A few weeks ago as Rob and I were driving somewhere he said, "You know what it feels like we should be doing right now? Going to the Cape for the weekend, because this is about the time we go down and open up the beach house each year." The thought hadn't even crossed my mind at that moment, but the more I thought about it the more I missed what we would normally have been doing; what we had been doing for years. Opening up the house and putting the outdoor furniture out on the deck, walking across the street to the beach to check out how many rocks had moved in or out of our section of the beach, buying some delicious food and drink at the DPM and firing up the grill, spending an afternoon on the beach even though the water was way too cold to swim in, and looking forward to a summer of weekends on 91 Shore Drive.
To give you some perspective, I have spent every summer since 1998 at 91 Shore Drive in Cape Cod, MA. Before 1998, my family vacationed there for 2 weeks out of the summer. The house is on the market now, so really it could sell at any time and not be 'my beach house' anymore, but until that happens it is very strange to me that it is sitting up there across the street from the beach and I am not there enjoying it. I do enjoy my new pool, and I'm sure I'll be spending many weekends poolside, but coming to the realization that this pool is my new beach is bittersweet.
Driving up to my parents house in South Carolina last weekend, I happened to stumble across something that just screams Cape Cod: CHRISTMAS TREE SHOP! Everyone who lives up North or who has vacationed on the Cape knows how surprised and excited I must have been to find this store in Augusta, Georgia! I wasn't looking for it; I actually got off at the exit to find the Chick-fil-a to stop at for lunch. I never found the chick-fil-a, but when I saw the sign for the Christmas Tree Shop I knew my 3 mile excursion from the highway had been worth it after all.
There was one thing I made Rob promise me before we made the move from Boston to Atlanta. I asked him to promise me that even though we were moving south, that we would bring our kids up to the the Cape sometime for a vacation (or two or three). He said, "Yes, of course."
Cape Cod, May 2010
I completely understand being nostalgic for old routines and confused by their lack of existence. We're such creatures of habit, it's really strange to make the change. For example, growing up it was always warm enough to spend my birthday at the beach. The year I spent my birthday at Fenway in a scarf, confused and frankly upset me. Now in Austin, it's plenty warm by my birthday each year, but being landlocked still makes that beach thing challenging. However, I digress. I hope that you'll find yourself embracing the new seasons of the South, especially laying out for a tan on Easter weekend, a personal fav of mine.
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