"Time flies when you are having fun!" This is so true when you are on vacation. It seemed like we had just gotten to Cape Cod and all of a sudden, it was our last full day. Since we had not explored the western end of the Cape, that's what we did on our last full day. Leon called it "Briggling". That what he and Janice have always called it when they didn't have plans and what my husband and I might call "goofing off".
The only definite plan we had for the day was checking out the donuts at Honey Dew.
Since we had arrived on the Cape a week, it seemed like we saw a Dunkin Donut on every street corner. It wasn't like we hadn't heard of them, but seeing this many? I said something to the park rangers when we were at the visitors center for the Cape Cod National Seashore Park on Monday and Mr. Ellis said it was a MA company. While writing this post, I learned that Dunkin' Donuts started in 1950 by William Rosenberg in Quincy.
When we were in Plymouth on Sunday, we decided we had to try one. First we had to stand in line to be waited on and then they were out of glazed donuts (what I wanted) and jelly filled (what Janice wanted). We ended up get some Munchkins - chocolate cake donut holes and miniature jelly filled donuts. We weren't impressed, but we did admit it was late in the afternoon so they might have been out there for a while.
On Wednesday while exploring the Cape we had seen a couple of Honey Dew Donuts shops. It is another MA donut company. Not as old as Dunkin' Donuts (the first Honey Dew Donuts opened in 1973), its creator, Richard Bowden, started making donuts with his dad when he was 12. Since we hadn't been too impressed with the Dunkin' Donuts, we knew we wanted to try the Honey Dew Donuts.
Even though there was one in Mashpee that was in the opposite direction from where we intended to go that day, we went to bed Thursday night with plans to have breakfast there. The doughnuts were so good. I ate a glazed one and Janice had her jelly filled one and then went back and got a powdered sugar one. (I think she shared the powdered one with Leon. Our husbands had ordered breakfast sandwiches instead of doughnuts.)
Researching for this post, I discovered that in 1978, a Honey Dew Donuts in Plainsville, MA was the first coffee and donut shop to have a drive-thru in New England.
Other than eating our breakfast at Honey Dew Donuts, once again we had no definite plans when we left the cottage that morning. If we saw something that looked interesting, we would stop. Route 28 continues throughout this part of the Cape and even branches off for Route 28A just like Route 6 did with 6A. The state map we had showed other roads that went closer to the beach, but didn't identify them. I also had a Discovery Map for the Falmouth Area which did give street names.
It was foggy that morning as we drove through Falmouth. Martha's Vineyard across Vineyard Sound wasn't very visible. We stopped at one area and could see two ferries, one that had left Martha's Vineyard and the other one almost there from Falmouth cross in the choppy water. We couldn't help but notice how the beach areas changed as we drove around the southern tip of the Cape. By the time we made it to the Nobska Lighthouse the rocky shore was beautiful but a surprise.
The Nobska Lighthouse at Nobska Beach in Woods Hole. The original Nobsque lighthouse built in 1828 was a stone cottage with a light tower on top of it. This tower was constructed in 1876. It is now automated.
Woods Hole is one of those picturesque New England harbor village.
A few miles after I took 28A, I saw this house and turned around to go back and see what it was. Bourne Farm dates back to 1775. It is now owned and operated by the Salt Pond Area Bird Sanctuary. We loved its look of a New England farm.
The brown area behind the front wooden fence is a freshly plowed field ready to be planted. You can see the stone fence on the right to mark the property line. You can see it better in the next picture.
In North Falmouth, we stopped at Uncle Bill's Country Store and Silver Lounge Restaurant. We stopped just for the Country Store, but after Janice and I took so long choosing what we wanted to buy, we decided to eat lunch at the attached restaurant.
"Taking the scenic route" as Janice and I call it, we saw much of the area before we finally found Wing's Neck Lighthouse. (I have zoomed in to get this picture. We were not this close to it.
We didn't notice until we were finished that there was a sign announcing it was a private residence and no pictures were allowed. It was a private residence from 1947 to 1999. Now it is a vacation rental. How cool would that be!
Eventually working our way back out to 28A, I noticed a tower like structure above the trees on my left. Since no one else saw it, I had to turn around to see what it was. That's how we stumbled upon the Cape Cod Canal.
Not sure if you can tell from the picture, but that is the train track. When a train comes along, the section is lowered for the train to cross the canal. The current was really swift coming from Cape Cod Bay . Janice and I watched a family of ducks out for an afternoon "float" down the canal. They were moving too fast for me to get a picture of them, but the little ducks were so cute.
The Cape Cod Canal connects Cape Cod Bay to Buzzards Bay. We had crossed the canal on the Sagamore Bridge at least seven times and didn't realize we were crossing a canal. When we crossed it the eighth time going back to Mashpee and our cottage, I looked down at it to recognize we were crossing the canal. I should say the Sagamore Bridge is 4 narrow lanes and probably everyone was watching my driving over it and not looking down at the water.
