More Cape Cod bliss

Yesterday was my last full day at the Cape. In the morning I took J to the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History. We first learned about Cape Cod during the Ice Age and how it's changed since then. J is sitting in front of a woolly mammoth tusk in this picture. It's hard to imagine such immense creatures roaming Cape Cod!
Here is a woolly mammoth tooth!

Next, we went to watch the osprey. The museum has a camera focused on an osprey nest behind the museum. A mama osprey was feeding her three babies while we were there.

After hanging out with the osprey for quite a while we went downstairs to the aquarium. We gazed and gazed at these moon jellies. So beautiful!

While I was there I showed a volunteer a picture of the turtle we saw out in the ocean the other day. She told us it was a diamond-backed terrapin.

A picture with a lobster is always fun. . .

And a picture with a toad fish. I love this guy!

What a great museum. I could have stayed there all day learning about marine life but J was ready to go. We spent the afternoon at the beach. It was low tide and these boats were just sitting on the sand. The fog, as you can see, was so dense and you could walk and walk without reaching the sea. Beautiful and mysterious. I felt like I had walked right into a murder mystery!

This here's Hermie. J befriended many hermit crabs.

Goodbye Cape Cod-see you next year!

A Cape Cod Day

Today started off rainy so J snuggled up in bed while the boys went out on the porch to play cards. I finished up Plainsong (I hate it when a good book ends!) and then we all got ready to go to the Brewster Store. J and B got to pick out some penny candy-a hard choice!

Then we drove along route 6A to Sandwich. Our first stop was pizza and then on to the Thornton W. Burgess Museum. We learned a bit about his life growing up in Sandwich and I purchased his first book of bedtime stories which he wrote for his son.

Next we visited a trout hatchery also in Sandwich. I've never been to a fish hatchery so that was pretty interesting. These trout are being raised here and then being released into the wild.

A quick detour to Hyannis to tour the Cape Cod Potato Chip Factory. The kids were happy to receive free potato chips at the end of the tour. This helped a little with B's mood (he really had just wanted to stay back at the cabin and play cards. It can be so hard to meet every one's needs!)

As the sun was coming out, we headed back to the cabin. Jeff and the kids went swimming in the lake while I rested my back. When they returned Jeff and B decided to play some soccer and cards while J and I headed to the bay.

Aaahhhhh!

J entertained herself for quite a while playing with what she called "goo pods" (seaweed) while I took in all this beauty.

We went back and got B and Jeff and headed to Cobies for dinner.

Waiting for dinner.

Then off to the bay for a little walk.

I learned while I was here that barnacles attach their heads to rocks and kick in their food. They are open when they are in water and then close up when out in the sun to protect themselves. They are attached to the rocks with limestone that they produce using ocean water (correct me if I'm wrong!) They stay like this for the whole of their adult lives.

Good night Brewster!

Summer vacation

I've been away on vacation since last Thursday and haven't wanted to spend much time on the computer but I thought I'd share a little of what we've been doing. First of all, we're staying in a little cabin in Brewster, MA (Cape Cod). This is my second year staying at this cabin and I'm enjoying every minute of it! The day we arrived was a beautiful, sunny day (they haven't seen many of these at the Cape recently) so we first headed to the lake at Nickerson State Park. My sister and her three kids were able to join us for a few days. They are staying with my parents in MA for the summer (they live in China). Here are Brianna and Christopher checking out their rock treasures.

The lake was full of tadpoles. The kids were able to just catch them with their hands (they released them after a few minutes).

We then headed to Brewster bay. This is one of my favorite spots. At low tide, the tide goes out maybe a mile or two(I'm terrible at estimating distances) and becomes a wonderful spot to explore and study marine life. One little boy found this turtle in the ocean. Isn't it cute!

The next morning when we woke up J made us all some pancakes. She's quite skilled with that spatula!

Then it was back to the bay for some kite flying(this here's Robo-man, he came with my sister from China).

Elliot is showing us that he knows his letters and sounds.

Some digging in the sand. . .

A magical scene. . .

Some card playing before bedtime. B is teaching his cousins some of his favorite games.



This morning brought more cards (today it was spoons). . .

And then my sister and her kids left to go back to my parents' house. :( Jeff took J and B biking on the rail trail (a wonderful bike trail that goes through maybe 6 towns-a total of about 25 miles) while I read Plainsong by Kent Haruf back at the cabin. I'm thoroughly enjoying this book!


This evening we drove to Wellfleet to go here:

This was the one place Jeff really wanted to go to while at the Cape. And here is the dish he wanted to have-Portuguese stew. Delicious!

On the way home from dinner I had Jeff snap a picture of my favorite store around here as we drove by. They have everything you could ever need while on vacation. The penny candy section is always a hit!

Hope you're all enjoying your summer as well. I'll catch up on my blog reading when I return home!

A toad-aly fun day

The strawberry festival!

Today we went here for a strawberry festival. We all had a good time. There was the eating of strawberry shortcake,

and the climbing on tires,

the feeding of the animals,

a kiss for B,

climbing at the playground

and the Bouncy House!