The Cape of Cod

I'll be honest. I've never seen a cod in a cape. I even did a quick Google image search for a cod in a cape, and came up with nada. Maybe I'll make a cape out of cod, but I suspect that it would be heavy and smelly. With that, I'm left to only talk about the place, Cape Cod. I like to just call the area, "the Cape," but apparently people out on Cape Ann think that THEY are on "THE" Cape. Silly people.

So, Cape Cod, in summer can be a mad-house, filled with people, people, and more people. I have a love-hate relationship with people. I'll let you figure out which people I love and which I hate, but needless to say, if I can go to the Cape when there are less people, I'm happy. So it works out well that Jean and I went down off-season. The tourists were gone, the traffic was light, the weather was still warm, and the beaches were empty.


Jean's parents had rented a great house, a stone's throw from the beach. Jean and I did some riding (road AND off-road), shell collecting, quahaug hunting, and some chillaxing.

It was a low-key week, for me at least. Jean's work had her shackled with a virtual ball and chain however. The Internet, cell phones, and e-mail all allow people to work from anywhere--even while on "vacation." We both spent some time in front of the computers, I was watching funny YouTube videos and editing photos, she was actually working. Bummer.

Anyway, one of the highlights for Jean's dad is quahaug hunting. He's got special rakes, a basket in an inner tube, and he's relentless in his pursuit for these hard clams. Unfortunately, I think his spot has been over harvested, and needs to lie fallow for a while. Our harvest was quite a bit smaller than last year, and other locals had the same results. I think he likes the challenge though. I helped as much as I could, then I handed my "haug-rake" over to Jean and picked up the camera.



The next morning, we were up early, to check out the sunrise. Later, we were back to get more quahaugs, and soon enough another day was in the bag. Damn... where did that day go?



The next day, Jean and I spent some time down in an area called "The Knob." Walking out an isthmus to a bulbous rocky outcropping, we had great views of the ocean, and some nice beaches to walk on. I found some of the smallest shells I've ever seen, and I started to reminisce about my younger days when I LOVED the ocean and wanted to be a marine biologist. My reminiscing was interrupted when I inadvertently got my feet wet in a little tidal pool. Damn. And. by the way, that aquatic career desire was ultimately supplanted by a goal of becoming a manager at a Burger King, which I did achieve. But, I digress.  Later we had to get to spot where Jean could call in to a meeting, so we chilled at a coffee shop in Woods Hole. Jean talked business, I read magazines, and some annoying nerdy guys laughed as obnoxiously as you'd expect loud nerdy guys to laugh.



There's actually some pretty good mountain biking down there, so it's no surprise that I brought our mountain bikes. We headed out for some sweet singletrack at the Trail of Tears. I don't know my way around there at all, so we just rolled around taking interesting trails whenever we could. We did about 10 miles or so, and just like last time, I'm reminded of how much fun the trail network is down there. Maybe worth a day trip for another adventure sometime soon...



Woods Hole, which as you should know, is a hub for oceanographic research, and it also hosts a tiny aquarium. I hadn't been to an aquarium, in, well, I don't know how long. I'm sure the last aquarium I had been to would have been the good old New England Aquarium in Boston. I was hoping for something of that caliber, but the aquarium in Woods Hole was pretty small. It was still interesting though, and I tried taking some pics of aquatic creatures in low light settings. Other than that, we had another chill day, with some cool, "dramatic" sky scenes, both during the day and at sunset.



We hopped on the ferry and took a trip over the Martha's Vineyard also. I didn't see Martha, nor did I see any vineyards, but we saw plenty of beaches, lighthouses, boats, and as you'd imagine, some amazing houses. There was a cluster of incredible Victorian homes which ran the spectrum from "needs some work," to "OMG." We had some great food--seafood of course, and I had perhaps one of the best cups of chowda ever. One the ferry back to Falmouth, we were subjected to an annoying assault of color commonly known as a sunset. I try really hard to be a "good" photographer, and I try to take pictures of interesting things. Often, though, I get to a sunset or other generic "photo-op" and the shutter starts flying. Sunset photos are hardly original, but I'm a sucker. The problem with this particular sunset is that it went on forever. And the sky and colors changed many times. It was annoying indeed. I challenged myself my trying to time some of my pics to when the lighthouse would have it's light shining towards me. You can see for yourself if I was successful.


Well, that's all for now. We packed up and headed home shortly after that. I've still got some more pics to go through, but this is a start. I can only take so many nautical photos at a time... I'll get back to making snarky posts and bike pics soon!