I Like Thursday: Chicks, Chocolate and Quilting

Ooh, wow - I spent an amazing week on Cape Cod with my chicks!  A few of the group couldn't attend, but those of us that could make it had terrific weather and good times all week.  

Every day was an adventure:  day-trips to Chatham, Wellfleet and Truro.  Long walks on the beach.  We enjoyed the sunset every evening and even roused ourselves out of bed one morning to see the sunrise.  Even that was an unexpected adventure:  5:45am and traffic was backed up on Bracket Road between the high school and Nauset Light beach.  From our vantage point two cars behind a cop car (with flashing lights) we could make out people walking down the street in the morning gloom.  So I hopped out of the car, jogged up past the cops, joined the end of the procession and asked them what they were doing.  Turns out we caught Senior Sunrise - an annual tradition of the seniors in the beginning of the school year to walk from the school to the beach for the sunrise.  Interesting tradition!  

We made our pilgrimage to PB Boulangerie and Atlantic Spice.  Mmm... pastries and spices.  

 

On a whim I suggested stopping by Highland light.  I had no idea they had tours of the lighthouse.  Of course we had to check that out.  The view was spectacular from the top of the light.  Look at that glass!  We could see both the Atlantic (of course) and Cape Cod Bay as well as Pilgrim Monument.  Excellent!

 

None of us had anticipated climbing all those stairs (and ladders) in sandals.  My mother did better than I did getting up and down.  Whew! (I'm still recovering from that tick bite.)

 

I returned home to be greeted by lots of purple flowers.  I planted the seeds last year and this year they finally bloomed.  Labeled as hyssop, they're clearly New England Aster.  Clearly I got the seeds or the seedlings mixed up at some point.  Oh, well.  They look quite happy in the garden. 

 

We broke my chocolate tempering machine at Easter (oh, woe!).  The replacement part arrived just before I went on vacation.  Well... we needed to test it out to make sure it worked.  Success!  I dipped a beautiful set of caramels (and even got to try out the new flake salt I brought home from Atlantic Spice).  The new challenge is not to eat them ALL by the end of the week. 

I never know what I'm going to meet on this road.  This week it was a little piggy as I drove down the hill.  I came to a halt, whipped out my phone and snapped this as he trotted by.  Next time I need to roll down the window so you can see what I saw!  I was just so surprised.

I've continued to make progress with the quilt - I finished stage two, cleaned the machine and reset the thread tension for new thread.  I'll start stage three soon!  I was rather amazed how quickly I lost my groove after a week off.  It took an hour or two to get the hand/foot coordination working right.  A pair of new quilting gloves have made the quilt easier to move, though!  

Linking up with LeeAnna's I Like Thursday.