pleasant day

sunset on the beach

day 4 - sun, sand, and surf - on the other side of the states

the morning of day four started off with a trip to the beach. yes, we live in california and could go to the beach any time we wanted to, but for some reason it just seemed more exciting in cape cod. i hear the water is warmer on the east coast. i found this to be false. after a few icy moments in the atlantic dan and i took our numb toes back to the sand, skipped some rocks, caught some rays, and were pretty much done with the beach in an hour. just like at home.

after the beach my grandparents picked us up and let us treat them to a lovely lunch at a resort over looking pleasant bay. it is aptly named. the weather was perfect as we sat on the deck near the pier. grandfather, ever the storyteller, entertained us all with a colorfully told tale about the last time they ate there. to paraphrase: the owner of the resort has a jack russell terrier who amused himself, and the diners, by running as fast as he could, launching himself off of the pier, swimming to the beach and repeating the process for the entirety of their lunch. grandfather giggled into his vodka tonic as he pictured the little dog flying through the air. life is just better in chatham.

we spent the afternoon buying fudge and ice cream, then went home to rest from our big day.

my grandfather is a woodworker and he had put together a slide show on the computer of the process of making a carousel horse. there were just a few things he couldn't figure out how to tweak so dan offered to help. this led to an evening of dan sitting at the computer with grandfather standing over him as happy as a clam as dan slowly explained in plain english how to do what he was doing. at one point grandfather actually came running (as well as he could) up the stairs saying "dan is a genius!" at the end of the night we settled down to a dvd of grandfather's carving that dan had helped finish. then we watched march of the penguins.

check back for day 5 - the pilgrimage