Not A Cruise Blog

No, no, and no some more. You cannot have any cruise blogs. Not yet at least. They’re currently “in production” at the moment, but here, enjoy a little anecdote from our adventures in Hyannis.

After a perilous drive home from Cohasset the night before, we safely made it back to our hotel, where we would drive around aimlessly before being able to find a parking spot. Our hotel was hopping! Hyannis is really a beautiful place. I know that’s a slightly biased and skewed opinion but I like to think even those impervious to the music of Hyannis Sound would feel the same way.  We woke up Sunday and Megan’s mom so graciously offered to get us coffee. Dunk’s was right across the street and Megan and I were thankful. We were not in a huge rush to get up and get moving like we normally are. We had literally NO travel time in order to get to the show that night.

Other than our usual crazy banter and shenanigans this was a fairly relaxing and uneventful morning. Those kinds of days are amazing. We finally decided to venture out and see what Cape Cod had to offer us. We made our way to a local store called Cuffy’s. They sell the coziest Cape Cod sweatshirts and they are a popular store when the tourists come to visit. This day was no exception, it was jam-packed! We didn’t linger any longer than we needed to in there. We got our goods and left ASAP with very little harm done to the elderly and small children in the vicinity. After that we were all in a silent agreement that our next stop was Mary Lou’s Coffee. We are seriously addicted to that place. It’s amazing. If you ever happen to find yourself on Cape, you need to go. This is not a suggestion, it’s a demand.

We made our way back to the hotel and by this time it was totally normal for us to start getting ready. We laughed and joked about how it would be so funny if we got ready quickly and went to the Hyannis Sound show in Hyannisport (about a 5 minute drive away) before going to the SNC show. We laughed it off figuring we would never have time to make it there and back. Shortly after that happened, I happened upon a tweet from Tyler that literally made me SO angry. Tyler and a few other members of SNC had decided to go see the Hyannis Sound show. I couldn’t believe my eyes and a wave of jealousy hit me instantly. I’m not sure what I was jealous about. I think it was that somewhere on Cape, only mere minutes away, there was a cornucopia of my favorite people and I wasn’t there. How could we have let this happen!  Megan had the same angry feelings and her mom just laughed at us. The remainder of the time spent getting ready was spent in a state of brute anger complete with huffed breath and stomping feet.

We decided that we would walk to the venue. I mean, it was only a 10 minute walk and after the car trouble Megan had experienced the night before, it was kind of a no brainer. When we got to the show, we went right in and found the rest of the chasers. We also happened upon our mortal enemies but that’s a story for a different day. They are not Straight No Chaser related and therefore have no place in this blog. I will tell you that Megan and I were ready for some sort of west side story show down to break out.  Jenn and Tara found this exchange to be quite funny.  After that, we went to go find our seats. To our surprise (well not really, it was a circle), Megan and I were sitting almost directly across from Tara and Jenn, which made it perfect for them to totally rag on us when we started hyperventilating.  Let me preface this by saying, we had asked the guys of Hyannis Sound (gosh, I really hope Jerome isn’t reading this) if they would be attending the show. The answer we had been given was no. First they placed the blame on Tyler, Who then in turn placed the blame on Kevin, who finally admitted that they weren’t sure because they had a show that day. Just imagine our shock and excitement when several of them came strolling in. The closer they got to us the more we panicked, and soon they were seated directly in the row behind us chatting with some friends of theirs. Fan girl moment? You could say so. There were waves of hellos to us before they made their way to their seats. When we looked over at Jenn and Tara they were literally just laughing at us.

