IIWII

One of the koans that has entered American parlance recently is the phrase:  "It is what it is."
People generally say this when they have run out of ideas.  They really mean, "I have no further information that would be helpful."   They shrug and give you a look of grudging acceptance and utter the meaningless phrase, "It is what it is."

I find it annoying.  Lately, I have found it entertaining to counter "No it isn't!"

End of Summer on the Cape

The day after Irene, we drove to East Sandwich on Cape Cod.  We were overnight guests at a beachfront cottage.  A week earlier, the person who had rented the place and had prepaid the $2000 weekly rate,  fell off a ladder, broke his leg and was unable to use it.  He offered it to my daughter who in turn invited us to stay for a night.  Hey, a free night at the Cape, why not.

I was anticipating a roiling ocean from the Hurricane/tropical storm that just passed over us on Sunday, and was mildly disappointed to encounter a relatively flat sea, with small unintimidating waves.

Beachfront Cottage on Dunes

My first impressions upon seeing the cottage was:

Rustic. 

If you have ever rented a place on the Cape, there is a common aspect to most rentals: the furniture is uniformly uncomfortable. 
Anyone who owns a place at the Cape, it seems,  sends all the family's unwanted, old, broken, stained, ratty looking -  chairs, sofas, beds and bookcases to the Cape place.  They don't want to have "nice" things that the renters might cause harm to, so they opt for the "quaint" look.  They call them antiques but I call them old, rickety and ratty. 
This place was no exception.  The kitchen was last updated about the time when electricity was invented.    The bathroom had three doors, which you had to lock to keep others from walking in on you.  Then you had to remember to unlock all of them or someone would yell at you.  It boasted three very small "bedrooms" with lumpy twin sized beds. None of the beds was acceptable unless you like sleeping on 30 year old mattresses and the bedspreads looked like havens for bedbugs and sand fleas.  I started scratching just looking at them.  They proved to be as uncomfortable as they looked, and I had the stiff back to prove it in the morning. 

The good part was the beach and the views.  The beach in East Sandwich is long and straight - what I call a good "walking beach" - which you don't usually find on the upper Cape.  The fine white sands were piled up into dunes so you had to walk down a steep path to get to the beach (and back up also).  According to some of the local inhabitants the beach which was fairly rocky near the waterline had been stripped of about two feet of sand by the storm and there was a fair amount of seaweed debris in the water.  Still, the refreshing wind was blowing gently and across the bay you could see a landmass, probably Provincetown.

At night the sky was clear and full of stars.  Looking down the beach there were groups of people who had started bonfires and who were probably roasting S'mores.  Periodically someone would shoot off a roman candle or bottle rocket.  Celebrating one of the last weekends of summer, no doubt.

We went for dinner at a place called Hemisphere.  It had a nice view of the canal and Cape Cod Bay.  Probably a good place to go for a drink on the deck.  My Cape Cod Red Ale was tasty.  But the service was slow - despite the fact that it was an not crowded -- and the food was not great.  My Swordfish was so dry I needed a knife to cut it (instead of a fork), the fried clams were overcooked, greasy and tasteless.  The only thing we all liked: fried onion strings.  I won't be going back there.  My advice: you shouldn't either.
The next day we had a delightful lunch at a place called Cafe Chew on 6A.  Huge freshly made sandwiches are generous enough to be split for adults and they have a kids menu. Highly recommended.  Note: they serve breakfast until 11:30 then lunch until 3pm. Not open for dinner.

 We were amazed that anyone would spend $2,000 to rent an uncomfortable, small, long-in-the-tooth shack for a week just because it is right on the beach. (And, it would be unseemly to make rude comments about it on one's blog, having spent a free night there.) 
But, we ended-up having a nice time.  Coctails helped.