On The Beach

The rain and clouds finally blew away Wednesday and the wind itself died down that night. Thursday was finally our day at the beach. With most schools still in session and the official start of the tourist season a couple weeks away, we had the beach virtually to ourselves.



As you can see here, it was low tide at Cape Cod Bay. I walked out to the furthest dry sandbar that I could reach and counted my paces on the return. I calculated it out to a quarter mile. One could keep walking another sixteenth of a mile and still have one's head above water. Being so shallow, the water was warm. Even when the tide came in, the warm sand took the chill out of the incoming waves. It made for the perfect beach setting for small children as they could play and explore to their hearts' content without their parents worrying about them getting slammed by a wave or drowning. Said parents could relax and not have to maintain high alert vigilance status.

Cape Cod Bay has filled in over the few millenia that Cape Cod has been around. Cape Cod was formed roughly 15,000 years ago from glacial moraine (debris deposited by glaciers) along with several islands (Nanucket, Martha's Vineyard, Block Island, Long Island, etc). Sticking out into the Atlantic, it's exposed to every severe storm that winds its way up the coast. Erosion is a huge problem. At various national parks along the ocean side, there are monuments to commemorate the loss of structures that used to exist but have been consumed by the sea. Highland Light was moved inland to avoid such a fate. I wouldn't be surprised if they had to move it again before the end of the century.

The last time we were up at the Cape, Alex was 2 1/2 and loved playing on the beach. He built sand castles, collected rocks and shells, and drove his big Tonka dump truck around as if it were one giant construction site. In fact, he would've been happy if we didn't do anything else but go to the beach. Other activities weren't met with the same level of enthusiasm.

Since that trip, Alex's interest in the Great Outdoors waned, except for his weekly foray into the sandbox. He'd pine for 5 o'clock when SpongeBob would come on. Even our subsequent trips were nothing more than an opportunity for him and I to butt heads and lock horns until one of us yielded, with my wife/his mother playing referee. And Rebecca's birth didn't help matters.

So it was with some trepidation that I set off on this trip of ours. Much to my surprise, Alex and Rebecca embraced the Great Outdoors. Alex would lead the way on the hikes, help us spot the birds back at the house, and once again yearned to get down to the beach. Once there, he wanted to know what everything was. Snails, sand worms, and hermit crabs had to be identified and catalogued. He even dug pools for them so that they wouldn't dry out in the sun while waiting for the tide to come in.



But the best part, at least from my view, was his willingness to overcome his fear of the water to explore. For some reason, bodies of water bother him. Although he's never had any incidents with tubs or pools (unlike me), he's always been afraid of getting into water over his head. He'll even cry if he gets water on his face in the bath. But this time out was different.

We saw a dead horseshoe crab on the beach near the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History in Brewster. He was fascinated by it and wanted to see a live one really badly. I did too. I was always fascinated by them as a kid (and still am). After all, these guys have been around for hundreds of millions of years, virtually unchanged. They were hanging with the trilobites back in the day and were ancient long before the dinosaurs showed up.

While wading out in knee deep water as the tide started coming in, I spotted one. I called out to Alex and he came out to join me. As the water got deeper on him (and me), I told him, "If the water gets too deep for you, let me know, and I'll carry you." He went out to his waist and, without whining, asked if I could pick him up. I did, of course, and we followed the horseshoe crab around for about ten minutes before it retreated into deeper water.



I felt connected to him again. While he was never in any danger, he displayed bravery in wading out to me in water that was far deeper and stranger than any bathtub or kiddie pool he was used to. He let his curiosity about the world take over and left the safety of his comfort zone to experience something new. He gave me hope that I wasn't just raising another suburban TV zombie. He made me proud.

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DED

The Birds and the Beers

Now, with more pictures!

Sunday was a mix of rain and clouds. Not exactly beach weather but, as we would soon learn, a sign of things to come for the days ahead. Staying indoors the whole time was a recipe for disaster. The kids would only be good for so long, as would I. So we drove to Brewster for the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History.

It's a nice little place that incorporates a library, a lecture hall, AV displays, a bird watching room, and an aquarium. They were celebrating the centennial of the birth of Rachel Carson, the mother of the environmental movement. You know her as the author of Silent Spring, the book that got the pesticide DDT banned in the US. Unfortunately, some people don't see that as a good thing.

The kids, being 5 and 1 1/2, have short attention spans. I constantly had to accelerate my viewing of the indoor exhibits. The bird watching room, with its osprey cam, wasn't active enough to hold their attention so we went downstairs to the aquarium. They loved that. It was full of crabs, turtles, fish, lobsters, and even jellyfish. There was a shallow tank where the kids could see tidal pool denizens and torment them with shrieking and splashing.

Outside, there's a trail that one can take to Cape Cod Bay. You have to cross a tidal marsh, bordered by Quivett Creek and Stony Brook, via a path constructed of two side-by-side 2x8's and a small wooden bridge constructed of the same. You can wave to the ospreys in their nest. You travel through some tall grasses and a forest of pitch pine and bear oak. Eventually you reach the shore, where tidal pools lay quietly littered with the carcasses of horseshoe and shore crabs.

