Martha's Vineyard Part II: Lazy Sunday

I awoke in the morning far earlier than I had hoped. Duncan was out of bed by 9:00 and so I had my second night in a row of very little sleep. After tossing in bed for 45 minutes or so, I decided it wasn’t worth it to try and stay asleep and got out of bed. We spent an hour or so lazing around the house and just relaxing. One of the nicest parts about this trip was how low-key everything was. With my family on vacation, everything has to be planned out, meetings have to be held; it seems like sometimes vacations with my family are more stressful than being at home. But anyways, so we just sat around for a while and then I headed out to do my run.

I’ve always had this image of running with a dog at my side. It just seems so natural: man’s best friend. This was the first time that I went running with a dog that wasn’t chasing me (you have NO idea how many times I have put out a 30 second 200m to escape from the jaws of Cujo). Jesse and I went out for a 4 mile fartlek on the dirt road that led to Duncan’s house in the heat of the late morning. The first mile was a little quick to be my easy mile (I was trying to alternate 7:00 and 5:30), running about 6:30. My first repeat was a little rough. First of all, it was really hot, so my heart-rate was already through the roof. The fact that I ran the first mile too quick also hurt a bit, but it was ok. My third mile was a lot more like I had meant the first one to be. I ran it right around 7:00 and thus felt solid on my last mile. Duncan joined me for a half mile cool-down; Jesse had already deserted me.

I did some PT and core circuits after I came in and hydrated a bit. Then Duncan, David, and I decided to drive/ferry over to Martha’s Vineyard proper for some lunch. By this time, I had gotten slightly more used to the whole “car being a few inches away from the water” idea and was only mildly clutching the door-handle. We got some greasy fried food and ice cream and sat in a quiet little park that was hidden from the main hubbub of Edgartown. Martha’s Vineyard proper, or at least the parts of Edgartown that we walked through, kind of bugged me. For the most part it was filled with obnoxious-looking, wallet-waving, white people in polo shirts tucked into their plaid shorts. It was the opposite of what I had seen on Chappy and exactly what I was afraid of.

Anyways, we had a few errands to run afterwards, so the three of us walked around the uber-touristy part of Edgartown and then drove to the grocery store. From there, we drove, ferried, and drove back over to Chappy where we had a bit more relaxation time. It was at this point that we realized that Duncan’s hand was still quite swollen from his bee-sting, which was then 24 hours old, which seemed odd. So, he took two benadryll, hoping that would reduce his reaction. He seemed to be feeling better, though, so we decided to head to the beach for a swim.

Now, usually getting to the beach is a walk or a short drive or bike ride, but here it was actually a sail away. So we had to set up Duncan’s Sunfish (a small one or two man sailboat) to get across the bay and to the beach on the other side. Also, Duncan had decided that we would need music, so we had a backpack with an ipod, speakers, and his cell phone in it (though all in sealed plastic bags). The sail over was relatively uneventful. It was actually really nice to be out on the water; I almost understand the appeal of it. There were only a few moments I thought that I was going to die, but mostly it was calm because we didn’t have to turn.

We sailed to one side of a very narrow strip of land that separated our cove from the ocean. So, we tied up the boat and walked a few minutes over the dunes to the sprawling ocean. There is something truly magical and indescribably about the pure vastness of the ocean. I hate to get sappy in what I try to keep a relatively down to Earth journal, but the ocean is really something. For a good while, we just lied on the beach listening to Herbie Hancock’s “The Piano” and enjoying the solitude and beauty. Eventually, though, we both got restless and decided to dig a big hole. Why is digging a hole at the beach so much fun? I honestly could not tell you. All I know is that there is something in everyone’s deep subconscious that sees sand and wants to dig a really deep hole. And what’s more, usually once that hole is dug, somebody has to crawl in and then buried in it. That person was unlucky enough to be me. As I was just about up to my chin in sand I realized that we had dug our hole in a huge nest of some sort of larvae of shrimp or fiddler crabs which were popping out of holes everywhere and biting me. I then sprinted into the surprisingly steeply deepening ocean.

With the discovery of creepy-crawlies, we traversed the dunes once again and returned to our boat. Much to our dismay, the wind had changed such that we now had to sail a diagonal away from our house and then cut back along the shore (I don’t really understand sailing, don’t ask me…). It started out ok, but the wind was gusty, which meant that the pressure on the sail would change from moment to moment. This meant that one second, I would have to lean back as far as I could to keep from capsizing, and the next moment I would almost fall out of the boat because it was so flat. Also, to make matters worse, on this trip, Duncan had entrusted me with the backpack full of electronics. It was possibly the most terrifying thirty minutes of my life.

But we made it (despite my very nearly falling out of the boat with the electronics). I have never been so happy to be on land once again, even rocky and slippery land.

We walked back up to his house where everyone was quite lethargic. Duncan’s benadryll was really doing a number on his energy, so he ended up taking a nap for a few hours, along with his dad. I sat for a while and relaxed with Jesse and read a bunch. It was very calm. Once people started waking up (I literally had to threaten Duncan with cold water to get him out of bed), we made some dinner and played some boggle. Afterwards, Duncan, David and I drove down to the ferry and walked into Edgartown for some ice cream.

When we got home, we worked a bit on the puzzle but mostly just sat around and talked. We called it a night relatively early after a pretty late night before. All in all, it was one of the calmest and low-key days I’ve had in a while. I wouldn’t want to make a routine of it, but damn did it feel nice for once.