A Great Love Affair/Thanksgiving Part 2

The "retreived from my brain as close as I can to what I wrote yesterday before the internet destroyed it entirely" Thanksgiving Part II blog:


It has to be said. One of the greatest loves of my life is our little tiny place at Cape Cod. Its a tiny cottage, especially compared to the HUGE palatial houses that go up on the Cape each year. My great great grandfather, Levi LeForest Smith built it in 1922, the year my grandmother (Barbara Smith Burkhardt - my mom's mom) was born. At that time, when you looked down the river, there was not another house in sight. Now, we are less than 20 yards from neighbors on either side, and across the river, the houses are spaced much the same. Despite this, we've managed to retain a decent amount of privacy and what has got to be the best view on all of Oyster River. Mom always says she feels bad for the folks in the big houses across the river, because we can see the whole river and the way it winds out to sea and all they have to look at is us.

I remember growing up here on summer visits. Kick-the-Can in the back yard with the other kids who were summer neighbors. My grandparents having gin and tonics as soon as it turned cocktail hour. Their friends Marge and Bob Newell, who came up every summer from Florida to spend the whole summer and were like seconds grandparents to me (Marge and Gram were high school friends). Taking Daddy Bob's (that's what we called my grandfather) boat down the river to the cut out to the ocean for picnics. Doing Marge's nails on the deck, convinced that I was going to mess up the polish. Going for a swim in the river. Road races for kids in the neighborhood. The hydrangea bushes in the side yard. Lunch at Friendly's. The sign that said "Chipmunk Crossing" in my grandmother's little flower garden (its still there). Mini golf with my Gram at two places - one gave you a rootbeer float if you got a hole in one on the first hole and the other had a sunken pirate ship in the pond out front. Cranberry bread for breakfast. Daddy Bob grilling swordfish on the grill. It was the only fish I ever liked as a child. The trampoline place - where you paid to jump for 15 minutes...now that I'm older I realize it must have been a parent's dream....to wear us right out.

So needless to say, I love going there. And it's a great meeting point for my family (Mom and Dad in Maine, Clay in Boston and Geoff and I in the NYC). We got in late Thanksgiving evening from CT. We have started to do our Schwabe family Thanksgiving on Fridays since Geoff and I are in CT on Thursday. It was great to see the fam, as always. And we had a great weekend. Friday Clay got called back to Boston for work for the day and wouldn't be back until about 5pm. The rest of us had a slow morning and Geoff and I borrowed mom and dad's bikes and headed out on a bike ride. We headed down to Hardings Beach and rode through all the great neighborhoods there, WISHING we'd brought our camera because it was truly stunning. We timed it just right and were heading back just as the rain started. Clay got back and we all had some wine while mom finished up the last bit of cooking (somehow I didn't seem to help her with that as much as I have in years past and I'm not quite sure how that happened. Sorry Mom!). The five of us ran through a bottle of pino grigio faster than I expected, so Geoff and I ran out to get another bottle. We took the camera and Haley with us this time and popped over to the beach for some pictures.


Haley and I on the beach. Gorgeous. And cold. But gorgeous.


At the liquor store we got chatting with the manager, who admired our camera. He told us that he'd wanted to fix up the sign out front of the mini shopping center there - paint it, light it up, put a spotlight on it, restore it or generally fix it up in some way, as it's been there for ages and is (as Clay likes to say) "hurtin' for certain". Apparently the town of Chatham won't let him touch it. It must be approaching historical landmark status or something. It truly has been there for as long as I've been around to remember it. It was a landmark for Clay and I on the long summer drives to the Cape. We'd always play "how many corners?" as we got closer and closer to Grammy and Daddy Bob's house. Meaning how many turns do we have to make before we get there. Three from the house with the yellow door, two from the "Shop Ahoy" sign ("two" was also sometimes marked by the Mint Chocolate Chip House right across the street. It was painted brown and mint green - in case you hadn't figured that out)... And I have to say, the Mint Chocolate Chip house is in even worse shape than the Shop Ahoy sign these days. Thanks to some magic hour light, the ole thing never looked so good...


We came back and enjoyed a wonderful dinner. Geoff loved my mom's biscuits. As I always have too. I mean look at them.


We had some pie, watched My Cousin Vinny and played some heated rounds of BananaGram (a speed version of scrabble without the board). The Schwabes dominated the Bokas. The Bokas will be practicing at home so as to be better prepared for inevitable Christmas rematches.


Saturday dawned and with the remants of last night's scrabble debacle basking in the sun, Clay headed out to bring his boat in. In the process, the chain that attaches to the buoy slipped from his fingers and wound up at the bottom of the river. So, the Schwabe men headed to the garage to construct the world's tallest rake, all McGuyver style, in hopes of retrieving the chain.


And then Clay headed out, all gondolier style, to try and rescue the chain. At high tide. Which proved a bit challenging, as it turned out.


Geoff and I left them to it and headed out for another bike ride. Brought the camera this time. We went down to Hardings again and then rode all the way into town. We were out for hours. Stopped for lunch, popped into a wine and cheese tasting at a cheese shop. Made some purchases. (I could possibly live on cheese. I don't. But I do dream of it. I think that's what heaven will be like. All the cheese I want and none of the consequences.) We had an AWESOME time. I love bike riding.


Loved these guys. Wish we had more of a zoom lens with us to really figure out what they were talking about...


The last big hill turned my legs to jello. But I loved it!


We came home to wine and cheese and football games, which was lovely. After all the football was done with, Clay introduced Geoff and I to the Wii video game Rock Band. I was fairly horrible at it. Particularly the guitar. Would have been ok at the singing, but I only knew about three of the songs. Geoff did quite well on the singing though and I was least horrible on the drums, suprisingly enough.


Sunday morning brought pancake breakfast and more Wii. Sports this time. I was best at tennis and not horrible at bowling. I sort of like that there's a world where I'm better at sports than at music.

Here I am, very pleased with my skillz.


Mom was also excellent at Tennis. And she and Clay had QUITE the golf game.


And what trip to see the family would be complete without tons of pictures of the dogs?

Pretty girl...


I love this one of Toby (aka "The Tobe"). He is soaking up the sun and so unconcerned with all of us, as regal as a dog can be.


Haley checking out the "fairies" that the sunlight makes on the wall.


Haley is quite the snuggler. And she seems to really like Geoff. She spent most of Saturday evening like this....


We had a lovely time. I inevitably do actually get sad to leave. Sad often to the point of tears. Now, I'm a big crier, so that's not too big of a deal. And this year there were a few extra tears on Sunday because we got news that Bob Newell had passed away the day before. He'd been in poor health for a while, and we'd heard that it could happen any day, but it is still sad to me. I have such fond memories of him. He and Marge were actually the first of my "family" to meet Geoff. Before my folks did even. Geoff and I took a weekend trip to the Cape just a month or so afer we started dating. And Marge and Bob were at their little house. I remember Marge reporting back to my mom that Geoff was very tall and handsome and had a great smile but the only thing she couldn't tell about was his hair (he must have been wearing a baseball cap for most of that weekend). I'm sad that Bob isn't with us anymore, but am so grateful for the part he's played in my life. He really was so special to me, in a quiet way that I can't really verbalize. And thinking of him will always make me smile.