Zoë in Wonderland: Whales & Wails

Aunty Loo-sey is visiting at the moment. She and Baby Zoe get on famously I must say. Lucy has even been persuaded into changing niffy nappies, which will surprise many of our regular readers!

So far we have been pretty lazy about getting out of Boston, but Lucy's visit gave us an excuse to get out of town. This entailed renting a completely underwhelming car* for 3 days and heading to "the Cape", aka Cape Cod, home of abundant seafood (but, curiously, no cod), white sand beaches, dreadful traffic, whales and sentimental memorials to John F Kennedy. We stayed at the marvellous Sea Coast Inn in Hyannis, run by the fantastic Terri and Al. Seriously, if you are looking for somewhere to stay in Cape Cod then you should consider the Sea Coast. Not least because nothing is too much trouble for Terri and Al and they have a dog called Zoe, nicknamed Zozo! It was fate we should stay there.

Zoe behaved impeccably for (almost) the entire trip, which is more than can be said for Aunty Loo-sey and her partner-in-booze Holly, who are still wanted for crimes against karaoke by the Hyannis Sherriff's Department. On reflection, going for a 3 hour whale-watching boat trip after a heavy night on the sauce was probably not a good idea, but the girls bravely soldiered on and we were rewarded by incredible encounters with several humpback whales, which came so close to the boat we could smell their stinky whale breath (surely on a par with the most malodourous nappy).

Having been lulled to sleep for almost the entire voyage by the motion of the boat and the thrum of the engine, it was a little concerning to discover, on arriving back in Provincetown, that Zoe had been secretly seasick and had been sleeping in her own vomit for the entire trip. Bad mummy!

Whilst at the Cape we discovered that Baby Zoe is not a fan of the beach, probably because (a) it was very bright and sunshine reflects off sand and water; and (b) sand blows in your face when it gets breezy. Zoe also dipped her tiny toes in the sea for the first time but, again, this was not a popular move. Clearly much work needs to be done to ensure Zoe follows her female relatives' example and becomes a devotee of the beach as soon possible. I wonder, is this topic covered by Gina Ford?