Massachusetts – Ian Louis Harris

US Trip 23 September to 8 October, Day Sixteen: From Portland Maine To London England, via An Updike Hike In Ipswich Essex, 8 October 2025

Last Brunch Before Boston Logan

The weather had smiled on us so wonderfully for most of our New England trip, it was perhaps ironically fitting that the weather turned just as we were leaving.

A damp view of Portland just before departure

We said goodbye to our lovely apartment on Munjoy Hill. I drove us from Portland to Ipswich in the driving rain.

The weather was due to cheer up middle of the day, but we found ourselves in Ipswich before noon. I had spotted two places for refreshments in the middle of the town: Heart & Soul Cafe & the Choate Bridge Pub.

We started in the first of them, which we could tell straight away would be to our taste. A groovy throw back to the 1960s & 1970s.

Tasty BLTs with avo and great coffee, which is not all that easy to find in USA cafes.

The staff were all very friendly and we got to meet the owners, Bud & Jenny, who were exactly the sort of jolly, genial people you might expect from the pictures.

They were especially taken with my shirt, which they thought might have been designed for their cafe. Funnily enough, it is the one I wore to Kim & Janie’s 60’s themed party, so Bud & Jenny were darned right!

I wondered whether the picture with Ed Sheeran (see headline photo) was an AI-generated joke, as it seemed incongruous for their 60s/70s theme, but it turned out that Ed Sheeran had popped in to the cafe a few months ahead of us.

For reasons known only to him, Ed Sheeran, a son of Ipswich (Suffolk, England), chose to film a pop video in the other Ipswich (Essex County, Massachusetts). And why not?

Perhaps this gave Janie the bug to film a video of her own, which I’ll insert a bit later.

The rain had pretty much died down by the time we had finished our brunch, so we said goodbye to Bud, Jenny and their team and wandered around for a while, taking in some of the old buildings in the town…

…before returning to the centre of town to start an Updike hike. The hike needed to start in the Choate Bridge Pub, as I was aware that Updike had written many of his novels from an office above that pub. Why he chose to write there rather than in his big house, a few minutes walk away from the pub, is a matter for some academic conjecture I am sure.

The nice barmaid told us that upstairs is now apartments (I’d kinda figured), so we thought best to wander down to pay homage to Updike’s house after photographing the Choate Bridge Pub Updike plaque.

On leaving the pub, we got chatting for quite a while with a nice lady, recently bereaved, who had lived in St John’s Wood at one time. Then we sought the Updike plaque.

I thought the couple sitting in the window were trying to avoid being photographed, which would have been fair enough, but it turned out they were clowning around, hoping to photo bomb our picture, which was really pretty funny.

OK, you must all be chomping at the bit to see a five minute hike movie – now’s the time for a showing of Daisy’s movie:

The Polly Dole House, Updike’s second in Ipswich.

Updike’s first house, on Essex Road…in case you couldn’t tell…

Janie drove us into Boston Logan airport, which was a relatively traffic and hassle free drive, but dropping the car and then getting to the check in at departures was a bit of a circus, as I suspect it always is at Boston Logan.

Once we got through formalities, though, the Delta hospitality (which Virgin shares) was excellent, so we chose to chow down before the flight and eat light on it.

Is that my relaxed face or my relieved face while eating a very tasty chowder?

Relaxed & relieved face, while eating a tasty fish dish

Studying the photos while taking some desert before flying.

If you want to see all the pictures from this day – we’re talking well north of 100 – then click this Flickr link or the photo link below:

US Trip 23 September to 8 October, Day Nine: Cape Cod To Portland Maine Via Lunch With Pady Jalali Just South Of Boston, 1 October 2025

Me, Janie & Pady – thank you, photographer/waitress.

Janie and I set off quite early from Cape Cod after a hearty breakfast and fond farewells with our hosts Mike and Helen.

Janie drove the 90 minutes from Cape Cod to South Shore Plaza in Braintree, just south of Boston, where we had arranged to meet Pady at the American Cheesecake Factory.