As I mentioned, in the previous post, we ate at The Sea Dog, which had a great selection of beer. They had a special on Berkshire Brewery's Hefeweizen in the 22 oz bottle. Tammy's a wheat beer aficionado so she ordered it. Trying to keep the kids in line, I didn't really have a chance to look over the beer menu so I just said, "Make it two." We both thought that it was ok. It's a light bodied beer beer with a hazy straw colored look. There was a strong clove taste to it that turned me off to it. I wouldn't buy it again.

It rained on and off all day on Monday so didn't go far. After dinner, ground beer and mushrooms with pasta right here, Tammy and I took Rebecca out in the stroller for a walk. It was only lightly misting; none of us seemed to mind. We found a house for sale. We laughed when we looked up the price. Considering that it was one of the smaller homes here in the neighborhood, I can easily see the larger and nicer places going for double and triple.

Tuesday started out sunny, but the clouds rolled in as we were getting ready to head to the beach. By the time we got down to the water, the wind was so strong that I could feel my legs getting sandblasted. Not good for the little ones. So we went back to the house and the thunderstorm hit. Once it was done, we drove over to the former Coast Guard surf-rescue station just south of the Nauset Lighthouse and hit the trail through the tidal marsh and surrounding forest.

It was warm as we descended away from the station. We came up to the tidal marsh and there was a walkway constructed of that plastic decking material (the name eludes me). As the sun burned through the remnants of the storm clouds, the wind blew them across the tidal pond. The temperature immediately dropped 10 degrees! It actually felt refereshing. The rest of the hike wasn't of interest, though I spotted some yellow bird, probably a warbler, though it was flying so fast that I didn't get a good look.

While Rebecca took her nap, we set up camp on the observatory deck. With a pair of binoculars, Stokes Field Guide to Birds, and some Wachusett Blueberry Ale, we were all ready to go. The day did not disappoint. The bird feeders were the hot spot of the neighborhood. Besides the commonplace blue jay, mourning dove, and Northern Cardinal, we spotted several others that we don't get to see at home. The first surprise was the Eastern Towhee, one of many birds that we'd never seen before.

Several sparrows showed up and it was hard to tell one from the other. There were House Sparrows (which is actually in the Weaver Finch family), Song Sparrows, and Seaside Sparrows. I may be wrong on my classification of these. Perhaps there were Swamp Sparrows. There's little variation in the plumage of these guys. I'm sure veteran birdwatchers would disagree but I'm new at this.

Tammy spotted a mated pair of American Goldfinches, which are pretty birds. This was another bird that we'd never seen before. It's also known as the "wild canary" though I'm sure that was before canaries escaped captivity and actually became wild. I wonder what they'd say about the parrots that live along Connecticut's coast. Didn't hear about that one? Well, back in the 90's, rumor has it that a truck carrying parrots crashed and all the birds escaped. They've adapted to their new environment and either migrate south during the winter or have found some way to survive it. I used to live in Norwalk so I'd see them flying around all the time. I've seen their giant nests so I wouldn't be surprised if they stuck around. Those things looked well insulated.

The Wachusett Blueberry Ale is a light-bodied straw-colored ale. The blueberry flavoring doesn't overwhelm. This is a great beer for drinking during the warm weather, assuming that you don't mind fruit-flavored ales. Hops and malt are mild as is typical of the style.

I spotted a grackle for the first time. I'm pretty sure that it was a Boat-Tailed Grackle, but it might've just been a Common Grackle. The one I saw had a black head with a blue collar but Stokes says that they don't live this far north, at least not yet. The book was written in 1996 and said that it was expanding its range to the north and west so who knows.

The red plumage of a House Finch made for false Cardinal sightings. Also causing a bit of confusion were the Chickadees. I keep thinking that I'm seeing Carolina Chickadees, but they're not supposed to live this far north, at least not in the 90's. The Black-capped Chickadee is probably what I keep seeing. Or maybe a hybrid of the two. They move so fast!

We tried eating out again that night at a place that was supposed to be family friendly. I guess it was ok, though everyone else who came in afterwards was seated as far away from us as possible. One couple was next to us, but was moved within five minutes. Anyway, I had a Newport Storm: Hurricane Amber Ale, which was really good. It's a medium-bodied beer with the hops and malt balanced so that neither dominates, but the flavors come through. Alot of the ingredients are German, but it's far better than any import. 5.2% ABV. I'd definitely buy this one again and I'd certainly recommend it.

Today started out again with sunny skies, although it was a bit chilly. The clouds rolled in while Tammy was on another conference call for work. It drizzled on and off so we had to postpone the beach yet again. We went out to Marconi Station, the site of the first transatlantic wireless communication. After viewing the ravages of the sea, we hit the white cedar swamp trail. It starts out with pitch pine and bear oak, which looks alot like pin oak, and descends to a swamp filled with beautiful white cedar pine trees. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough of a breeze and the mosquitoes, who've been really loving me this year, converged on me in a swarm. I had Rebecca on my back in a backpack style carrier so I hotfooted out of there as fast as I could hike (it was uphill to get out). The skeeters didn't give up until I was back in the parking lot, a half mile later.

