Day 33: Brax and Sunshine

We celebrated a first today… Uncle Bill and Aunt Lois have lived here all their lives and had never been to Brax. They decided to give it a try and invited us. They treated us to lunch today. We even had cheesecake for dessert. 2 slices of cheese cake fed to whole table, with left overs!

We had a great time. It turned out that our waitress was the daughter-in-law of a man that Bill and Jacqui had known all their lives, Ivan Bassett. So she knew how to engage in old-fashion verbal jousting with Uncle Bill, in true New England fashion. She even guessed his age and stunned him. It was quite entertaining to watch.

We really have been so lucky this trip that family and friends have carved out time to hangout with us! We are incredibly grateful for every minute of it.

With full bellies, and still giggling from lunch, we visited Thayer’s Flowers. It’s owned by one of Jacqui’s best friends Pat Thayer.

When I walked in, I was blasted with the incredible aroma of fresh flowers. It was so amazing. I don’t think I have ever actually been in a real florist shop before. It’s so much better than the little section of flowers at the grocery store. I highly recommend the experience!

Your senses will thank you. And you will see funny stuff… Have you ever seen a hairnet on a daisy? I laugh everytime I think of it.

I fell in love with glass greenhouse too. It’s amazing to walk in one on a sunny, but cold day. The cold magically disappears and you feel so warm, all while enjoying the sunshine, blue sky, and flowers. I totally want to build one of these and do yoga in it.

Next we went over to the Fred’s boyhood church, the East Harwich United Methodist Church.

There is so much history here. The church has been here since before the 1900’s. There was no one else here but nothing was locked. An unlocked church was both uplifting and disturbing to me. Uplifting that everyone is welcome when ever they need to come in, and disturbing because eventually someone will take advantage of it and do something bad. I’m still jaded enough from my career and Californian perspective to question if it’s worth it. That makes me a but sad. It should always be worth it.

We just sat in quiet contemplation for a long time.

Fred sat in his family’s favorite pew. Exactly where he would sit as a boy, always next to his father to be within arms reach to keep the shinanigans at bay. He remembered reading the inscriptions on the stained glass windows as a boy. And he remebered this one time he was fiddling with his neck tie during service and accidentally tightened it way too much. He was panicking, unable to loosen it and feeling like he was about to pass out. His father calmly reached over and with one firm grasp, yanked the tie free, instantly ending Fred’s distress. He silently glanced down at Fred like Mufasa looks at Simba in The Lion King, and sent two clear messages, “I’ve got you covered young man,” and, “Quit messing around.”

Fred’s father embodied a cool, calmness, and quiet strength much like Fred does now. I was very moved when Fred shared this memory with me. To me the memory was like a reassuring and loving message from his father that everything would be ok.

We sat for a little while longer and then I introduced some levity by insisting I take a picture of Fred’s organ before we leave. Its quite stunning.

We went over to the corner market that Fred would frequent as a kid. He would ride his bike down for ice cream with his friends. It’s more of a coffee shop/deli now, but they still have ice cream and moon pies!

On our way back home, we stopped by Muddy Creek and the bay. Fred’s great grandfather used to own all property around Muddy Creek. As a kids they’d spend hours playing in the water and woods. They could cut through to the bay.

We had an unbelievably full day. We weren’t done yet! We took a little rest at home and then went to visit one of Fred’s best friends, Steven Crocker.

The Crocker family and the Oakes family spent a lot of time together. Fred and Steven did everything together. Steven owns a landscaping business and his wife Jan owns Hidden Acres Farm in Dennis Port. We met them at the farm this evening to catch up and get the grand tour. The farm is awesome. They have produce, herbs, alpacas, a horse, goats, sheep, chickens, ducks, rabbits. It’s a very impressive set up. Jan runs her own market and sells her homemade yarn, goat’s milk soap, fresh eggs.

She had the cutest baby goats. The big daddy goat did give me a little flash back of the time I was kicked in the chest by a goat. He looked pretty fierce.

I’m constantly amazed at how hard working and industrious Cape Codders are. Everyone I’ve met has been so welcoming and gracious. Jan gave me one of her soaps, some fresh eggs, and an cute shell charm she made.

To finally top off the night, we watched the Bruins win. And today was Fred’s daughter Alissa’s college graduation. Fred’s son Matthew video chatted with Fred from graduation so Fred could see Alissa cross the stage and get her diploma. The smile on Fred’s face was stellar.

He could barely speak after he watched it. Thank you Matthew for sharing that with us!!