by Judy Handley | Aug 14, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 226: High Head Beach and Provincetown with Kevin and Claire
Date: Saturday, August 14, 2021
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds, Still Hot and Humid; High Temp 86, Low Temp 66 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
This was a day of exploration. Kevin and Claire wanted to take their motor home to Hyannis to empty the holding tank. I figured if we were going to drive to Hyannis, we might as well drive on out to the Outer Cape to see the seals and maybe a shark. So off we went. We got to the waste management place in Barnstable and successfully emptied the holding tank. And then the adventure began. We had planned to eat breakfast in the motor home after emptying the tank, but I assumed we would drive to some lovely little spot to do that. Instead, we found a ‘lovely spot’ in the waste management facility and ate there. I call that adventure! Then it was on to see the seals.
A couple of years ago, I went to a beach in Truro and saw hundreds of seals so I decided we would go back to that place. I knew the beach had ‘Head’ in the name and last night I got on Google Maps and found Head of the Meadow Beach. I figured that must be it . . . but I figured wrong. The place I had gone to was down a long unpaved road and you had to walk quite a distance through deep sand to get to the dunes that you then had to climb over to get to the beach. When we arrived at Head of the Meadow Beach there was a paved parking lot and a parking attendant to take your money. Could the place have changed that much in just two years? I didn’t think so, but we went in anyway and walked over the dune. What we saw was a mass of mass of humanity sitting under brightly colored umbrellas, lifeguard stands, and no seals. Claire started talking to one of the lifeguards and I told him what I had seen two years ago. He replied saying we needed to head to the next beach to the north, High Head. Should have checked my old logs last night.
We headed back out to the highway just a little north and turned onto High Head Road. Yep. This was the right road . . . a long, unpaved road with lots of pot holes. But we made it and parked Kevin and Claire’s motor home, Tarmy (named after a Ptarmigan). We then began the long walk down a road with deep sand, crossed the high dune, and immediately spotted the seals.
Much better. However, instead of the empty beach that I had encountered two years ago, there were lots of recreational vehicles lining the beach. The first time I had gone it was in September or October and there was no one else there. But even though there were people, there were lots of seals and we thoroughly enjoyed walking down the beach and out a sand spit with a few lone seals on either side of the sand spit and a Merganser duck that decided to skitter across the sand spit in front of us. The sailboat that Kevin and Claire sold last fall after living aboard for many years was named Merganser. Somehow this seemed like a good omen to me. There were not hundreds of seals, but there were enough to satisfy us. We observed, took photos, looked at them through binoculars, and just generally enjoyed a walk on a beach backed with high dunes. It was beautiful.
We walked back to Tarmy where Kevin fixed a huge and wonderful salad for each of us. It was quite a treat to be able to fix and eat our main meal of the day in the motor home. I loved traveling around the world on a sailboat because I always had my home with me. Today in the motor home felt the same way. After we ate, we decided to venture further out the Cape to Provincetown. Finding a place to park a motor home was a bit of a challenge, but Claire was at the wheel and was successful. But it meant walking a bit to the main street and that was going to take longer than we had planned. I had left Shadow at home and if we walked into town, we all felt it was going to take too long. Shadow had never been left for this many hours. So I sent a text to friends Karen and Peter Baranowski to see if they might go to my house and left Shadow out for a little pee break. Karen texted back that she and her granddaughter Ellen would love to do that, so it all worked out. Thank you, thank you, to Karen and Ellen. This gave us the time to walk down to Commercial Street in Provincetown to experience the hustle and bustle of a very popular Cape Cod destination. We didn’t stay long, but we all enjoyed the visit.
