Cape Cod Part I

As we reached the end of June, the family vacation that we had planned for close to six months was finally at hand. For a full week, the four of us would be together without the distractions of our day to day lives and hanging out in Brewster, Massachusetts on Cape Cod. Needless to say we were excited. Of course, for anyone who knows us, patience has become a necessary part of our existence when we travel. Because before we could enjoy the Cape, we had to get there.

The picture below was taken at Newark airport, just after we found out that our flight from Newark to Providence had been cancelled. We tried to get a later flight, but the "best" option involved two more flights and a midnight arrival. No thank you. Of course, who knows if our final choice was wonderful, but it worked. At 3:15pm on a Friday afternoon, we left Newark in a rental car determined to drive to Providence.

Callie and Reese have displayed tremendous resilience during such adventures, and this time was no different. We certainly would like to complain about a couple of whiny moments in the car, but who could blame them when it took us nine hours to finally reach our hotel in Hyannis after enduring traffic in New York City, traffic in Connecticut, a brief stop for dinner with Nana Banana, a quick rental car agreement exchange at Providence airport, and the final push to Hyannis. It is also important to note that we started our trip that morning from Lexington at 8am. Honestly, they are good troopers. Of course, what really saved the experience the next morning was that our hotel had a pool.

Saturday morning, after breakfast and some time in the pool, we made our north to our cottage in Brewster. We were delighted to see that it looked even cuter in person than it had in the pictures online. And the location, as we would find out over the week, was perfect. However, Callie squealed in delight when she looked in the backyard and saw two swings.

The swings became an important part of our morning routine. We would get up, grab some cereal, and head out to the deck. And after one or two bites, the girls would head over to the swings. For the next 30-45 minutes they would alternate bites of breakfast with some good swing time. We had no idea that the swings were a part of the deal, so it was a great surprise.

Another surprise was the fact that the cottage had an outdoor shower. And due to overall great weather, John was probably the only one who ever had to take a shower inside the entire week. There was a sign on the inside of the outdoor shower door that said, "Relax, it doesn't get any better than this." Truer words have never been spoken.

But the real star of the show was the beach, which was a mere five minute walk from the house. We learned this only hours after we arrived. It was important to us to get as much ocean time in as possible, so right after we settled in we headed down to the beach. Callie was definitely prepared.

In the above picture she is standing at the head of the short trail at the end of our road that led to the beach. She never had any problems walking to the beach or back. Her legs never were "too tired" as has happened from time to time when we are out and about. This was one of our many clues that Callie enjoyed every minute we spent at the ocean.

Reese was just as prepared as her sister to hit the beach. What was very interesting, however, was our discovery of Reese' kryptonite. Reese tends to jump first and ask questions later. But the beach threw her for a loop because of the feeling of sand on her feet. Apparently she is a bit picky about textures and her toes. Who knew? She gradually got used to it, but it took a little while.

Our beach was on the bay side of the Cape, which means that there is a big difference between low tide and high tide. At high tide our beach had about ten feet of sand. However, at low tide, you could walk out for more than a mile (literally) and still have the water lap around your ankles. The flats at low tide are a lot of fun, as the girls quickly found out.

As we mentioned earlier, Reese did get over her dislike of the feeling of sand on her feet. She loved running around in the shallow water and then throwing herself down face first. Callie had fun building mini-pools for the two of them to play in. And we all enjoyed looking for hermit crabs and other sea-life. All in all, we spent a lot of our week trying to squeeze in as many beach trips as possible. And we were successful.

We even managed to work in a sunset trip to the beach, which was a feat since the sun didn't set until 8:30. But hey, it was vacation! And while it took the adult members of the family a few days to truly get in the groove of vacation mode, we hit our stride as a family and had a great time.

Of course, if you think this is the end of our vacation, then think again. We had over two hundred pictures to choose from for our blog, and while the above eight are good, they don't tell the whole story.