Boat Meadow Beach

August 2010:

Cape Cod is the perfect environment for bike riding. Not only is there the really terrific Cape Cod Rail Trail (which provides about 20 miles of

bike trails on the Outer Cape), but the terrain is generally flat. Consequently, riding on the roads is easy on the legs.

My favorite time to

ride my bike is in the early morning. I like to leave the house by 7:00 a.m. At that time of day, there is very little traffic either on the roads or on the bike trails. Additionally, the sun is not yet out in full force and so the air temperature is usually very comfortable.

One of my favorite short rides is to Boat Meadow Beach. Boat Meadow Beach is the closest bay

side beach to our house. It's just over a mile away. It is also the

smallest beach in our area. The parking lot probably holds no more than a dozen cars, and it's so small that it is not normally "policed" for parking stickers. There is no beach attendant or life guard during the day. Essentially, it is very quiet. But it's a very pretty little beach.

It is located just around the corner from Rock Harbor, and if you get there between 7:00 a.m. and 7:30 a.m., you can see the parade of deep sea fishing boats (for hire) departing Rock Harbor in a single file. There are usually between 6 and 12 boats (or more) heading out.

The beach area is very small and it merges into a marsh area, which makes for interesting bird watching as well. Occasionally, you will see a kayak or two moving around in the marsh and heading for the channel that runs under the bridge on Bridge Road. On the morning that Karen and I rode to Boat Meadow Beach, we saw a blue heron wading in the marsh -- before it took off into the sky.

There are also a few small boats that anchor here, and they are a pretty addition to the landscape at any time of the day.

Pool Time

August 2010

This year during our Cape Cod vacation, we especially enjoyed our time around the pool. We had fantastic weather during our entire two weeks, and it was our habit to spend the mornings at the beach and the afternoons around the pool. It is the most perfect combination!

We had a little bit of trouble with the pool during the first week because the heater was not working, and we had to wait several days before an electrician could fit us into his schedule and make the necessary repair. Luckily, the air temperatures were high

so the pool temperature -- even without the heater working --

was comfortable. But, by the weekend, we had the heater working, and then it wasa heavenly 84 degrees.

Our pool activities included playing basketball and volleyball, getting the dogs to ride the floats, and enjoying a cool drink poolside!

A Whale of a Day

Friday, August 5, 2010:

One of my Mom's passions is to go on a whale watch. Luckily, she is joined in her eagerness by Karen and John. They tend to make this activity an annual event, and this year was to be Gabriel's first time on a whale watch. I decided to make it

my first time as well. I have shied away from this activity in the past because I have a tendency towards seasickness, but I planned ahead and brought my Dramamine with me.

We made our excursion on one of the boats in the Dolphin fleet. The family that started the Dolphin whale watch tours are pioneers in this industry. It was in the mid-1970s that they expanded their charter fishing business to include boat tours devoted exclusively to whale-watching. They were the first tour group to do so. Now, whale watching cruises are popular in many locations on the shores of the US. But Provincetown was the first to offer them!

The coast off New England is uniquely well situated for whale watch tours because it is the location of the Stellwagen Bank. The Stellwagen Bank is a 200 foot deep, miles long bank that is ideal for the feeding habits of whales.

Our whale watch experience began at 11:00 a.m. We pulled away from the dock and headed out to the Stellwagen Bank. It takes about an hour to get there, but I was assured we would see some smaller whales and/or dolphins along the way. Well, we didn't see anything. Over an hour passed, and Karen was getting just a bit upset.

Finally, we saw a small group of boats and sailboats clustered together. And there was something going on in the water nearby. A group of whales was surfacing and then diving for food. We joined these other boats and

were thoroughly entertained for the next 45 minutes.

There were six whales in this group. The whales were recognizable to the crew of our boat. They see the same whales all the time, and they have given names to most of them. In the group we were observing, the youngest whale was a "baby" that was only about a year old. He was the most frisky of the group. But we were entertained by them all as they surfaced, swam about, and dove. It was a great excursion and a great day.

Our First Stop - Nauset Light Beach

Monday, August 1, 2010

Today was our first full day at the beach, and for our first beach outing, we chose Nauset Light Beach, one of two National Seashore beaches in Eastham. Nauset Light Beach is the smaller of the two (measured by parking lot), and so it tends to get slightly less crowded.

Like so many Cape Cod, ocean side beaches, Nauset Light Beach has suffered a great deal of erosion over the years. At this point, the parking lot can get no bigger because it now backs up on the road and there are residential properties on the other side of that road.

Nauset Light Beach is unique for several other reasons. As the name suggests, there is a functioning lighthouse at the top of the dune overlooking this beach. To save it from the

effects of erosion, the lighthouse was actually moved several hundred feet from the cliff face about 10 years ago. I should be safe there -- for at least another 40 years.

Because the parking lot for this beach is so small, it fills up very quickly. So you need to get here early. For Eastham home owners (i.e., taxpayers), however, there are about 60 parking spaces reserved in this lot just for us. This is really a great benefit. Although these spaces fill up too, they do not fill up as quickly, and we are easily able to get into the lot any time before 10:30am. Because we tend to get to the beach much earlier than that, this is not a huge issue for us, but it is still a nice

convenience to be able to fall back on.

The beach was very pretty today -- also very comfortable. It was sunny day, with a few clouds meandering about. The air temperature was in the low 80's. The water temperature was a very comfortable 62 degrees. For the Cape, that's actually warm! We spent a pleasant four hours at the beach and then headed home to take a refreshing dip in the pool.

For dinner tonight, we feasted on Lobster Risotto. Chris and I tried making this recipe a couple weeks ago at home, and we were slightly disappointed with the results. But we had

made a large quantity of lobster broth at the time and so we froze the remainder and brought it with us here to give it another try. The results today were much better. I think we hit upon the right combination of ingredients and we added a bit more salt to bring out the flavors.

With so many of us here who like to cook, I think we will eat very well at the beach this year.