Heading down to Olde Cape Cod

Or should I say heading 'up' - as a kid growing up outside of Boston I was accustomed to going down (hmmm, metaphor for life eh?! :-p) to the Cape (it is east of my hometown of Medford - one of the oldest towns in the country! We turned 375 this year!)

Well anyhoo, the man and I will leave at the crack of dawn tomorrow to fly up to Boston, pick-up a rental car and drive down to my family's little house in Dennis, MA. My parents saved every nickel they ever earned and when the real estate market crashed on the Cape in the early 80's they swooped in and bought a little 3 bedroom rambler on the Mid-Cape. 22 years later it's still a little slice of heaven, even with its hand-me-down furniture, wood paneling and lack of cable (though I think we have basic cable now - we didn't for years though). It is nowhere near the water by any means, but all told it takes about 10 minutes to drive to the resident beach and park. I never appreciated it as a kid but I do now. When you're still growing up, going to the beach for 2.5 months and leaving your friends is not always viewed as positive. But years later I cherish those times, especially now that my Dad has passed on. He loved the Cape, it was a refuge and peaceful place for him. Our house down there is marked by the hobby he took up one year (my Mom's idea) - making "Ship-in-the-bottle" boats. Even 2nd generation Italians can be super-Yankee New Englandaa's if they want! I'll try to take some pictures of all of them, there must be at least 30 he made from scratch over the years. Here is one that is in my house down here. It is a tall ship called the "Danmark" it is the training ship for the Danish Navy. I actually have seen and ventured aboard this ship when it visited in Philadelphia in 1986 (note: I should have known I was gay back then b/c I definitely took note of all the CUTE blond boys working the ship!)

So it is off to Cold Storage Beach (the beach I have been going to for 22 years! And yes the water is true to the beach's name but I haven't minded yet!) My boo has never been to the Cape, let alone Massachusetts. He is in for a treat - well at least until he hears his first Massachusetts accent (I don't have one) then his ears will no doubt bleed profusely and we will end up spending our weekend here. It will be nice tho to show off what I feel is the nicest beach area in the US (he is from the Jersey shore so he may finally see what a real beach looks like :-p).

Oh and if you haven't guessed, I may live in DC but I will forver be a proud Masshole! Home to the Pilgrims, the first city in America, the only place for legal (and rightful!) gay MARRIAGE in the entire United States, birthplace of Jingle Bells (don't buy that Savannah hype since it was actually composed in Medford!) and the largest per capita consumption of ice cream in the country - the Bay State will always be the best state!

See you in a couple of days! No computers on the Cape and that's not a bad thing :-)