 17:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

Sorry, the baby. The baby has a lot of people. He also has feelings about paying Harry. He does. So we got there and we thought they had a table for everybody, um, but they didn't. And there was um the line was actually huge, but it did move pretty quickly. We were seated within like 15 minutes, it was fine, but um, it was a little chaotic. And then we got in there.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

What do we call that fine? Would we call that fine? My stress level by the time there's no great just logistically, what are we doing here? What are we doing here? Yeah, they there's one line and it goes into a door that says do not enter, and that door, that line is for you to tell one of like 17 teenage waitresses how many people are in your party.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

But no, you do not take names, not your name.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

They do not take names, names, just numbers, and then you you go back out through the same door that other people are trying to get in that again says do not enter, and you get into a different line for the entrance door, and then you wait in that line, and one of 17 teenage waitresses will come back eventually and be like, Oh, party of six. Do you know how many parties of six could be in that line? People kept coming up to me, being like, Oh, yeah, you guys are four, right? You got four. I was like, No, I have nine. I have nine. I've never seen you before.

SPEAKER_00 19:19

It was it wasn't it was it was chaotic for me personally and it remained stressful when we got inside because they seated us at a table in a corner and we were situated such that we were like against a fireplace, which was weird enough as it was. And then there were like three seats against the wall, and then I was kind of at the end, and but behind me were all of the high chairs, so and Luke was next to me. So every time anyone came into the restaurant and needed a high chair, I needed to get up out of my seat, move Luke, and then get back into my seat, which happened like five times throughout the movie.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

And to get into the seats against the wall, you had to like become a mantelpiece, like you had to like climb a fireplace.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

Yeah. Um, um, our waitress was extremely young and sweet, and we were like, it was so loud in there. We're like, how do you hear anything? And she was like, I don't, I really don't. And that's kind of saying that did become apparent when she started bringing the things we ordered or didn't order. So, like, it was fine.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

I was like, Yeah, I'll get I'll I'll have a mimosa, please. And she was like, You know, you can just have it as champagne, right? And I was kind of like, I I I can tell what kind of vibe I'm giving off right now, but I I'll get the full mimosa experience. Thank you. Oh god.

SPEAKER_00 20:39

Thanks, Tiff. So funny, so funny. Um, so the food was fine, the experience was fine, it was just it was just a lot. I mean, if you were there during a week, the food was honestly pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

The food was like finish. Yeah, it's like a fancy, slightly better iHop.

SPEAKER_00 20:54

If you went there during on like a weekday, I feel like it would be nice, but on a weekend, it's just it's it's bonkers, obviously. So but that was fine.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

So it meant a lot for her that we got to go there. Yes. The memories, yes.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

So then from there, we headed back to the hotel. Um, we knew it was supposed to start to rain at some point, so we weren't really sure what the day was gonna look like, but we um brought all our stuff down to the beach. I have this awesome, it's like a pack and play for outdoors for the baby um that I brought, and that was fantastic because he could like crawl around in there with his toys and he was happy as a clam without getting covered in sand. Yeah, yeah. So that was really great. Yeah. Um, and we all just pulled up chairs and hung out for a while. The kids collected more shells, they all got completely soaked.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

I mean, I still don't fully know how that happened because you were the one down at the water with the biggest. But the tide was coming in, so like up to your ankles became up to your knees pretty quickly. Um and they got a kick out of being rolled around in the the surf. I I don't know, I had followed them down to the the water line to keep an eye on everybody, and that's kind of where I was stationed for the afternoon. But it was yeah, it was really nice, honestly. I like a windy beach, I like a cloudy beach, and they were so cute together that it was it was great.

SPEAKER_00 22:26

Oh, yeah, they they had some really good cousins on this trip, which was very, very sweet to watch.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

Um that was nice, hadn't seen him in a bit.

SPEAKER_00 22:43

And then let me think timing wise, what time did we leave the beach?

