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SilverLinden of Leave
Sep. 15th, 2020 08:44 pmI got up, went to therapy, put away the clean laundry, and went for a walk with the Sparrowhawk. I'm so jealous of people who are still at the lake, because reportedly, there were gale force winds and 8-12 foot waves. Woo hoo. I would have liked to see that. Although even I am not foolhardy enough to go in the water at such a time. Here, it was breezy and cool, a lovely day with a faint scent of fall in the air. Like yesterday, it was supposed to be sunny and cloudless. However, the high-altitude smoke plume from the burning West created a haze in the sky that veiled the sun.
We had a really great time over the weekend. We trod many beloved old paths, including one of my very favorite places, the Country of the Ents up at the top end of the Ridge Trail. There we sat in the sand and ate our sandwiches, listening to the wind whisper in the leaves of beech and oak trees, many of which were there 50+ years ago when I was a child, and looking out across the dunes to the lake and the lighthouse. We managed to get back to the hotel before sunset, and having brought all the food supplies with us turned out very well, because we didn't have to go in search of dubious takeout. We just had hot soup and things in our room--very cozy. On the actual Birthday, it was raining. This actually was fine, because we needed a rest, and it was pleasant to view the fishing boats going in and out of the harbor, their captains swathed in rain gear, and the dog walkers with their umbrellas hastening past, while we enjoyed the coffee the Sparrowhawk brought from the bookstore in town. Deb and the Prussian Facetimed to say happy birthday, and then all the kids Zoomed with us, and by then, the rain had paused, so I made some more sandwiches, and we walked down the road to the lighthouse. Some kind people there took birthday pictures of us. We watched a family with a bunch of little kids having a great time shrieking with joy as cold spray shot over the breakwater and drenched them. We took it easy on the way back, and enjoyed the myriad little ecologies of the interdunal ponds and the foredune. We timed it just right, and were under shelter again when the rain came back. The Sparrowhawk did go out and get takeout cheeseburgers for his birthday meal, but they were good ones, and accompanied by healthy servings of a pretty good chopped salad I brought with us. We ate out on the veranda and watched the sun go down.
And then we watched the video montage the kids--mostly Tron--organized for his birthday. It's a cool thing where you get friends and family to make a short video with birthday greetings or some memories or a story about the birthday person, and then send them to the montage-making website, and they put it all together for you. Tron warned me it would be "a sobfest" and indeed it was. We were both weepy with joy and very touched to hear all the good things people had to say. He opened his gift from the kids--a new Victorinox knife--and we had cake. Definitely an A-1 birthday.
On Sunday, the rain was gone, but the waves were very high and there was a beach hazard warning. We drank coffee and contemplated the water, and I thought about going in, but decided prudence was the better part of valor. We took a mental poll of super heroes. Cap would want to go in, but his rule-following nature would make him feel he shouldn't. Tony Stark would goad him to go in, but stay on shore himself and take pictures to post to social media. We went off into the forest instead, and stopped to have lunch in one of the shelters the CCC built many years ago. We saw a black squirrel--our first of the trip. By the time we returned to the beach, the waves had died down a bit. The water temperature was still somewhere between 58 and 62 degrees, depending on which report you believed, but I jumped in anyway, and it was delightful. The waves were very strong, though, so I was glad I hadn't gone in when they were even bigger. Once I was afloat and swimming, they rocked me like a cradle, but when I tried to stand up, they punched and pummeled me.
Yesterday, we packed everything up and had coffee and coffeecake by the river, and then had one last walk, on a new trail we hadn't tried before, along the river and then south into the dunes. It was a good place to walk on a hazy day, because it's mostly on sand and a lot of it is over open sand, so you will boil your brains on a hot sunny day. We saw a kingfisher and a pileated woodpecker in the trees by the river, and big salmon jumping out of the water. I longed to stay on to the last minute and have another swim, but again decided it was better to go home while we were having fun. An ice cream cone on the way home is supposed to take some of the sting out of leaving, but nothing really does. However, I will say that blackberry dark chocolate chunk from House of Flavors is the second best ice cream I've ever had. (The very best was pear liqueur and walnut in the south of France, so that's a pretty high bar.)
