Rainy Day

Our first full day at the Cape was a little cool. We settled in by making a trip to the bookstore, getting a rental bike, having a huge lunch. Our second day was hot and we spent the entire day at the beach, with the kids making friends and finding hermit crabs and swimming out on their boogie boards and playing whiffle ball. Swim, rinse, repeat.

Day 3 was set to be rainy. What would we do? Well...

- I came downstairs to find the kids playing pyramid solitaire. I had taught them the game the previous day and they took to it. I thought about bringing out clock solitaire, but even as a kid I knew that game was kind of unfair...you could only win if the King happened to be in one exact spot.

- We went on a long bike ride. The rain hadn't started, so we clambered on and hit the bike trail. Sometimes Emilyand Jack went ahead, sometimes Jack and I did. Kate was quicker to tire or get frustrated, and there were a few moments I thought we would have to turn back. (We were headed to a pond, Sheep Pond -- perhaps it was shaped like a sheep? -- that was a few miles away.) Kate would protest, then get a second wind and peddle fast, then tire. But she made it, thanks largely to an interlude when a guy on horseback showed up and let us meet his very friendly horse. It snuffled at Kate and made us laugh. And it was named Jack! We ultimately reached the pond and took off our shoes and socks and waded in. Then it started raining, eventually quite hard, and we booked it back to the rental. And made it. Soaked but happy.

- We had lunch at home, peanut butter for the kids and chowder that a restaurant from the previous night had given us as it closed up. We find ourselves eating later meals this year, a sign our kids are getting older than many other Cape vacationers. Restaurants aren't as crowded and are closing up. It was great. The rain picked up in intensity outside.

- I taught Jack combat solitaire, which is classic solitaire where you play on each other's Aces and race to beat the others to cards. It was the major family staple of my childhood, an all the time thing, and Jack took to it. We came out at the end of our second game, and I explained to Jack he had to beat me to cards. He got happily flustered as we raced to play Jacks and Queens and Kings. "I didn't know it was this intense!" He said, laughing, frantically playing cards. It was just like I remembered it being and totally awesome. Kate asked me to teach her today.

- We went swimming at the indoor pool. It was crowded, of course, and some kids including ours went outside. And swam in the pouring rain. Crazy! Kind of cold, so Emily stood in the jacuzzi as she supervised. That was warmer. I watched them play and Emily laugh at the insanity of it.

- We ate dinner in, our classic Cape meal of pasta with cream and peas and scallops. Fantastic as it is every year.

- I put Kate to bed and read her book, The Princess in Black. Quite good, even though she wouldn't let me do funny voices. Whenever I tried she protested gaily: "Daddy!" So I stopped. Until the next time.

It was still raining when everyone went to bed.