Hyannis: A Retreat

On June 11th, a Thursday, I had a day off. My family and I (and my brother's friend, Nick) went to Hyannis. My mom later told me that it was a special trip, since I'm so stressed out about work, it was good to go somewhere new for a change. And it was very good! It was a beautiful day, not too scorching, but not too chilly. There was a warm and briny summer breeze, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky until sunset-- and there was just the perfect amount of clouds to scatter the sunlight into beautiful colors.

I'll start from the beginning! When we got to Hyannis, we just walked around the touristy area. I didn't get too many pictures of going into shops, but we did a fair share of window shopping!

The trek begins!

A basin of shells in one of the stores. You take your pick and put them into a little velvet bag!

Stopped to get some ice cream!

I got pistachio. I'd forgotten the bright green ice cream were from dyes... 

After that, we went to the beach. As you can see, no clouds in the sky! Perfect beach weather.

The two guys went looking for things in the sand right away.

And they found this pretty shell!

Dad taking pictures of the duck couple that had been waddling around.

One of the sea gulls lurking nearby.

Reading under the sun. It did get a little hot after a while so I read with a cardboard box cover over my head... LOL

The two guys up to their antics...

And created SAND DUDE!

My dad added some sort of Speedo to cover up his privates.

After the beach, we went to get dinner.  I don't exactly remember what the place was called, but I remember we had walked around for a bit looking for somewhere to eat. My mom wanted lobster, and only one place served it-- the first restaurant we went to! So we ended up going there.

Dad's place of shrimp scampi on the left, and the twin lobsters on the right. Found out my dad likes shrimp scampi on this day, so ended up making it for Father's Day! Will post the photos of that some other time.

When dinner was over, we stayed and chatted for a little bit. Luckily the restaurant wasn't crowded at all so we weren't rushed out! And then... to the beach, to watch the sunset!

See those beautiful clouds? The way the evening sun lances everything with gentle gold light? So nice.

Gosh.

I love it.

I couldn't stop snapping photos. The light changed every minute and I wanted to keep a momento of it, because when the day's over, I'm not going to remember exactly how it looked. I can always go back, but there are gonna be gloomy days when it'll be hard to remember how beautiful the sunlight can be!

The trek from the parking lot to the canal. This also looks like an album cover.

Also kinda looks like an album cover!

Me in my fashionista outfit and mom.

And finally... the sun set.

What a beautiful day! I won't forget it. My job had been eating me alive and it's hard to remember that I'm a person, that I can enjoy things, because there are things that are enjoyable in life. I remember, when I was sitting at the beach, I constantly had to keep reminding myself not to feel so dead inside. Not that you can help it sometimes, you know? But I had to keep reminding myself, I'm not at work right now. I'm not at work. I don't have to deal with anyone, just relax, just enjoy it.  Even sitting in a beautiful place like the beach, away from work, I wasn't truly away from work. I was still anxious about going back. But now that it's almost been a month, I look back to that day and I only think about the beautiful weather and the carefree relaxing feeling of being with my family.

And that's a good thing. It's good to have good feelings. Five years later, all those bad memories would have been just another little pothole in the road, and I would remember the gentle ocean waves laced with evening sun.