Not ready to go home

There’s a song in The Secret Garden that perfectly captures that Cape Cod feeling for me…

I need a place where I can go…
…Where I can make my plans and write them down so I can read them
…A place where I can bid my heart be still, and it will mind me
…A place where I can go and there I will find me
…Where no one says to go or stay
…Where I can take my pen and draw the girl I mean to be

I have enjoyed my days here – walking on the beaches, looking at art and crafts, reading, thinking, and enjoying the sunsets. I’m not quite ready to go home…

Today was a beautiful day, but quite windy, so I didn’t get to walk and sit outside as much as I wanted. I headed up to Coast Guard Beach as a start. The waves were big and choppy – and the walk was real exercise because there was no hard sand and I had to march in order to pick my feet out of the sinking sand. Note to self: the lovely breeze at your back is wind in your face when you turn around! I loved the waves, though, and I got to see some seals as well.

Wild waves; open the middle picture to see the seal!

I planned to spend the middle of the day reading at Pilgrim Lake, but was once again foiled by the cold wind. Nonetheless, I ate my lite lunch there. Beautiful hints of fall up here… some leaves changing, and I love seeing them rain down a bit in the wind.

I would have loved spending the entire afternoon here. Oh well. Next time.

I decided to check out the shopping area in Orleans. The owner of Gallery 31, Sherry Rhyno, was working on a commissioned piece and gave me a lesson in watercolor. One of the artists she showcases – Jeanne Rosier Smith – creates fantastic pastels of waves, and I learned that she sometimes “paints” the wave spray by putting chalk on a tooth brush and running her finger across it to splatter the color on the canvas. Her ability to capture the iridescence of the waves was just amazing. (Tempting, but out of my price range and not quite what I was looking for…)

I had a nice early dinner (yay!) at a Ardeo, a Mediterranean Grille just down the road and took a last walk on Breakwater Beach at sunset.

Goodbye, Breakwater Beach

Back in the room, I finished the book I was reading, We Never Asked for Wings by Vanessa Diffenbaugh (I give it a 3 out of 4). (For those counting, I read three books on this trip.) I then packed up a bit before working on this post.

There are no doubt any number of vacation spots that would be “a place where I could go,” but I keep coming back to Cape Cod. Donna and Byron host a lovely Inn here and the breakfasts are amazing. I have my choice of fabulous beaches to walk, and I have yet to explore them all. There are many places I love to go back to again and again. And I have found a few hideouts to sit and read and think. I’ve made this place my personal retreat, and I always leave (too soon) renewed and revitalized. Thanks for coming along.

To journey without being changed is to be a nomad. To change without journeying is to be a chameleon. To journey and be transformed by the journey is to be a pilgrim.
~ Mark Nepo

This is the life!