Capers: A Note from North Eastham

Good morning from Cape Cod.

It is 10:38 a.m. on Monday and Dan and I plan to leave the house by noon. Already ran the dishwasher, folded the red plaid blankets, put the insulated Lilly Pulitzer cooler bag in the freezer so it's ready for our fridge unpack and the journey back to NJ.

I want to do a chart HERE vs. THERE but don't have time to format it since we have a lot more scuttling around to do--spritzing and spraying, sweeping and vacuuming.

The chart would have illustrated HERE joys like renting bikes from Idle Times Bike Shop in Eastham and THERE worries like Skipper refusing to get up for school while Figgy is holding down the fort. Or other stresses. Skip didn't want to come with us, and her school summer program runs through tomorrow anyway, and Figgy is working.

Dan and I have been gone four nights. 

• We biked (about six miles one way) on the bike path to the Hot Chocolate Sparrow. We were superhot under those helmets when we arrived. We each had our one ice cream of the trip. I got sugar-free coffee flavor with the Sparrow's exceptional chocolate dip--that melty dark coating that hardens on contact--only available in the summer. Dan got a soft-serve vanilla cone with the dip darkening the swirls and swoops.
• I did the 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Early Bird Walk program at the Audubon Friday morning. L.O.V.E.D. it. Ospreys, snowy egrets, purple martin, heron, turkeys, little shore birds. Also bullfrogs, green frogs ("like Kermit," a Boston walker said), and fiddler crabs. Great group of people and young leader.
• We had our bike rentals for 24 hours ($30 each). Yesterday we pedaled to Nauset Light Beach. Dan ran into the sea (61 degrees water temp).
• Dinner last night at Mac's on the Wellfleet Pier with our friends from NJ, who are here for the week. Yum. Bluefish, steamed local vegs, rice, (fried oyster plates for our friends and a jumbo lobster roll for Dan), then more talk back at our friends' cute rental house.

Today, we plan to go to the Audubon for another nature walk before joining the cars on Route 6 West for the 6- or 7-hour trek home. But first, we have to lock up the house.