Autumn Prep

Intentional double entendre - prep being short for both preparation and preparatory school. As we gear up for the seasonal transition into autumn (or rather, as the weather here has for the most part decided to mimic autumn) warmer layers on top of summer clothes make the shift a bit easier to handle. But mostly I just like the New England prep style; it always reminds me of back to school shopping for obvious reasons. It made me so happy when I was in Maine and Massachusetts recently when I saw the occasional New Englander clad in dockers and polos, looking like they were on their way to the coast/vineyard.

Throw on some bright red lips (I just bought my first, YSL was the one recommended to me at Sephora but I chickened out and bought the $10 version at CVS) and dark nail polish, and you're good to go.

carven short cable sweater, la garconne; field maxidress, madewell; yves saint laurent rouge pur couture no. 1; super glasses ciccio, madewell; the leather transport tote, madewell; ropey soles espadrille sandals, madewell

image via polyvore

Saturday On The Cape

In hindsight, we were completely unprepared for our trip to Provincetown; but then again, how were we to know that it would be pouring rain when we got off the ferry (the forecast for Cape Cod said 'sunny'), and that our intended casual "15-minute" bike excursion to the beach would end up being over 12 miles (we naively ended up doing the entire trail instead of just part of it)?

A fellow ferry passenger informed us while we took shelter under a tent on the wharf that the skies would clear around 2pm, so when the downpour turned to light rain we made a beeline for the town centre in search of food. We found Tiny's, a very small patio restaurant (made even smaller under the cordoned rain tent) with an impressive menu of local foods. The lobster corn chowder was the big winner, as was (for me) the house-made basil and grapefruit soda. 

When the rain clouds dispersed shortly after 2:30 pm out came the sun, and along with it the heat we thought we had left behind in Boston. We rented our bikes on the main street and navigated our way to Herring Cove Beach and then to Race Point Beach. The distance between the two was further than expected (and the terrain hillier than we would have liked), but both the swimming and the scenery were perfect - and made up for the post-return exhaustion we felt when we only just made it back in time to return our bikes at the end of the day.

The ferry from Boston to Provincetown is a bit pricy for a day trip, but it definitely beat not having to contend with traffic on a busy Saturday in July. Also - the 7:30pm fast ferry back to Boston was like a romantic sunset cruise (take-out seafood and lots 'o salt water taffy are highly recommended for the ride home).