It has slowly dawned on me what our situation is here. We are staying next to the busiest road along the south side of the Cape, loaded with strip malls, miniature golf areas, junk food eateries (there's a Dunkin Donuts every 3 mi it seems), and motels. This is very much like the road leading into the Smokeys. However, the towns on the Cape are quite varied; some have organized downtown areas, like Chatham, some are very diffuse. But we are definitely staying in the travelling family section of the Cape.
Hyannis has an organized downtown, quite nice, but not as upscale as Chatham. We got our tickets to Nantucket with no problem - slow boat over at 7:15 am, fast boat back at 6:30 pm. Then we drove around Hyannis a bit, went to the JFK Memorial. While there, a bus full of Seniors stopped for a potty break - the driver (also a Senior) was sitting outside the bus in a folding chair, staring at his feet - Good Lord, I hope I don't get to that point.
We drove up to the intersection of 6 and 6A and started our day, somewhat late, at the Sandwich Glass Factory. Along the way we came across this great New England sign. The factory closed in the early 1900s but before that had been pretty famous. It was the first to patent a pressed glass forming machine and it made hay while the patent lasted. A strike and competition closed it down. We saw a live glass blowing demo and a movie about the early times in Sandwich. It was a colony town soon after Plymouth.
Stopped at a small diner to get lunch to go and drove to the Cape Canal Visitor Center. Ate lunch and toured the museum. Sue took the exhibit boat for a drive. Very interesting, saw a Coast Guard buoy tender go by in the canal and a very large barge pushed by a tugboat. It was a very nice day, starting off cool and dry (Sue had her sweatshirt on) and slowly warming up. Outside we came across two couples sitting in lawn chairs next to the canel - a cozy scene, except the two guys were on one side of the parking lot and the two ladies on the other.
We drove off down 6A and stopped at the Fish hatchery - saw full grown (huge) Trout - Rainbows, Tigers, Browns. And lots of fish in various stages of growth. It was a nice day to be out.
We drove along 6A, not finding much else to stop for. Tried to go to a beach along the way - $20 parking fee - forget it. We had heard that Brewster was a nice town but we could find no downtown. Stopped at the Visitors Center and found that, sure enough, there was no downtown. We also learned that, in Brewster, the beach parking enforcement stopped at 3:00 and it was now 4. So off we went to Breakwater Beach, parked and walked for awhile. This is the first Bay beach we walked on. The Bay water was warm, but full of grass and "stuff" - the beach was barren of shells and rocks.
We had learned about the big Nickerson State Park near Brewster - the former hunting preserve of a very rich person who owned two large stone mansions along 6A. It was free so we stopped there for a walk. Had trouble finding the path around one of the ponds, but Pioneer Sue came through. We walked to a swimming beach and back. And then off to dinner.
Stopped at a Hearth and Kettle in Orleans. Sue have liver and onions, I had broiled scrod (yeah- I got scrod again!) - it was very good, though the veggies and dessert had some "new" spices. We tried to remember all the places we had eaten at and what we had - it finally came to us. We checked home phone messages and found one from a Realtor - wants to check out the rental house - Massoud got the letter stating our intent to move. Here we go!
Back to the room by 8. Long day. The wireless Internet connection I had been using the past three days now asks me for a password - somebody caught on. Oh well.
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