SPEAKER_01 22:50

I don't even know. So let's see. So it did start to get slightly drizzly. Um Auntie Karen wanted to take so Riley is between Ella and Audrey. Age and she and Ella I think are a little closer in age, but she's also like she's a girly girl. Ella's doing a different version of girlhood that I can't explain. And uh Audrey and Riley actually get along super well, even though she's a little bit younger than Riley. So yeah, offered they wanted to check out a couple of stores in I think Yarmouth. And so Audrey and Ella went with Karen, Mary, and Riley to downtown, and were they got like pizza out and they went to a candy shop, and like everyone seems to have gotten a sweatshirt and they did a whole thing. So we were kind of like, all right, well, what do we do? We were hungry. We needed to find a dryer because me and Haley's clothing was wrecked from the sprinkler instance.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

Yeah, it didn't occur, it it didn't occur to me to bring uh sweatshirts for my kids at all, and more than one sweatshirt for me.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

Yeah, I mean I did bring sweatshirts for everybody, but I didn't anticipate um taking an outdoor shower meeting midnight. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:13

So we headed over, and by now it was it was raining pretty good. We all kind of wrapped up in towels to make the trek over to the blue water because it was really coming down. And um, I could not find the laundry place initially, so I set you guys up at Jonah's, which is the restaurant um seated service restaurant, and then I bolted out to go. I ran to the front desk to ask where the laundry was, which they still didn't really give me like a clear idea of where it was, but I did find it. And I also bought two sweatshirts for my girls because I had not brought anything and it was really chilly. So I found the laundry room eventually. When I got there, there was a woman in there, God blessed her, almost in tears. And she explained the laundry situation to me, which was that she had been in there for like a long time and her quarters kept getting jammed, and she had to call maintenance, and then it took maintenance like a half hour to get there. She was like, So here's how the machines work, just so you know. And basically, like the baby has a lot to say about that. Basically, you put your coin in, and then you have to like jostle the machine to make the coin go down, otherwise, it just comes back out through like the little refund area. So you have to like lean on the machine and then also slam it on top. The palm of my hand was like purple by the time I was done getting to that. Which is like $2. My wrist. It can't slow my back anymore. Because every single quarter you had to tilt the machine back and then also slam on the top of the little coin area, which by the way, I forgot to tell you, the part where all the coins go to live kept popping out. And I was like, someone's gonna think I'm trying to steal all these coins because I keep hitting the machine. I'm not the coins, I just want a dry shirt.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

No, do you think they care?

SPEAKER_00 26:05

No, they don't. They're not so eventually I did get it going. So we had we each had dry sweatshirts, which after dinner, which was good. Um, we had dinner at the place, which was it was fine, it was good. It was like barbecue. It was pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

I I honestly was just stressed out about how much money it was gonna cost. Like, yeah, so I didn't get really what I probably would have wanted to get. I think I got I got a cup of clam chowder, which was very small, but very good. And then I think didn't we split the calam the calamari was next tier?

SPEAKER_00 26:38

Yeah, it was really next.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

The calamari was very, very good. And what I liked, you didn't like this, but I liked it, was that they fried the banana peppers.

SPEAKER_00 26:47

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

You didn't like it because it would surprise you, and it's like a pepper instead of a squid. Yeah, I personally love that, so that was really I loved that a bunch. And then I feel like I got should we get something else?

SPEAKER_00 26:58

Oh, we got a pizza. We got a pizza, the pizza was not the it was advertised as a margarita pizza, but it was really just like a regular cheese pizza with a few strips of um basil on top. Basil on top, yeah. No, that wasn't great.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

And then I feel like glasses of wine, and then it was it was a fun vibe.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

The people at the bar um were like 60s, early 70s, and they were they did not know each other, and they had bonded over something, and they were all singing a song, and it was very cute.

SPEAKER_01 27:30

And the kids' food came, our kids and our mom also all got kids' meals, uh, yes, which was just literally buttered noodles. It was noodles. Which my kids actually all ate, which was fantastic. Workplace's punch, and Cooper was not here, by the way. We should just say stayed home with daddy since it was a girls' trip. So um the girls all ate the buttered pasta, and but their dinners came with dessert, so we wound up getting a cocktail afterwards too, because we were like just still there. Haley got a lemon drop.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Yeah, it was too super tart, super tart, not good, not good at all.

