When the Girls Trip Made it Out of the Group Chat

We've been traveling with the same group of friends since 2008 - we've done couples trips and family trips but never a girls trip...until last month, yay! Our group of 5 ladies went to Cape Cod and had an amazing 5 days together.

We left at the crack of dawn on Friday, September 12 and came home late at night on Tuesday, September 17. We packed a lot in - a day in Cape Cod, a day on Nantucket, a day on Martha's Vineyard! Lots of gossip, laughter, FOOD, drinks, and memories made.

Tired but ready to GOOOOO!

Allena ~ Susannah ~ Rhonda ~ Desiree ~ Karin

It took us a long time to get to Boston. We were staying with Dez's family who have a house on Cape Cod, and Dez's childhood bestie was picking us up and staying the first 2 nights with us. With Friday traffic, we didn't get to Cape Cod until evening time, and immediately freshened up and went to a local restaurant, The Raw Bar. Dez's cousin, aunt {who is from Ireland}, aunt's sister and her hubby {visiting from Ireland} and us 6 ladies had a great time and possibly overserved ourselves.

I'm not a huge seafood person, so I had a crab cake and clam chowder.

Everyone else had lobster rolls. We all had a shot {a cherry bomb} that was AWFUL.

After dinner we went back to Dez's aunt and uncle's house and continued to make poor choices ending in us going to bed at 3AM with a 7AM wake-up call to make it to the ferry for Martha's Vineyard. Spoiler alert - that didn't happen! We did wake up at 7AM and knew we were in no condition for the ferry so rescheduled for a later ferry...and still missed that ferry, ha! We rallied and spent the day on Cape Cod in Chatham.

Gorgeous view from our lunch spot, The Chatham Inn

I won't tell tales that could be incriminating, but I'll just say we weren't all at our fighting best. {grin}

Evidence of not being 'at my best' ha!

Sunday was our day on Nantucket! I guess I didn't take a lot of pictures, but we had a great time. We met some girls on the ferry who lived in Cape Cod {and one had lived on Nantucket previously} and they gave us great recommendations for the day. We had lunch at a cute place right by the ferry, then shopped around and of course had the famous fudge on the island. We walked {bad move} to a restaurant called The Sand Bar where we sat with our feet in the sand and had a drink. Our ferry friends told us to also check out Cisco Brewery and that was an amazing experience. Live music, drinks, snacks - so fun!!

Ferry beauties

Karin and Allena

With our new friends at Cisco!

The ferry was running late to get us back to Cape Cod. We were STARVING but couldn't find anything open since it was Sunday night. We ended up Ubering to a DIVE pizza bar. It was hilarious - we walked in the door and the owner asked me 'Are you sure you're in the right place?' I guess a group of girls in sundresses is not their usual clientele ha. But the pizza was delicious, and we make fun wherever we go!

Monday was our last full day. After we missed our ferry Saturday to Martha's Vineyard we changed our plans from whale watching on Monday because none of us wanted to miss MV! And it was everyone's favorite day!

Dez's family was THE BEST and drove us around A LOT.

A ferry a day...could get used to this!

Not a shabby view to start the day!

Loved all the old buildings - so much history!

We had our favorite meal of the trip on Martha's Vineyard!

Wish I could remember what this place was called ha.

Being cute {grin}

We did more shopping {including in the cutest bookstore!} and walked around. Martha's Vineyard is a lot bigger than Nantucket so we had to choose what parts of the island to see, and we really wanted to ride the carousel {closed!} and see the painted houses.

We were real confused about why these painted houses exist and went down a rabbit hole reading about their history. Sounded way too much like a cult, but they sure are cute!!

Another selfie? Sure!

A Wizard of Oz house! Had to take a pic for my Wicked-loving girls!

Gorgeous sunset on our way back to The Cape!

Dez's family met us for one last dinner - we had AMAZING {shocking!} Mexican food. This was absolutely delicious!!

I spearheaded us getting matching pajamas - how cute are we?

Our last morning, Karin, Susie, and I took a walk down to the water. It was so peaceful and the weather was perfect - as it was for the whole trip!

A last YUMMY breakfast!

We had to move stuff around between our bags for everyone to be under 50 pounds ha.

And that was a wrap on our first - but definitely not last - girls trip!

Jackson Hole Part 2

On day 3 in JH, we took a scenic river float down the Snake River. This was everybody's favorite activity. It was a very relaxing trip, our guide was knowledgeable and so friendly, and the kids enjoyed themselves immensely. Highly recommend! All 3 kids got in the water - it was SO COLD!!

We saw so many bald eagles!

We went back into the downtown area of Jackson Hole and ate at Roosevelt's. The food was good - the kids voted it as their favorite restaurant.

Our last full day in Jackson Hole was spent in Yellowstone. It was a 2-hour drive to get into the park, then we were in the park for probably 6 hours, and then a 2-hour drive home. It was a long day but oh so memorable! There were so many gorgeous geysers to see - I didn't realize there were so many in Yellowstone. I found an itinerary online and we followed that somewhat - it was a 12 hour itinerary that went around both loops of the park, we only did the South loop. We came in through Montana, so the kids {and parents!} were able to check another state off our list.

The kids kept commenting on how stinky the geysers were. Yes, that's what sulphur smells like, ha! We all were also surprised at how BLUE the water was - some of the pools you just wanted to jump in and swim!

Unfortunately our timing was off to be able to see Old Faithful go off {we drove by it maybe 10 minutes after it had gone off and didn't want to wait over an hour to wait for it}. 

We also drove around Yellowstone Lake which is the largest lake at that elevation. It was also just gorgeous!

There were places to stop along the way to get food or gas. Restaurants, convenience stores, souvenir shops, they definitely know how to make money! We stopped and got snacks and picked out some souvenirs and moved to Hayden Valley where we hoped to see wildlife. Brent really wanted to see some animals, but we didn't have high hopes given we were driving through in the afternoon and there is usually more activity at dawn and dusk.

We hit the jackpot though and saw buffalo!!! We saw some herds and then also a few crossing the road - so cool! The kids loved it!

Our last stop was the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone at Artists Point and Inspiration Point to see the Upper and Lower Falls. SO GORGEOUS!!! It was neat since we have also been to the Grand Canyon and being able to compare it. Nature is just awe-inspiring.

Our last stop was Artist Paintpots and the kids were just over it, but Brent went with me on our last little geyser adventure.

Our last day, we had time to kill from checkout until the airport, so the kids voted for lunch and picked to return to Roosevelt's - they loved the pretzel bites, ha.

View from around the corner of our house!

More gorgeous pictures from Drew!

We got home late at night after a great vacation and had a few days to enjoy before starting school and getting back into our routine!