Once home, we ended another day by sitting on the dock to watch the last light of day disappear. We have all been amazed that we have had no mosquitos here in the evenings. Kevin and Claire will be here one more day. I’m hoping we can have one more mosquito free evening on the dock. It is a delightful way to end our days.
by Judy Handley | Aug 13, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 225: Meeting Up with a Friend of Claire’s
Date: Friday, August 13, 2021
Weather: Sunny, Hot and Humid; High Temp 86, Low Temp 72 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Kevin, Claire, and I had another delightful day doing nothing out of the ordinary. Kevin and I went to town early. I dropped him at the laundromat to do laundry for both of us and then went to Heather and Jed’s to feed the kittens and guinea pig. Just as I was leaving Heather and Jed’s, I got a text from Jed saying, “I just got a message that Kevin is tipped over.” There was more to the text, but this sentence stopped me dead in my tracks. How could Kevin be tipped over? And even if he was, how would Jed get that message? I just couldn’t figure it out, so I continued reading. The ‘Kevin’ Jed was referring to was their Roomba which the boys named Kevin. I searched the house and found him tipped over in the master bedroom. Thankfully when I got back to the laundromat, the other Kevin was just fine.
When we got home, Claire had made a new batch of muesli for breakfast and it was delicious.
While Kevin prepped our lunch/dinner, I mowed a path for Claire so she could walk down to the dock. She is very hesitant to walk on grass for fear of getting another Lyme tick, but she said she would walk down if the grass was short. Both Kevin and Claire had a few work phone calls today, but when those were completed, Kevin served our main meal of the deal which was a Forks Over Knives root vegetable dish with lots of garlic and basil and a salad with a dressing made my Claire. We ate in our elegant driveway eating spot. The food was beautiful to look at and it was all delicious.
Claire got an email today from a student at Princeton who is taking a summer Marine Biological Lab class in Woods Hole. She and another friend wanted to meet up with us where we could have seafood. I knew that the Pier 37 Boathouse has outdoor seating on a huge deck, so we decided to meet there at 4:00. Claire’s friend Megan brought one of her colleagues and we had a great time eating and talking. Megan and her friend are running in the Falmouth Road Race on Sunday and I wish them luck. To get them fueled up for the race, we decided it was necessary to make a trip to Smitty’s for a good luck ice cream treat.
Kevin, Claire, Shadow, and I ended our day by sitting on the dock and enjoying the bird life of the marsh. It was hot and humid today, but there was a wonderful breeze down by the water this evening. It was a great way to end a great day.
by Judy Handley | Aug 12, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 224: Free and Easy Day with Kevin and Claire
Date: Thursday, August 12, 2021
Weather: Sunny, Humid with a Breeze; High Temp 82, Low Temp 72 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
When I got up this morning to take Shadow out, Kevin and Claire were already returning from an early morning run. They then brought folding chairs from their motor home and had coffee in the driveway while I headed into town to feed the critters at Heather and Jed’s. When I drove back into my driveway and saw how comfortable they looked, I decided to move one of my small outdoor tables and three chairs out to make a driveway patio where we can eat while they are here. Kevin and Claire are sleeping in their motor home at night and Claire is working there during the day. Since they came here from a big family gathering in New Jersey, they want to minimize the amount of time we spend inside to protect me in case they might have been exposed to the Delta variant, so they both wear masks inside and in the car. Once again, Covid is complicating being together with other people, but I am constantly amazed at how creative we have all become. Dining in the driveway seemed elegant!
While Claire worked, Kevin and I went to the Farmer’s Market and then came home to prepare the one big meal they eat each day. Their new health regime is to eat between 10 am and 6 pm. They have breakfast and then graze on things like fruit and nuts and raw veggies until mid-afternoon when they eat their big meal of the day. Today Kevin fixed marinated veggies on the grill with quinoa and fresh organic corn from the Farmer’s Market. They don’t include any oil in their diet, so I learned that the recipe for marinade that I have made for years with olive oil and that Kevin uses as the basis of his marinade, doesn’t need the oil at all. I am trying to learn as much as I can from them about their plant-based diet and their daily fasting from 6 pm to 10 am the next morning. Tonight our ‘entertainment’ was watching a Zoom Masterclass from one of my health gurus followed by watching a couple of video presentations from their health guru who advocates a strictly Vegan diet. So much to learn!