SPEAKER_01 28:10

Lemon, not enough drop, and I got it was basically like an old-fashioned, except it had like a coffee liqueur instead of I think a sweetener. So it it was good, it was good, it was fine. It it tasted like an old-fashioned coffee in it. The ice cubes were not the correct ice cubes, but you know, it's it's uh mid-cape, you know. What are you gonna do? It's fine. So that was pretty good. And then we walked back, and here's another towel complication. So we decided we would take the kids at this point. It's fully raining. I mean, it's like fully raining, and we decide we're gonna take the kids to the indoor pool. Everyone's currently pointing about chargers in the hallway, sorry. Um and the indoor pool is like all windows on the outside, so you can see everything outside, but like we would have returned the towels to the beach shack and gotten new towels that weren't already wet. The problem was the beach shackle. Yeah, it was raining, no beach, right? So, like, what are you supposed to do? So we had all these towels, and we go to the indoor pool, and then at the indoor pool, somebody did come in, a staff person did come in with a whole bunch of just free towels, yeah, just extra towels. But they also have a bin to return towels, but you don't get a card back. That's just a bin, it's not a person like manning it. So we like returned towels, got new towels, did some indoor pool swimming, and then it's thunder and lightning. Big time, very big time, big storm. The kids can see it. Initially, they were fine with it, then they started freaking out. I think we did a quick Google search to be like, should we be indoor pool on a lightning storm? And the internet was like, definitely not, and I was like, give it 10. Seems fine. Let's just give it 10. Yeah. And then they started to freak out about how much lightning was happening. So we did go back to the room, but again, like the towel exchange never really happened. So we didn't have any cards, right? Um, and then we got back to the room, got everybody sorted for bedtime. Audrey and Ella were like still out at this point, I think, with Ryan living their best lives, living their best lives, and the power went out, and then the generator came on, and then the and then the generator came back on. Like it was just it it flip-flopped for some time. Yeah, much much child drama, lots of stress about that. And when the generator is on, like the TV doesn't work, but like the emergency lights are on. Yeah, you can't turn them off, and it's bedtime, it's very bedtime at this point, right? So it did make for a bit of a bedtime challenge, yes.

SPEAKER_00 31:03

Um, and then I planned to get back up to go hang out. But I was so tired. So I'd even I set an alarm to get the girls down and was like, I'm gonna set an alarm for 20 minutes so that if I fall asleep, I can wake back up and hang out. And the alarm went off, and I was like, No, I'm down for the gallon.

SPEAKER_01 31:20

I was like, There's no way.

SPEAKER_00 31:22

I'm so tired.

SPEAKER_01 31:24

It was like 10:30, it wasn't too early, it was late, yeah, too late, but we had been kind of like lightly day drinking kind of all day. Like it had been a steady buzz kind of day since the pancake ban, and you know, the beach and the the fresh air and the rain. Yeah, so yeah, so I just I went out to the little patio covered area. I love a good storm, so I was happy called John just to like check in, and he was headed to bed, and then I did like the most angsty thing possible, which is I put my headphones in and I I'm obsessed with this band called Sleep Token. Um they're technically metal core, if anyone but me cares about that distinction, but they're very fusion-y, they've lots, lots of different kinds of music, lots of feelings, man. They've got a lot. These men, they're having feelings, and they're having appeals. I put my headphones in and just like stood facing an angry ocean in the rain, listening to sleep token until like midnight. And I honestly kind of perfect. I loved it.

SPEAKER_00 32:34

Did you go down to like where you could see the ocean? No, really, okay.

SPEAKER_01 32:38

It was actively like I would have been electrocuted.

SPEAKER_00 32:42

I was so you said facing the ocean, and I was worried. You like watched down to the beach. From a distance, yes. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 32:51

And in my like, you know, ridiculous outfit, like just all of it was just like this is like an album cover, but it's about a 13-year-old, and I'm 43. Oh my gosh. And then yeah, I crashed around midnight. The sprinklers did not come on, FYI. Just like maybe they knew, maybe it's hey, it's raining so much. Uh yeah, I just came in and went directly to bed.

SPEAKER_00 33:22

Um and uh yeah, and then we woke up, we slept in a bit again this morning. Yeah, again, the baby got up at six-ish, and I gave him a bottle and I put him back in the crib, and um he fussed for a few minutes, but he did go back down eventually. One thing, um, I will never travel again without the pack and play sheet. They told me that the pack and play would have a sheet, so I didn't bring one, but it was what it actually was was like a twin-size sheet wrapped around the pack and play, which the baby ripped out within like two seconds, and it was an incredible hazard. So he had to sleep in there with no sheet, which I felt bad about, but he did not seem to mind at all. So he had to see. Again, I did not see a single actual adult working, no, at this place at all.

SPEAKER_01 34:09

So they just don't know.

SPEAKER_00 34:11

Um, no, then we got up for the day like 9, 9:30. Um, we packed panic packed. I mean, I can't even tell you, our room looked like a literal trash tornado had hit it, and we had been there less than 48 hours. I don't know what happened. Six kids what happened.

