Election day…  I for one, don’t want to sit at home and watch to see if the world is going to become a better place!  No, I’d rather spend it in the company of friends, shaking my booty and having a pint, watching kids frolic and mowing down two dollar burgers, Cape Cod Beer and delicious appetizers.  Where can that be done, you ask?  Read the flier silly!  See you there!

Susan is my hero.  This is a quote stolen from her blog.

“By now you all know that I’m not smart enough to weigh in politically.

However, yesterday at Trader Joe’s I saw a minivan with a McCain/Palin bumper sticker. Next to the McCain/Palin sticker was another one that said “I heart Whales.”

I wanted to get out my sharpie marker (never leave home without one) and add “Polar bears? Not so much.”

Can you believe you have the chance to see these guys for Halloween?  At Grumpy’s, no less?  How perfect is that???

So I was meandering around a few weeks ago, and I happened upon something that should be shared…  A new coffee shop!  Located smack dab in the midst of downtown Barnstable, (right across from the courthouse, for the judicially challenged!) Nirvana is aptly named.  Boasting their own special roast of coffee, Pain D’avignon goodies, and quite possibly one of the best roast beef sandwiches I’ve ever had, it’s a must stop for anyone cruising 6A.  To top it off, you can catch C.O.D’s newest writer extraordinaire Kara behind the espresso machine!  Click here to get some images…

Here’s a hint, and something to do this Halloween…

Spent today in Hyannis, making sure everyone was stocked up in the October issue and visiting our pals at Cape Cod Beer and Grain and Vine… Caught a glimpse of the elusive fall rainbow, had to stop traffic on Main Street long enough to get a couple shots.  Sorry if you were behind me!

According to some of our oyster friends, Sunday was slow at OysterFest. Which makes my head spin right off its hinges.

Because this just does not look slow to me. That’s the crowd watching the oyster shucking competition. Wellfleet takes its oyster shucking very seriously - but you knew that since the U.S. Champion Oyster Shucker is from Wellfleet and competed in this very contest last year. He made a cameo appearance on Saturday, but I think he was busy with speaking engagements and maybe an ESPN something or other when we were there on Sunday. You can read more about Chopper here.

That picture is the parking lot of town hall. Food vendors are in the tent you can barely see on the left. I do love those food vendors. Of course there were oysters all over the place ($1.50 ea. or 12/$12), but there were also fish cakes from Terra Luna (again, I must apologize for doing shots of whatever that sauce was. I cannot resist. It rocks in ways I cannot describe), sushi from Mac’s, shrimp tempura from WOMR, pizza from the Flying Fish, buttermilk battered oysters from the Wicked Oyster and a whole host of things I could not get because really, enough is enough. Oh, and a cup of coffee from Beanstock coffee roasters because a) it’s yummy and b) I couldn’t move my fingers from the cold and it was cheaper than the fleece mittens I was eyeing.

This year we had the magical set up. Henceforth I will never attend a festival without lining up a pied a terre in its midst. It is the answer to everything. The photo above was shot by Chris from the roof of his box truck, from which WOMR broadcasted live. They didn’t use the inside of the truck, just the outside. Chris had a little studio set up inside with room for us to have lunch and nap. We went out into the throngs for a bit and then retreated through the very high security area to our home away from home. For those of us who don’t dig crowds so much, it was heaven.

While Studley napped in the truck, Lucy and I headed back out through the crowd to the slightly less crowded Main Street, which was lined with more oysters and craft booths. There was a kids’ activity section behind Preservation Hall, where we could paint pumpkins and string oyster necklaces. Lucy made a particularly lovely necklace.

This year there were a few stand out vendors. Liza Jane Norman makes these skirts that look like lampshades, so whether she liked it or not Lucy had to have one. After all, why have a little girl if you can’t dress her in lampshades? Liza also had a fetching pair of pirate pants for Studley. It looks like she’s still working on her website, but her home page is cool. Tons of people were wearing her groovy striped legwarmers.

And then there was the hoop booth. They made customized hoops for adults and were demonstrating all the things mere mortals will never be able to do with them.

That’s Moya at Flo Hoops. She was unbelievable.

