Highlights From Cape Cod
“Baba” plays the part of the matriarch and rents a house on the cape, then invites the families to come stay with her. Our responsibilities include making dinner (plus cleaning up) and enjoying ourselves.
This year was one of the rainiest summers in a long time, among the top 5 since record keeping began, but we still had plenty of time for fun.
We went on a whale watch out of Provincetown on Wednesday. It was really foggy and we didn’t see any whales, or anything at all, for almost two hours.
Suddenly, out of the fog, we stumbled across some whales that really showed off for a bit.
We discovered Skaket Beach, on the bay side of Orleans, on a beautiful afternoon.
The beach is very flat so as the tide retreats you can walk out very, very far.
There are natural tide pools that trap crustaceans. The kids had fun hunting hermit crabs and minnows. Tim dug up a couple of steamers to show the kids what lives beneath the sand.
Beta child made some new friends, as usual. Baba did, too, with a couple that lives in the next town over from us. Meghan and I had fun talking with them about local stuff, and listening to the husband grouse about local contractors and the crappy McMansions they put up.
A couple of days into our stay, a local hawk mother decided that her chicks were ready to leave the nest. One of the three wasn’t quite ready and complained, loudly, every remaining day of our stay.
The mother hawk, to her credit, never strayed too far away. The siblings showed up as well to coax him off his branch. This one, however, mostly hopped from tree to tree and demanded a nest and food.
Other highlights, of which there are no photos
- We got Baba on a rented tricycle and went a couple of miles up the Cape Code Rail Trail. The Fox family rode their bikes all the way from Orleans to Wellfleet.
- I rode solo from Orleans to Wellfleet, and Orleans to the Harwich Rotary a few days later
- We swam at Nauset Beach and Coast Guard Beach
- We walked around downtown Orleans and Chatham
- We got a perfect lunch at The Knack, an excellent dinner at Mahoney’s Atlantic Bar & Grill, and delicious ice cream at the Ice Cream Cafe
- Megh, Beta, and I went to the French Cable Museum and had a great time! (This was my personal favorite part of the entire trip)
- Nobody got sunburned (I think this is a first)