SPEAKER_01 34:28

Biggest factors to me. I I shall never purchase double stuffed Oreos in a space with Emma ever again. No, because Emma loves the stuffing, she doesn't like cookies, and she's very good at getting that disc of frosting out, and then indiscriminately discarding the cookies. They were everywhere, everywhere. I've never seen anything like it. Hysterical. The number Emma, I think, also just deserves like an MVP award for this entire weekend. The number of pictures that I have of her looking just like wrecked. Unhinged, like completely nuts. I don't think I have a normal photo of her from the long.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

She looks like a nutjob. She was so tired, and she was just like hanging in, just hanging in on the ride home this afternoon. The last half hour or so, she was so tired, but she was insisting she wasn't gonna nap. So she just talked like a nonsense stream of consciousness the whole time to keep herself awake. Mom kept being like, What is she talking about? And I was like, I don't know. I doesn't know, nobody knows. She doesn't trying to stay awake. That's not what it's for. Um, so she's a champ. She's cracked me up. She's absolutely insane. We were supposed to be out of the room at 11.

SPEAKER_01 35:52

We were out of the room at 1159. Like we made it 1059. 1059. We made it. We made it. We made it. Yes. And we did like we got the cars packed, the room was left in reasonable shape. Yes. Um, the oh, mom, mom's coffee got stolen, which was weird.

SPEAKER_00 36:11

No, it's no, I don't know if it got stolen. I think it got left. It definitely, so you know, DoorDash sends you a picture of where they left it. And I texted them pretty immediately to be like, hey, that's not our that's not a picture of our door. Do you know like where that this door is? Because I thought maybe somewhere else at the resort, but we did a pretty good search and never found it. So I don't know. I don't know what I don't know if someone found it and took it. Like, I don't really know what happened there.

SPEAKER_01 36:37

Starbucks made it, but Starbucks made it. Thank you, Jesus. I brought mom across the way to the they do have on the Riviera like property a little restaurant-y thing. It's more of a grab and go, but they also do like some hot breakfast sandwiches. They have coffee there, it's just very limited hours. So uh we hadn't been there before, but we went over and got her coffee, which was fine. And then I also grabbed a sweatshirt for Gloria because everyone else had accidentally wound up with a new sweatshirt except for Gloria. Right. So I just grabbed one from the little gift area, um, and that was fine. And then yeah, we we had everybody suited up. We went to the outdoor pool. Today was like picture perfect. You don't get a July day like this. Yeah. This is a very, very rare, pleasant, but still warm July day. Um and it was great.

SPEAKER_00 37:32

We didn't really want to do the beach when we were getting in the car because then everyone would have been all sandy and messy. And luckily the kids wanted to swim, so the pool was perfect for everybody.

SPEAKER_01 37:43

Yeah, it was lovely. And um Riley and Ella went down to the wings. I went down, I went down.

SPEAKER_00 37:50

Yeah, I went down to the beach to tell them what had happened with the towels. I was like, hey, we left our towels last night, like during the rainstorm, but like we don't we didn't get cards back. And so she was like, Oh, I'm just gonna give you some towels, but when you're done, you have to bring them back to me so you get the cards because then you have to go turn in the cards, or you're gonna get charged fifteen dollars a towel. Um, which was no word that we had heard of this at all.

SPEAKER_01 38:19

So good thing we went down there after you're done, like you're getting ready to leave. You have to go to a different hotel to turn these cards in.

SPEAKER_00 38:28

That's first you have to go to the beach, and then you have to go to the other hotel.

SPEAKER_01 38:32

Like, that's wild to me.

SPEAKER_00 38:33

That's so this isn't gonna work for them. And this would work if they had a towel station at each body of water, like then it might work.

SPEAKER_01 38:40

Each body of water, maybe both front desks. Like, I yeah, you know, I don't know, it's just logistically not making sense. And then also they would only give you so many towels because you didn't have cards, so they gave you like five towels, but we had nine people, we were given nine cards at the beginning. So we had our little pool time, we did a whole bunch of family photos and stuff, and that was great. And then it was kind of time to start getting ready to hit the road, and so I brought the towels that we had down to the beach, and at the shack, you couldn't even see the person who was working there because she was like in the depths of the shack on her phone, just like chilling. And I was like, Oh, um, hey, I'm just returning towels. And I was initially like planning to negotiate to be like, here's what happened with the towels. We really need nine cards, so this is five towels. She's like, Oh, yeah, how many cards do you need? And I was like, Nine, this is nine. I would need nine cards. And so I just my little towels in the bin and I got my nine cards, and I left when she is it was fine. She doesn't care, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:41

And then I don't know how much it really matters because when I went to turn in the cards, she was like, Oh, okay, thank you. And I was like, Wait, do you need my room number? And she was like, Oh yeah, totally. Yeah, I think this is like, is this real? I don't I have no idea.

