My Parents Are Down At The Cottage

So Jen and I spent most of the day with them. Jen lives 400 feet east of me, the cottage is 400 feet in the other direction. The cottage is where we spent all our childhood summers and why we live here instead of Charlestown. That and the fact that houses in Charlestown average a half million. LOL!

I slept so well last night that I was awake without an alarm before 8 am. I did laundry and answered email. All the while I was texting Jen to wake up for breakfast. Then it dawned on me that my parents being such early morning people might not wait for breakfast. There is no phone at the cottage but luckily for me, Elaine & Beth were walking by. I opened the door and asked if they were going by the cottage and could they pass along a message. Then I jumped in the shower.

I was sitting on the porch when I finally reached Jen. I asked if she was ready for breakfast when she said no and we had no car anyway. She had loaned hers to a friend and I still had no key to mine. I told her we had our parents and their car. "Oh", she said, "I'll get up." Nice! When she thought it was just me, she was ignoring my texts, but it was my parents so she got up! Humph!

Breakfast was great. We went to our favorite place at Ellis Haven. One of the waitresses looks like our father's mother did when we were little. By the end of breakfast our father had to admit it was true. Our mother made fun of us for cleaning our own table and stacking the dishes. But we eat there a lot and we want them to be happy to see us.

We ran a few quick errands before dropping our parents back at the cottage. Then we took our father's car to get a new key for my car. That was a lot of laughs too. First, the service guys at Raynham Saturn were friendly and funny. Then some random woman went into the customer waiting area......scrunched down between the far end of the couch and wall.....and changed her clothes. We all had a good laugh over that. And finally they generously offer to waive the programming fee for the new remote car lock (it was worn down long ago, the car is 11 years old). Well that's great! The kid comes around the counter with the programmer and the opener. But guess what you need? My car. Where's my car? In front of my house. Jen just shakes her head. "Only you", she says.

Next we were back to the cottage to pick up our mother. We had manicures scheduled. mmmmmm After my mother's manicure, I zipped her back to the cottage, then Jen & I stayed for pedicures........even better!

Finally we picked up takeout at Lobster Hut for dinner. The Plymouth waterfront was a zoo. But their food is worth it.

After dinner everyone headed out to the porch. I cleaned the table, wrapped the leftovers, washed the dishes, counter and table. I thought of all the times in my childhood I had to be reminded, cajoled, ordered and threatened to do such simple things.

I wish I was the daughter then that I am now. A grateful one.