This Summer: The Cape Cod Letters

At the end of each day on Cape Cod in June, I’d find a quiet corner of our cottage and jot off an email to my grandpa Larry. I’d mostly pull from my journal, trying to capture for him the way things smelled and looked and moved. He and my grandma (we called her Nanny) took 30 trips to Cape Cod during their lives, and it became like a home to them. They brought the place back to their tiny house on Highway 50, one shell at a time, until it nestled in all the corners.

Papa Larry wrote back to me every morning. I was looking at things he’d seen and was still seeing, and he told me stories. He made up poems. As my family enjoyed Cape Cod, he was walking the shoreline with us in dear, dear memories.

So, I came home with a full journal and an idea.

This summer, I’d like to take you — my reader friends — to the sea, and I’d like to do it by sharing all those emails with you. I’m calling them The Cape Cod Letters.

They tell both our stories — then, and now.



This project will shake up my blog schedule a little. I’m going to switch to posting every Thursday, from July 1 – August 12. Each post will contain two letters: one from me, and Papa’s response to it.

I don’t want to pummel your inbox, so these posts won’t be sent to you by email (like my usual articles). You’ll find them all here on my blog (and I’ll send reminders through my Sunday emails and Instagram).

I hope you’re a little thrilled. I am.

Let’s go to the sea together this summer.