We just arrived in the USA for our....FALL vacation?

[DFW]

We travel from our home on the Rheinland to the outer tip of Cape Cod every year to get away from mostly everything.The heat of Central Europe turned back into the more typical cool and rainy weather we are usually only too happy to escape. For once, the trip here was all on time. The early morning flight from Düsseldorf to Amsterdam was on time, and we had a nearly 3 hour layover there, so we were confident our bags would make the onward flight.

It got a little hairy when we found that the KLM lounge had the wrong gate posted, and we only got to the gate as the flight was closing. But they kept it open for a minute or two later than planned. They asked for tons of papers, but we had them all. I was slated for an "extra security check," an apparent holdover from the Trump days, but when I spoke Dutch, the security people loosened up and performed only a cursory check. When we got to Boston, they again demanded an extra check on my wife's passport (she looks SOOOO suspicious, after all), but when they started explaining what they were doing, and we said, yeah, we were used to it, and answered their questions even before they asked them, the US authorities loosened up as well. They saw we were relaxed and had been there before. We were out of there in record time. We landed around noon, and were in our hotel in downtown Boston within an hour--close to record time.

Unfortunately, the weather sucks royally. Since we landed yesterday, it hasn't broken 20°C (68°F) and it is grey and rainy--currently 59°F. We come for the sun and the heat, and it looks like we will have to wait a week for that. We keep hearing about the extreme heat in the Pacific Northwest, and so didn't expect to be confronted with typical German fall weather. But we're here and will make the best of it. If this means some more unhealthy food than my cardiologist would recommend, I'll just risk it. I need my yearly spell of down time, and if it means some of it is spent in the cold and the rain, at least it's not in a place where someone can call me and demand I get to Paris or Zürich by the next morning.

[riversedge]

1. I really do hope you have a grand time here in the USA.

[DFW]

14. We've been coming to the Cape for 37 years

We came for the first time in 1984, said, hey that was really nice, we should do that again next year. And do it was every year. We were 32 when we first came, and we‘re 69 now. This place is a hard, er sorry, haaahhd habit to break. Although we are just summer renters, some of the locals we have grown friendly with over the years have already asked when we plan to retire here.

[HUAJIAO]

2. Come to the Finger Lakes in Up-State NY.

we've had plenty of heat, although noting like the PNW,,

Enjoy your vacay...

Oh Which 'tip' of the Cape, Woods Hole or Provincetown?

[3catwoman3]

4. Any particular lake you go to?

We own a small cottage on Keuka, and just love it there.

[HUAJIAO]

9. Keuka is beautiful....my favorite...

Have friends who live in Keuka -on the Bluff.

I live near Canandaigua Lake..

[3catwoman3]

11. We are on East Lake Road and have a lovely view...

...of the Bluff.

My parents, both now gone, bought the lot in 1987 and built a very modest house there. Even though we are a 12 hour drive away, I can't bring myself to part with it. It's such a privilege to own even a small piece of property on the water.

[HUAJIAO]

12. Keuka and Canandaigua lake front properties are some of the most expensive

in the country now, even often beating Lake Tahoe, and others.

[3catwoman3]

13. Wow - I did not know that. We have a very narrow beach.

Only 63 feet. Decent size dock for hanging out on, so it's enough.

[DFW]

22. Provincetown

Last edited Sun Jul 4, 2021, 06:49 AM - Edit history (1)

Crazy place with a wildly diverse bunch of people. OUR kind of place!

By the way, I was in upstate NY once a looong time ago. I was about ten, and we joined my mom‘s parents for a week at Lake Placid. My memories are not detailed, but I remember that I thought it was a beautiful place.

[HUAJIAO]

25. I've always enjoyed Provincetown the couple times I've been there, and Lake Placid,

it's called that for a reason....

[DFW]

27. I noticed, although.......

For a southern boy like me, I nearly had a heart stoppage when I jumped in for the first time.

More like Lake Frigid!

[HUAJIAO]

28. HA HA well, this ain't DFW, that's for sure.....

[DFW]

29. You're telling me!

I never knew you could get frostbite from jumping into a lake in the middle of the summer!

[FM123]

3. First trip back since that trumpmonster left the White House?

If so - I imagine our skies look bluer, the grass seems greener and the air feels easier to breathe since the last time you were here.....

[DFW]

15. Actually, it's not

We came for a 5 week stay in April/May to be here for the birth of our US based daughter‘s girst child. We used the opportunity to get our first and second vaccinations in Dallas at the beginning and at the end of our trip. The EU is hopelessly drowning in its bureaucracy, and we probably still would not be vaccinated if we had not gone over to the States in April.

[jpak]

5. You missed the sun and 97 degree heat by a week

I'm loving this weather

[DFW]

16. I hope we get the sun back

I missed it

[NNadir]

6. Well, about that weather...

...it could be worse.

It could be over 40°C and towns nearby could be bursting into flame.

I rather like the rain. When I lived in California, I missed it and in California one is well advised to miss it.

