Thumpertown, Campground, Boatmeadow,
First Encounter, Sunken Meadow, Cole Road

Not enough people understand that the position of the sun and the way it arcs over
a beach is very important for serious sun-worshippers. It makes a huge
difference. For instance to view the sunset in Brewster or Orleans, you must
crane your neck to the left, setting your lawn chair facing the south and
horizontal to the shoreline. But in Eastham, at all the bayside beaches, the
sun rises directly behind you, browning your shoulders, and then lowers itself
gently into the horizon, like a lady taking a bow on center stage. Right in
front of you.

The flats are spectacular any time of day, especially when the bay seems to have
emptied out, and you can walk a half mile or so into Cape Cod Bay. Some people
say you can heal yourself of almost anything this way, and who am I to say you
can’t.

There’s always the possibility, while you’re roaming around out there in all that
emptiness, that you’ll suddenly feel the bulge of a quohog under the arch of
your foot (which you must quickly dig up and take home in your pocket.) And
when the tide slides in on a hot summer afternoon, and you are floating along with
it on your big old air mattress…well, you must give yourself this gift someday.

Walking out at low tide when the sun is setting right in front of you, and you are
heading into its golden path, you probably feel as if you’re part of an unclaimed
dimension.

I think you probably are