SPEAKER_01 39:55

I feel like a grown-up from corporate like did a seminar at the beginning of the season to a bunch of 20-year-olds and has never shown our face again, and so no one's just like no one's enforcing this program, who knows? Totally fine. Um, yeah, so we kind of just we left around like what was it, like one-ish? Yeah, and this is another funny thing. There is no ATM on site. So, number one, that makes it difficult for tipping your housekeeping staff, which we don't love. You want to make that possible for people, but number two, I go to fill up our waters. There's no water bottle like filling station anywhere. Um, they did have like carafts of water at the bars, but I felt weird about emptying a carafe like six times to fill up four water. Like I just correct. So I went to the ice machine and I did all of ice in our little water bottles, and then I was just gonna buy bottled water from the vending machine. They don't take carts, it was a two-dollar bottle of water that only takes cash and only exact change, and they don't have an ATM on site, so yeah, just didn't make a whole bunch of sense. But Auntie Karen had thankfully some extra water, and so we just dumped those into the kids' water bottles, and we were fine. And then we hit the road. You guys went to food Sam's. How was it?

SPEAKER_00 41:15

Yeah, wait, before we get to that one other thing on the cash situation, when I went to do the um the laundry, there's again no ATM and nowhere to change a bill into quarters. So I went I got went to the front desk and they were like, Well, we can put like it's two dollars to dry something, we can charge two dollars to your room and give you some quarters. So that's what I did, but that was kind of weird. Yeah, it's very strange. So we yeah, when we left, we went to Seafood Sam's, which is a place mom really loves. It's it's really good. I feel like they've redone it maybe recently because it looked super nice. Not that it wasn't nice before, but like the inside had all these murals and stuff that were really cute.

SPEAKER_01 41:57

I just I actually don't really remember Seafood Sam. Like I don't remember going there specifically, but I did I had given her a gift card for I think like Mother's Day or something for Seafood Sam. Yeah, and I totally would have gone. I actually really wanted fried scallops, like that's I was picking up the king. But with the other kids, it's like it would just have been a bonkers amount of money for like me to get scallops from them to not eat whatever I ordered for them.

SPEAKER_00 42:24

They did not eat their food. Emma insisted she wanted clams, um, which she's never had, and I I stupidly got her. I got her the clams, and she was like, Oh, I'm not eating that. So she she should have had a hot dog. I was like, Don't you want a hot dog? You love hot dogs, and she was like, No, I love clams. That was not true.

SPEAKER_01 42:45

Oh that one's a honey badger.

SPEAKER_00 42:49

So she ate a couple of French fries, and then Grace was like, Yeah, I really want lobster. And Grace is actually a really good eater. She first she wanted to know she wanted to know if they had octopus because she really loves lobster octopus, but they didn't. And she really wanted lobster, but I just had a feeling it wasn't gonna be her thing. So I was like, Why don't I get like the large lobster roll? Normally I just get like a small one and we can share it, and uh which was good because that came and she was like, Oh, that's what lobster looks like. I'm not eating that. Um so she ate so it was a big waste of money for the kids, but she did eat. Mom had um fried scallops with um, what did she get with it? Uh, fried onion rings, and Grace loved those, she had never had them before. She eats the onion part, or is she like me and mom? And she just eats the batter. Oh no, she ate the whole thing, she loved it.

SPEAKER_01 43:42

I like the onion flavor of the batter, but I don't remember so gross.

SPEAKER_00 43:47

And I had a lobster roll, which was really, really good, and I wound up being happy I had the large one because I ate the whole thing. Free of protein. Um then we hit the road, and it took um just about two hours to get home, which I was prepared for anything. I thought like it could be an hour and a half, it could be three hours. I have no idea.

