Day Forty-One...

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…was all about spending time with Carol. She’s not been 100 per cent lately so she’s been laying low the past few days. Today she was back to normal so we spent the day with just her. She picked us up mid-morning and showed us just three of the houses her daughter and son-in-law have owned. Jason likes to flip houses…sort of. They buy a fixer-upper, renovate it, then move in. A couple years later (maybe more, maybe less) they do it again. The first house she showed us was a nice two-story house on a very large lot. Next was their current house. While Jason worked at the dining table, Carey gave us a tour. The house is bigger than it appears from the front. Stairs go down, stairs go up and stairs go up again. They did a beautiful job with the reno; granite counter tops, hardwood floors, fixtures that go really well with the design. They are again in the process of selling this one and buying another. This time they are going smaller. Carol drove us to the house they have their eye on. It’s a (potentially) cute two-story that overlooks the marshy end of a lake. The deck off the back overlooks a wetlands kind of area with reeds and grasses between the property line and the water. A very serene vista. There should be lots of birds to watch. The house is on a much smaller lot than their previous residences, but the view… The house most definitely needs work and I’m sure Jason can’t wait to dive in. The only difference this time around will be that they will be living in the house during the renovation. The house also has beach rights which means they can take their kayaks out for a paddle. Carol is wondering if baby Audrey (due the first part of Sept) will be strapped to the front of the boat like Kate Winslet in Titanic.

From the home tour Carol drove us south to Fairhaven for lunch. Carey recommended a couple of restaurants so we decided to give them a shot. Lunch was at Fathoms. They had covered outdoor seating that we took advantage of on this sunny day. I noticed lobster mac and cheese on the menu and boy was it delicious. Wait…that sounds like someone slobbed mac and cheese on the menu and I licked it up. That’s gross!! You think I’d do that?!? You’re sick! I ordered the lobster mac and cheese and yes, it was still delicious…even better than the cold dried on stuff from the menu. Mike had fried whole-belly clams figuring it would be his last opportunity. With our bellies full, we went to Fort Phoenix, set our chairs out on the beach there and just hung out. If you’re gonna just hang, why not do it at a beach? Better than sitting inside someone’s four walls. It was pretty warm out, but the steady breeze made it very comfortable. I think this is only the third time Mike and I have used our new chairs. The beach was very much like the ones at home—rocky, seaweedy. But we don’t have the beach grass. Just regular grass. Anyway, after a long while Carol looked to Mike and me and confessed she’d locked the keys in the car. Oops. Luckily Carey had a spare and was able to rescue us. Half an hour later the keys were safely back in Carol’s possession OUTSIDE the car. Carey suggested we check out White Island; she’d lead us out there. We packed the chairs into the trunk and fell in line behind her. We followed her most of the way there until she pulled off the road at a point where signs would direct us the rest of the way. Now we were on our own. The houses in this community reminded me of the houses Carol and I saw in Maine when I came here for my birthday one year. There were a lot of vacation rentals, just like Maine. The parking lot for the beach was a big round-ish paved area at the end of a road. I guess if you looked hard enough you could see where parking lines used to be. Okay, it wasn’t that bad…you could see lines well enough to know where you were supposed to park. We got out and just walked to the beach. This one was very sandy. We could see a couple of parasails from the parking lot, only one of which was actually moving. When we got over the little dune we could see the guy on his board zipping along, jumping off the waves of the choppy water, doing mid-air spins and other very impressive tricks. We stood and watched him get a pretty serious workout for several minutes before our attention was turned toward the other parasail. This one had been in the same spot since we arrived. Now it was attached to a guy out in the water. Obviously a beginner. He seemed to be trying to get himself up on his board and having great difficulty. After several failed attempts, he finally was able to get himself up and on top of the water…moving toward the open ocean. Uhhhh…hey dude…I hope you learned how to turn around. Now that we saw both guys up, we can leave. We were waiting to see sailor #2 get up and go before we left. Whew! Glad he made it or we’d still be there.

We left White Island in search of dinner. Carey had programmed the name and address of another restaurant into Carol’s GPS while we were putting the chairs away. This time, none of us ordered anything with seafood. There was a lot of food. Both Mike and I took home leftovers. Now that we have a microwave, we intend to use it.

Today was a really delightful day. I liked being able to hang with just Carol. I have a special connection with her (and her older daughter, Kim)—we share a birthday.

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