Cape Cod Journal 2007, Part 3

Part 3

6/12/07 Tuesday

Cloudy with showers, but the breaks between showers are exceedingly well timed. In the morning we head north for Skaket and Nauset beaches wearing our swim suits—convinced that our luck from yesterday will hold and that the sun will burn off the clouds, but this isn’t quite what happens. As we drive it begins to rain and the clouds look disconcertingly thick and dark. When we arrive at Skaket the rain does stop, but that’s the extent of our good fortune weather-wise. It’s quite cold and there is a scouring wind – but somehow Skaket is still fun. We keep our suits on but bundle up in sweatshirts and windbreakers, ready to join the one or two lonely figures on the beach. We know from past experience that low tide is a particularly fun time to come here, since the beach becomes an immense tidal flat and you can wade far into the shallow water to arrive at various sandbar “islands.” So this is what we do, and the wind and chill prove invigorating, provoking much running and yelling as we feel ourselves blown about like kites (in fact, we pretend to be kites). We carry our pails and shovels, and set up our water wheel in various strategic locations, burying its base in the mud to keep it from blowing over. It spins furiously from the force of the wind alone, before we even pour water into it. And when we do try to pour our water, only about half makes it in, with the rest taken by the wind.

After about 45 minutes of this sort of bracing play, we return to the van feeling like we’ve been on an adventure – and very ready to get out of the wind and into some warm, dry, long pants.

~

There’s no point in trying Nauset, which would be even harsher, so we drive north to Wellfleet for a run to Herridge’s Bookstore that does not disappoint. The management has changed again since last time – back, apparently, to the “original” fellow from our first visit, after a two-year sublease. The dog is gone, but the book selection is still pleasing. Suzanne restricts herself with remarkable discipline (some might call it foolishness) to Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood. I take a chance on a book and writer I haven’t heard of—The Last Days of Dogtown, by Anita Diamant. I know “Dogtown” from Charles Olson’s poetry, and from the day trips to Gloucester we used to like to make when we lived near Boston (though we never actually got to Dogtown itself)—so the gamble seems reasonable. I also get Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch (which is supposed to be a comically obsessive account of soccer fandom); Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle; William Godwin’s Caleb Williams; and Edmund Wilson’s The Shores of Light: A Literary Chronicle of the Twenties and Thirties.

We also stop at the farm stand and a gift shop we like in Wellfleet, and then press on to Provincetown (located, as we explain to Nicholas, on the “hand” attached to “bare and bended arm” of the Cape). Bearing a couple of restaurant recommendations we got from the woman at the bookstore, we embark on what turns out to be an actual culinary adventure at Napi’s, a long-standing local establishment, its walls covered with various nautically themed scenes captured by P-town artists from over the years. We start with “Russian Oysters,” which are oysters on the half shell, each topped by a dollop of sour cream and another dollop of black caviar. As soon as I see these on the menu I know I have to try them, and they are indeed excellent. Ditto for my scallop-stuffed half lobster with garlic mash potatoes and sauteed veggies, and Suzanne’s scallops Provencale. For dessert Nicholas discovers the taste of gourmet vanilla ice cream topped with dark chocolate sauce, as Suzanne and I heroically resist eating more than a bite or two of his treat.

6/13/07 Wednesday

Cloudy, windy, & quite chilly again. After Skaket yesterday, we’re not feeling ready to make bold with the elements again, so we look for an indoor activity and settle on the Zooquarium in Yarmouth. N. is excited about this, and Suzanne and I remark that one of the good things about having a four year old, as opposed to say, a nine year old, is that it doesn’t take all that much to keep one entertained. Anyway, we see some more fish and turtles and snakes, and feed some cows and goats and llamas. Then we see a live show featuring Miss Pickles, the trained pig, and another involving an African an African pygmy hedgehog who was not introduced to us by name. Did you know that rats can go longer without water than camels can? That pigs are incapable of looking up at the sky? That kangaroos can’t walk backwards? Well, you do now.

~

We come home and cook some salmon in garlic, olive oil, and white wine, with salad and doggy-bagged restaurant linguini on the side. All in all, we have made it through another cold, cloudy vacation day pretty well. The problem is that the forecast continues to call for clouds up through our departure on Friday—and that’s definitely a drag. One thing that takes a little pressure off the “beach vacation” and its demand for good weather is that we have a pretty nice beach down the street from us back home. But even so, it would be really nice if the sun would peep out a bit before we leave.

~

The thing about a vacation week is that you have your schedule cleared, you’re away from other responsibilities, and you can actually focus on what you want to do—and to an extent, that makes anything you do yield a certain amount of fun. But on the other hand, there is undeniable pressure to make the most of the time, since this is the week you have been planning for, and are now paying for.