Despite just a few hours of sleep the night before, having spent much of the night in the emergency room, I managed to get up by 8 the next morning and take the kids to the beach for the day. I couldn't bear to disappoint them, nor myself, if I am being honest. With only one full day left on our trip, this was our only chance to get to the beach and really enjoy The Cape the way we had planned.
Day fourteen and fifteen....
Leave it to Miles to find a (dead) horseshoe crab to parade around the beach and torture his sister with.
Garin managed to rally and have a nice day at the beach, despite his ordeal the night before. Garin so loves the beach that not even a night in the hospital could dampen his spirits nor energy level.
Graham, whose favorite pastime at the beach is reading, began to decline early in the day due to bad allergies (we have never even known him to have allergies prior to this trip). He slept, wrapped in towels, for most of the afternoon at the beach. Poor Grammy!
Miles worked up quite an appetite carting his horseshoe crab around the beach all morning. And there's nothing like enjoying some delicious Cape Cod salt water taffy, after a seaside lunch.
Any perfect day at the beach ends with a trip to the ice cream shop. My childhood friend and Cape Cod expert, Alison, told us that Sundae School was a must-visit destination on The Cape. She was right! The ice cream was scrumptious.
After our trip to get ice cream we headed to downtown Chatham to poke around the adorable shops. The window boxes and pots of flowers were overflowing, plentiful and breathtaking. Catheirne (my fellow gardener) and I were awestruck at how the flowers and plants flourished in this seaside environment (compared to the desert environment we do battle with at home).
On our way home, I had to stop and get this shot of yet another picturesque Cape Cod harbor.
Our final evening of the trip we enjoyed festive pool party and dinner back at Joanne's house with the Liataud clan and all their dogs, who joined the kids in the pool for a pre-dinner swim. It was wonderful to see Joanne's mom (and sister Katie), whom I hadn't seen since high school. Spending the evening with her mom reminded me of how much I miss my own mom.
With all four of the kids down with allergies by the last day of our trip, I had to load up on drugs for the trip home on the airplane. With all the hacking, sneezing and runny noses, I was genuinely worried that we might be booted off the plane due to concern from the airline (or other passengers) that my kids had COVID. Unfortunately we didn't pass TSA muster with our large cache of drugs, as innocuous as they were. We got held up for some major drug testing by this TSA officer. He had to open each bottle (some were brand new and had never been taken out of the boxes) and test them individually. Luckily we got to the airport in plenty of time to compensate for this stressful hold up.
The morning after we arrived home, Miles was on his nebulizer, where he continued to receive treatments for the next two weeks. By pure luck, he didn't go down with allergies/asthma at the same time as Garin. He deteriorated on the very last day of the trip and the plane ride home, therefore sparing me a second child in the emergency room. Despite all the health issues, we all still agree that it was a marvelous and memorable trip that we will remember with great fondness for the rest of our lives.