Our Vacation, Part Five

Sunday was our first full day on the Cape. The day started off cloudy and the weather was lousy, so it was going to be a day of shopping- at least to start out with. Like all of our "Shopping Days" of years past, we began the day at The Penny Candy Store. This visit, like the visit to the Christmas Tree Shop the day before, was strangely less hectic than in years past. That's not to say it wasn't fun or interesting, just more low key. From there, it was over to the mall. It was still fairly early in the day so we were able to find a parking spot in under an hour. This trip, like all of the past trips, started with browsing around Barnes and Noble, where, in their discount book section, you can find answers to all of life's most puzzling mysteries: Bigfoot, unsolved mysteries, relationships... it's all there- for $7.98 each or less. I bought a book of trivia.

We split into two teams to cover the rest of the mall more efficiently. That is to say, Jake, Sam and I covered the mall while the girls made it through one store (actually, it could have been two, but still...) We all met in the food court for lunch, delighting in the delicious bounty that only a mall food court can offer. It's always nice to be able to eat out when you're on vacation, and what better place to enjoy one of your dining out experiences than right there at the mall; enjoying a meal while accompanied by the background music of the indoor merry-go-round behind you. After feasting on some chicken-like substance, we gathered our stuff and left for another shopping adventure.

By now, the morning rain had tapered off and this opened up more options as for places to go. We weren't in beach mode at this point, so we doubled back and headed to the Pottery Place. The Pottery Place is a great place to stroll around and relax. Tucked back in the woods, it feels like a cross between a meditation retreat and an art museum. Depending on your mood, it lends itself as much to contemplation as it does to buying pottery. Jake and Sam occupied themselves by the goldfish pond while I and the others browsed around the displays of this year's creations. We ended up spending a good bit of time here, but we left empty handed- with the intention of coming back later in the week. Delaying a purchase here is always a risky proposition because everything they produce is one of a kind. If you find something you like but leave it behind, there's no guarantee that it will be there if you come back. But I guess that's true with most things in life.

We headed back to the cottage to regroup, relax a bit, consult our to-do list, and to make plans for the evening. For most of us, relaxing at the cottage meant collapsing in a bed or a chair, vegging out or reading a book. For Sam it meant watching cartoons, in this case, Spongebob (I think it was the one where Spongebob and Patrick are annoying Squidward). The folks who owned the cottage had TV channels with networks that people have actually heard of, unlike me, who only springs for the sub-sub-basic cable tv package.  This, along with mini-golf, is what "vacation" means to Sam.

After a quick bite to eat, and with everyone eventually rested (or as close as you can allow yourself when you're on a tight schedule) we headed to another Christmas Tree Shop, and then it was off for an evening stroll on Mayflower Beach.

Mayflower is on the bay side of the Cape, almost directly north across the arm of land from the Windy Beach, and it contrasts with the Windy Beach in many ways. The Windy Beach is a couple of steps away from the road and it greets you head-on with a continuous wind and the immediate water that beats against the coarse sand in perpetual waves. At the Mayflower Beach, you walk between soft, sandy dunes before you get down to the shore. When the tide is out, the beach stretches before you in long, flat plains, dotted with large tide pools that lead up to the ocean.

On this dusk of our first full day at the Cape, this is where we found ourselves- walking the beach, the low water slowly lapping back onto the shore where it would eventually reclaim the small islets that stood between the tide pools. We walked the long shore, unconsciously retracing our paths from vacations of years past. We re-lived the day and laughed and talked and made plans to play some games when we got back to the cottage later that night. The clouds that had been with us most of the day were finally breaking apart, just in time to reveal one heck of a sunset.