Day 11 - A Great Day on the Cape!
Today we had a FULL, great day out on the Cape.
We started our morning at the Mudflats in Brewster. The Shah family at the Cape Cod Branch told us about them. It was behind the Cape Cod Natural History Museum on a trail that goes out to the ocean. It's about a 20 minute walk through a Salt Marsh on boards and then onto an island forrest with pine trees and packed dirt and then back out onto the sand dunes until you come to the mudflats. You have to go at low tide. We checked the tides and figured that it would be perfect to head out around 9am. We found fiddler's crabs, crabs, hermit crabs, and a sand worm. Everyone loved catching crabs. We didn't have any buckets but I had some gallon ziplock bags so we brought those to catch "treasures." One of my favorite quotes of the day was from Isaac: "Mom, will you hold my bag? I want to catch these crabs "MAN-style." (with his hands).
We went straight from the awesome mudflats over to the Cranberry Bog tour in Harwich. Jeff was excited about it and thought it would be fun for the kids and his parents to visit a working cranberry farm. The reviews were good on Trip Advisor. People mentioned a petting zoo that sounded fun for the kids. Well....it wasn't quite what we pictured. It was really just an old school bus painted red driving a few laps around a dilapidated, run down farm with dry fields full of weeds, random animals wandering around, leftover junk and truckloads worth of D.I. goods stashed all over the property. It was nearly 2 hours! Brutal. Super boring.
We needed a "win" after the Cranberry Bog. We found a little local restaurant, Ruggie's, on yelp.com. It was risky but luckily it worked out. It was a cute little Cape Cod style diner on a quiet road all by itself. The staff was friendly and the food was delicious!
On the way to Ruggie's we'd passed a beautiful little kettle pond so we decided to go back and check it out. We spent an hour and a half swimming in this beautiful little pond (Sand Pond). It was seriously idyllic. This area has a ton of these kettle ponds. They were formed when the glacier that covered this area began to retreat and chunks of the glacier would break off and get left behind. As these ice chunks melted, they left these deep, sandy ponds surrounded by thick trees. This pond had 20-30 yards of sandy bottom where we could touch and then it dramatically dropped off and was completely black and you couldn't touch. Who knows how deep it was! Kira, Calvin, Jeff and I swam across the Kettle Pond. It was a good swim across. So fun!
We tried to go biking on the Cape Canal Rail Trail but the bike rental closed too early so we had ice cram at Cobie's instead.
We drove out to Orleans and went to Nauset Beach for nearly 2 hours. We body surfed and played in the waves and sand. We were told a 15' great white shark had been spotted on this same beach 2 days earlier. There was even a news van and camera there waiting to catch any happenings at the beach. We didn't see any sharks but we did see seals swimming REALLY close to the shore. I told the kids the rule was #1 Don't be the furthest one out and #2 Don't swim near seals! I love the beach!
After showering off and changing at the beach we headed to Welfleet for a good old-fashioned Drive-In movie on the Cape. It was a double feature but we knew we would only make it for the first movie, How to Train Your Dragon 2. We pulled out the back seats in the suburban and the kids got snuggled in the back with their popcorn and blankets. Jeff and I had some beach chairs on the ground and we snuggled up close with our own popcorn and blankets. It really was so fun. I kept looking up at the sky full of stars pinching myself. So fun!
It was a late night. We rolled in around 11:30pm and carried the little ones straight to bed and then collapsed ourselves. It was probably my favorite day so far! (And the kids agreed)!
AWESOME DAY!!
We started our morning at the Mudflats in Brewster. The Shah family at the Cape Cod Branch told us about them. It was behind the Cape Cod Natural History Museum on a trail that goes out to the ocean. It's about a 20 minute walk through a Salt Marsh on boards and then onto an island forrest with pine trees and packed dirt and then back out onto the sand dunes until you come to the mudflats. You have to go at low tide. We checked the tides and figured that it would be perfect to head out around 9am. We found fiddler's crabs, crabs, hermit crabs, and a sand worm. Everyone loved catching crabs. We didn't have any buckets but I had some gallon ziplock bags so we brought those to catch "treasures." One of my favorite quotes of the day was from Isaac: "Mom, will you hold my bag? I want to catch these crabs "MAN-style." (with his hands).
We went straight from the awesome mudflats over to the Cranberry Bog tour in Harwich. Jeff was excited about it and thought it would be fun for the kids and his parents to visit a working cranberry farm. The reviews were good on Trip Advisor. People mentioned a petting zoo that sounded fun for the kids. Well....it wasn't quite what we pictured. It was really just an old school bus painted red driving a few laps around a dilapidated, run down farm with dry fields full of weeds, random animals wandering around, leftover junk and truckloads worth of D.I. goods stashed all over the property. It was nearly 2 hours! Brutal. Super boring.
We needed a "win" after the Cranberry Bog. We found a little local restaurant, Ruggie's, on yelp.com. It was risky but luckily it worked out. It was a cute little Cape Cod style diner on a quiet road all by itself. The staff was friendly and the food was delicious!
On the way to Ruggie's we'd passed a beautiful little kettle pond so we decided to go back and check it out. We spent an hour and a half swimming in this beautiful little pond (Sand Pond). It was seriously idyllic. This area has a ton of these kettle ponds. They were formed when the glacier that covered this area began to retreat and chunks of the glacier would break off and get left behind. As these ice chunks melted, they left these deep, sandy ponds surrounded by thick trees. This pond had 20-30 yards of sandy bottom where we could touch and then it dramatically dropped off and was completely black and you couldn't touch. Who knows how deep it was! Kira, Calvin, Jeff and I swam across the Kettle Pond. It was a good swim across. So fun!
We tried to go biking on the Cape Canal Rail Trail but the bike rental closed too early so we had ice cram at Cobie's instead.
We drove out to Orleans and went to Nauset Beach for nearly 2 hours. We body surfed and played in the waves and sand. We were told a 15' great white shark had been spotted on this same beach 2 days earlier. There was even a news van and camera there waiting to catch any happenings at the beach. We didn't see any sharks but we did see seals swimming REALLY close to the shore. I told the kids the rule was #1 Don't be the furthest one out and #2 Don't swim near seals! I love the beach!
After showering off and changing at the beach we headed to Welfleet for a good old-fashioned Drive-In movie on the Cape. It was a double feature but we knew we would only make it for the first movie, How to Train Your Dragon 2. We pulled out the back seats in the suburban and the kids got snuggled in the back with their popcorn and blankets. Jeff and I had some beach chairs on the ground and we snuggled up close with our own popcorn and blankets. It really was so fun. I kept looking up at the sky full of stars pinching myself. So fun!
It was a late night. We rolled in around 11:30pm and carried the little ones straight to bed and then collapsed ourselves. It was probably my favorite day so far! (And the kids agreed)!
AWESOME DAY!!
Mikey holding a one week old baby lamb.
This picture makes it look like way more fun than it was! But the kids were amazing. They didn't complain or say it was boring even though it was unbelievably boring and LONG!
Awesome lunch at Ruggie's. The Apple Crisp French Toast was amazing!
Nauset Beach. I only wish we had boogie boards! The waves were so fun but the water was CO-OLD!
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