Ocean At Night.

It is our second day here in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. After a long trip by car into some of the small towns during the day, we spent the rest of the night winding down in our hotel room. I was enjoying a bottle of [yellowtail] red wine to myself, Jordan was mixing Southern Comfort with ginger ale or cranberry juice, and Leanne had her vanilla rum with coke. The room was everything you would expect from a sea side town. Very light paint on the walls with blue and yellow tones, pictures of sailboats, a hideaway bed, plaid furniture, and even framed arrow signs pointing to the direction of the boats and beach – each with big letters of the word printed on respectively.

The two Jordans suddenly were tired from all the shopping that took place that day. Leanne and I, wanting to take full advantage of our drunken state, decided to walk around the town at night. We first ended up at a mini-putt golf course with a pirate theme to it. The outside lights were still on so we walked around the course taking photographs of each other standing by the cheaply made statues of pirates. Then further down the course we walked a plank onto a mock pirate ship where we laughed as we photographed ourselves pretending to steer it. If only we had some putters with us, we could have actually played the course for free until the lights would go out.

We laughed and joked as we walked down the main street, and seeing a sign that read “Seaview” on it, we decided to continue our walk down that way. The road was very quiet and dark. The street lamps were much distanced apart from one another leaving some parts of the road in complete darkness. Trees were in numbers along the sides of the road, just past a small ditch that ran along with the road, they provided the dancing shadows on the road before us.

Our conversations switched to be mostly about our memories of going to high school together and how weird it is that we use to have lunch together everyday for one semester because of mutual friends. But we never knew nor really talked to one another. Even though we are better friends now we still don’t essentially know one another through and through. When you think about that, you start to run down and think of the list of people you talk to, and wonder how many of them really understand who and what you are inside and out.

Heading back to the hotel crossed our minds at this point because the road felt endless. Once we heard the sounds of the oceans waves crashing, however, we knew that we had to press forward. Up until this point in my life at 24 years old, I have never seen the ocean before. It was the sort of driving factor for me to come on this road trip other than to enjoy some time and have fun with some close friends.

Wooden steps lead down to the beach which was slightly lit from the porch lights of houses near by. We took off our shoes and sandals and walked to the water edge. Rushes of cold ocean salt water rinsed through my ankles and the webbing between my toes. In the darkness one could only make out the small white cap of the wave before it hit the beach, and then the movement of clear liquid residing back into the giant pool from where it came.

“Oh wow,” I said out loud, totally enjoying the moment. I see Leanne wading in further along the beach. I open my Polaroid camera and flipped the switch to the dark setting and captured the shot. It probably wasn’t the best of conditions to take a photo because of the lack of light, but it seemed like a good idea after drinking a bottle of wine. I wanted to get a picture of her in the water because she looked out of place like an apparition in the waves.

It was her white clothing that saved the photo from becoming just a black void. I ended up liking it even though most would call it a bogus photo; to me it has a sort of mystery to it.

After picking up some sea shells on the beach and washing them in the ocean water, we walked back to the hotel with sand in our shoes.

music to accompany the blog: Jack Johnson - Pirate Look At 40.