Beach Trip & Easter Weekend

“Do you like penguins?” Matt wants to know, making small chat as we pull into the parking lot of the beach. Since the start of the week the temperature has doubled in number making the weather perfect for the beach just in time for Easter weekend. We chose to go to Crane Beach, for the reasons that we have never been there before, and it was described online as picturesque and very clean.

The weather was not perfect enough to swim, or at least I thought so, but there were plenty of hardier New Englanders plunging themselves into the Atlantic like it was August and not April. Matthew got his clothes soaked twice, once by tripping when filling a bucket of water and a second time when playing soccer with Bob near the shoreline. The salty warm air dried his clothes both times, not that he minded much. It was as relaxing of a day as we had set out to have.

On a side note, Matthew would not forgive me if I didn’t mention one of his fondest memories of the trip; we saw a diesel train (commuter rail) pass us during the ride there.

The beach trip helped to lift our spirits as this had been a sad week for us. We had to say goodbye to Bob’s grandfather and namesake, Robert Rodak. To us he was “Tutu” the name Bob chose to call him as a baby. Tutu is one of the people I feel very lucky to have met in my lifetime. He still held the hand of his wife in public, even though they had been married for sixty years, and together they raised four children, one if which had special needs. Tutu was someone who never allowed others to think for him and formed his own fair opinions about things. I will always be grateful to him for being a strong influence in the type of husband and father Bob is today.

Our Easter was low key but enjoyable. We had an Easter egg hunt in the backyard. We went out to breakfast and saw the Easter Bunny there at the restaurant.