I always hate to leave, but once we got home, we were glad to be here. Tonight I put candles on a remaining hunk of cake and sang the birthday song again, and we opened the long-delayed champagne that we kept being too tired to enjoy, and, like Laurie Colwin characters, drank to a truly wonderful life.
We had a really great time over the weekend. We trod many beloved old paths, including one of my very favorite places, the Country of the Ents up at the top end of the Ridge Trail. There we sat in the sand and ate our sandwiches, listening to the wind whisper in the leaves of beech and oak trees, many of which were there 50+ years ago when I was a child, and looking out across the dunes to the lake and the lighthouse. We managed to get back to the hotel before sunset, and having brought all the food supplies with us turned out very well, because we didn't have to go in search of dubious takeout. We just had hot soup and things in our room--very cozy. On the actual Birthday, it was raining. This actually was fine, because we needed a rest, and it was pleasant to view the fishing boats going in and out of the harbor, their captains swathed in rain gear, and the dog walkers with their umbrellas hastening past, while we enjoyed the coffee the Sparrowhawk brought from the bookstore in town. Deb and the Prussian Facetimed to say happy birthday, and then all the kids Zoomed with us, and by then, the rain had paused, so I made some more sandwiches, and we walked down the road to the lighthouse. Some kind people there took birthday pictures of us. We watched a family with a bunch of little kids having a great time shrieking with joy as cold spray shot over the breakwater and drenched them. We took it easy on the way back, and enjoyed the myriad little ecologies of the interdunal ponds and the foredune. We timed it just right, and were under shelter again when the rain came back. The Sparrowhawk did go out and get takeout cheeseburgers for his birthday meal, but they were good ones, and accompanied by healthy servings of a pretty good chopped salad I brought with us. We ate out on the veranda and watched the sun go down.
And then we watched the video montage the kids--mostly Tron--organized for his birthday. It's a cool thing where you get friends and family to make a short video with birthday greetings or some memories or a story about the birthday person, and then send them to the montage-making website, and they put it all together for you. Tron warned me it would be "a sobfest" and indeed it was. We were both weepy with joy and very touched to hear all the good things people had to say. He opened his gift from the kids--a new Victorinox knife--and we had cake. Definitely an A-1 birthday.
On Sunday, the rain was gone, but the waves were very high and there was a beach hazard warning. We drank coffee and contemplated the water, and I thought about going in, but decided prudence was the better part of valor. We took a mental poll of super heroes. Cap would want to go in, but his rule-following nature would make him feel he shouldn't. Tony Stark would goad him to go in, but stay on shore himself and take pictures to post to social media. We went off into the forest instead, and stopped to have lunch in one of the shelters the CCC built many years ago. We saw a black squirrel--our first of the trip. By the time we returned to the beach, the waves had died down a bit. The water temperature was still somewhere between 58 and 62 degrees, depending on which report you believed, but I jumped in anyway, and it was delightful. The waves were very strong, though, so I was glad I hadn't gone in when they were even bigger. Once I was afloat and swimming, they rocked me like a cradle, but when I tried to stand up, they punched and pummeled me.
Yesterday, we packed everything up and had coffee and coffeecake by the river, and then had one last walk, on a new trail we hadn't tried before, along the river and then south into the dunes. It was a good place to walk on a hazy day, because it's mostly on sand and a lot of it is over open sand, so you will boil your brains on a hot sunny day. We saw a kingfisher and a pileated woodpecker in the trees by the river, and big salmon jumping out of the water. I longed to stay on to the last minute and have another swim, but again decided it was better to go home while we were having fun. An ice cream cone on the way home is supposed to take some of the sting out of leaving, but nothing really does. However, I will say that blackberry dark chocolate chunk from House of Flavors is the second best ice cream I've ever had. (The very best was pear liqueur and walnut in the south of France, so that's a pretty high bar.)
I always hate to leave, but once we got home, we were glad to be here. Tonight I put candles on a remaining hunk of cake and sang the birthday song again, and we opened the long-delayed champagne that we kept being too tired to enjoy, and, like Laurie Colwin characters, drank to a truly wonderful life.
