#586 Xavi's first trip to the movies

On Saturday we went to see Minions at the 11.30 am session at the AMC/Loews movie theater on Third Avenue between 86th & 87th. Xavi's friend Katarina had seen it and recommend it. We gave it 1 star.

Xavi ate a bag of popcorn and drank a 20 oz Coke (actually that's not true but he did eat a whole bag of Welch's Fruit Snacks). You could also watch "Minions" in 3-D but that would have been a bit ambitious. The movie was fine but the trailers were rather violent especially Goosebumps which comes out November 1 for Halloween, and we thought was inappropriate for the Minions audience. We have spent the weekend explaining over & over how the monsters come out of the books, why the Abominable Snowman put his finger in the light, why the lady ran over the werewolf, what a gnome is, etc etc and why it won't happen with our books.

#585. Greetings from Martha's Vineyard

Visiting Cape Cod has been on our bucket list, and we finally got there this summer. After talking to acquaintances from New England, we chose to spend a few nights on Martha's Vineyard, the large triangular-shaped island in the centre of the map. It's 45 minutes by car ferry off the southern coast of Massachusetts, and brings back memories of the Kennedy era. (JFK aficionados will spot Hyannis to the right of the red symbol, and Chappaquidick Island adjacent to the east of Martha's Vineyard).

We stayed 'up island' at the little fishing village of Menemsha in the SW corner (confusingly, they refer to the northern, populous side as "Down island" and the more undeveloped, southern side as "Up Island"). People come to Menemsha from all over MV to watch the sunset, which was spectacular when we were there. as these pictures indicate, the general ambience could be described as "laid-back maritime". More presidential trivia - the Obamas holiday each summer at Chilmark, which you'll see is just 2 miles S. of Menemsha. MV would be a nice place to return to each summer, except it's a tiring 5 hr drive across Connecticut and Rhode Island on the I-95, the very busy freeway that connects NYC and Boston which only has 2 lanes in many places.

#584. Dumb & Dumber

Last weekend we drove to Cape Cod for a few days of summer vacation on Martha's Vineyard (more later). On the way you pass through the gritty New England city of Providence, Rhode Island, where we spent the night to break up the 6 hr drive from NYC.

So of course while in Providence, we had to pay homage to the funniest film EVER. Hope St was only about a km from our hotel so we went to recreate the opening scene.

in case you never saw the movie, here's the opening scene (and if you did, enjoy!)