You wouldn't think 100 miles is so far, but this is a trip four years in the making. Our good friends (who recently visited us in Paris) live in the Bay Area but have a family home on Cape Cod, and we have been invited there ever since the summer of 2008. That year, we were literally just heading out the door to get in the car for the trip when the phone rang. My friend Daniela told me that both her kids were throwing up with fevers, and since it was just days before we would be getting on an airplane to go back to San Francisco, where Gigi was going to celebrate her 5th birthday on her first day of kindergarten at her new school, I decided not to risk getting her sick. So we skipped the trip.
Summer after summer, there has been some reason it didn't work out. One summer, our trips East didn't coincide. Another summer there was again some illness, I believe. I can't even remember all the issues, I only know that summer after summer we talk about visiting them on the Cape, and it never seems to work out. Until this year. Finally!
We are late getting there, due to a host of things like not being able to locate the bathing suits to pack; pit stops along the road; having to detour to my parents house to pick up forgotten items; hitting rush hour traffic jams; etc. But still, we refuse to cancel this year. And we are rewarded right away with this sight, as we arrive:
Though the visit is briefer than we would like, we enjoy every minute of it thoroughly. Great friends, great surroundings. How can we go wrong? We hit the beaches, both bay-side and pond-side, and several local treats, including one coated muffin which is nicknamed the "sugar bomb".
There is kite-flying involved, and much moving around of crabs and small fish.
But perhaps the best nature lesson is helping Bill the neighbor and experienced turtle volunteer check the turtle egg protective enclosures. After several letdowns, the kids are rewarded with a nest of real, live baby turtles.
And we see this guy at the side of a road. He's not a protected class of turtle. He's just a regular slow plodder, but we stand guard over him until somebody goes back and gets Bill's expert advice which is that he'll be just fine and will get himself over to the woods. Even if he's not endangered, we like him, and all the kids suddenly understand why turtlenecks are so-named.
Like this turtle, we are slow getting to our destination. We just hope we don't need to wait another four years till we visit them again on the Cape.
Summer after summer, there has been some reason it didn't work out. One summer, our trips East didn't coincide. Another summer there was again some illness, I believe. I can't even remember all the issues, I only know that summer after summer we talk about visiting them on the Cape, and it never seems to work out. Until this year. Finally!
We are late getting there, due to a host of things like not being able to locate the bathing suits to pack; pit stops along the road; having to detour to my parents house to pick up forgotten items; hitting rush hour traffic jams; etc. But still, we refuse to cancel this year. And we are rewarded right away with this sight, as we arrive:
Though the visit is briefer than we would like, we enjoy every minute of it thoroughly. Great friends, great surroundings. How can we go wrong? We hit the beaches, both bay-side and pond-side, and several local treats, including one coated muffin which is nicknamed the "sugar bomb".
There is kite-flying involved, and much moving around of crabs and small fish.
But perhaps the best nature lesson is helping Bill the neighbor and experienced turtle volunteer check the turtle egg protective enclosures. After several letdowns, the kids are rewarded with a nest of real, live baby turtles.
And we see this guy at the side of a road. He's not a protected class of turtle. He's just a regular slow plodder, but we stand guard over him until somebody goes back and gets Bill's expert advice which is that he'll be just fine and will get himself over to the woods. Even if he's not endangered, we like him, and all the kids suddenly understand why turtlenecks are so-named.
Like this turtle, we are slow getting to our destination. We just hope we don't need to wait another four years till we visit them again on the Cape.
