Tuesday, August 07, 2007
4th of July in Rockport
Lotus Maria has made her first trek to Nate’s idyllic hometown. We took a red eye the Saturday before 4th of July and touched down in Logan airport to the open arms of Lotus’ “Papa Stanton”. I was worried about taking a red eye and how Lotus would do, and for the most part it went off with out a hitch. Traveling around a holiday always creates an added sense of anxiety and larger crushes of crowds. On top of that the morning before we took off a burning jeep was pushed into the Glasgow airport. These attacks do not make me fear for my safety or fearful of traveling, but they do make me afraid of longer security lines, new poorly explained rules that will create chaos at security check points and a total Lotus meltdown. Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised, this latest attack didn’t not spur any panic and for once our SFO security experience was relatively boring.
Rockport is a quaint town that goes all out for 4th of July. It used to freak me out, but I think I have started to embrace it's charm. Most of Nate's highschool friends and family congregate in Rockport for 4th of July. Nate was thrilled to show off Lotus. Nate's cousins James and Michelle made the trip with their daughter Sophie, who is Lotus' age. All this meant was they pretty much didn’t interact, since Lotus only acknowledges older kids. But I got to spend time with them, which was nice since our only other contact was at our wedding, which does not bode well for quality bonding time. After our visit I decided that they were going to have to travel everywhere with us, since a) they were very nice, and b) Michelle is a pediatrician and was able to cure an awful diaper rash that Lotus had.
Rockport’s big draw is boats and the Stanton’s like to be on boats. For days before we go all Nate can talk about is getting on his dad’s boat. I don’t mind the boat, but if I didn't go on a boat I think I'd be okay. I was highly concerned about Lotus being on a boat. Ron’s boat is a pretty good size, (I think since I don’t know anything about boats) but the space is finite so you can’t just run since around and well Lotus likes to run around. She also is a brave bold girl who thinks she can swim, so I pictured her taking a header off the side. I also thought she’d pull a Houdini and wiggle out of the life jacket in record time. Alas I was wrong on every count. After an initial struggle with her life jacket, she got it on and liked it. Thanks to her cool cousin Audrey who put one on as well to make Lo feel better. She sat in the captain’s chair and just watched the world go by and eventually fell asleep and slept for almost two hours. Now she LOVES boats and points them out at every opportunity. I for one am thrilled because she and Nate can go on over night sailing adventures because being confined to 35 feet for more than 2 hours sounds like water boarding to me.
On our boat trip was also our dear friend Megan, who though Lotus hadn't seen her since our trip to Portland in April she remembered her and gave her the nickname MayMay. Megan was kind enough to make a pit stop in Rockport on her whirlwind east coast trip. I know she was there to see all of the Stanton clan, but I pretty much hogged her for her entire visit. I'd like to say I am sorry, but I so rarely get to see her and I don't share well.
Most of our days in Rockport were spent at the beach or in the back yard of our little cabin. Overall it was great introduction of the East Coast to Mi Flor.
