Post trip thoughts about Boston and Cape Cod

I discovered almost as much about me this trip as I did about the area in which I was a child. In no particular order of importance or relevance, those realizations/discoveries are below.

• Apparently walking in sandals and flip-flops for decades has rendered me incapable of walking  in rubber-soled shoes on carpet. When I tripped over my own feet three times during our stay in Boston, Barbara got a bit nervous and I was compelled to do some serious analysis of the events. I was wearing my Brooks' running (well, in my case, walking) shoes so balance was not the issue. I walked for 4-5 hours each day on Boston's always changing pavement styles without stumbling once; it was only in the hotel that I fell. I deduced the difference was carpet. I live in a non-carpet house and almost no one i know has carpet - tile and hardwood floors are most common. My realization was that my sandal years had not induced me to lift my feet too much when I walk, consequently when I "slid" my feet on carpet, the rubber soled Brooks did not cooperate and BOOM! So, I spent the cape Cod portion of the trip muttering "Lift Feet" to myself when ever we encountered carpet. I am sure some folk thought I was demented or mumbling a spell!
• I need to be hydrated. The two mornings, I neglected to bring water with me, I got snappy and cranky. my good humor returned almost immediately after consuming liquid.
• I wonder how people who don't read exits on rainy days in a small condo. One reason Barbara and I vacation well together is that each of can disappear into  the printed words for long stretches of time. How incomparably fortunate we are that we can sit/sprawl in the same room for hours with our noses in books. 
• I function much better when I begin my day with a protein-based breakfast rather than a waffle-based one. 
• Though hugely overweight, I can walk for hours on mostly level ground; it's stairs and steps that slow me down. However, as Sheila has noted in the past, by the time a week has passed, those same stairs are no impediment, my leg muscles have reawakened themselves…just in time for me to return to the land of one-floor houses.
• I prefer staying in a place with a full working kitchen rather than spending a week with a microwave and a toaster. I have no idea how traveling sales people exist comfortably.
• Waiters, desk clerks and cashiers seem really surprised when you talk with them rather than at them. How sad is that! I suppose my tendency to chat with them is a remnant of my years as a waitress and cashier.
• After 4-5 days, I have to gird my loins to accept with patient good nature someone else driving me around everywhere. I'm sure it is a personal control issue, rather than a personality one. Or it's evidence of my decades of independence influencing my actions, like my reluctance to ask for help. 
• Sofa beds have improved immensely since I last slept on one 20 years ago!
• Beginning any day with a swan sighting is always a blessing!
• I have to admit to being a Floridian. I was aghast that folks were on the whale watch in shorts and t-shirts! My blood has definitely thinned.
• I LOVE the ocean! That instant when the bow spray hit my face on the ride out to see the whales and my tongue tasted salt water plunged me into one of those glow moments when time is suspended and you're just really, really happy!
• Barbara and I can disagree and still grin.
• I don't miss snow, but I do miss chilly air. I was so comfortable this trip, then I walked off the plane in Jax and thought, "Yikes! I'm in a sauna!" and grimaced. 
• Never leave home without your binoculars!
• Always check for a corkscrew before visiting a vineyard!