I also met Tessa Morgan of Flying Pig Pottery. I happened upon her studio last year and wrote about it here. And a couple booths down our friends from Narrow Land Pottery had a booth. Hi Marianne! Send me that link about homeless musicians looking for places to stay, okay? We want to make sure we block the site while there’s time. We have enough homeless musicians, thank you. Around the corner was Kate from Leave it to Weaver. I go way back with Kate and was even her headless model a couple times. If you look at some of her slides or postcards, that’s my chin. I have a very nice chin. We bartered and I scored some awesome scarves, back in the day. You can never have too many Leave it to Weaver scarves.

And I chatted up Andrew Jacob, who I thought was Jacob, not Andrew, but he was nice and let it slide. He was the featured artist in the September issue of COD. It’s here if you feel like digging. I was so busy trying to give myself some street cred on COD’s dime I didn’t actually find out anything about him and probably annoyed him to no end. Social skills come later.

Finally, the town of Wellfleet was super-all-that and let P-town Pedicabs come pedal people around. Liz posted about them here.

And then we slept like reveling oysters. The end.

-Susan Blood

p.s. There will be more pictures, so stay tuned! It’s just that we have this fierce C.O.D deadline and none of us at Trout Towers can think straight. Ever.

p.s.s Here they are!

Todd told me about these guys not too long ago, and it took me a week or two to finally meander in, but man, am I glad that I did!  You know how sometimes you sit back and say “wouldn’t it be cool if…” and then lead into some diatribe about how you would open up the coolest store of some kind, and how you would do it right?  Well, these guys are on the right track! It’s no secret that we here at C.O.D love our beer and wine, and it’s great to have a new destination to get our hands on some!  From a great selection to great people, the new Grain and Vine in Hyannis has you covered!  Want to see what you’re missing?  Check the photo gallery by clicking here!

There’s nothing that says fall like crisp days, colorful trees, and men dressed up like they’re about to sack a castle.

That’s right, once summer is over, eighty plus acres of the town of Carver are cast back in time.  Think Plimouth Plantation, but with swords, armor, fire eating, and, of course, beer.  Complete with a jousting field (that features REAL jousting!), jesters, a smithy making bladed weapons and custom armor, tons of medieval - esque crafts, and more, you can’t beat King Richards Faire for quality family entertainment and some of the best people watching ever.

We arrived right as the gates opened, and were met by Stephanie, their press liaison.  She gave us the five dollar tour, and then set us free.  It can be hard to navigate from attraction to attraction with so many people dressed for the era and acting the part… LARP a palooza to say the least!  I have to give these folks credit for losing their inhibitions and really giving their all to the day, it adds a sense of magic (and surrealness) that I haven’t experienced since my rave days.

We saw people eating mud, swallowing and juggling fire, doing acrobatics, sword fighting, and, of course, drinking.  I have to say the only disappointment of the day was that a “yard” of beer was hardly that, coming in a plastic decanter that weighed in at more like twelve inches.  This was almost made up for by the turkey drumsticks, which were smoked and must have come off the biggest gobblers ever, as they were the size of my forearm.  And delicious, to say the least.

The highlight of the day for many was the tiger show, which featured rescued tigers of all sizes and carried a pretty strong conservation message.  They even had Hercules, the Guinness Book of World Record largest feline, and he was HUGE.  Certainly made me glad I didn’t have to wrestle him.  After the tigers, we were feeling a little hard to impress, but the Aerial Angels did make us laugh with a collection of acrobatics, tricks, and, most importantly, off color jokes.  They may not be Cirque de Soleil, but they sure would be more fun to party with.

At the end of the day we were well fed, tired, a little dirty and completely broke, which, let’s face it, is the mark of a great fair or festival.  If you haven’t been I certainly recommend heading up there this coming weekend, as it is the last chance you’ll have until next year.

Photo gallery?  Click here!

For the past three years the British Beer Company has been hosting an annual celebration of the Beatles in Falmouth, starring amazing tribute band Walrus Gumboot and countless musical guests from across the Cape.  This year the festival had an additional cause, and that was to help raise money for local music fixture David Cohen, who has been diagnosed with cancer. I think it is safe to say that this year’s even went off without a hitch, with hundreds of people gathering to revive the hippy spirit.  I’m not sure of the totals, but I know they raised a good chunk of money, and you can continue to support this amazing cause by buying one of the specially made support bracelets - contact Stephanie at christmasbaibey@yahoo.com for more info.  David has been in tons of local bands, and chances are you’ve danced to his playing more than once, so let’s all get together and support our local musical family!

Click here for a slideshow of the day…