Lobster Anyone?

Here are some pictures Marilyn took of Jackson and the Lobster. It is a cape tradition to have a lobster and champagne brunch the morning after the big bake. Jackson wanted in on the fun so we introduced him to one of our lobster friends.

Cape Cod 2007

What an incredible adventure! We had so much fun at Cape Cod this weekend!

Let me first give you a little background on where we were and to the best of my ability the history of the Cape house.

The Cape House is located the the upper cape area of Cape Cod. If you look at the map the house is located just south of the Pocasset. It sits on Handy Point in the Red Brook Harbor. The house was build in 1928 by the Allen Family. How are they related to the Jernigan's you ask? Good question! Here is what I can gather. The house was build by Talbott Allen. Talbot's sister is Jean Jernigan, Dan's paternal grandmother. Talbott passed away last year and his son Langdon and his family are the caretaker's of the property. SO Langdon is Dan's dad's cousin. So there are lots of cousins involved, so many in fact, I cannot keep straight the relationships. So I think I have the lineage right, but please correct me if I am wrong.

The house is located on a large plot of land that faces Red Brook Harbor. There is a large grass area the leads into a sandy beach then right into the harbor. What a beautiful setting.

The house is still in it original 1928 splendor, so with age comes some quirks. The most noticeable is the bathroom flushing habit one must adopt when staying at the cape house. The house has a very small and very old septic system which must be treated with tender love and care. This tenderness includes not over loading the system which translates into not flushing as often. So the saying goes "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown flush it down." When staying at the cape house one must also become accustom to showering in the great outdoors and learn to do so with Daddy Long-leg spiders looking on. This makes for a refreshing and QUICK shower. But all the quirks are worth the relaxation and great memories made with family.

The whole weekend is centered on The Bake. The preparations begin several days before and end in LOTS of food! I will take you through the steps of a traditional Calm Bake.

Step One:

Dig a HUGE hole in the beach and line it with rocks

Step Two:

The night before the bake collect garbage bags full of kelp. Dan's Uncle Bruce was the Kelp Master and I do have to say he did a mighty fine job determining exactly how much kelp was needed for the bake. Way to go Bruce! Don't think this sounds like a hard job? It is! Uncle Bruce had to determine exactly how mush kelp would be needed because if it came time to lay the bake and there was not enough kelp the whole bake is ruined! So hats off to Uncle Bruce and his minions who collected the kelp.

Step Three:

The morning of the Bake, light a HUGE, HOT fire. Langdon is the Bake Master and is in charge of the fire and the rest of the actual bake. He piled on wood, charcoal, kindling, and LOTS of lighter fluid into the rock lined pit and lit it up! The fire is kept going for several hours as it heats the rocks in preparation for the bake.

Step Four:

The corn must be gathered and set adrift in the water. Brady was the one deemed responsible for the corn. He carefully tied up the burlap bags of corn and drug them out into the water and assured the anchor was secure. Securing the anchor is an important step, one that was forgotten one year and the corn was found floating several hundred feet off shore in the middle of the harbor. Good Job Brady!!

Step Five:

The steamers must now be prepared. They are wrapped in a gauze like material and tied in bundles to be put in the bake. Great Job Dan!

Step Six:

When the fire has reached the peak temperature as determined by the Bake Master and the appropriate gear has been gathered (kelp, lobsters, corn, clams, canvas, & tarps), the bake is ready to be laid.

FIRST LAYER - Kelp - the kelp immediately begins to pop ans sizzle when it is thrown into the hot rocks. The water pockets of the kelp are what heat up to create the steam that steams the lobsters, corn, & steamers.

SECOND LAYER - Lobsters - 65 Lobsters were thrown on the bake. Having never cooked a Lobster before I was a little taken aback when they were STILL MOVING!!!

THIRD LAYER - Kelp - More kelp is thrown down covering the STILL MOVING lobsters.

FOURTH LAYER - Corn & Steamers- The sea water soaked corn is piled onto the bake along with the bundles of steamers

FIFTH LAYER - Kelp - The pile is completely covered with kelp.

SIXTH LAYER - Canvas & Tarp - The whole pile is the sealed with a canvas and a tarp.

Step Seven:

After the appropriate cooking time as passed, again the cook time is determined by the bake master, the layers of kelp are scraped away and the corn, steamers, & lobster are removed. I believe the Bake Master determined an hour and a half was a sufficient cook time for this particular bake. When the lobsters are removed they were passed to the cutters (Dan and his brother Michael) to be sliced from chest to tail then plated for all guest to enjoy.

