Skipping Town

Greta and I got up very early Saturday morning and made a quick visit to Sunset Beach before the packing up began. The tide was in, so we didn't have much luck sifting for Cape May diamonds, but we did find a handful of polished pebbles, almost as good.  Then it was time to pack up the house and car, and get on the road, sadly. Our 11th annual Beach Week, our 8th in Cape May, has come to an end.  We were very happy to get home to the pets. We missed them. Today, Sunday, was a settling-back-in day. Groceries, farmer's market, menu planning, laundry. Greta hung out with friends for most of the day to celebrate a birthday. Lucia did some SAT studying and put up acrylic shelving in her room to showcase her expansive collection of Unicornos. I chatted with Beth at the pool for an hour.  And now we're facing a week of just mind-numbing busyness. The schedule we're juggling is just unsustainable--figuring out who's driving who where, and who's picking them up and when,...

It was our last day in Cape May. I got up early for a bike ride to Cove Beach, and then walked on the beach for a bit before biking back home. I spent time on the porch punch-needling and drinking coffee until finally gearing up for the beach. It was another beautiful day, and we stayed on the beach until 3:30. Lots of swimming and Spike Ball and reading. Greta had a long morning of geometry but took a break at lunchtime so she could have some beach time.  We'd planned on going out for dinner but changed our minds and just ordered some food from Mermaids Restaurant and Quincy's so we could fit more into our evening. After we ate, we went to the beach and got a couple of friendly strangers to take our family photo.  We had to return the golf cart tonight, so we made our way into town in a variety of vehicles, a logistical puzzle worthy of a McKinsey interview: Jeremy drove the golf cart with all three kids and one bike balanced on the back; I drove the Volvo with Molly, Mom, an...

My favorite day of our beach week is always Tuesday, when the whole week still stretches ahead. Thursday is the end, really. I am not ready for our time in Cape May to be over. We made the absolute most of the day. I didn't go bike riding in the morning, instead choosing to sit on the porch with Molly to punch-needle at 6:30am. Molly and Mom have achieved near-mastery; I'm making my way, improving my technique. (No one else is interested in this BeachKraft, to their detriment.) We'd decided to spend today at Cove Beach. Around 9:30am, Jeremy drove me, Andrew, and Molly down to the beach with all of our canopies and chairs to get set up. He and Molly then ran home, while I "stayed with the stuff" (ie, got settled with my book) and Andrew went for a run. Everyone else joined via golf cart around 11, even Greta, who was able to finish her geometry and rode her bike down. It was a beautiful beach day. Cove Beach is my favorite. I finally took a nice swim and managed t...

Wednesday morning found me taking Lucia to urgent care because of a possible case of strep. She tested negative, but the little white spots on the back of her throat flummoxed the PA who was treating her, so we'll be following up with her doctor back home. She has no fever and feels fine aside from a somewhat sore throat, so who knows. We had one other errand this morning: picking up the golf cart we've rented for the rest of the week. Another new way to get around Cape May this year.  It was a beautiful day, so we spent lots of time at the beach, though the waves were very very high and rough. Everyone is still obessed with Spike Ball, which was a focus for the day. Andrew went back to the house at luchtime to make sandwiches for everyone and brought them back to the beach. At some point in the morning Greta worked on geometry, and she was able to come out to the beach with everyone else.  Lucia left the beach a little early so she could ride her bike around the neighborhood,...

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...

 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 ...

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 ...

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;...

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...

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...

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...

Andrew and I both had to work today, so the pace of our NH day was a little different. Greta did geometry. Lucia read a lot. She and Andrew went for a long run in the late afternoon; Greta did a shorter run. Then we all went to our cousins' house for a swim and dinner. Back home, we played Scrabble while watching the US/Belgium World Cup match.  What We're Reading: Andrew: finished My First New York; dove back into the volume of Proust he's been working on for multiple summers Margo: The Book Thief Lucia: An Arcane Study of Stars by Sidney J. Shields Greta: The One that Got Away with Murder by Trish Lundy

It was a fully packed NH Sunday. In the morning, we all drove to West Lebanon for some shopping. We passed through Plainfield en route and were excited to see that the rummage sales we'd gone to yesterday had become EVERYTHING IS FREE sales. Of course we pulled over. Andrew picked up a bushel basket, and we found a plastic bench that, once cleaned up, will be perfect for sitting by the pond. I also chose a swan-shaped vessel (pen holder?) that I'd eyed yesterday but hadn't purchased.  Then we went to Books-a-Million (books for Greta), Newbury Comics (Tokidoki blind boxes for both girls), TJ Maxx (clothes for the kids, kitchen stuff for me and Andrew), and Walmart (random uninteresting things like cleaning spray and hairbands). Andrew made us all egg sandwiches for lunch, and then the kids headed for the pond. I read pondside. Then we all read in our hammocks for an hour and a half, until Lucia herded us inside for a game of Scrabble. She has become immediately obsessed with...

