Cape Cod Vacation, Part 1

August 2, 2009

It all started when my New Hampshire vacation fell through. On Friday, July 15, my sons and I took a day trip to the Cape. On Saturday, July 16, I found out that their dad's sisters didn't think I was part of the family any more; I wouldn't be welcome at the family cottage after all. Not totally a surprise, I guess, just a rude awakening, since I didn't think any of them actively hated me. So I no longer had a place to go for the first week in August. I went up to bed, disgruntled, only to turn around, come right back downstairs and start to research a possible Harwich Port vacation. The economy still sucks, and I'd heard that there were still properties for rent even during the high season. I sent an email off to Commonwealth Realtors at just after midnight Sunday, July 17. That afternoon I received a response that I could rent this tiny condo in South Harwich for a total of $600, including the security/cleaning deposit. Not Harwich Port, exactly – but a lot closer to it than my living room.

After I agreed to rent it, I remembered that I had a handbell gig on August 1st – a 5:00 wedding – so I'd be arriving quite late. I was out of the church by 5 after six and pulling into the realtor's before 8:30 to pick up the key they'd left in their mailbox for me. It was still dusk then, which was good because, although I knew where the street was, I didn't know exactly where the condo was, and the only address I had was Unit 3. Fortunately I was able to recognize it from the picture.

I was thinking of it as “my little dive” - it looks like a converted motel – but it's much larger than I thought it'd be. Probably was once two motel rooms. It's close enough to Route 28 that I can hear the cars go by, but it's not that bad. I hear birds more often than cars.

It was very humid last night, and the place had been shut up for awhile (at least since that morning, maybe longer), so when I arrived it was stifling. After I moved my things in, I went back out to pick up a sub from the Harwichport House of Pizza (as I said in my blog from last fall, they're of the all-one-word school of the spelling of Harwich Port). I had not been running my air conditioner for the last half-hour of the trip, and when I got back into the car, the windshield immediately steamed up on the inside. When I turned on the a/c to clear it, the outside fogged up horribly. I couldn't see a thing, and it was dark by then. So I decided I wouldn't make any more trips outside.

Turns out they'd left me only a tiny amount of toilet paper, not enough to last until morning.

Well, I thought, I can use tissues – there's a box on the bureau.

With, as it turned out, two tissues left in it.

Now, they left me an extra roll of paper towels. But no toilet paper, and no tissues. I got out the little packet I keep in my pocketbook, just in case it became necessary. Fortunately, it didn't.

This morning, I was out the door before 7:30, and my first stop was CVS for toilet paper. I would have gotten tissues there, too, but I couldn't find them. My second stop was Bonatt's for a meltaway and a cup of coffee. When we vacationed here when I was a kid, Bonatt's was famous for its meltaways, a sweet pastry twisted into a horseshoe and iced with a kind of a streusel topping, as I remember it. The bakery was on the corner of Bank Street, and I remember walking under the fan when we'd walk from the parking lot into the bakery – the sweet smell of doughnuts and other delicious things was intoxicating. Mrs. Bonatt, the elderly proprietor, would give my sister and me bits of broken cookies. I used to love their bran muffins, too.

When my parents and my kids and I vacationed here 20-odd years ago, we tried them again. They'd branched out into fruit-filled, and as I recalled, they'd been delicious. So today I bought two meltaways, a blueberry one, which I ate this morning, and a plain one, which I'll have for breakfast in the morning. The coffee was adequate. The meltaway wasn't as good as I remembered. It seemed a little undercooked, for one thing, and it had an odd spice in it, something like lavender, I'm not kidding. I don't know how the other one will be by tomorrow.

Later on I went to the grocery store – I chose the Star Market (which is, of course, really a Shaw's). It was already crowded although it was only a little after 9. I picked up a few things, but not as much as I'll need for the week, probably.

The early part of the day had been foggy, but most of it had burned off by mid-morning and it was hazy, hot and humid. I decided to put off the beach until after lunch. Oh, yeah, I hadn't bought anything for lunch, had I? I ended up going down to South Chatham to visit the coffee shop the realtor had told me about, the one that she tought had wireless internet access. It did. It's called the Box Office Cafe, and it's kind of a mind-boggling place, well beyond a coffee shop. It's also a pizzeria, a sandwich shop, and it's open from 6 am to 9 pm. All of the sandwiches and pizzas are named after movies. They were posted around the room on fake movie posters. I ended up with an October Sky – I couldn't tell you what the movie was, and I'm here in my condo with no internet access so I can't look it up. The sandwich was cracked pepper turkey (oddly enough, we'd bought some from the deli at the Stop & Shop last week and I'd had it for lunch several times) with raspberry honey mustard, lacey Swiss (which I couldn't taste) on a toasted sub roll with Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, and red onions. I ate the entire thing, and it was delicious, although I wish I could have tasted the Swiss. I allowed the guy taking my order to talk me into ordering an iced latte to go with it. I had drunk about half of the iced latte by the time the sandwich was done. I brought it back here to eat; I didn't have my laptop with me, anyway.

By the time I decided to try the beach, it was mid-afternoon. I pulled into the Red River Beach parking lot at 2:45, and discovered that the attendant expected me to have a sticker. Or I could buy a day pass for $15. I had counted my cash before leaving for the beach, and I knew I had $12. So I went off to the Harwich Community Center, which was closing at 3, to see if I could a) find the place, b) get there before it closed, and c) actually purchase said pass. Well, I haven't lost my psychic sense of direction yet. I went straight onto Depot Road, knowing it'd connect with Route 39, and turned left, heading into Harwich. I spotted Oak Street right away and found the Community Center before 3. However, it turned out I needed to have proof of residence – that is, my lease. So I have to go back tomorrow morning.

Now, I was wearing my new bathing suit, the one I bought at least two years ago and still hadn't worn. Not only that, but one of my goals for this vacation is to get to the beach at least once a day. So I parked at the municipal lot in the center of Harwich Port and walked to the beach at the end of Zylpha Road. I'd chosen that location because it was on the list of public beaches the realtor had given me, and it was closer than Wyndemere Bluff. (it's one beach over.) The beach has quite a bit more sand than it did last fall, and the water felt like bath water; I was able to walk right in. I decided not to get my hair wet – I used to hate it when my friends would refuse to get their hair wet! - but I got in up to my neck. I immediately thought of my grandmother and my mother. I was doing it for myself, true, but I know Mom will ask, and I'll be able to say, yes, I went swimming, and it was great. I didn't stay in very long. It's not as much fun with no one to play with. I managed to leave my beach chair in Lynn, so I sat on my towel. I wasn't sure how well I'd do getting down to the ground and up again, what with the fake left knee, but I did fine. I sat and read for awhile. When I decided it was time to leave, I moved my feet and discovered my left foot had been bleeding. I don't have any idea when I'd cut it, and up until I noticed it, it hadn't hurt. It hurts a little bit now, but I hope it's not going to give me any trouble.

So now it's after 7:30 and I'm still full of October Sky sub. I think I'll have ice cream for supper. There's a place not too far from here, Schoolhouse, I think, and I'm planning to head out there soon.