It was lovely to see Pady again, after a couple false starts over the past few years, due to her unfortunate needs to abort planned visits to England, most recently in July.

A few hours flew by before our agreed departure hour arrived – 3:00ish, to avoid the Boston traffic on the way out to Portland.

Pady had carefully planned the convenience of the meet up around an easy to find and get away from location. But none of us had counted on an earlier than usual rush hour, on account of the Red Sox playing the Yankees in a play-off match starting at 6:00. Who knew?

What would have been a little over two hour drive became a three-and-a half hour drive, which Janie insisted on doing, pleading that I was better at navigating to new destinations, which might be true.

We arrived in Portland just as it was getting dark. We checked in to our lovely AirBnb apartment and then went in search of a local casual place, as we didn’t want all that much food after sampling “light lunch” and sharing a cheesecake with Pady earlier.

We found a quirky, casual place named The East Ender, which turned out to be a karaoke bar downstairs and a casual diner upstairs. The wailing from the karaoke bar had to be heard to be believed, but mercifully the sound didn’t much travel up the stairs. We were able to enjoy a light supper of caesar salad (Janie) and schnitzel (me).

One of the waitresses suggested that we might like to try our hands at the karaoke. When I told her that I could offer some Renaissance tavern songs, she said:

Medieval? Scary!

At that juncture, Janie and I saw our opportunity to leave and have a much-needed early night.

If you want to see all the photos from that day, click this Flickr link or the picture one below:

WhatsApp Image 2025-10-02 at 13.50.41_8ecff92f

US Trip 23 September to 8 October, Day Eight: Cape Cod Day Around Yarmouth, West Dennis, Hyannis Port & Inaho, 30 September 2025

Hyannis Port – – Kennedy Compound Lane – No Entry

The Inn At Cape Cod breakfast was consistently good

We wanted an easier day today and more or less got what we wanted.

We hoped we could just turn up and play tennis at the local (South Yarmouth) courts and so it turned out. Steve seems to look after the place very nicely and gently, welcoming tourists if they want to pay to play.

The courts are green clay, which we’d never played before. Very similar feel to the synthetic clay we have tried and enjoyed in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

Steve recommended Cuffy’s, so we stopped there for a while.

Rather a strange “mock harbour bazaar” at which Janie eventually splashed the cash on some deeply discounted sports shorts but which has no place to sit down and take refreshments.

The staff suggested ‘the Dunkin” down the street, but my googling found an equally nearby place with a more artesanal look – Three Fins Coffee Roasters. There we took iced coffee, a Danish and a muffin…cos that’s what you do in places like that…and listened to a string of 60s hits by British artists.

Then on to Hyannis Port, on a somewhat bizarre mission to see the Kennedy Compound. The sat nav sort of gets you there, but the no parking signs and the road signs take you away from the compound itself, either to the next beach along or near the “invitation only” Hyannisport Club.

In the end I parked 10 minutes walk away and we walked down, only for Janie to ignore the “Private” sign at the edge of the compound itself and end up being gently removed by a chatty elderly lady in a high viz vest who is paid to enforce the privacy.

At least Mrs High-Viz didn’t point a gun or shoot at Daisy

Let’s not muse as to whether or not roads and movements of that kind can actually block the right of way for walkers – people in the USA all have guns! The security lady didn’t look as though she was carrying a gun and became very chatty as she walked us back to the slightly more public road. Strange place.

Undaunted, we set off back to Yarmouth, stopping on the way for gas (petrol). “Leave this to me”, I said, for our first ever petrol stop in the USA, and possibly just as well. I studied the petrol pump for some time, musing that the green pump (which would symbolise petrol in the UK) looked decidedly diesel-like in its signage, whereas the black one (which would mean diesel in the UK) looked like it wanted to serve petrol. “Let’s ask someone”, said Janie, landing on an unfortunate, random customer, before I had a chance to go and ask an informed person in the gas station. The poor man had no idea why Janie was asking him “petrol or diesel” questions, assuming that she didn’t know whether our car was petrol or diesel. “Best you read the manual”, he said, trying to help.

