Cape Cod

You may have noticed my absence this past week or so (or not, how many readers could a new blog possibly have?). Since September is a slow time at work, I took the week of Labor Day off to go camping again with the kids. This time we decided to hit the National Seashore on Cape Cod. Even though we live on the East Coast, my kids have never had a chance to swim in the Atlantic Ocean. Long Island Sound, yes, but there are no waves there. Okay, there are, if you can call those ripples of water that lick your ankles waves.

Get all packed up, ready to go, head out before noon. We barely get to Rhode Island, and Buzz is starving. He's going to die if he doesn't eat. None of the snacks we have in the car will suffice. So....Lotus wants to try Cracker Barrel again. I'm game. We last ate breakfast there in eastern Ohio on the way back from Kentucky (I'll have to post about that trip later), so now it's lunchtime and I think it will be good to see what they have for lunch.

After a 20 minute wait, we get seated. I'm disappointed -- it's 12:30pm and all 3 menus we're given scream Breakfast Menu -- Breakfast served all day, every day. What?! Cracker Barrel is just a breakfast place? So we settle on bacon and eggs, biscuits and fried apples. Until I see what looks like onion rings headed for the next table. And the lady across the way has something green on her plate that resembles lettuce. What?! By this time we're just waiting for our check, but Lotus notices that the waitresses seem to be grabbing menus from two separate bins when she's seating people. The other menu? Of course. The lunch and dinner menu, which we apparently were NOT given. Live and Learn.

We get to our campground fairly easily and set up. The kids are dying to get to the beach. The map on the campground's website says campground abuts rail trail which abuts the ocean. But it doesn't. The beach turns out to be 1/2 mile away, down a side street. No biggie, we just hop in the car and go. High tide. Big waves. The kids aren't too sure about them. On the one hand they walk right in, but on the other the surf is up and I'm afraid of them getting sucked in by the undertow. We have fun, but don't stay long. It's after 5pm anyhow, the sun is going down. Time for dinner and a campfire.

The next day we head to Provincetown. Scope out the little town and find a beach near the pier. We're thrilled to see dogs are allowed on the beach, and they even provide doggie bags for messes. Dogs have fun. We find a dead horseshoe crab and get quite wet. Dogs too. We check out a few other beaches and decide to go back after lunch.

We hit Race Point Beach, but there are no waves. It's around the tip of the Cape, but we didn't realize that til afterwards. The kids still have fun in the water. Later, we hit the original beach (Nauset Beach, adjacent to the lighthouse). The tide is out (not low, just not high). We find there is a wonderful sandy bottom and the water is quite shallow out a ways from the beach. Perfect! We body surf some and decide to come back the next day when it's hot and sunny.

But overnight it rains. Hard. Downpours. We're glad we're not in a tent or we'd have a flood. Next day is overcast, so we decide a Whale Watch will be more fun than the beach. See several fin whales in the distance, a few sharks, and a happy humpback whale who performs for us.

So we had a wonderful trip. Next time I'll have to tell you about the new puppy...