It’s well documented that I like a plan. I embrace a to-do list. Having an agenda is my jam and spontaneity gives me hives. You know a great way to screw up that mindset? Have kids and work from home.

The primary feature of parenting is how quickly plans get smashed to pieces. It’s amazing how quickly things go wrong. The kids decide they don’t like mac ‘n cheese today. They trip over an acorn and scrape their knees. Their camp gets canceled. They believe their devices will spontaneously charge themselves. Their goggles feel funny and they can’t possibly go in the pool.

It’s enough to turn a functioning, responsible adult into a crazy person. But you know what? You’ve got to deal with it. It’s not like the Amazon delivery guy is going to help out.

Oh, you need another band aid? Let’s talk about first aid and wound care.

Oh, none of your friends are outside? Let’s play one of those 643 games you have in the basement.

Oh, you accidentally melted the glue stick in the microwave? Let me teach you about cleaning solvents.

Dad Camp: every day is an opportunity to secretly teach them how to clean the house.

Call it Route 6 ½. We found a magic traffic portal Friday evening and made it down to the Cape with almost no traffic, so we woke up to the Beach House couch and Dash did his best cat impression.

Dash has fully recovered from his mystery ailment (we think). His energy is definitely back. There’s a reason people often mistake his enthusiasm for youth and think he’s a puppy. He’s still attacking the slide with vim and vigor.

For some reason, in our ten years of coming down, we never hit up the nearby muffin place in Brewster. We corrected that mistake with a vengeance. Or, a dozen pastries to put our fitness fasting discipline to the test. They were very much kid approved. Coffee cake and chocolate chip banana were the big winners.

Despite all our recent fitness gains, I still cannot compete with Cecilia in doing pull ups. It appears that none of my competitiveness was passed down to the kids but occasionally some of the athletic traits pop out in some other form.

We did put our fitness to the test however. There was a 5 mile road race in the neighboring town and that is like cat nip to me. It had nothing to do with the opportunity to drink beer before noon. And despite not sharing my affinity for racing, Michelle humored me and tagged along.

And then despite her pleas to ‘just getting a workout in,’ Michelle went out and crushed it to the tune of 8:13 per mile and top 10 age group finish. Definitely worth a flex.

We might have also put these tickets to good use. Might have been the first time I drank Bud Light in fifteen years. It tasted like… college.

We returned to find the girls out on the flats for a low tide walk.

But with no water to swim, we headed up to the pool to wait out the tide change.

When it did change, the girls hit the high seas with the kayaks.

Ally was very inspired by the Olympic canoe slalom. After watching BMX, air rifle, and trampoline, both girls are convinced that any activity also doubles as an Olympic event. I’m waiting for competitive vacuuming.

The girls had a friend with them for the day and were determined to get her the full Cape experience. Nature cooperated with a nice sunset.

And of course, as Ally insisted, no Cape Saturday worth remembering isn’t complete without ice cream.