Paul & Jenn's Adventures

Jenn and I are thinking of buying a house these days. In fact, it constantly occupies my mind. Jenn had been looking at houses ever since she moved to the Capital Region, and we have been looking together since summer of 2008. Jenn was looking to buy a house because of the notion that renting is like throwing money into the toilet. I don't completely agree with that concept, but in the long run, paying a mortgage and end up owning a house is better than paying rent and still don't own anything in the end. Jenn didn't buy because of many reasons, such as having to take care of maintenance by herself, under-utilization, snow removal, yard work, etc. Last year we were looking because Jenn was deciding whether to renew the apartment lease or buy a house. She ended up moving to a different apartment. Now that we are married, there's even more reason to buy a house. Our population has doubled, our stuff is doubled, we want to do things that living in an apartment cannot offer...

Sunday was the last day of our honeymoon. We booked a flight back to New Bedford in the afternoon, but we still have many things that we wanted to do. In the morning we went on a Van Tour by Gail. She said her mother started the tour business on a buggy in the 1920's, and she took over the business many years ago. She drives the van around the island and tells stories about the buildings, landmark, the people who lives around there, and where are the things worth seeing later. One interesting thing we learned was that Nantucket has a cranberry industry. The way they harvest them is to flood the growing area with water so the berrys float on the surface and that makes picking them much easier. Gail also explained that the island is constantly being eroded away and many houses on the edge of the shore either get washed away or had to be relocated. Those houses are very expensive, and sometimes they will pay another owner to move their house so they can move the house from shore to th...

In the morning we went downstairs to get breakfast served by the inn. They actually have a menu for breakfast, so we get to pick from among a few different choices such as sausage or pancake or fruit platters. I forgot what we ordered but it was delicious. I asked if we could stay one more night there, but the inn was all full. The innkeeper helped us find three other bed and breakfast places and we picked Centerboard Guest House as our next lodging. Because we cannot check-in at the Centerboard until 3 pm, we put our stuff in the Union Inn lobby and went out to tour the town. We got a map from the Union Inn and the innkeeper had told us about a walking route that will take us to see different parts of the Nantucket town. We followed that route and went towards a historic light house on the beach. People were waiting in line to go up the tower. We also waited in line and got up there to see the view from the higher vantage point. For lunch, we walked to a sandwich place that the...

The flight to Nantucket was in the early morning, so we got up at around 8 AM, grabbed a quick breakfast, and rolled our luggage towards the bus station, which was a short 5 minutes walk. We got on the bus, paid $2 each person, and took a nice ride to the airport, which is located in the middle of the island. The airport is as simple as can be. There was no security check, no bag check, because everything is carry-on. The Cape Air counter agent told us that the fog is forcing the airport to be closed and no plane can fly until the visibility picks up. There are people who waited since 6 in the morning to fly to Nantucket. We waited for about an hour before they told us to board. The plane is a 7 passenger 1-engine turboprop. The luggage gets put in the wings and in front of the cockpit. I was sitting in the front row, right behind the pilot, and looking at the pilot working with the flight controls was interesting. The small plane and the fog made me nervous, even though I ...