I’m just back from a whirlwind weekend in Cape Cod to celebrate Helen’s 70th birthday. Boy did we celebrate! I woke up Thursday morning in the predawn and had my coffee, then went for a quick swim as the light was just returning.

Then I drove ten hours and arrived at Laura and Helen’s beautiful house in Wellfleet. I planned to get to there and go straight to sleep, or at least sit on a couch and scroll mindlessly, but they were meeting friends in Provincetown for a night of dancing and dining (in that order) because it was the actual day of Helen’s birthday, and I couldn’t resist joining.

Look how happy she looks.

We had a fantastic time dancing and then a delicious dinner. By the time I was going to bed, I’d been up for nearly 20 hours.

The next morning, Laura took me to Great Pond, one of many kettle ponds that dot Cape Cod’s interior. It was a spectacular place to swim. A sandy beach led to impossibly clear, warm (73°) water, surrounded by trees and incredible quiet.

Later that day we went to the beach on the ocean side.

It was windswept and vast and I felt like I was on the edge of the world. The water was clear and cool, gorgeous and refreshing (as long as I didn’t think about the meaning of this):

We rounded out the day with a bonfire on the beach on the bay side.

The next morning, Laura took me to swim in the bay at a beach where we were the only people for miles around and the water was so clear and warm.

Then we took another dip in the Great Pond where we’d gone yesterday. The rest of the day was spent preparing for and then reveling in Helen’s fabulous birthday party, where I didn’t take any pictures because I was too busy drinking cosmos and eating oysters. But imagine forty people laughing, half of them wearing shirts emblazoned with Helen’s face, all of them eating yummy food and basking in good company. It was a wonderful time.

(Actually, Laura just sent me a bunch of pictures, so editing this to add them)

I woke up the next day a bit rough (remember the cosmos) and we went straight to the pond to clear our heads. Chris and Mary and Jen and Jessica joined us and we had a lovely swim and wished that the weekend wasn’t over.

(This picture of me is evidence of the whole too many cosmos situation)

After a quick breakfast at Laura’s moms’ house, Lulu and I hit the road and drove the ten hours back to Lac Louisa. What a wonderful weekend. Besides such lovely moments with new friends and old friends, Cape Cod is a swimming paradise to which I must return often.