Time Travel

My long-awaited, nearly-aborted second vacation since the cataclysm is over. Like any vacation worth its name, it provided a welcome change of venue, an opportunity to deeply relax, and a renewed appreciation of home. As I wade through the laundry and other piled up obligations, I am most grateful for the invigorating blasts from the past that were intertwined throughout the trip.

My first memories of Cape Cod are pre-verbal, which is perhaps why it is so indelibly imprinted on my senses. Where were we, I later asked, that time when we rode in a wagon to the beach and tried to get clams? While there were occasional family outings in the years to follow, it wasn’t until my twenties that I discovered my happy place and spent a great deal of time there. Later, as I wandered the globe, a return to the Boston area always meant a return to the Upper Cape.

This year I had the great good fortune to be hosted by a friend of over 40 years duration and her about-to-turn-21-year-old twins. Mildew Manor, as they affectionately refer to their historic home set down on one of the most scenic points of Buzzards Bay, offered much more than shelter and a view. It was the heart of an unconditionally loving welcome and a portal to both past and future connections.

The smell of salt air and marsh mud was such a powerful comfort as we hiked or boated or lazed on the beach, layering new memories on top of the old. Cocktails and Red Sox games, trips to the creamery or the lobster shack, even to the shops when the rains came, all satisfied that primal urge to go home again. But the opportunity to reconnect with people from my past was by far the pinnacle of the experience.

In addition to my hosts, there was a visit from the Mad Dog and my sister-in-law/close friend/seatmate on the bus to Hell. I had the pleasure of spending a few days with a new mutual friend who I adore. In a six-degrees-of-separation coincidence, a childhood friend is married to a family friend of my hostess; the dinner party was epic. And the best surprise of all: spending time with a college classmate I hadn’t seen since graduation and discovering she was the same effervescent girl with the contagious laugh.

Leaving was hard (although I am happy to say this year it did not require an air marshal to insure I actually boarded the plane), but I take solace by weaving these new memories into the tapestry of my life.