Escape to Witch Mountain

South Chatham, Cape Cod Massachusetts. That is where my most desirable and most loved place is. My grandparents had purchased a house there while my mother was a kid. They would rent it out during the year, and then escape to it during the summer. It was a medium sized house, since my mom was one of seven children. Her siblings and she always had such a fun time there, playing on the beach or reading on the rainy cape days.

Ever since I was born, my family has taken a car trip every summer to visit the Cape. We stay in the same house (it is not rented anymore), and enjoy the feeling of togetherness.  Practically all of my mom’s siblings have children, so the “cousins by the dozens” come to the Cape as well. Over the years we have created our own Cape Cod traditions. We go mini-golfing, go-karting, eat at the “pizza barn”, go to the nearby beaches, and walk around Chatham or P-Town. It is not always a relaxing experience, but it is always an adventure with my family and we are always doing something fun!

One tradition that our parents partially look forward to every summer is something that us, the kids, came up with. Every summer, for some odd unknown reason, we create a haunted house in the basement of the house. We try to make it more entertaining every year. One year we pretended the basement was an old rundown hotel, and I remember being the zombie tour guide leading the parents around. We hung toilet paper from the ceiling, and had the little ones hide in random door entries, the bathrooms hamper, or behind the curtain to jump out and scare the parents. I’m not quite sure if the parents admire this part of their vacation to the fullest, but it gives them amble time to prepare dinner and talk amongst themselves.

Another thing I love about the Cape is the neighborhood where our house is. Although there are always going to be your grouchy neighbors, who live their all year, we tend to make the best of it. The road we live on is in walking distance of two beaches, a coffee shop (where my mom and I love to go and read the different movie themed names of their sandwiches and cold drinks), and plenty of “hydrangea-ed” back yards to beautiful Cape houses that we can admire as we walk. It has been truly a wonderful environment to grow up in during the summers.

Over the past years, my grandparents have put more money and thought into the Cape house, extending the front and putting in windows that actually open and close, as well as an overhead fan (thank God). And this summer they are arranging for our splintery deck to be re-done and nicely finished, so that we no longer have to wear our flimsy flip flops on the porch. I remember when my little cousin saw the house after its expanded front (it looked like a totally different house), and he cried saying he missed the old house. I think all of us felt that way at first, a little knot in our stomachs as we saw the house for the first time after the hard work put in by my uncle. (He’s the best! The house looks really good) But I think that we all fell in love with it all over again, it was a learning experience and we learned to love the changes in our lives.

Throughout my summers I have made many memories with my lovely family while at the cape. From eating lobster on the deck, to sitting at the “kids” table and cracking up while my cousin attempted again to spray the “I can’t believe it’s not butter spray” into a burning candle, or my uncle spilling the meat marinade down the sides of the refrigerator and onto the floor. I also remember as a kid, my aunt took my two older cousins and myself on the porch and gave us huge gum sticks and sugar sticks, saying that it was candy day for us. The countless times my cousin would run into the screen door accidently while running onto the porch, and when my cousin and I sat in the water at the beach putting seaweed on our heads talking about Atlantis.

There are so many memories that I have made while spending time at the Cape and I know I will never forget them. It means so much to me that my family has a place to get away to, and create long lasting memories and friendships with my cousins. I am so incredibly thankful to my grandparents for providing us with such an escape, and I am excited for my summers to come.