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Tuesday, July 21: Rainy Cape May

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I went for my usual bike ride first thing this morning, and then walked with Greta to the beach so she could take a quick dip pre-geometry. The weather turned unpredictable and rainy after that, so we had to pivot to non-beach plans. We decided it was the perfect day to rent a surrey.  Andrew drove Molly, Jeremy, and I to our bike rental place, where we asked to rent a surrey for four hours. This was not an option. The only option was a one-hour rental. The stoic young guy working the surrey rental area was unmoved by our request to rent it for longer than one hour, dismissing it as impossible because, in the past, anyone who rented a surrey for more than one hour would bring it back early and, disillusioned, demand a refund. The surrey, he told us, was heavy and diffcult to use and would not be fun for longer than one hour, if that. Without a surrey, we called Andrew to pick us up and went back home. By that point we were all starving, so we took a car and several bikes and made o...
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Monday, July 20: Cape May

 A full and active day in Cape May. I went for a bike ride in the morning, from our house to Cove Beach and back. Greta went for a run then settled into some geometry. At 9:30, we got ourselves ready for the beach and set up our canopy complex. It was a beautiful day, and the kids were in the water for hours.  We headed back to the house at 3. Some people went out for a run (Andrew, Lucia, Greta, Molly, Luca), some people (Greta) returned to geometry, some people (Jeremy) rode his bike to a farm stand for corn, some people (me, Mom, Dad) read on the porch. At some point the kids rode their bikes up and down the street. Some people worked on the puzzle. Andrew grilled hot dogs and hamburgers for dinner, which we had with the corn plus a tomato and cucumber salad.   In the evening, we rode bikes into town to go into some shops--it was incredibly crowded--while Mom and Dad stayed at home. Then we all regrouped for a few rounds of No Thanks and Code Names. It was a full ...
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Sunday, July 19: Cape May

The 11th annual Orlando Family Beach Week begins! It's our 8th year in Cape May. We arrived Saturday afternoon and got settled into The Blue House, the same house we stayed in last year. It was pouring rain for much of the evening, which was fine because we hadn't planned to go out. Molly had brought cauliflower and carrot pasta for dinner, and then we played Code Names.  Today (Sunday), Molly and I went to the grocery store at 6:30am, our usual beach routine, to shop for the week. We spent a little time in the morning on the porch, learning some new tidbits of family history from Mom and Googling random people from childhood summers long past. Greta worked on geometry in one of the bedrooms, trying to get a little bit ahead with her work.  We set up at the beach around 11, spent a few hours swimming/wading/reading/playing paddle ball, then came home to watch the World Cup final. This was almost certainly the first time our entire family has gathered to watch a sporting event ...
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Friday, July 10: Last Day in NH

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Last day in NH. Greta spent part of the morning taking a geometry test. Andrew and Lucia did some practice driving, and I worked. Once we were all at a stopping point, we took a final trip to Books-A-Million and TJ Maxx, and then had a very eclectic lunch of foods we're trying to finish up. It was a beautiful day, and after lunch the girls spent a long time playing in the pond one last time, screaming and jumping off the floating dock again and again. I sat pondside, reading, taking in the freedom of it. Sadly, they eventually pulled all the floats out of the pond. Greta and I got into one of the boats so she could give me a tour of the pond, steering us around with one oar and narrating what we were seeing; and then that float, too, left the water. The girls and Andrew went for a run, and then we continued our leaving preparations. Andrew took down the pond rope; we deflated everything; we took down the swing and hammocks and put all the lawn furniture in the barn; we did laundry;...
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Thursday, July 9: NH: Ascutney

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Last night, the entire house was plagued by small flying insects that covered the walls wherever there was a light source, mostly upstairs. Hallway, bathroom, bedrooms. Swarming, sticking to things, sticking to us. They were on our pillows, on our sheets. It was truly awful. They weren't as big as flies but were bigger than gnats; they were not mosquitos. Greta was absolutely losing her mind. Who could blame her?  By morning, they were gone. And tonight, as I write this upstairs, there are no signs of them yet. But it's just this sort of country-life invasion that means it might be time for us to go. We had a fun day today doing a few last things. We hiked to the top of Mount Ascutney as we do every year, and took pictures from the firetower. The girls bought Vermont State Park t-shirts on the way out of the park. We had ice cream at Frazer's and then headed home. It was very hot this afternoon and the girls got some good pond time in. I did a quick float on the boat. Andre...
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Wednesday, July 8: NH: Bogs & Games

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We are determined to fit as much as possible into these last few days. Today, Greta worked on geometry while Andrew and I worked. The girls spent some time in the pond, at one point screaming so intensely I could hear them upstairs from my bedroom where I was working and had to go down to the pond to make sure they were alright (they were). It was just the usual shenanigans with the floats, two of which they named "Duck-a-lu-lu" and "Cheetah-lar-lar."  In the afternoon, Andrew and the girls navigated the meadow to reach the far back area of the property, a place Andrew calls the "back forty." They brought their metal detectors and found a few metal vessels. I, who did not traverse the meadow, found a tick on my stomach. We found some time for hammock reading in the late afternoon, Lucia had an online tutoring session, and then the girls and Andrew went for a run. When they got back, we journeyed through another field to a very pretty part of the woods, pas...
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Tuesday, July 7: NH: Winding Down

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It's awful, but we're winding down our stay. How did it go so fast? We have just three more days until departure day, and there is so much we still want to do. Today Andrew and I had to work; Greta did geometry; Lucia read and studied for the SAT. It rained a lot for much of the day, and late in the afternoon, when it stopped, Greta and I took Farrah for a walk and saw two red efts. We all played Rummikub. Lucia and Andrew went for a run. Andrew took a quick dip in the pond. We finally got maple creamees from Frazer's, which had been closed all of last week. The girls got dinner there too. While we ate, we planned out the next three days, making sure we get all of our favorite things in. Back home, we played Scrabble.  Usually, by the end of our two-week stay we are all ready to leave. There have been years when the physical discomfort of no AC, a tiny, hard-to-use shower, insects, and just general roughing-it have made us ready to go home midway through that second week. T...
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