We took off for America on July 20. We were lucky enough this year to have Chris and Maria (Trine’s colleague) house- and dog-sit during our absence, meaning we didn’t have to stash Didi in a kennel.
Following the same routine we worked out last summer, I drove the girls and the luggage to Værløse Station and dropped them off, then brought the car back home and walked back to the station — after taking one last picture of Didi.
We got to the airport in time to enjoy smoothies and coffee at Joe & The Juice.
It was an afternoon flight, which was no accident: the family had decided unanimously after our France and Portugal trips last year that we were tired of waking up at ungodly hours to make vacation flights: what kind of vacation is it when you have to set your alarm for 3:00?
. . . and about eight hours later, at around 19:30 Boston time, we arrived at Logan!
Aunt Deb picked us up at the airport and about 45 minutes later we were all united on Maple Road.
The first 24 hours after our arrival are kind of a blur in retrospect, but I do remember that we got to see Hannah before she left work.
I’ve repeatedly borrowed one of Aunt Deb’s pictures that I was finally able to capture for myself.
The triumph of hope over experience? The persistence of optimism? Hope springs eternal?
We all loved Uncle Gene’s new car!
Not altogether unusual that the girls would spend some time playing with make up:
…but it’s a special kind of uncle who joins the fun!
One big change on this visit was how suddenly there was always a grown-up car and a kids car.
It was wonderful that the girls could go off on adventures of their own without us, but also a little unsettling — after all, didn’t I take the picture below just a few months ago?
(Answer: no. No, I took that picture of Hannah and Sophie driving Trine’s Dodge Shadow around the Deep River driveway back in 2002, which was in fact 15 years ago. More than a few months.)
Sophie and Molli gave Maddie a full spa treatment one afternoon:
On Friday we were joined by Nana, Pop Pop, and Aunt Beth. It wasn’t any of their birthdays that day, but Aunt Deb made a fantastic baked Alaska in honor of the three July birthday girls: Beth, Sophie, and Molli.
We don’t read Maddie to sleep very often any more, so she was spoiled by having all her relatives do so over the course of the visit.
We were lucky enough that Shannon’s family’s pool was available for our use, and we took advantage of that opportunity very often.
I wanted to be sure to get a picture of the inflatable swim thing that Nana accidentally dubbed “the swan,” a name it retained for the duration of our visit.
Spa days… make up parties… nail-painting klatches…
… but fortunately a trip to Kimball’s let us delve into some more gender-neutral fun.
Upside: Maddie gets to ride shotgun in a convertible with Uncle Gene!
Downside: head wear.
Sophie was giving guitar lessons, but for some reason only her toes make it into the pictures.
Cocooning lessons?
Not many pictures of me, so I feel compelled to include the few that I come across just to prove I was indeed there.
Dinner of champions: Doritoes and Mountain Dew.
I’m guessing the next pic is out of chronological order, but I don’t care.
The line for the zip line at Kimball’s had been too long to endure during our visit, but we didn’t realize that until after we’d bought the tickets. Fortunately the tickets have a 24-hour shelf life, so we went back that night to use our tickets when waiting time would be under an hour. (The pictures aren’t great, but they give context for what you’ll eventually see in the video.)
Maddie was on the brink of bailing out, but peer pressure brought her around, and in the end she didn’t think the ride was scary at all. . . possibly because it was so dark we couldn’t see how high up we actually were, but also possibly because she was just braver than she thought.
Spa days become spa evenings: these aren’t make up experiments, but facial masks:
And spa days that evolve into spa evenings eventually become spa mornings.
(Maybe the picture of Maddie contemplating nail polish wasn’t out of chronological order: I recognize that blue as one of the colors she chose.)
The house on Maple Road seems to change every time we visit, so I wanted some “establishing shots” for the permanent record.
While some of us had gone out shopping, the girls had stayed home and made their own goo.
It was an especially shiny batch of goo.
Campfire photography is tough, so I was glad to see that Aunt Deb’s shots were as bad as mine. (Her pictures are normally much better than mine, so I welcome any levelers I can find.) I don’t know which of the following are hers and which are mine: I’m just glad for once that you can’t tell just by looking.
Hannah’s weekly planner on the fridge was inspirational.
Aunt Deb had wanted to recreate this picture from (I’m guessing) 2007 during the visit. We never got around to that, but it’s such a nice picture I didn’t have the heart to delete it from the queue.
The drive down to Cape Cod took us by this mini-mall in West Yarmouth boasting its own beef jerky store. That instantly ascended to the top of my own must-visit list.
Check-in at the Red Jacket Resort:
The weather wasn’t optimal…
So we began the excursion with a Mexican lunch at a place the concierge didn’t know anything about, but turned out to be fantastically authentic.
On the way back to the Red Jacket we stopped in at the Beef Jerky Outlet, and I took this photo as a “note to self…”
Værløse is screaming for a beef jerky store, I’m sure of it! Maybe where the old candy store used to be?
The weather wasn’t any better after lunch than it had been beforehand. . .
But we were dauntless!
Some establishing shots:
Back in the room for some rest before dinner…
And then, at last, Sophie’s 18th birthday dinner!
There was a vicious rabbit prowling the grounds of the Red Jacket at night. That’s probably why Jimmy Carter never stayed there. I’m almost sure of it.
And so it was the morning of the second day…
I haven’t mentioned it because at this point it seems like one of those things that hardly needs mentioning, but we are now deep in the period of Maddie’s life where she is constantly bouncing around and stretching herself into impossible positions. Half the pictures of her from the trip have her upside-down or contorted into some weird twisty pretzel shape, and a lot of pictures of other people have Maddie’s legs sticking up in them.
The weather was still not our friend.
Oh — and what did I tell you? Observe the legs popping up behind the barrier…
The great thing about the bad weather was that it drove us to minigolf!
…and from minigolf straight to the finest tourist sweatshirt retailer in West Dennis.
As soon as we noticed the firepit was lit, we gathered around it. We were numerous enough to make it our own. Now and then other guests would wander up and try to insinuate themselves into our cozy family circle, and we were not unkind to them, but as soon as they realized we were not a random group of couples and little families but one large and highly talkative family they tended to meander along on their way. We were there for hours, scurrilously drinking our secret cocktails and eventually (and less scurrilously) devouring pizza, and it was the hyggeligest night of the trip by far.
And then it was the morning of the third day, and it was good…
It was very good…
It was awesome!
This is Hannah in her relaxed glory, not very long before she was rushing to the aid of a guest at the pool snack bar who collapsed into some kind of seizure right in front of us. It was magnificent to see her leap so confidently and competently into action, but a little disquieting the way the poor victim’s parents assure everyone that although their son was not an epileptic and had never had a seizure before, they were sure he was just fine and there was no need for any ambulance or anything.
After we checked out of the Red Jacket we made our way up the beach to the jet-ski place.
Fan. Freaking. Tastic.
I’m only including the shot below to illustrate why there aren’t more shots of us jetskiing: there are lots of these pictures, but even zooming in all the way on them doesn’t give much more than a lot of pixelated spray.
So we have to settle for the more static shots of us bobbing around at shore.
Thus endeth our visit to the Cape, so thus endeth Part 2. More to come soon! (No worries, just another hundred pictures to go.)