We've been coming to NH for the Fourth of July for over twenty years. The girls have never not been here for the Fourth. It is always the same, and the sameness is what we love.  Andrew made pancakes in the morning, and then we headed into Plainfield for the Fourth of July festivities, starting with the rummage sales. For many years there was just one, inside one of the buildings; last year another, outdoor one was added across the street. We made some quirky and maybe questionable purchases, including a house address sign (Greta), a purse (Lucia), a large quantity of buttons (me), an old Dartmouth bleacher seat (me), two small glass Anchor Hocking bowls (me), a box of watch faces (the girls), and an antique dresser (Andrew). Refinishing the dresser will be a NH project for Andrew. We will likely never be able to bring it home. Then we watched the parade, and were given bottles of chocolate milk by the local dairy. We had lunch at the firemen's bbq. We listened as former Suprem...

It was another brutally hot day. We're all feeling it. There was hammock reading, pond swimming, pond floating, geometry, inside reading. Andrew and the kids went on a sweltering run in the late afternoon while I went into town to pick up pizzas for dinner and some groceries. The grocery store parking lot felt like the surface of the sun. We are all ready for this heat wave to end. But tonight we had fun going to see the fireworks in Claremont, where we've gone for the past few years. Many years? It's hard to keep count. It's always a good show. The kids adorned themselves with glowsticks as they've been doing on fireworks night since they were toddlers. 

Today was river rafting day--one of our favorite days of the summer. We headed to Great River Outfitters after lunch, and after the usual safety presentation and distribution of life jackets, we were taken to the put-in area and our float down the river began. It was in the nineties today, absolutely sweltering, so it was the perfect day to just spend on and in the water. We made our first stop very quickly so we could all take a swim before getting the journey underway. As we always do, we stopped at our favorite rocky outcropping for a long spell of swimming, floating in the current, lying in the shallow water, and searching for rocks and riverglass. It was delightful. We scattered around the rocky area, enjoying the complete silence and isolation. Not another soul was in sight. What a beautiful place. We continued on, making one more stop by Hart Island for another dip in the water, and then continued on to the takout point. Along the way, over to our left, was a floating object tha...

It was just the kind of day we like up here: a day at home, not leaving the house once. Greta, of course, worked on geometry in the morning and Andrew did a bit of work while Lucia and I read in our hammocks. Late morning brought a long spell of pond time, and it was so hot out I even got in to float in my inflatable boat. It was exceptionally relaxing. The kids jumped off the dock and sprayed each other with water guns.  After lunch, Greta finished her geometry and Lucia did some SAT studying while Andrew and I read in our hammocks. Then the girls came out and we all read in our hammocks. There is nothing better than that, all four of us reading quietly in the woods. Just the best. Then the two new inflatable boats I ordered arrived, and we blew them up and went back to the pond. I once again floated around. Andrew got in for a swim too.  We ate dinner outside, and made s'mores at the fire pit. Then we watched the US/Bosnia World Cup game on Andrew's iPad (no TV up here, of c...

It was another delightful day in NH. Greta worked on geometry, and we went to the library in Plainfield because she needed to print out a worksheet. Andrew had a full workday, sadly, but he has the rest of the week off. Lucia and I spent most of the day reading in our hammocks. After geometry, Greta and Lucia swam in the pond. Andrew, Lucia, and Greta went for a run in the late afternoon. By the time they got back, it was raining, so we decided to run some errands so we could fully enjoy a nicer day tomorrow without having to leave the house. We made our first visit to Books-A-Million, the girls creating huge stacks of books from which they then made their selections; and I bought a book for myself, since I've already read two of the four books I brought with me. I bought hay for Nutmeg at the exotic pet store, and Andrew picked up a birthday gift for Farrah at TJ Maxx. We bought random things at Walmart.  We had dinner at the Weathervane, causing a small domestic scene as each of ...

We're in NH! We drove up yesterday, a daylong drive, but we arrived by 5:30pm and had time to clean the house, unpack, inflate all the pond things, and hang the swing. We also made a late-night run to the grocery store when we realized we hadn't packed lettuce for Nutmeg. (Yes, she's here too.) The kids got into the pond as soon as their swimsuits were unpacked, venturing across the pond to pull the floating dock out of the cattails, the part of the pond they call "no man's land." The snapping turtle made his first appearance, rising up once again from the deep. Today had a rocky start--the wifi Andrew had been assured was on was not working, and the calls and emails he'd sent last night still hadn't gotten a response. But by late morning it was in working order.  Greta spent some of the day on geometry, her online class; and Andrew had to work. But Lucia and I spent most of today in our hammocks, reading. I read an entire book. Lucia finished the one ...

Playing catch-up with life in general. A lot has happened this month. Andrew's Birthday Andrew turned 50 this month, and we celebrated the milestone in multiple ways. Half a century! It deserves all the celebrations. His sister/family and aunt and uncle came for the birthday weekend, and we went out to dinner and to a Pirates game. His aunt joined me and Greta at the Mexican War Streets community yard sale (Lucia missed it because of an SAT practice test). It was so nice having everyone here, especially since the kitchen was (mostly) ready for unveiling.  Among other things, I made Andrew a book called "50 Years / 50 Things We Love," featuring, yes, fifty things the girls and I love about Andrew. The girls each designed a few pages and I did the rest. It was fun to put together even though there are, of course, many more than 50 we could have included.  We also got to celebrate with a few friends that weekend, once again at our house, the kitchen easily handling the crowd...