Last August, after Flo’s illness and death, and after Barry and I had done the sorting and cleaning of her apartment, we got away to to the Cape for a couple of days of quiet.

Quiet wasn’t exactly what it turned out to be.  In addition to massive thunderstorms that blew in and out, with thunder that would wake Rip Van Winkle, we stumbled upon the greatest parade we had ever seen.  It was part of Provincetown Carnival.  The theme was Fairy Tales.  And it was fabulous.  It was just what Flo would have wanted us to do… celebrate life and people who make life happen.  The streets and restaurants and bars and gift shops were filled and overflowing with old people and young people, babies, kids, teenagers, gay people and straight people, bikers and grandmas, fishermen and bankers, and everything in-between.  Together.  Having fun.

We made a promise to come back each year for the parade, the fun and the festivities.   And although we had a zillion things to do this year, both professional and personal, we had made plans to return to the parade with two couples of wonderful friends, and we just couldn’t not go.

So what did we do?  We squeezed about a hundred hours of fun into just over 24.  We left home at 7:00 am yesterday and returned home at around 10:00 am today.  This year’s Carnival Parade theme was Summer of Love – Peace, Love & GoGo Boots, and oh, the participants did not disappoint.  One young man in the parade stopped where we were standing, handed me some glittery beads and said, “Oh, honey… you need some beads.”

Fun and fabulous?  I think I’ll let some photos speak for themselves:

And yes… we will be back next year!