After a grueling day of traveling (5 hour unexpected layover due to bad weather in Boston, extending our trip from 4 ½ to 10 hours; getting in after midnight with a very tired child into a crazy busy city; a quick puke before she went to bed – yeah THAT kind of travel) we made it.
We are happily ensconced in our getaway Boat House rental. It IS a renovated Boat House right next to a pier that leads picturesquely out into a pond. Sailboats and Boston whalers floating out upon waters tranquil except for the jumping fish and the swan couple that share the waters. It is magical, lovely, quaint … and damp! A minor thing (except when you want dry towels or swimsuits) and we are adaptable people.
We settled quickly into our vacation routine. Dinner on the screened-in porch, listening to the birds and the wind and the water; early bedtime as we are all in one room - Cowgirl stubbornly resisting sleep even though she has been going nonstop all day. She has a bit of a cold, but that hasn’t slowed her down, except to blow her nose. The hubby and I read in bed and how luxurious to have read a book in 2 days! (Alice Hoffman’s The Third Angel – beautifully written and totally engaging.) Morning comes early with the sun screaming in the sliding glass door. We fold up the bed and Cowgirl begins her glut of television shows: Mickey Mouse, Oso, anything PBS and her favorite, Sponge Bob Square pants. A month’s worth of t.v. watching packed into each day. Yeah, we are on vacation.
After a leisurely morning’s breakfast we head out for some exploring, biding our time until Beach time. We brave our way through masses of bodies to find our spot on the sand where we dump our booty of collected beach toys from summers past into a heap for Cowgirl to play. And play we do and then rest until it is time to stagger back to the car and home to clean up and contemplate dinner.
Our first night we ran out to a Chinese restaurant and the way the staff were fawning all over Cowgirl, you would have thought they never see Chinese children here. Each person trying to talk to her in Mandarin, and she parroting what little I’ve learned in 3 semesters of Saturday morning Chinese classes. I have to laugh when she proudly counts to ten and they look so amazed, thinking she remembers her native tongue (she probably knew Cantonese), never suspecting this freckled woman is her tutor!
After dinner we hit the first of many wonderful ice cream establishments here on the Cape. After the Chinese restaurant experience, we were surprised to see another family of 3 daughters adopted from China and an Asian family. So much for Cowgirl’s unique status.
And so each day merges into the next. To post this, I have to climb the many steps from the Boat house to the main house and sit on a top step for reception. Oh the trials of vacation!
Wish you – and you, and you – were here!
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