Cape Cod - July 2008
In early July we took a trip to see Kristina's family on the Cape.
This was the first time in a while we got to visit there during the summer.
On the way out we got stuck in a heavy rain/hail/thunderstorm on the Mass
Pike, and once that was over we got stuck in night construction all along
495. We did make it eventually.
The next day we were up early, and went to
Mass Audubon Long Pasture for a Butterfly talk. After watching some
slides we went in search of butterflies, and saw a few.
Here's a skipper of some sort sitting on some clover (I really need
a macro lens):
And here's some sort of butterfly with eye spots (yes, we're being exact
and scientific here):
The next day we went on a grand tour of the outer cape, because I hadn't
really been there before. We first stopped at Fort Hill and went
for a hike:
Then we went to Marconi Beach, where 100 years ago Marconi set up
a wireless transmitter to communicate across the Atlantic. The transmitter
is long since gone (and the actual site is mostly washed away) but they
had a nice model:
Here's a picture of the nearby beach, you can't tell but it's at least
30-40 feet down to the level of the ocean:
We then stopped by Newcomb Hollow beach to take a look at the wreck of
an old Schooner that washed ashore this past winter. It's starting
to get covered up again, but is still there:
We then went to Provincetown, for our final destination which was
a whale watch. Here's a picture of the Pilgrim Monument (which previously
I had only seen from above from an airplane on its way to Sweden):
We eventually found our whale-watch boat, and before long we were
out to sea. This is I think the Race Point Light (there were at
least three light houses we went past):
It was a bit windy out, and the water was a little choppy. I managed
not to get wet; others on the boat weren't as lucky.
We first encountered some Finback Whales, first from a distance:
And then a bit more close up:
We spent a lot of time following them around, and Kristina was getting
impatient, wanting to see some others. So we zoomed out a bit,
and found some Humpback Whales. It was a mother and a baby, and
they put on a show, with repeated breaches (where they jump fully out
of the water). Of course I wasn't able to capture pictures of this,
by the time my slow camera managed to take the picture all that
was left was the big splash of their re-entry:
They also flipped their tails as they were diving, but I wasn't
able to fully capture that either. So I'm fired as a whale photographer.
Here you can see the mother and baby whale swimming off:
It was getting dark, so we returned back to port. Here's a GPS map
of our trip (only for the way out, I was inside on the way back
and didn't get signal from inside):
The next day was the Fourth of July. In the evening we went to
some of the local celebrations, one of which was to have an
illuminated boat competition on a nearby pond. Of course
the picture didn't come out very well:
We then went to watch the locals sit around bonfires and
shoot off Illegal Fireworks at a nearby beach:
The next day Kristina's friend Cynthia from Rhode Island came to visit,
and we spent the afternoon with her.
The following day we went for a hike along the Cape Code Canal:
Afterward we went for a swim in Hoxie pond. It was nearly time to go,
so we had to pack everything into our car, and we left early the next morning.
It's always sad to leave!
See password protected pictures
Back to main pictures page