The Cape

Finally I get around to posting my Cape Cod pictures! We had a great time, although now it seems like it was so long ago! We left on the last Friday of August and joined Amy, Chris, Nolan, Nina, and Fenway for dinner, a sleepover, breakfast, and a lazy morning and then were on our way for the last leg of our trip to Wellfleet. We arrived by 2, got our beach sticker, and moved in to our new cottage. It was a different cottage again this year but it was a good find, especially for the "end of season" deal we got for it. A nice quiet location, wooded property, a trail to the marsh and bay, screened porch, deck, two bedrooms and it wasn't "damp" which is a fear of mine when renting a cottage online...

Keller enjoying his toast on our first morning there.

Keller heading down the trail to the Passaro-favorite, Duck Pond.

Keller actually allowed Neko to touch him for this photo!

Every day after breakfast, we (either Travis or I) would take Keller for a walk down the path in the backyard. Here he is picking cranberries. He loved exploring what was around and welcomed the opportunity to get out of the house. The parent that stayed home was allowed a little quiet time with the littlest boy who mostly slept through vacation. He (Neko) would go to sleep by 9, wake at about 5 for a nursing, and then sleep until 9 or 10! How awesome was that!! And so even though Keller was up at 7 every morning, we tag-teamed getting up with him, making breakfast, and taking him out for a walk. But I'll tell you, vacation was still a lot more exhausting than it once was...and I loved it. I loved how new and exciting everything was to Keller. He just rolled with it all. Last year I had bought a Cape Cod board book and we had been reading it to "prepare" for our trip and he would literally recite parts of the book...Like the cranberries were actually "cranberries that float" (cause that's what the book says). "Cape Cod here we come, we're off and away, zoom over the bridge and we'll have a great day!"

More cranberries.

The path to the bay from our backyard...

I just love these shots...They are so very "vacation" to me, the pure joy on my little boy's face:)

So the bay behind our house was really only swimmable at high tide and in the mornings when we'd go for walks it was low tide so we got to check out the HUNDREDS of fiddler crabs that would hang out down there. As we approached they would all scurry sideways into their holes or else keep scurrying into the marshy grasses for safety. And you could hear them...I never thought of hearing crabs, but alas, when there's a critical mass of anything I guess there will be noise, too.

Keller making goofy faces at the camera.

Awwww, me and 2 of my 3 (or 4 if BoBo counts) boys...

Little Neko at the beach.

Little Keller loving the outdoor shower....ahhhhh, so nice!!

This was our last beach day, on Thursday. We went to Gull Pond on the Eve of Hurricane Earl...preparing to slam into Cape Cod Friday afternoon. We had decided that we would leave Thursday night at bedtime because our cottage was essentially on a peninsula and I had visions of Hurricane Katrina and a pit in my stomach going over the whole should we stay or go, wait til tomorrow, big long lines of traffic, blah, blah, blah, boo. We enjoyed our beach time even though it was short and after nap and a little breezy. The boat rental guy on the lake was pulling probably 20 kayaks across the beach area to take out of the water so I said to Keller, how many boats are there? Let's count! And he ran right into the water to touch each boat to count it...it was funny but he nearly got taken out by all the boats passing by!

We did some good pond hopping this year...While we know and love Duck Pond, it's kind of a hike to get down to (well, a couple of minutes and a lot of crap to carry) and gets pretty shady and a bit crowded since the beach has eroded. We went to Great Pond one day which we hadn't checked out officially and with that one, you walk down a bunch of steps that dump you directly into the nice clear cool water. We had to walk through the water, nearly mid-calf, to get to the beachy area. I really liked that pond...it was a good find, but not really a find because we've known about it all along, just never actually went to it. Then we did Gull Pond on our last day as I mentioned above. Gull Pond has a dock that I literally was able to walk Keller out to. Kids were having a blast jumping off the dock and parents could just be standing out there keeping an eye out. All of the ponds are just great for kids and the water is just so inviting for Mommies and Daddies, too! I look forward to being able to kayak across Gull Pond to the Sluiceway which is this beautiful Caribbean-like connection of Gull Pond to another pond that we happened upon last year. "Each day on Cape Cod, you'll discover some more"

Nooooo!!!! Don't want too come out of the water!

The bittersweet drive home.

We left the cottage at 9:30 pm on Thursday and Keller was sound asleep before we made it out of our little cove area. Both boys slept the whole way home and there was not the slightest bit of traffic. And Trav and I spent the last day of our vacation (Friday) sitting on our couch in our very own cozy cottage and waited for Earl in the comfort of our own home. Earl never showed. Bummer. Would have been nice to have enjoyed that last day and morning and ritual breakfast stop, but alas, we were home safe and sound and now we begin to look forward to next year!!