Sandwich, MA

We arrived in Sandwich sometime last week, Thursday it was.

There is this exclusivity that sticks to the tongue after uttering the words "I'm going to Cape Cod" that now seems funny after being here a while. The Cape feels surprisingly down to earth, and the lifestyle traditional and informal.

Kate's family has been on the Cape for a while. Her Grandpa moved here long before it became the tourist hot spot that it is now. He had a studio on the rural highway where he carved wood into startlingly alive renditions of local birds. Kate's mom grew up in an adorable old New England style house that sits literally on Main Street. After Grandpa Peltz passed away the family decided to sell the old house. Kate's uncle Pete and her Mom (Shawnee) now have separate places in Sandwich, small, manageable and adorable vacation type places that they can rent to pay for their cost, and that they can use for the family as a base and an escape back in time. That's the short story.

The first day we arrived in Sandwich I almost felt like I had entered a movie set. In the middle of town there is a peaceful pond stocked naturally with geese, ducks and flowering water lilies, which runs off into a grist mill with a giant water wheel, and then down into a babbling brook that cuts through the town to the ocean. Near the pond there is a drinking fountain, always on, that supplies the most delicious water directly from the spring beneath the town. The old church steeples proudly weather above the meticulously maintained houses whose thresholds bear unthinkable dates like "c. 1680". A mile from the downtown is a boardwalk path that cuts over a sea of green marshland on its way straight to the flat sandy beach that stretches for miles either direction. Down at the marina the fishing boats deliver their goods direct to the fish stores, and fishermen work intently on their vessels. The train sounds its blaring yet calming whistle twice a day or so, and there is a pond just outside of town, Hoxie Pond, where we can go swim under summery skies.

Its pretty perfect. I really love Sandwich already and am going to miss it when we go.

Kate's sister Tess (whom we stayed with in Austin), her one year old son Gabriel, and her dad Phil made it in that first evening. The week since has been packed full of family time for Kate's mom's side of the family. Every night its been a gathering at one of the two family houses, barbecuing fish, drinking wine, talking, being family. We've been swimming in the ocean, in the ponds, and walking along the sides of canals that wind through the marshlands. We've been playing tennis and doing yard work.

And now I'm trying to spend as much time as I can in the library, thinking, reflecting, figuring out what exactly to do with my life next.

In the meantime, Sandwich is a good place to do exactly that.