Fortunately, someone from the gas station spotted us and came out to assist. The binary oppositeness of the UK/USA petrol/diesel signage was soon explained and understood. The nice gentleman who had tried to help looked enlightened when he realised why we had been confused, sympathising with us, as he had never been outside the USA and realised that he would have been similarly confused himself.

A lesson you only need to learn once.

We got home in time to enjoy just a few minutes on our terrace before it got too cold for sitting out, at which point we strolled up the road to book the local Japanese Restaurant Inaho, for this evening and then retired for a while to wash and read.

Soon our hunger and tempting look of the Inaho place overcame us, so we went and grabbed our table early. The nice maitre d lady had saved us a booth which was a lovely way to try the place. The food was excellent – one of the best Japanese restaurants we have ever tried.

Authentic Japanese Inaho Cape Cod | Inaho-Sushi.com

It was very photogenic food – Daisy went a bit mad with her camera and even I took a few.

Not exactly traditional Japanese desert but another culinary star turn

The atmosphere in there was excellent too. Thoroughly recommended.

Back home for an infeasibly early night but we were both very tired and had packing and a long drive tomorrow ahead of us, so an early night was probably a very good idea.

If you want to see all the pictures from that day…and who could blame you…click here or the picture link below for the Flickr album for that day.

US Trip 23 September to 8 October, Day Seven: Cape Cod Road Trip To Provincetown & Back Via Chatham, 29 September 2025

Chatham Pier – peerless

We decided to do a loopy tour of Cape Cod today, loosely based on the recommended loop that Mike & Helen leave in the Inn rooms for their guests.

Not everything on their loop took our fancy, but we certainly liked the idea of a few scenic stops along the way (Fort Hill, Marconi Beach, Race Point Beach to Provincetown, a look around that place, then back via Chatham.

Daisy with our road trip conduit – Max The Mazda – at Fort Hill

Marconi Beach – not much to see here to be honest

In Provincetown, we struggled to make the local parking app work, settling in the end for $20 a day car park near the centre of town.

We enjoyed walking around, taking in the vibe of the place, streets and sea front…

…looking at the quirky wharf mall, and taking ice cream there…cos that’s what you do in a place like Provincetown.

Then on to Chatham, where we stopped at the village end of the town and then walked past some beautifully appointed houses/gardens…

…to the fishing port part of the town.

Beside the fish market, we saw the afternoon catch arriving, with gulls and seals waiting eagerly in the hope of some tasty by-catch.

Quite a full day, that, leaving us no time to sit like lord and lady muck on our terrace before it got too chilly. Instead, we readied ourselves for dinner and braced ourselves for the 30 second walk from our Inn to the Old Yarmouth next door, where we had booked a table in the Red Room, in the hope of seeing the ghost.

Me? Present. Janie? Present. Ghost? Absent.

Disappointingly, the ghost didn’t show, but we did enjoy a feast of shrimp in coconut starter, followed by swordfish (in Janie’s case) and a “lazy lobster” dish in my case, which was not only pieces of buttered lobster but also a breadcrumby pounding of shrimp and scallops too.

Again, enormous portions beyond our ability to finish, but very tasty.

If this article does not have sufficient eye-candy for you, by all means delve into the infeasibly large number of pictures we took that day, through this Flickr link or the picture link below.

US Trip 23 September to 8 October, Day Six: From Newport To Cape Cod, 28 September 2025

The Inn At Cape Cod

We left our Newport AirBnB in a bit of a flurry, having somehow managed to take hours over a light breakfast, packing and leaving for Cape Cod. We stopped briefly along the way at Flos, to try their famous clear clam chowder. Really atmospheric place, playing 70s soft rock relentlessly. The clear clam chowder was tasty and light, although we think the creamy style is more to our taste.

