Today was an amazing day. The sun rose on a blue sky and a still sea, and the temperature quickly rose to the mid-70’s. Tomorrow we get married, but today is for play.

Many of our guests are coming a long distance to witness our marriage. My best man Sorin was flying from Hawaii with his wife Heather and their son Joshua. Many other friends were coming from the west coast. We wanted them to have something to do while they were here, so we planned on a Friday full of activities.

This morning started out at 11am with a tour of the Provincetown Dunes. A line of Chevy Suburbans pulled up in front of the Land’s End Inn and everyone piled in. And then we were off on a drive along the beach and into the Cape Cod National Seashore Dunes. The Suburbans glided across the soft sand as our guides told us about the history of the dunes (deforested by the original settlers, who they went ‘oops!’ as the sand started blowing into town.)

At one point everyone was allowed out for a tramp up to the top of one dune. My 83-year-old grandmother went right along with everyone else, and lots of pictures were taken of the peeking over the horizon.

The second event of the day occurred at 4:30pm, when everyone gathered on the town dock and boarded the Bay Lady II, a beautiful ketch-rigged schooner that took us on a slow silent glide out into Massachusetts Bay. The weather was perfect for a sail. Bottles of beer and rosé were opened and everyone quickly got quite convivial.

The sunset from the deck of the ship was amazingly beautiful. Two sundogs appeared, the first time I’d seen these rainbow-colored patches on the horizon. And then the sun set, and we sailed slowly back to port, everyone sitting a little closer to the person next to them as the temperature dropped.

From the dock, a bus brought everyone over to Herring Cove Beach, where a campfire and clambake waited. P’town Parties really delivered with an incredible clambake including chowder, steamed clams, lobsters, and steak. We drank more wine, laughed, and stared into the fire. Eventualy people started drifting away to their beds until there was only a handful of us remaining.  We stood there shoulder to shoulder around the fire, no one talking much. I was thinking that I was so blessed to have the friends standing there with us on the beach at land’s end.

Now I’m back at the inn, writing this and thinking about tomorrow. After all this time, I’m finally going to be getting married, just as I’d always imagined it, in the company of the people who mean the most to me, and to the man I know I’ll love forever.

coyote