Summer: Cape May: Saturday 7-27-24 to Monday 7-29-24

Beach Week! The most highly anticipated week of the year. We all arrived on Saturday after a tearful goodbye to the pets. Mom and Dad rode with us. We are in the same house we rented last year, a short walk down a path to the beach. We unpacked and then went to the beach for a bit, and the kids got in the water. Dinner was pasta and sauce that Mom brought with us. Then we walked into town for the first Kohr's of the week. We went into a couple of shops, and Lucia and Greta found the sweatshirts they want to buy. (It's a firm tradition that every year they get a new Cape May sweatshirt.) We set up the puzzle Molly brought and planned our dinners for the week.

Sunday, Molly and I got up at 6am and went to the grocery store to stock up. Then we went on a family run--Mom and Dad walked on the boardwalk while the rest of us ran. I'm up to 28 minutes now, about 2.75 miles. It was very pleasant to be running on the boardwalk in the morning. 

We prepped lunches and bags for the beach and set up camp there for the day. We have five canopies this year--a real compound. It was warm and sunny, and the kids swam and dug in the sand for hours. Greta read two books during the course of the day. Andrew grilled hot dogs and hamburgers for dinner. Our bikes were delivered Sunday morning, so after dinner we set out on a bike ride for town, and Mom and Dad met us there.  The girls bought their sweatshirts and then we went to Kohr's. We watched some of the Olympics to finish off the day. It was a great day that seemed to last for about three days.

Monday, today, was another excellent yet endless day--like the days are double-length here. We got up early to go on the boardwalk--Andrew, Lucia, and Molly ran; Greta and I biked three miles; Mom walked.  It was overcast and seemed to be threatening rain at that point, so we didn't head out for the beach right away. Lucia fell asleep on the couch while the rest of us gathered around the table to engage in this year's BeachKraft--pipe cleaner puppies. Molly and I had both seen this all over Instagram, and Molly procured all the supplies to try making them. It was a steep learning curve, but all of us successfully made one or more puppies, and they are adorable. We've made 16 so far and have the whole week ahead to make more.

Around 11, we finally went to the beach, and stayed there until after 4pm. It was very windy and cloudy, but the kids were in the water nearly the entire time. Near high tide, Andrew and Jeremy motivated them to build a barricade and moat to try to keep the water from breaching our area, and this was all-consuming. When the canopies began blowing away, we decided it was time to head back. Andrew and Jeremy took a first load back to the house, and Molly and I began the work of filling in the moat and knocking down the barricade. This quickly turned into a completely unhinged "sand dance," with a lot of wild footwork and arm motions. It was just--indescribable. We were scream laughing. Dad got some of on video. Then we took off our beach coverups and ran screaming into the ocean. 

But the day still wasn't over! After we showered, Andrew and I went to The Lobster House's takeout shop and picked up fried clams for dinner. Then Andrew, Greta, and I went to the beach to watch the sunset. This proved to be an adventure. We were standing on the rocks, looking down at the water, when Greta and I spotted something flopping around at the shoreline. It was clearly a sea creature in distress. Greta took off running at top speed, and I ran after her. It was a BABY SHARK--no more than ten inches long, flopping in the sand, unable to make it back into the water. I gave Greta one of my flip-flops, and she scooped it closer to the water. It took a bit of time for a big enough wave to come for the shark to swim, but it did, and we watched it hurry away back into the ocean. 

There was still more day! We came back home and all of us played Telestrations and Code Names. 

And that, finally, was the end of Monday.