So there you have it the ingredients to a Cape Cod Clam Bake. We truly enjoyed our time in Cape Cod and look forward to going back. Enjoy the pictures! There will more pictures I am sure once I get the ones from other family. There are some pictures of Jackson with a lobster Marilyn got that she said were adorable. So look for more to follow.

Goin' On A Trip

Today I am helping Mommy pack for our trip to Cape Cod. I finally get to see all my cousins on Daddy's side of the family. Grammy will be there too. YIPPY!

Uncle Michael (that's Daddy's brother) got back from Iraq a few weeks ago and will get promoted to Lieutenant Colonel tomorrow. I am excited to meet him, he sounds cool. Brady & Hunter Grace and Aunt Drew will be there too! More cousins to love!

Uncle Keith is back from flying fighter planes in Iraq and he will be there too! Aunt Julia (Daddy's sister), Aiden, Kendall, and Claire will be there too! We had so much fun playing together last time they were Colorado.

We are going to do something called a Clam Bake. Not sure what it is, but Mommy bought me a new outfit just special for it. It says "little digger" on it, THAT'S ME! Hopefully I will get to help Daddy and his Uncle Bruce do something with kelp and I think there is lobster too. Whatever it is, we should have fun!

I get to see the ocean for the first time too! I am pretty excited to see big water...not sure if I am brave enough to go swimming though.

We leave tomorrow morning and Mommy seems to be a little stressed out. I have promised to be a good boy, but she is still worried I will cry a lot. I am going to try to be good...really I am.

Talk to you after our trip! Have a good holiday weekend!

Parenting Puzzle???

We had our very first official play date...needless to say it was an adventure! Jackson found a girlfriend. Ella is a seven month old little peanut. I am kicking myself for not bring my camera the two of them were adorable. Jackson LOVED his time in the swings! I had a great time chatting with other mommies swapping stories. It is always nice to talk with someone who talks back in a language you can understand.

Along with the good times I have come along my first parenting puzzle. So, all you experienced parents and those who aren't what do you do when someone else's child is OUT OF CONTROL and the parents are doing NOTHING about it. For example, there are two children, wait make that three, who engage in a whole slew of bad behavior, hitting, BITING, and taking toys from the babies all while the parents are looking on. WHAT??? SO, seeing that the parents are not going to do anything to correct their behavior what should I do?? HELP?? Any thoughts??

L.I.N.K.S.

I just spent the last two days attending a L.I.N.K.S class. The class is put on by volunteer Marine spouses for new Marine spouses. The classes introduce you to the history of the Corps, the ends and outs of the base, the low down on military moves, military pay and entitlements, deployment information, and the career of their Marine spouse. Although I am a veteran spouse to the Corp, it was a great refresher and really motivated me to keep persuing my passion of working with military families to make their lives easier. I believe it all starts with education and that is exactly what this program does.

I have signed up to volunteer as one of the mentors/presenters and will go through the mentor training in September. And the best part is at all the events they provide FREE childcare! Jack loved playing with all the other kids and was the best baby! He certainly got his need for a lot of social interaction from his dad.

Guess What?? I was the participant in the class who has been married the longest! I had no idea five years and eight months of marriage could gain me so much senority and make me feel SO OLD! I am just glad to she the youngans get the information now at the beginning of their marriage!

A Hint Of Fall

It has been raining pretty good here the past two days. I guess all the heavy rain knocked a few leaves out of the tree and we got a sneak peak of some of the colors we will get to enjoy this fall. Jackson wasn't really sure what he thought about the leaves, hence the serious face.

Thankfully, it has cooled of tremendously and we are finally enjoying the outdoors. On Sunday we went to the park on base and let Jackson swing until his hearts content and we didn't even break a sweat!

From what I hear the fall is the most enjoyable and beautiful time of year around these parts. So come visit we would love to have you!

Couch Potatoes

Jackson is going through the oh so fun stage of teething. So consequently, before I descovered baby motrin, he was up most of the night Wednesday night (of course the night Dan had to stay in the barracks). So Jack and I were couch potatoes most of the day. The surprise of all surprise came at 1:30pm when Dan walked in the door early from work. So he joined us couch potatoes. I could not resist taking this picture. Jackson is already learning the importance of the remote.