Cape Randoms

Here was Sam on his last first day of camp at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History. 😭 

This camp has been a part of his life since preschool. It's a good one, and I'll miss it. After this summer he's aged out. Although he can come back next year as a junior volunteer, which I hope to convince him to do! 🤞

At the Inflatable Park, though you'd never know it from the background. They continued to work on renovations this summer.

I've been wanting to get a headboard for the upstairs queen bed at the Cape house for awhile. I found a good one at the consignment store and was going to get it, but when I returned the next day to do so, it had been sold! I should have moved faster on it!

Alfresco lunch

Summer on the Cape wouldn't be complete without a dinner at Lobster Boat! I like their lobster roll. I mean, lobstah roll.

Here's Sam at the playground at the lake beach we like to go to. He and John have played on this playground over the years for over a decade.

In fact, I was very pregnant with Sam when we took John here to play thirteen years ago. Look at him now!

Getting gas at a pretty gas station near the house. It's true, gas stations can be pretty when they want to be!

Some shells and flowers I collected that week. Sam gave me the little bunch of flowers. 💜 

The walk to/from the beach

Walking on trails behind the Museum of Natural History that lead out to the sea.

It was another good summer on the Cape of two separate weeks, the first being the first week of July for the 4th and the second being the first week of August for my birthday. It was our 18th summer in a row going to the Cape, and in spite of my belief that the world is probably going to fall apart 😕, I hope there will be many more to follow! 💙 

Beach Blessings

My second favorite beach at which to end a day on the Cape is Bayview Beach in Hyannis, which is a short drive down backroads from the house. 

Sam ventured out into the water in his clothes as Sam is wont to do. 

John preferred to stay on shore but he used to go into the water fully clothed too.

Can you see the two threats being made in this picture? 😆

I'm so glad that we made time to go to our favorite lake beach on the Cape. We hadn't been there in awhile. Before we bought the house, this was our favorite neighborhood to rent in. The water is nice and clean and warm, and the boys like to swim across the lake and back. Also, whenever I end up getting a stand-up paddleboard, this is the place that I'll probably come to use it the most!  

I went on my favorite nature walk to the beach and took a different path through the woods on Wing Island behind the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History than I usually do and it brought me to this staircase that I don't think I'd used since the boys were a lot younger! (That was a really long sentence, sorry!) It was good to see it again! And it was good to see the sea in not-too-distant, uh, distance too! 😁

That soft white sand feels so good on bare feet. I can practically feel it now!

Looking back towards Wing Island.

Me and my friend the sea. 

It was low tide so it was pretty far out.

Saving the best for last, my favorite beach of all, "our beach," the pretty little one down the street. I love it there, and one of my favorite things to do is to walk down to it at the end of the day. 

My seat by the sea. But only when the tide is low. 😄

I'm truly blessed by beaches that are special to me and by the beauty of nature in my life. 💙

FlowRiding Fun

 One of our perennial favorites for many years, the Cape Cod Inflatable Park acquired a FlowRider this summer which the boys were looking forward to using. They'd done FlowRiding before at indoor waterparks and on one of our cruises, and they even took lessons at one of the parks they went to, so they're pretty experienced at FlowRiding. I took them on a damp afternoon in August when the park wasn't crowded and the line for the FlowRider wasn't long. They had fun, and I enjoyed watching them have fun. {I have very little interest in trying this for myself!}

Sam had become much better at this since the last time I saw him try it years ago.

John was able to get up and maintain a kneeling position with no hands! They weren't allowed to stand up and actually "surf" (I'm fine with that rule!).

The lifeguard was kind of nice to look at too. 😉

And here was Sam again. On this attempt he made it up to his knees for awhile! It was awesome!

No hands for Sam, too!

It was a fun way for the boys to get wet and have fun on what was already a wet summer afternoon!

Low Tide is My Favorite Tide

 I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again: one of my favorite things to do on the Cape in the summer is to walk on the tidal flats at low tide. I love walking on the ocean floor when the ocean is drawn back from the shore. It's the coolest! There are all sorts of interesting things that get uncovered that are fun to see, and it's great exercise too. The wet sand feels so good on my feet. My summer wouldn't be complete without at least one good walk out on the flats!

All of these pictures are brought to you from the ocean floor with my starting point being Saint's Landing Beach in Brewster. That's my favorite place from which to walk out on the flats. 

I took this picture when I was way out from shore. That's the shoreline in the distance. Do you see my footprints in the sand? The other set is my not-so-imaginary friend's. They're my mom's. 😄

Looks nice and feels nice! 😍

Do you see the stand-up paddleboarder in the distance? If I'm ever brave enough to SUP on the ocean, I'll do it like this at low tide when it feels much safer and less risky!

This is the view from the comfort of my beach chair on the shore. I'm sure there are people who aren't aware of how the tides work on this part of the Cape who come to the beach unknowingly at low tide and are like, "Where the heck did the water go?? THIS is what Cape Cod beaches are like?" 😆

This was another day where I took a nice hour-long walk west on the flats. I hadn't slept well the night before and was tired, but doing this was energizing for me.

 Low tide is feast time for the seagulls. I like seeing their footprints on the sea floor. It feels so contrary!

I thought a low tide profile shot was in order. So I took one. 😁

Those smooth firm ripples feel good on bare feet! It's cool how they mimic the waves of the sea that are above them most of the time.

Horseshoe crab. Dead.

In some spots the sand is a pretty pinkish-purple. I like the contrast it makes with the green seaweed.

The oyster cages get uncovered at low tide and they're cool to see.

Another day, I walked east from Saint's Landing instead of west to see how far I could get. There was more in the way (big bunches of sea grass, big rocks, etc.) and the sea floor was rockier and harder to walk on so I didn't get as far. I'll try again next summer by walking farther from shore where the sea floor should be smoother.

The dunes (or are they bluffs?) are so pretty.

I didn't even try walking on this. Ouch! Next time I'll either wear water shoes or I'll walk farther out from shore like I previously mentioned.

I like taking pictures of boats at low tide. I like the juxtaposition of how they're on dry (or at least wet) land instead of water, even though they're anchored out on the ocean (supposedly). 

I'd love to have either of these houses! 😍 

It's still my dream to have a house overlooking the ocean, and will probably remain just that, because with the upcoming divorce it has become much more unattainable for me now. Womp, womp. 

{But someday, in some way, I will achieve all of my dreams!}

Back in my chair on the shore.

(Note the source of this quote. How oddly apropos!)

I love low tide and walking out on the flats, and it will always be one of my favorite things to do in the summer!