We sailed on the early ferry

crossing through bright fog

to glacial remnants of cobble stones and sand.

We rode our bicycles to a beach where seagulls sat on their nests

watching us arrive.

I didn’t bring anything to read.

Fabled seascapes,

—the settings from thirty-five years of our yesterdays—

glowed in the haze.

Guess where we are, I said to my husband,

pretend we’re shipwrecked.

He guessed Hawaiian waters

rocky Maine coast

Tahitian princess.

Then he closed his eyes for a long rest.

I watched a seagull snap a stranded crab from the foam at the edge of the sea.

It hammered at the wriggling crustacean, drilled into it

until another seagull swooped down, to battle for leftovers

and won.

Satisfied, the intruder cleaned up in the surf.

We rode our bicycles through pasturelands, to walking trails, and found more beaches

where the ocean rolled onto the shore and over the rocks

Eternity’s loudest lullaby!

At the end of the day, a downhill dash

on a curvy road

spilled us back into the harbor town.

We cruised full speed—

sunburned, sunbathed, and sunstruck,

then stopped for frozen margaritas on a summertime porch.

I said,

When I was riding down the hill so fast, I felt twenty years old.

He said,

You look eighteen.

Long live the salty love story!

Adrift, in the mists of memory.

*****

Corn Neck Road to the end and a walk from Settler’s Rock out to the North Lighthouse and beach before later ferries, with more people, arrive on the island.

*****

The drama of everyday heartbreak in the gull-nesting areas.

*****

Clay Head Trail on bluffs with a rope-assisted climb down to the beach.

*****

The infamous Mohegan Bluffs.

Last bikes on the racks.