SPEAKER_01 44:08

I was on the road for 17 hours. I know, you had a lot longer to go too. So I left when you left. We didn't go to Seafood Sam's. I had I was using Waze, which is my preferred GPS app, it was rerouting constantly. So I couldn't like call John or like relax while driving. I was adapting constantly to new routes, and then it initially directed me towards the Sagamore, which is one bridge, and then I was like, never mind, that's bad. Let's go a whole different backroads way and take it to the Bourne Bridge, which I haven't taken in years, like it never sucks you now, it always is a Sagamore, so I don't know why. And then I had told the kids, we'll get food like on the way, thinking there's gotta be like a burger, you know, a Wendy's. There's gotta be a moment. There was one Burger King that we passed, but it was the kind of thing. Where you had to already know it was there to go to it. Like by the time you see it, you've missed the entrance. Oh and it was on 6th West. So I was like, this, I'm just not, I can't turn around. You can't turn around here. Yeah. It took forever to get to the which I didn't anticipate. That's a normal Sunday thing to have happen on the Cape Side. But then I get off, and there was weird traffic on 495.

SPEAKER_00 45:30

So annoying.

SPEAKER_01 45:31

Getting through like Wareham took forever. And then we see a sign, it says like next exit food. And to me, that says at the exit, there's food. What they meant was you're in Wareham, you get to drive for 15 minutes following the sideway food to a Burger King where similar to the Burger King we went to in Middleboro on the way down, like it's as though no one has ever ordered food there before. And they were shocked. Yes, frankly, very surprised. And it took forever, and then it was another 15-minute drive to get back on the highway. I was on the phone with my friend Shelly, and Shelly was like, Are you still not on the highway? I know, I know. Oh my gosh. And I was like, Oh no. And at that point, we were in Taunton, which I knew. Or near Taunton. Yes. I was going through the signs on the road said Taunton. I think we can just say, right? I was there. That's where we were. And I was like, I'm almost at Haley's house. So then I called you and I was like, can we pee at your house? Yes. So we had to get off the highway again in your town and go to your home. And then two children had to pee. And then we had to get back on the highway and drive another highway. So it's very long.

SPEAKER_00 47:00

I didn't really realize Emma was listening when you called me to ask that. But then when we pulled in our driveway, she was like, Yay, Auntie's not here yet. And I was like, Oh, I mean, Auntie has already came and went. Oh, Emmy, she bummed. I'm sorry, my little friend. Yep. But um, but yeah, we got home. Everyone is so tired. So tired. It was great. It was fantastic. But yeah, everyone wasn't sleepy.

SPEAKER_01 47:25

Yeah. Yeah. I am like slightly stressed.

SPEAKER_00 47:29

You have a bigger week than I have. I have a big week. I go back to work this week, which is it's good. I like my job. I really like the people I work with. It's just obviously leaving the baby is stressful. Um, it's a big change. So I'm I'm pretty anxious, but I once we get back in a routine, I know it will be good.

SPEAKER_01 47:49

Um, my husband did do the project he said he was going to do while I was away, which is finish the update of our hallway that he began approximately three years ago. And he did finish it, and it looks really, really nice. So that was really good. And that means we can like I really want to do like a gallery wall going up the stairs. Because I usually do my Christmas cards like that up with all of my friends' Christmas cards, like up the stairs that way, and I think it'd be nice to be like that all the time. Nice. So that was great. Um, but uh we're leaving for Maine on Friday, and we have to leave early or else. And this week, Elle is supposed to have a tooth out that needs to be rescheduled. I'm supposed to have a mole check, that needs to be rescheduled. Yeah, just too many things, an injection Wednesday. I'm working from home Thursday because I'm on the hook for gymnastics on Thursdays, and John has an appointment. Like, and I have to make chili to bring with us for camping, but we also have to get our heads around food for the island. It's a lot, I'm a little stressed out, but it's gonna be fine.

SPEAKER_00 48:56

It's gonna be great once you get the road. Yeah, it's all gonna be great. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:01

So, anyway, we didn't manage the on the goes effectively this time. Nope, it's hard when there's so many kids.

SPEAKER_00 49:09

So many kids. I like like chances were if I had a quiet minute, if I had a quiet minute to record, chances are it was because Danielle had all the kids. So that's it. We didn't have time to record together.

SPEAKER_01 49:22

Yeah, we went back and we like looked, we were sharing our on the goes like back and forth, and like we looked at them and I was like, Oh, wait, we did one of these together, and neither of us knew what the other one was recording, so they were just plot holes left and right. It was very funny. Um that's okay. That's okay. Here we are. Well, um, hey, if you're interested in planning any kind of totally bonkers adventure, I'd love to help you. Yeah, Danielle Griggs at fantasticalvacations.com. Reach out and we'll get you sorted. And uh hey, if that's all for now. See you real soon. See you real soon.