I have been friends with Sara since 1997. Ever since then I have been dropping hints that I would love to go with her someday on her annual trip back East to visit her mom in Cape Cod. It only took 17 years of friendship but I finally made it. And boy, was it worth the wait.
I think it made it to my top 5 favorite places in the world. Absolutely gorgeous. And to be able to spend 4 days with one of my very best friends and her awesome family was just the icing on the cake.
It's a five hour drive to her mother's house from the city so we decided to break it up in Providence, Rhode Island where we stayed in a hotel on Thursday night. In the morning we drove around town and checked out Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and Brown University. We told Ella we'd love for her to go to Brown but I think she has her sights set on RISD.
We arrived midday on Friday to Eastham, Massachusetts where Sara's mother Norma (aka Mac) lives. When she retired she moved full time into the cabin where Sara grew up spending her summers. She has since added on a great room so we had plenty of space for our family of four added to Sara's family of four (Leo, 9 and Dexter, 6). We wasted no time getting to the beach.
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| Ella made a friend, Ada |
When you have the urge to take a swim while at Cape Cod, you have three choices: the ocean side, the bay side or what they call "ponds" which are really lakes apparently made from glaciers. We hit all three, each day. Can you see Kevin's wedding band behind us? No? Neither can we. It now lives in the ocean off Cape Cod.
On Saturday we rented bicycles and toured around miles of bike trails, out to the ocean, up to lighthouses, through wooded areas. All of it was breathtaking and so fun to whiz by on bikes.
No summer weekend at the beach would be complete without a round of miniature golf and ice cream cones.
After a nap and some World Cup soccer watching Mac generously babysat the four little ones while the four big ones went out on the town to celebrate Sara and Doug's 12th wedding anniversary.
Kevin and I were at their beautiful wedding in Berkeley. We started by watching the longest day of the year come to an end on the beach at sunset. And then we hit the town and ordered fried clams and pale ale like any good local.
After mountains of pancakes for breakfast on Sunday we were led on an amazing hike around an estuary and back along a coastal beach. The kids found crabs and crickets and slid down sand dunes.
We were shown the adorable little town of Wellfleet and its harbor and yes, got more ice creams. Next time we're staying at the Holden Inn.
We were all so, so sad to leave on Monday morning. Not only did we have such a fun weekend with our friends and an amazing time visiting Cape Cod, but we had to get our minds out of summer vacation mode and back into end-of-school mode with two and a half days left this week. We drove straight through the five hours back to the city this time but did make a pit stop for lunch in the town of Mystic, Connecticut. It is a beautiful town along the Mystic River and most famous for Julia Roberts' break out movie, Mystic Pizza. We couldn't resist getting a slice.
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| The frown is because Ella wanted raw oysters instead of pizza for lunch. No joke. |
Back to reality.
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