My Dad took me out for lunch today to celebrate my birthday. It's far too hot around these parts these days, but we braved the heat and the summer traffic and drove out to The Corner Store in Chatham to get some lunch to go. If you're ever in the neighborhood, I highly recommend you stop by The Corner Store and get yourself a burrito. (Follow them on Twitter to get a heads up on the daily special.) Can't say enough about how nice they are in there, and how good the food is. Super double plus.
Then we moseyed down the back roads to Arey's Pond to eat our lunches by the water, amid the sound of softly clanking masts and sails at the boatyard. We chose Arey's Pond because that's where my Dad's Beetlecat has been living lately, and it's just made it back into the water again after a decade-long hiatus while Dad dealt with some health issues that kept him from sailing. They build and refurbish catboats at Arey's Pond, among other things, and Dad's boat is a member of the Catboat family, so it's found a happy home with them. They do great work.
In a sense, it was the boat's birthday too -- she was born the same year I was, and god knows I could stand a little refurbishing at this point, too. I learned how to sail in this boat when I was a kid, and I have a whole lot of happy memories associated with it, sailing with my Dad out of various harbors on Cape Cod. Dad says I fell fast asleep the first time I was in it (I was a baby, of course), and I like to use this as evidence of my natural affinity for sailing. I was an old tar as a baby!
Dad's got a new sail he wants to put on it before we take her out for a spin, so we just raised the sail and gazed admiringly at her for a while after we ate our burritos at a picnic table by the shore.
I Can. Not. Wait. To. Sail. Again.
Also? Hanging out with my Dad, messing about in boats, talking about nothing and everything = Awesome.