We also took a late afternoon walk to the Knob in Quissett Harbor with Shadow. It was my second walk there this week, but I never tire of walking there. So beautiful.
by Judy Handley | Aug 11, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 223: Kevin and Claire Arrive
Date: Wednesday, August 11, 2021
Weather: Partly Sunny; High Temp 78, Low Temp 72 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
After having no visitors during the past almost year and a half due to Covid, I’m making up for it all in one week. Good friends Detta and Tom arrived yesterday and left this afternoon after spending a time touring Woods Hole this morning. Then tonight, Kevin and Claire arrived. Kevin and Claire are closer in age to our children than to me, but we became life-long friends in 2003 when we were living aboard our boats in Boston. Claire was getting her PhD at Harvard Medical at the time and bought a boat to live aboard instead of paying the high cost of rent in Boston. At the same time, Mark and I left our land life and moved aboard Windbird in the same marina. We hit it off and the rest is history.
Detta, Tom, and I drove to Woods Hole this morning and walked through the village. We stopped at Coffee O to get coffee, visited WHOI’s Ocean Discovery Center, had lunch on the deck of the Woods Hole Market, and watched one of WHOI’s research vessels, Atlantis, come in to dock. Atlantis is 273 feet long and backed into a spot on the dock. It was the most amazing parallel parking job any of us had ever seen. Atlantis is the host vessel for the deep submergence vehicle, Alvin.
As is often the case in the summer, it was foggy in Woods Hole today, but when we got back home the sun was shining. It was time for Tom and Detta to head home and time for me to take a nap. Since Detta and I had stayed up talking until 2 am, I felt I deserved a nap! Then this evening Kevin and Claire arrived. We spent a couple of hours catching up on life and will continue tomorrow. I am so envious and so impressed with the two of them. They spent their time during Covid working on becoming super healthy. They switched their diet to be plant-based and have both shed many pounds. They look like teenagers and have both lowered their cholesterol numbers by 100 points each. That is impressive. I’m hoping to spend some of our time together learning from them. I could definitely benefit from losing more than a few pounds myself.
Shadow is loving the company. She spent as much time as possible beside Detta and Tom, and she continued tonight with Kevin and Claire. He is loving all of the attention.
by Judy Handley | Aug 10, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 222: Walk to the Knob with Detta and Tom
Date: Tuesday, August 10, 2021
Weather: Overcast; High Temp 73, Low Temp 70 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Friends from New Hampshire, Detta and Tom Porat, arrived today. I met them in Cataumet at the Chartroom at Kingman Yacht Center for lunch. They have nicely spaced outside tables, so it felt Covid-safe and we all enjoyed the ‘yachtie’ atmosphere. Then it was home to pick up Shadow and take him with us for a walk out to the Knob in Quissett Harbor.
No matter how many times I do that walk, it is always beautiful. We went home to sit down by the dock to enjoy our wine. We ended the day with a lighter than planned dinner as we were still full from lunch and then Detta and I talked into the wee hours of the morning. So good to be with them again.
by Judy Handley | Aug 9, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 221: To the Bridge and Back, Times Three
Date: Monday, August 9, 2021
Weather: Rainy; High Temp 76, Low Temp 67 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I spent my day driving up to the Bourne Bridge and back home again, over and over. The trip takes about 20-25 minutes one way depending on traffic and I had to make the trip three times today. I took Shadow to the groomer at 9 am, came home, went back for an 11 am doctor appointment, and then back at 2:30 pm to pick up Shadow.
Tonight was much more fun. Our dining-in group gathered at Terry and Olivia White’s for a wonderful Indian dinner. It was Bruce Woodin’s birthday, so we celebrated that with an ice cream cake from Smitty’s. Happy Birthday, Bruce!
Much better. However, instead of the empty beach that I had encountered two years ago, there were lots of recreational vehicles lining the beach. The first time I had gone it was in September or October and there was no one else there. But even though there were people, there were lots of seals and we thoroughly enjoyed walking down the beach and out a sand spit with a few lone seals on either side of the sand spit and a Merganser duck that decided to skitter across the sand spit in front of us. The sailboat that Kevin and Claire sold last fall after living aboard for many years was named Merganser. Somehow this seemed like a good omen to me. There were not hundreds of seals, but there were enough to satisfy us. We observed, took photos, looked at them through binoculars, and just generally enjoyed a walk on a beach backed with high dunes. It was beautiful.
