When in Cape Cod, put together Cape Cod puzzles

My dear wife Karen and terrific daughter Elisabeth spent their inside time in the lovely little Dennis Port cottage working in tandem on the big puzzle we brought back with us this year. It’s the one bought during the September 2020 vacation that Karen couldn’t quite finish, so she dismantled it to put back into…

Taking in P-town during Pride Month

The kids couldn’t join our vacation trip to Cape Cod for the first time and not experience the vibe that it Provincetown, we figured. I told Elisabeth and George Three how so much is jammed into so little space as we drove the hour-plus to the east end of the Cape. The start of June,…

New discoveries around Chatham

The four adventurers drove along the shore roads of Chatham and pulled up between the lighthouse and a cool-looking beach. First walk for Elisabeth, George Three, my dear wife Karen and I was the alluring beach, big shark warning be damned. The sand felt good on our feet. The wind felt good in our hair.…

The seals of Chatham finally came out to say hello

We told the kids that it would be fun to sea the seals of Chatham, but we’d have to get there early enough for the feeding off the fish pier. We made our schedule, witnessing the early fog. Alas, we forgot that the fishermen would take Memorial Day off. That meant there was not an…

Amid the flowers, a toy exhibit

A big barn on the Heritage Museum grounds in Sandwich, Mass., held a well-appointed History of Toys exhibit. The early tricycle looked to George Three and I as if it would fit perhaps a 2-year-old of today’s size. Maybe. I cheered the big mind who gave us Monopoly. Spying on the big wall collage the…

The festival windmill and more slayed me

Smack dab in the middle of the flowers that made the Rhododendron Festival so memorable sat a windmill. A plaque explained it. I did not make it to the plaque as my fellow visitors were ahead of my lingering self at this point. Also extremely cool were the Lego creatures dotted throughout the grounds, including…

The Rhododendron Festival makes me curious

As we walked the grounds of the Rhododendron Festival in Sandwich, Mass., I thought and thought. Why do some plants indigenous to this are have flowers so big? While others right beside it are far less bulky? What are these hanging pods that might or might not be fruit? Why don’t we in the land…

A flowery festival makes us very happy

My terrific daughter Elisabeth doesn’t just visit a new place. She investigates what’s what. So she saw on the interwebs that the Rhododendron Festival would be in full bloom in the deliciously named town of Sandwich. After some back-and-forth, I went online and purchased our tickets for the Sunday before Memorial Day. Oh, what a…

Yes, this was a wonderful surprise

As we prepared for this year’s Cape Cod getaway, my dear wife Karen instructed me that I could not plan anything for the first Sunday of the stretch. Then she told me to make sure I packed my swimming trunks. A surprise was in store. Hmmmmmm. But it was early Saturday afternoon when a knock…

Cape Cod vacation comes early this year

We booked our week-plus in the Cape earlier than usual this year. Many factors led to our decisions. The waning of the epidemic in our part of the world, yes. Our totally vaccinated condition, yes. The available time period of the cottage that accepts my dear wife Karen, cherished rescue mutt Ellie B and I,…