Escape to Cape Cod
There are few certainties in life, and even less this bizarre year. For us one of those certainties for the last few years so that we spend the whole year looking forward to spending time with some of our closest friends in Cape Cod. We join them in August, the children spend days with their besties, and the adults try their best to relax, laugh and drink what can objectively be defined as too much alcohol. This year would be no different.
Well, some things were different. We left Big Dan at my parents house. COVID had us spending more time at the beach, in the yard, and doing things that didn’t involve being indoors or in close proximity to other people. The kids just adore this really special beach, the tide dictating what type of beach experience we will have. At high tide there is about 10 feet of beach, and the rocky bits are at the shoreline, so this is the time for digging and playing in the sand. But at low tide you can walk out for at least 100 yards - flat smooth sand rippled from the movement of the tide. Here they can search for critters in the tidepools and splash in the brisk bay water.
When the tide is high and the beach activities are limited we look for other things to do. Meghan suggested a restaurant that had some outdoor seating, and this was our first dining-in experience since the pandemic hit. The restaurant was only allowed to sit 6 at a table, so the kids had to sit at their own table, on the “porch” and the grownups were down on the patio. I admittedly delighted in watching hungry patron arrive to this bizarre scene of 4 kids sitting solo, searching for their grownups. They had so much fun acting like adults - ordering their own food (and too much of it), and root beer, and they were shockingly well behaved (I may have put the fear of God in them).
We also celebrated a couple of birthdays, including Aaron’s. We ended our trip with a strange morning - a fog had settled over the beach and took hours to burn off - creating this mystical feeling. Although not enough cover for the critters being hunted by our children.