[DFW]

17. 40 is Texas style

Not healthy for more temperate regions

[FailureToCommunicate]

7. Welcome. On the bright side, NO crowds at the beaches, or sunburn worries. Also, the...

fried food will be just as tasty...and just as unhealthy. Moderation: be sure to wash it down with plenty of local ale.

If you've not been to the Pirate Museum in P Town you really should go. Not a tourist trap, it's the real deal.
I hope it has reopened. There is a newer, larger, site in West Dennis I think, but, well, why leave the Lower Cape if you don't have to.

[DFW]

18. The crowds were all on Route 3 and then Route 6

I won't be washing down anything with ale--alcohol and I don't mix. I have, as a matter of fact, been to the Pirate Museum in Ptown. I even made a donation to a smaller version in Wellfleet or Truro (I forget which). There was a small group of old coins I had been given in Europe, not worth a lot of money, but interesting historically. One was an old copper cent from the colony of Massachusetts of 1787, with a native American portrayed on it. I gave them the whole bunch. Maybe $125 in all in collector value, but the people from the museum had never seen anything like it, and they were over the moon.

I always TRY never to leave the outer cape while I'm here. It's the only time of the year I do NOT travel. The last time I went off-Cape during my vacation was in 2012. I posted about it here on DU. I think you'll agree with me that THIS was reason enough to interrupt my vacation, even on the last day:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/125170848

[FailureToCommunicate]

24. Very cool! (Donatating those rare coins, AND greeting that guy who vacations on the Vineyard!)

Cheers ! (toasting with seltzer)

[DFW]

26. The guy who vacations on the Vinyeard was as engaging as I described in that old post

We had met before a couple of times, but not for a full hour. For HIM, I left the Cape for a day. You would have gotten a laugh at the scene at the Provincetown airport. Everyone going through security was in flip-flops and shorts, and here I was in a business suit. The TSA people were REALLY suspicious. "Are you sure you're in the right place?" I said I was headed to Washington for a meeting with the President, and asked if they had some more appropriate attire to suggest? They just said, "oh."

Not only was it an honor (to put it mildly!), but I got invited to White House Christmas parties three years in a row afterward. Can't beat that!

As old coins go, by the way, there was neither great rarity or great value in there. The Massachusetts cents are worth many thousands if they are in mint condition (very few survive like that), but this was a well-worn example. The details were clearly visible, though, and that was enough to grab their attention. They had never seen one, or even knew they existed. Their excitement was such that it was just as rewarding for me to introduce them to such an item as it was for them to receive one as a donation.

[paleotn]

8. Eventual destination Provincetown or thereabouts?

Spent a week there back in May, just as the town was opening up for tourist season. Wonderful place, but a bit too crowded for me at peak season. Sorry New England is socked in right now, but we need the rain, badly. At least in my little corner. Yesterday was the longest, continuous precip event we've had in mid Vermont since March.

[DFW]

19. Thereabouts would be accurate.

Just below Provincetown in tiny, sleepy Truro. Ptown is always fun, but we are always happy to be outta there when the evening is over, and we can drive the 20 minutes back to our rented house out in the middle of nowhere. The road here isn't even paved. The downside of that is that when it rains hard, it often isn't there at all.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

10. Here's hoping the weather improves, so you'll have a grand time, my dear DFW and wife! ♥

[DFW]

20. Thanks, Peggy!

Forecast says gradual improvement starting tomorrow. Seeing as how we seem to have arrived in the middle of Hurricane DFW, I'd say the prediction wasn't an overly risky one.

[GoneOffShore]

21. Enjoy your time on Cape Cod! Sounds like a relatively easy journey.

Weather this AM in Aix is rainy, with a temperature of about 19°, going up to 22° by 3P.

We're missing Wellfleet oysters, clam rolls, and Maine lobsters.

[DFW]

23. You noticed that, too, I see

The more familiar you are with both worlds, the more you miss the things you liked most when they‘re inaccessible.

In the States, you always meet people who say, „oh, you‘re so lucky, you get to live in Europe.“ In Europe, you always run into people who say, „Oh, you‘re so lucky to be American, what I wouldn‘t give to live there!“ As long as we‘re still physically able to do the back and forth, we will. In Aix, you aren‘t too far from Marignane, but it‘s still not around the corner. In Ratingen, where we are, the Düsseldorf airport is 22 minutes from our house by car, 14 minutes if there is no traffic, which, last Friday at 4:30 AM, there wasn‘t. About 25 years ago, a stretch of Autobahn 44 was lengthened to go right past the entrance to the Düsseldorf airport, and cut our travel time by two thirds.

By the way, my wife and I do binge on seafood, but curiously, we both hate oysters. Beer, too. I guess it was just written in the stars that we would end up together.

[GoneOffShore]

30. The things we miss here in Aix are really good 'ethnic' - Vietnamese, Thai, Indian - restaurants.

Oh, and good French restaurants.
If there was an excellent Parisian style bistro here they would clean up.
Because Aix is a tourist destination and university town, the focus is on 'cheap eats' for students and mediocre food for tourists(because they're just passing through). To get really good food here you have to drive out of town.
A new barbecue place has opened up though, and the owners lived in Chicago and LA, so the ribs and brisket should be pretty good.