What could be better than watching the Red Sox on TV with my second glass of wine? The Red Sox winning, that’s what. They are currently trailing the Kansas City Royals but I’m doing OK. The wine helps, and the fact the season is young. I’ll be back in a month when I can start swearing in a Boston accent when they lose. Along with my parents, the availability of Red Sox games on TV and radio are what I missed most when I moved from Worcester to Syracuse in 1980.
Christian, his friend Matt Shappert and I arrived at our house on Cape Cod late last night. We left Syracuse at 90 degrees and found the Cape at 65. It’s always cooler by the ocean at this time of year, but with brilliant sunshine all day today, it felt warmer than it sounds.
With the forecast calling for sunny skies and warming temperatures this holiday weekend, there’s sure to be a run on Cape beaches so I intend to complete my errands tomorrow and then hunker down around Harwich for Saturday and Sunday while the roads get clogged with New England traffic.
Today we went to Hyannis, the commercial center of the Cape, so the boys could get their fill of the Cape Cod Mall and I could stock up on supplies at my new favorite store Ocean State Job Lot and a giant Homegoods. But as soon as I got out of the car at Job Lot, I thought a plane would crash on my head. The flight path brought all planes right over the parking lot to the Hyannis airport right across the street. It’s the same airport where the Kennedy’s arrive and depart. Every four minutes or so another plane would fly right over us on its approach to the landing strip. It was like we were under attack.
Pretty close. There's the control tower, right across busy route 28
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Here it comes
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Duck!
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There it goes, ready to touch down
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One of my rewards for getting the house ready for a summer of families who rent this place is my outdoor shower. I designed it myself when I bought the house ten years ago. Outdoor showers are ubiquitous on the Cape. They began as a way to wash off sand after a day at the beach, and grew to include hot water and a stall for privacy. Now nearly every home on the Cape has an outdoor shower, a perfect fit for a region built on a giant sandbar stretching into the Atlantic Ocean. Every house has a septic tank too, so showering outdoors means fewer calls to get the tank emptied out.
Most outdoor showers are 4 ft. by 4 ft, but four children taught me that 8 ft by 8 ft. is even better. After a day at the beach my children used to complain that the person who just completed their shower was taking too much time to towel off and dress, so I designed an interior T-shaped “wall” with the shower on one side and a dressing room on the other. Best yet, you can enter in the shower area, and exit at the dressing area, a one-way traffic pattern that gets the “customer”s in and out quickly.
My outdoor shower has a light for nighttime showers beneath the stars, but mostly we shower under the sun here. I’ve showered outdoors as late as November before the threat of frost challenges the plumbing. Carrie Lazarus who has joined us nearly every year since the late 1990s says the outdoor shower alone is worth the 6 hour drive. I couldn’t agree more.
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It doesn't get any better than this. The shower outside my house
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Carrie is an annual visitor. We found these mermaid hooks one day
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There's nothing like showering under the sun
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Tomorrow Christian requested a trip to Provincetown so we’ll get on the road before noon before all the visitors arriving for the weekend threaten to clog the roads. I’ll have my camera so you can be part of the adventure!
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Always a joy to read your blog and see your amazing pictures. There was a large military plane flying low over Wegman’s in NSyr. yesterday. It scared me but it wasn’t as low as yours. It did make the news. Love your shower, what a treat. I’m sure the boys will have a great experience in Ptown. Kids their age always love that town. Enjoy your weekend on the Cape. Such a beautiful area.
Love the site. Is your house rented already for the summer? My family is looking for a place to rent. Sounds like yours is beautiful.
Thanks Carol! Funny that one plane over North Syracuse would make news, and a hundred over Hyannis would not.
Enjoy your weekend.
Thanks Mary, yes, I’m sold out but the website I use has thousands of available properties. Go to http://www.weneedavacation.com. You’ll find tons.
I’ve never been to Cape Cod but reading your posts about it makes me want to visit. Maybe I need to rent out the place!
How long are you in Cape-town for?? Can I stop by and visit?
Denise you would love it here.
Jenna here till Sunday. Want to come tomorrow? It’s a work weekend for me if you don’t mind that. xo
I grew up in the flight path for the Oswego County Airport and built my house in between the two main approaches. I guess thats why I like planes. My daughter bought her house in N.Syracuse just off Hancock’s approach. You can almost see the people in the plane’s windows. We miss the F-16′s. It was like having our own air show.
Nice job on the shower by the way. Very cool.
Mike what a great attitude! You’re own air show! Love that. And thanks for the props for my shower.
My grandma lived on Burton Ave. in W. Harwich when I was a kid in the 1960′s and 1970′s. That’s why I’m a Red Sox fan even though I grew up in Syracuse. My grandma passed away in the 1980′s (well into her 90′s–still driving and gardening up to the last couple of years.) My family sold the house to the neighbors–who use it for their kids to visit after they retired to the Cape. My parents took a photo of me sitting on my grandma’s front porch stoop as a two year old–and the only time I have visited the Cape since we sold the house, my wife got a picture of me sitting on the same stoop–as a thirtysomething!
Thanks to your blog I get a chance to see the Cape again.
(BTW–FM 97.7 in Syracuse now replays all the Red Sox games broadcast in Boston over WEEI. Even the ‘Cuse is a part of Red Sox Nation!)