A place where it’s best to go with the Flo

The journey was fine and quick, despite some drama in the matter of the boot (or, as the Americans say, “trunk”) not functioning properly.

We arrived at The Inn At Cape Cod well ahead of schedule and ahead of opening time, which was a problem only because, on parking up at the Inn, the trunk became jammed open, which made me understandably reluctant to walk away from the Inn towards the tempting looking cafe up the road.

Mercifully, one of the staff who was preparing he rooms arranged for us to get in a little early so we could at least dump our baggage. While doing so, I grabbed the corkscrew from our room and executed the necessary unjamming and jiggling to get the trunk working properly again. Superhero status guaranteed, for the next few hours anyway.

After the trauma of that relocation, I made a (successful) bid to remain in our Portland AirBnB for the remaining unhooked three nights at the end of our trip, meaning that we’ll only relocate once more ahead of our return home. As most of the places we want to see are day-trippable from Portland, this seemed to be a hassle-reducing manoeuvre.

We sat on the lovely terrace of our suite for a while, reading and (presumably) looking like New England grandees of Joshua Sears descent. Joking apart, story of the Inn and the wealthy New Englander who built it is a fascinating one for lovers of that type of thing.

Yarmouth is a quiet Cape Cod town with three superb restaurants near to our Inn. Some diligent research revealed that not all the restaurants open every day midweek, so I made bookings where possible to arrange the only combination, when booking Sunday, Monday, Tuesdays, that enabled us to try all three places within walking distance on the three nights of our stay.

That meant dining at Leonessa on the first night. That one was the longest of the three walks; c15 minutes. Our walk to the place was nearly ended after 15 seconds, when a speeding car whizzed around the corner as Daisy crossed the road outside our Inn. He stopped in time…just…but it was a near thing that shocked all three of us, I expect.

Glad just to still be here…and now look at this amazing photogenic food

The meal at Leonessa was superb. Daisy went for the pork chop while I went for the duck dish. Both were massive portions which we couldn’t possibly finish, despite them being utterly delicious.

Defo need to get pictures of these food mountains…

Someone even found space for a small sweet

A young couple arrived at the next table around the time our meal was served and ordered the exact same pairing of dishes, which we suspected was not as coincidence. We were having a great time, whereas they sat rather solemnly given the luxury of that restaurant experience.

We Ubered home.

The above and other pictures for this day can be found through this Flickr link and/or below:

US Trip 23 September to 8 October, Day One: London To Newport, 23 September 2025

Nightmare On Thames Street

Virgin notified us that our flight would be delayed before we even set off from home, but they also notified us that cyber attack issues meant that we might need to get to the airport a bit earlier to check in the old-fashioned way, even though we had already checked in!

In the end the flight almost caught up with the 50 minute delay, then we circled Boston Logan for ages and formalities in the US seemed to take an age blah blah…

…of course most of the drive from Boston to Newport RI ended up being driving in the dusk/dark, which I had hoped to avoid. At least I had the chance to get used to driving “Max The Mazda” before it got dark. And at least my e-SIM was a doddle to activate, giving me the Wi-Fi connectivity I would need for sat naving and the like.

Very tired on arrival, we sought out the convenience store three blocks away on Thames, as mentioned in advance correspondence by our Airbnb host Jay. Jay had seemed most amused that his English guests would assume that street to be pronounced “Tems” as opposed to the American way, “Thaymes”.

Daisy went into tizzy mode at the sight of convenience products that looked nothing like the ones she is used to in Waitrose, although the quality seemed reasonable enough to me…unlike the prices.

I’m normally the more intense of the two of us, but on this aspect I was totally relaxed about grabbing whatever basic milk, butter, juice, bread, jam, biscuits and cereal the place had to hand…just to get us started.

The only problem with that place was the lack of liquor licence, but Mr Google helped me to find a liquor store just two or three blocks further down Thaymes…I mean Tems…yes, Thames Street. “Werewolves of London” was playing in the store as we walked in and that song became my ear-worm for the rest of our stay in Newport.

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