Innkeepers tend to stay close to home, much like caregivers. When Sven and I were homecaring my mom in the last years of her life, we used to joke about being stuck in our “beautiful prison.” Bea passed away almost three years ago and we are still here, finding little opportunity to get away. There are requests for reservation that beg immediate response, phone calls to answer. The busy innkeeper always has something to do: laundry, baking, housekeeping, garden upkeep. So, it was with particular pleasure that I set off on an adventure yesterday afternoon. With me was friend Maroussia Chavchavadze. We headed towards Pain D’Avignon Bakery in Hyannis, the perfect spot to meet anyone on vacation at the other end of Cape Cod. The bakery/café is tucked down Hinckley Road, near the rotary. Once you find this unusual place and make abstraction of all the chaos and cement that characterizes Hyannis, you want to stay. Elegant black tables, rows and rows of fresh bread, PATISSERIES! Marousia and I had come to meet Sana Krasikov and her mother. Sana is a young writer, whom I have admired ever since I read her first short story collection, One More Year. Mrs. Krasikov is originally from the Ukraine but spent many years in Georgia, her husband’s country. Maroussia regaled us with personal stories of her family and reports of annual trips to Georgia for the non-profit American Friends of Georgia. We spent over an hour together and felt reluctant to leave these two new friends, who promised to come down to Wellfleet on a future visit to explore our end of Cape Cod.