Interesting view

The show started and I must say it was amazing. It was quite possibly my favorite show to date. I’m sure roars of applause could be heard all over Cape Cod. Many times I found myself glancing over to the Hyannis Sound guys to see their reactions to certain things (there are several songs that both groups sing) During intermission we ran into some of them and I recall being told “Wow, those guys are something else, huh!?” well we don’t gush over them for nothing! It seemed like a very long intermission but even still when the lights flashed for us to come back in, we weren’t prepared. This prompted us to go running, ok, a briskly jogging, back to our seats. In the course of our epic race back to our seats, we almost crashed right into Blake! Serious head on collision. I shouted “Blake! You almost just ran us down!” and he responded with “Oh! I didn’t even see you there” How is that even possible, we had more lights on us than the stage does. We exchanged high-speed hugs and zipped along to our proper command posts. During their intros, Ryan generously offered a shout out to us, saying it was great to be performing “in our backyard”. Yeah that’s right, Megan and I own the Cape. The show ended seemingly instantaneously (they’re never long enough) and the crowd erupted into more cheering, applause, and then chanting for an encore. The woman sitting in front of me so lovingly turned around and simply squealed “Your screaming is driving me crazy!!” to which I abruptly laughed in her face. So I’m a terrible person and I’ve come to terms with it.

"It's a cream based souped"

After the show we made our way to the meet and greet line, where, once again, we were greeted by the guys of Hyannis Sound (seriously, you’re smothering me!) We had a running joke this summer with them and often times you could hear us saying “I know some guys.” They always laughed because usually it was in reference to the guys of Hyannis Sound. . While waiting in the line, one of them asked “So, what was that shout out?” so I replied, “I wasn’t kidding when I said ‘I know some guys.’” After the line started moving and we were inching our way ever closer the tables, we could see someone making a beeline straight for Megan and myself. When the shadowy figure got closer we realized that it was Blake and as he approached he simply pointed and said “You! I need you two to do something for me” We were instructed to be very sincere in approaching Ryan about how he had embarrassed Blake in front of his friends and that he owed him an apology. We gladly took on this mission (although, it was a seemingly mission impossible scenario.) We have a hard time being serious around any of the guys but we like a good challenge now and again.

At the start of the line, there was a random director chair and it was not being used to it’s full potential. As a result, when we approached it I tossed all my belongings onto it, hoping they would be safe. Once at the tables, Tyler was first. He saw us and exclaimed, “There they are!” This threw us off guard, as we were both unaware we had been among the missing. He told us he felt like he was still moving (from the rotating stage) and we claimed we did as well. Sometimes it was hard to tell if it was them moving or us. He told us that next time the audience had to rotate and the stage would stay still. We would make it like a Disney ride. Walt then joined in the conversation and it became a very elaborate scene, with the audience getting strapped into their seats. Next the ushers would come around and check our seats while reminding us to keep our hands and feet in at all times. We all got a good chuckle out of it.

Next up was Jerome, who noticed one of my strands of lights had just died. He asked,
“Did the batteries just die? You need to check those before you leave!” Funny story. I had just changed the batteries in the hotel before the show. I demand a refund! Suddenly, Ryan chimed in (from the other side of Randy) telling me to “Check yourself before you wreck yourself!” Although, he soon admitted he’s not sure what that means or why he said it. When we got to Randy, he asked us “Is this your first show?” before immediately asking “Do you ever get sick of that joke?” as a matter of fact, no we don’t. We told him it would still be funny at our “second show” in Danbury in August. He also told us that soon he was expecting us to show up in full animatronics. That sounds expensive but I’m sure we could look into it.

Finally we got to Ryan and it was time to show off our acting skills. Before we could do that, he asked us how are blogs are coming along. You are reading these three months after the fact, which should be a pretty solid answer on how they’re going. He asked us if the next time he would see us was the cruise, which would be a negative. We had plans to make our way down to Danbury CT a few weeks later. Finally we brought up Blake and how we “Couldn’t believe he would do that to Blake in front of his friends!” We also told him that Blake was visibly upset and blah blah blah. Apparently, he knew right off the bat we were lying because his only response was “Blake doesn’t have feelings or friends” We were insulted by this comment and said “What about us?!”  He did not feel as though we counted. Ryan informed us that he wasn’t sure why he had called the Cape our backyard to which Seggie chimed in, “Yeah, I was going to stay something about it on stage but I wasn’t sure.” His comment naturally made us progress to where he was sitting. He commented on how we must have pretty high paying jobs so I said, “Yeah, we bought the Cape, all on a teacher’s salary.” We all got a good chuckle out of this ludicrous thought.

