Cape Cod Highlights 2026

I arrived home with grains of sand buried deep in my shoes and memories of yet another year embedded in my mind. Yes, there were hot dogs. Yes, I sweat my ass off in the sauna. Yes, I froze my ass off singing songs till one in the morning on the tundra known as the beach. My emotions run high and low as they do at home except they are more extreme. I am not quite sure why this is. I feel alot of pressure to be “on” which is stupid because this is my family. They know I’m bipolar and have issues with anxiety. And they accept me anyway. Which is why I keep coming back.

Cape Cod Highlights 2026:

• Crafting with my Aunt Dorothy. We actually had pretty good weather this year. Monday was going to be a gamble but it turned out to be a gorgeous day. The only bad day was Sunday and my Aunt Dorothy texted me to see if me and Justin wanted to come up and craft. Aunt Dorothy had gotten an elaborate paint by numbers set of a cat. Justin was working on a screenplay and I was journaling. Aunt Dorothy made us black tea and we chatted around the table as we worked. In some ways it reminded me of book club.

• Playing games with my cousins. In the evenings when it gets cold we gather in the kids room and play games. Some games we played: Wavelength,  Taboo, Werewords, One Night Werewolf, Cou, Cthulu, Am I the Asshole and a game where you guess the movie based on a bad description. I actually did great in some of the games. I won Cthulu in the first move. My favorite game is either the movie game or Werewords which is like a mix of 20 Questions and Werewolf. 

• Going to the pool for drinks. As I said the pool has a bar. One evening Justin and I headed over just to get drinks. He got a strawberry daiquiri and a strawberry colada. I got hazelnut coffee. One thing I have to adjust to at Cape Cod is the drinking. Besides my brother who abstains, it seems everyone drinks even (or maybe especially) those who don’t drink any other time. Not everyone gets drunk but a bunch of people come close. And sometimes even ten  years I still feel uncomfortable with that.

• My Aunt Francie likes to give me presents for no reason. I mean I’m okay with that. This year she gave me a glass bird (it’s a blue wren). I collect glass animals (at least I did until I ran out of room in the cabinet) so I’ll have to put this one on the shelf.

• Nadia is a beautiful and fashionable friend of one of my cousins. She told me I looked beautiful and then asked me and Justin how long we’d been together because it felt like a long time. Four years (and change). This was Justin’s fourth time to Cape Cod.

• We went to Provincetown. I didn’t get anything at the Game Store and I got some shells at the shell shop because I want to try decoupage. I don’t usually go in graphic T-shirt stores but Justin had to go to the bathroom so I was browsing the shelves and saw a Winnie the Pooh shirt that had original Pooh (as opposed to Disney Pooh) and said “Zero Bothers Given” (a play on the phrase “Zero fucks given”

Low Lights: Here are the things that made it harder

• We started a football game on the beach. As you know running in the sand is hard for me. Actually running in general is hard for me. I got injured almost immediately and had to sit out the entire game while more physical and fit people ran up and down the beach. I used to love playing sports and feeling like I was too fat was not a good feeling at all.

• The cafe was closed the week we were there while it underwent new ownership.

• The drive home was a slog (it  always is)

• I hate my bed. It is a sofa bed and it has folded up with me in it numerous times in several different positions. Basically it’s not the most stable piece of furniture. Not to mention Friday night the screen came off the window above me and hit me in the  head rousing me from a heavy sleep for a brief minute.

I wouldn’t trade my Cape Cod trip for anything else. Even better is that Justin feels the same magic that my family and I do and he knows what a special place it is. We will keep the tradition going for a long time to come.