Day 306, Year 10: Beach Day, All Day
Date: Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Weather: Gorgeous Summer Day–Sunny, 80 degrees F
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, MA
Today was just one of those magical summer days—clear skies, 80 degrees, beautiful beaches. I left Mark on Windbird this morning to do some boat jobs and took Sam, Jonah, and Ollie to the beach closest to their house. Menauhant (men-ought) Beach is just over two miles from ‘home’and always seems to have rough seas rolling ashore. But the boys enjoyed jumping in the surf. Jonah jumped the waves, Sam dove into them, and Ollie rode his boogie board to shore on them. They built a fort intentionally close to the water so that they could watch the waves knock it down. This must be a ‘boy’ thing. They build as fast as they can and then enjoy watching the waves take it down. By noon we were on our way to pick Mark up as he was going to help with the afternoon shift. We drove back to Heather and Jed’s to pick up a second car and he took off to do some errands while the rest of us drove into Falmouth to pick up Galen and Raynham at the Falmouth Yacht Club. They spend their mornings there taking sailing lessons and this afternoon we wanted to take them to Wood Neck to explore the marsh and then the beach. We normally go home in the afternoon so Ollie can nap, but he really wanted to be with the big kids, for at least a little while. Granddad arrived at Wood Neck shortly after we did, but he sat in the car while Ollie played. It was after 2 o’clock by the time Ollie was ready to do home for a nap, but he went willingly after a few, “Oma, can I just have 3 more minutes?” What a good little guy he is! Just after Mark and Ollie left, Heather arrived (after running/walking 2.7 miles from the trolley stop). We had collected hermit crabs, fiddler crabs, and tiny Asian shore crabs, and played all sorts of games in the marsh. So by 3 o’clock, everyone except Jonah was ready to go to the beach. He was cold and exhausted and just wanted to lay in the warm, shallow water. But we convinced him to go with us and I stayed with him on the beach while Heather went with Galen, Raynham, and Sam to play in the surf. Galen is 14, Raynham is 10, and Sam is 8 and the three of them never seemed to run out of energy. They rode the boogie boards in the surf and dove in the surf relentlessly while Jonah and I sat on the beach just enjoying the afternoon. After an hour of the surf frenzy, Heather was exhausted and tried to lure those with boundless energy to come to shore so we could drive to Woods Hole and get ice cream. It worked, so off we went to have ‘dessert first’—dinner later. Mark and I stopped at the Peking Palace on the way home and had a sushi dinner. What a perfect ending to a perfect day.
Tomorrow morning Mark will go with us to Wood Neck to ride the incoming tide as we did a few weeks ago. Low tide is in the early afternoon, so sometime after 10 am the tide will start rushing out of the marsh. That will allow the boys to ride the tide in what is called Lazy River. It’s better than any water park ride and is not so lazy when the tide is rushing out. Wood Neck is a truly special place with so many different things to do, all different depending on the tide and which side you are one—beach or marsh. How lucky we are to live near so many beautiful beaches and marsh areas. While we are busy having all of this fun, juvenile osprey are soaring overhead and juvenile sea gulls are playing on the sand bars with us. So special.
This morning when Mark stayed on Windbird he made a sun cover for the kayak, checked all of the plastic cockpit curtains to see if any of them needed to be resewn, removed the bimini and bimini hardware from the cockpit so we can start the cockpit cap rail sanding, and on and on. He got a lot done in one morning. But tomorrow he will go with me for the day. Tomorrow afternoon we’re hoping to enlist Sam and Jonah into helping Oma bring boxes of things from storage to sell at Heather’s Saturday yard sale. While we do this, Granddad will stay at home with Ollie while he naps . . . and maybe Granddad can nap a little, too.
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| 150812 Day 306 Cape Cod, USA–Woodneck Marsh and Beach Fun |