As we drifted down the line, we found ourselves in front of Charlie. He just so casually mentioned, “Oh hey, we didn’t see you guys out there.” I don’t know if we were both just not paying attention but we suddenly snapped back with, “WHAT?!” Charlie’s only reply was laughter. Through his laughter he was able to muster out “Wow, you both just got so mad.” I’m not sure if it was anger or shock, either way we didn’t handle it well. During our car ride, Megan had found a lingering T (for those of you unfamiliar, that’s what we call our subway) ticket. They just so happen to be called “Charlie Tickets.” We informed Charlie of this and showed him the ticket. He asked if he could endorse it. Of course we let him. It gives the ticket a more authentic feel. We started joking around that here in Boston, if you don’t know Charlie, you can’t ride the T.

When we got to DR and Don, we were involved in a very intense debate on how one would display a picture that had been signed on the back instead of the front. We mentioned things like a glass frame that you can see the front and back, which is completely logical I guess. I believe the best idea we came up with was a wind chime. That way, the picture could spin in a very scenic way and you could see both sides of the picture. I told them to be careful because now they would be getting one (which I have yet to do but I just might) If I recall correctly, I made Don laugh when I exclaimed, “Pinterest here I come!” To be honest, I think I made myself laugh as well.

As we shifted down to Mike, who was the last person in line, the topic of conversation suddenly changed to cooking food, getting “adult beverages”, and having a cookout. I ‘m not sure how it went there but I’m pretty positive it had something to do with Megan’s mom, cooking is her thing. We told Mike that he was invited to the cookout we were having. The only catch was it was going to be in our “backyard”, which we all know is pretty big now, and that we weren’t going to tell them where. Apparently Mike is a super sleuth because he promptly replied with “Oh, I’d find it!” and he was quite confident in his words.

Jazz hands

When we left the tables, we made our way back to our chair to gather our personal belongings and wait for group pictures. I tried to convince Ryan that he should just hop over the table. He shot down my idea but I still maintain it was a good one. When it was our turn for pictures, there was a lot of chaos happening around us. I tried to follow all the directions I was being given, but it’s very hard to make quick decisions when you have someone telling you to look at the camera and smile and someone off to your side (ahem, Ryan) telling you to do jazz hands in the picture. Still, even in the hysteria, the picture came out great. (It’s currently the background on my phone.) We discussed if the guys would have a chance to spend some time in Hyannis and Ryan told us that they were in fact heading straight to Logan. Oh yeah, and we were the crazy ones for driving from Cohasset to Hyannis. (She exclaimed in a sarcastic tone) Clearly we thought this was an absurd decision but I guess it made sense. We wished them all safe travels and sauntered back to our hotel.

The next day, we checked out of our hotel and headed to Falmouth where we would complete our double stuffed Oreo weekend by seeing Hyannis Sound one more time. We had been there countless times this summer but this was the first time we ever stopped (or got there early enough) to enjoy what the town has to offer. We went to Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institute, or if you went to the college we did and studied Earth Science, WHOI, for short (because we’re giant nerds and this is the stuff that makes us happy). We also attempted a visit to the Cape Cod Winery but unfortunately they were closed on Mondays. Then we made our way back to the center of town to enjoy one last bout of sensational music. I’m a firm believer that you can never have too much a cappella music in your life, but we’re scientists so we had to test our hypothesis. It turns out, that’s absolutely true. After the show, we made the long trek home. We were feeling elated by the times we had just spent with friends, family (for Megan, at least), and friends we consider family but also a little sorrowful that it had to end.