Sunshine in Cape Cod

Last weekend, three slavs--Sarah, Nila, and Anna Rose--and I went up to Cape Cod for a few nights. Sarah's grandparents have a house there, which is generally only used during the summers, so we loaded up the car, somehow attached 4 bikes to it, and away we went!

The drive is a bit longer than 3 hours from New Haven, up the Connecticut coast, briefly through Rhode Island, into Massachusetts, over a very tall bridge--and then you're in the Cape! Even the areas marked "Densely Settled" are not that dense, and feel rustic and quiet. It was evening when we arrived. The air smelled good, and it was perfectly quiet up the little lane in Harwich where the house was located, pine needles for its backyard.

We feasted like kings, as we are wont to do. For dinner that night, we made yam chips, quinoa with goat cheese, Nila's special tofu, a salad, and a wonderful spinach raita that Nila had made earlier in the day. Yes.

The forecast had called for rain, but the next day dawned clear and bright. One of the neighbors later told us that there were the only two days that it hadn't been raining in months. We ate breakfast in the back yard, then drove to Nausset Beach, where we dozed in the sun and looked for shells.

We walked around the adorable town of Chatham for a bit, bought some books at the Friends of the Library book sale, when into a thrift shop in a church basement, and then went back to Harwich. We ate lunch in the backyard, then rode our bikes to another beach, admired the vast quantities of seaweed there, withstood the wind, and then rode back home.

For dinner that night, we had quinoa pasta, butternut squash sauce, goat cheese, and more salad. Always salad.

The next day--also sunny--we went on a hike behind the house, cutting through the yard next door to get to the trail (the neighbor Nancy was very nice: "Oh, you go to Yale? Bless you." And then, to her dog, who was gnawing on a log, "Oh, no, now don't eat any more wood products."). We ended up at a beautiful pond, crystal clear and cold. Down the shoreline, we could hear kids laughing, and a dog splashing in the water. We walked back home, singing, made lunch, and then rode to the Schoolhouse Ice Cream Parlor, which was delightful. Apparently, in the summer there is a line that curves through the shop and out the door, but that day, we were almost the only ones there.

We drove back to Connecticut through intermittent cloudbursts and sunshine, opening into a lovely sunset as we drew closer to New Haven. It was a lovely weekend, restful and quiet and fun--exactly what I needed.

Tomorrow, Graham and I are going to Puerto Rico for four days! Two beach vacations in a row--I feel very fortunate. And then after that--graduation!