A Winter Afternoon on Cape Cod

It's somewhat eerie.  Cottages and summer homes locked up tight for the season.  Lanes chained off, preventing access.  The ever-present lack of people.  Driveways, roadways and parking lots empty.  Dark clouds throwing off a look of desolation.  There's also a quiet simplicity.  The constant roar of the ocean.  A deserted beach save for a few hardy soles seeking fresh air.  The older couple down the beach with the playful golden retriever.  The woman in her Wellies who casts a disapproving scowl at your family in the lifeguard tower but then marches out to the end of the slippery rock jetty.

We stopped at Captain Parker's Pub on our way home.  Most restaurants are seasonal and shut down for the winter.  Rich kept saying, "This place is known for its chowder," but yet none of us ordered chowder.  Allie and I are chowder fans so next time there'll be chowder.  (Or chowdah, as we pronounce it.)  Our waiter was super nice and right away asked if the girls were triplets.  Then he thought we were kidding when we responded yes.  He must have told the owner because he stopped by saying that he'd heard we had three special girls with us.  Again, super nice.  Afterwards, Allie said, "It's like they think we're celebrities or something."  (She doesn't realize how ridiculously adorable they are.)

(I just wanted to add that typing out a winter afternoon "on Cape Cod" seems so formal.  "Down the Cape" is how we New Englanders really say it.)