When there is a pond at the campground, we start off with a swim. Sometimes it feels like we should just skip everything else and go on a pond swimming trip.
After our big day in Provincetown yesterday, it seemed like we needed some time in nature. Some of the most spectacular features of Cape Cod are the sand dunes at the northeastern corner of the cape. I asked the kids if they wanted to take the long way or the short way across the dunes to the Atlantic. They are my kids, so “LONG WAY,” of course. 
These dunes are not unlike any other coastal or other aquatic dunes. The difference, though, is their vastness! It is at least a 2-mile walk one way from the highway to the ocean. And the landscape changes from forest to sand to grassland to shrub to grassland to dune to (FINALLY) icy water.
It was an unpleasant shock to the kids when they realized how unlike the Pacific this ocean is. It drops off into deep waters (well, above their heads) within 20 feet from the shore. And the waves crash right at the shoreline. Our “only go in up to your waist when it’s 5 kids to 1 adult” rule enraged them. It felt like they could barely get their feet wet. Sorry, kids. I can’t rescue 5 kids in unfamiliar waters at once. It was too cold to swim in, anyway, they decided. 
The hike back was full of small animals, jumping from high dunes into soft sand below, and giggling at the lines of fancy people in broad, colored hats and long, linen dresses exclaiming about how they think the water is “just over the next dune.” Its not. Its not even over the next 2 dunes. Get off these dunes, ladies. You will get lost and sunburned, and you wont fund the water. It takes moxie to navigate this rout, and you don’t have it.
And just like that, its time to leave the Cape. One day i will own a tiny bungalow on a forgotten inlet here.
Our next adventure is in NYC, and since we have a friend with a baby just a skip from our rout, and since she bravely invited us for dinner, we took a detour to Newport, RI. What a beautiful baby. And what a perfect host and hostess! Thank you Matt and Caitlyn! What a spark of joy that time with you was!!!
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