So why did we go to the swamp? Well, in the past, we've spotted frogs and turtles. Alex has been showing signs of a desire to explore and he wanted to see them in the wild. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes were ravenous (previous times they weren't bad at all) and we couldn't linger.

While I wrote this I drank a Smuttynose Summer Hefeweizen and lo and behold the skies cleared. It's a straw colored light bodied beer, good for summertime drinking. There's a light tangy feeling on the tongue. There's a pleasant aftertaste, which makes this ale refereshing for warm weather drinking. They used Belgian ale yeast. While it may seem odd to do that with a German style beer, I found it to be complementary. It's definitely better than the Berkshire Brewery offering. A good beer, but not a great beer. I'll probably buy it again.


Ooooh a red fox. Gotta go.

Later...

Tammy got a picture of the fox. Unfortunately, it looks like he's taking a dump.

Anyway, a couple more surprise bird sightings. One is the Townsend's Solitaire. According to Wiki, this is normally a Rocky Mountain range bird and it's absence from my Stokes "Eastern Region" guide would lend creedence to that. However, it's been spotted on Cape Cod before.

The other big surprise is that of a pair of Northern Bobwhites, a quail-like bird. It's got to be the polar opposite of House Sparrow. Quiet, slow, ground dwellers, these two were meekly pecking at the ground beneath the feeders for fallen seeds.

I think that's it. If someone else shows up, I'll be sure to share.

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DED

From Cape Cod

My wife was finally allowed to take time off from work. With six weeks spent in either Richmond or Atlanta this year, it's nice that she finally gets some time away with the kids. The only drawback is that she's got to sit in on a conference call this afternoon.

Once again, we're vacationing on Cape Cod. This is our third time out here, the second with kids. I'll admit that I'm not too psyched to go on trips with my kids. To me, vacations should be relaxing, stress free excursions where I get to have lots of fun. Since I'm the stay-at-home parent, these trips don't qualify as vacations as I still have my job to do. While Tammy's here to help out, it's still the same job, just in a different location. One has to pack up enough toys, diapers, etc. to make sure the kids are covered.

At home, I don't go out to dinner with my kids. On trips, I'm forced to. Dining out with my son, Alex, as a baby and as a toddler was not fun. When he was a baby he'd scream for attention, forcing my wife and me to inhale our food and exit the restaurant ASAP, running from the "shut yer kid up, will ya" glares. When he was a toddler, he'd trash the place. One time he hit me in the eye and I open it for 15 minutes. He was never like this at home. While he wasn't an angel, he at least behaved.

When Rebecca came along, there was no way I wanted to deal with two kids out at a restaurant. So, we never ate out as a family. On the drive up here, we had to stop for lunch. Tammy and I figured that Alex would be old enough to behave and that Rebecca would be the troublemaker. After all, Alex is 5 and Rebecca is 1 1/2. We stopped at a Friendly's just over the RI - Mass border on I-195. We ordered a grilled cheese for Alex. He's always bugging Tammy to make him one when she's home. He even agreed to it. Instead, he complained that he didn't like it and sulked when we wouldn't let him fill up on fries. Rebecca, on the other hand, gladly ate all the apple sauce I gave her and chowed on the fries.

Last night we decided to eat out at The Sea Dog, a restaurant/bar. We ate there the previous time we vacationed here and remembered that they had good beer and food. Plus, it was one place that Alex behaved himself and the staff liked him too. But all was not great. Alex started whooping it up and being a spaz. I was forced to use the "voice of authority" in conjunction with what my wife called the "Vulcan Death Grip" to get him to settle down. He had chicken tenders, normally his favorite food, but getting him to finish a negotiated portion was a struggle. Rebecca, by contrast, chowed on rolls, goldfish, and fries. Not really nutritious but she behaved.

But it's not all bad. Despite the uncooperative weather, the kids have only had their usual squabbles ("That's mine", "She's bothering me"). While it doesn't make for a relaxing time, they haven't been any worse than at home. It helps that we rented a house instead of boarding at a hotel. There's alot of space and the place is nicely furnished with two TV's and VCR/DVD players so we can reward Alex with TV time (the newly animated "Transformers" is big with him right now) and not worry about Rebecca bothering him.

This is still off season so we were able to save 60% or so on lodging. It made the week affordable. I don't have any pictures yet (and I don't think I ever loaded any photo editing software into this laptop) so, if you're interested, you can check out their website. We snagged Cottage B, which has two main level decks and one observation deck up on the roof. Wireless internet access feeds in from the other house. The signal is weak but it works.

We can see Cape Cod Bay from the living room, even on this foggy, rainy day. It's a very short walk to the beach, which Alex has been eager to go to, despite the inclement weather. He's finally showing a desire for exploration, something he lacked last time. More on that for a later post.

There's a bird feeder which attracts several types of birds. Of course, there's chipmunks and American Red Squirrels scavenging for seeds. But the birds aren't having any problems getting in there for food. I'm making a list of birds we've spotted and I'll post those later.

I know this post is a departure for me, especially writing about my kids, but a change of pace will probably do some good.

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DED