Cape Cod Summer Memories

After weeks of cruising through the United States and a long journey from Traverse City through Detroit and Boston by airplane, we arrived on Cape Cod late at night on the 25^th of July and stayed there near Wellfleet for over a week, until August 3.

When we approach our friends’ summer house near Lieutenant Island by the Wellfleet Harbor the night of our arrival, it is very dark outside and very warm. Their youngest son was so kind to place a little children’s bicycle next to their driveway so that we would definitely find our way. I get out of the car and walk up the wooden stairs to the door of the house and knock, but no one answers. I open the door and call out “Hello?” – still no answer. Just assuming that we are in the right place, I enter the house and walk up another flight of stairs into the large living room with an open kitchen around the corner, and see a little boy with his back turned towards me fully absorbed by a Star Wars Movie, while someone is rattling in the kitchen. I peak around the corner and see my old friend Ben, preparing Brats for us on the stove not aware of the person behind him. I make a little noise and he swirls around startled, eyes wide open, and exclaims something which I will just abbreviate as “JFC!”.

We haven’t seen each other for over 10 years. He was the best man at my wedding, I – in absence – at his, and we love each other deeply ever since we met in Atlanta in 2001 and shared his house for several months back then. We fly in each other’s arms, he kisses me on the cheek as he would always do, and we share this moment of reuniting just between the two of us.

The following days are bright and easy, filled with sunshine, beach life, family meals, playing, joking, and exploring various places on the Cape. In contrast to the Western part of the country which we explored for many weeks, we are now in the oldest part of the US. The Mayflower landed here in 1620 in what is today Provincetown. Old graveyards give testimony of centuries gone by.

Ben’s in-laws own the summer house which we are kindly invited to share with Ben and his family, and which is a true summer home base where everyone gets together after a summer day at the beach, with an outdoor shower, sun decks, spacious rooms and one of the best barbeques I have ever grilled on in my life. The friendship of our hosts embraces us during the entire time, always in the pursuit of making our stay on the Cape as enjoyable as possible.

Ben’s wife Sarah is the sweetest hostess together with their three adorable children who open their hearts up to us all and spend as much time with us as their daily summer camp allows them to. We create special memories as we all head to the beach at night on two occasions to light up a huge beach fire, roasting marshmallows which we use to build “S’mores”, one of those incredible American inventions, where you build a sandwich with two biscuits and a piece of chocolate as well as a roasted marshmallow in-between.

These last 10 years in our lives have been very eventful to say the least, and we share the stories that we have lived, at times until late at night, and sometimes we just watch grand old movies together as we did back in the old days, like “12 Angry Men” or “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”. And I think of a quote which someone recently used in my social media community and which – as I just found out – stems from Kenny Rodgers:

“You can’t make old friends. You either have them or you don’t.”

We say goodbye on the sunny morning of the 3^rd of August in the comforting knowledge that we will meet again in Atlanta in a couple of weeks, marking the final stage of our three months US tour.

And so we hit the road again with our ultimate destination in Vermont the next day. Thank you, dear Ben and Sarah and kids, for a wonderful and unforgettable time on Cape Cod!