The Beach

Ah yes. We were on vacation last week, in a little rented house on Cape Cod, walking distance to the bay, 10 minutes to the ocean. Bliss.

We went to the bay, at low tide, sunset, high tide, high noon. At low tide, you can walk out forever and dig up all sorts of critters. At high tide, there was no beach and the steps down the cliff ended in three feet of water.

We went to and in the ocean every day but one.

We even saw a shark! But it was a basking shark, a harmless toothless filter feeder, not one of the great whites that's been out and about.

The day we didn't go to the ocean, we went sea kayaking. One of our boats capsized and one of our iPhones drowned. (If you're wondering, it was neither my boat, nor my phone.)

We played mini-golf three days in a row. Most of the time, we played the right way, and we didn't cry.

On occasion, we played the alternate way, to make the girl laugh. (She'd never played mini-golf before, and it took her a round of frustration and the afore-mentioned tears before she got the hang of it.)

We built a lot of sand castles.

But none of ours were as amazing as this temple.

We ate a goodly amount of ice cream and donuts and fish, because that's what you do on a beach vacation.

We stopped to take pictures in a cemetery, because the yellow lichen was so very lovely. We don't know who Louise was, but she had a really nice headstone.

When we were tired of building sand castles, we buried our child up to her neck. She helped, until her arms were no longer of use.

We did as much boogie boarding as we could, and the one of us who had a broken arm didn't let that stop her. Yes, the waterproof cast really was waterproof.

Everything was wonderful, except that two of us came home with the turistas - not what you expect from a beach vacation that wasn't in Mexico. Either we had some bad oysters (August not being a month with an R) or the water really was bad that day they kicked everyone out of the ocean.

Everything was fabulous, except that we hadn't gone on that kind of rent-a-house-for-a-week vacation in a long time, and so forgot all sorts of really important things - like flip-flops for the girl, and a hat for me, and a pepper grinder (because rental houses always only have pre-ground pepper from 1976). And bug spray, and Tylenol, and a hat for the girl. We did bring a rolling pin (which remained unused) and about 20 knives (most of which, ditto).

Everything was lovely, because - hello? Cape Cod in August? Perfection.

Here's hoping you had a lovely summer vacation.