Driving back to Mashpee and stopping by Roche Bros again to get something to eat for dinner back at our cottage, the day would win with Janice and me beating our husbands in our last game of canasta. That meant we won 3 of the 5 nights we played. After never winning on our trip to Mesa, AZ back in April, it felt good to come out the CHAMPS!
Our week had been a fantastic one overall. Even though we didn't get to see a lot of the things we had hoped to see, we were very happy with what we did see. We will just have to go back another time to see more.
A number of things stand out in my mind as I think about the week....
How nice everyone was. From drivers waiting and signally me to pull out on the road when the traffic was heavy ... to helping us with the mass transportation ... to the attendant in the parking garage that didn't make us pay for a lost ticket ... to the girl who told us about Sullivan's Tires in Quincy ... to John at Sullivan's Tires opening up to help us with our flat tire (He even called me while we were in Boston two days later to make sure we were okay) ... to the two ladies in the visitors' center in Plymouth who gave us a lot of information about getting around in the area ... to the construction guy who volunteered to give me directions in Boston ... to Alex, the young student from Spain we met and visited with in Qunicy Market in Boston to .... I could go on and on.
How fortunate we were to "luck" up on places that were so memorable to us ... the Adams Historical Sites ... the Cape Cod Canal ... our first lighthouse experience (Nauset Lighthouse) ... experiencing the commuter rail ... most of the eating places where we ate ... the beach nearby our cottage ...
Boston and the Freedom Trail. Whoever thought of "marking" the trail in that manner was a genius.
I loved their accents. (Only one person, except my husband, made fun of my accent...one of the park rangers we met.)
The lack of commercialism on the Cape. At least where we drove, we saw no chains - like fast food places or stores. On the last day we did finally see a Wal-mart in Wareham and we saw a few McDonald's, Wendy's, and DQs. One of the things I enjoy so much when we travel in different parts of the country is the area places to eat and shop. Only if there is no other choice do I eat at a place I can eat at back home.
The Dunkin' Donut shops on just about every corner.
The houses. I didn't take any pictures but I loved the quaintness of the houses with wood shake shingles usually left unpainted. Some of the people had covered the front of the house with clapboards painted a color.
All of the rotaries (aka traffic circles or roundabouts) While I didn't really like that there were no lanes marked in the circle and there were way too many exits out of the circle, everyone managed them very well and was courteous. In fact driving the area all week, we never had any "almost" moments due to reckless driving.
The lighthouses we managed to see.
All the beautiful flowers. As I said in an earlier post, they were about a month behind us here in Kansas City. When we left, the trees were already leafing out and many of those early spring flowers were starting to fade. I didn't get pictures of all of the pretty flowers because of driving, but I enjoyed them as we drove by everyday.
The resort where we stayed
And last but not least ... our (almost) nightly canasta game. Did I tell you that Janice and I were the CHAMPS?
On Saturday, Day 7
Check out time at our cottage was at 10:00 am, but our plane wasn't leaving until 3:10 pm. So when we saw this sign, if you follow my blog, you know Janice and I wanted to go to it. I looked for a cookbook to buy but they didn't have any for sale.
But I did find this "steal" for a dollar. They had not even attempted one puzzle.
For lunch we stopped about 30 minutes from the airport at a Not Your Average Joe's Kitchen & Bar. Don't remember what town we were in, but we enjoyed a very good lunch there .... one last chance to have clam chowder.
The drive into Boston to Logan International Airport wasn't too bad. Everytime I saw heavy, slower traffic ahead, Jill, on the Garman would tell me to take an exit. That was very nice.
At the airport Janice and I saw yet another Dunkin' Donut but they were out of most of their donuts. We did want to give them one more try.
We had to change planes in Baltimore and while we were waiting to catch the plane, I walked around and saw .... yes, you guessed it ... another Dunkin' Donut. Without anyone knowing it, I bought a glazed one and brought it back and shared it with everyone. It was very good. (My husband prefers Krispy Kreme and nothing else quite compares, but it and the Honey Dew were both good donuts.)
And before we knew it we were back in Kansas City ready to plan our next vacation.
READ about our day in Boston
Since we had arrived on the Cape a week, it seemed like we saw a Dunkin Donut on every street corner. It wasn't like we hadn't heard of them, but seeing this many? I said something to the park rangers when we were at the visitors center for the Cape Cod National Seashore Park on Monday and Mr. Ellis said it was a MA company. While writing this post, I learned that Dunkin' Donuts started in 1950 by William Rosenberg in Quincy.
When we were in Plymouth on Sunday, we decided we had to try one. First we had to stand in line to be waited on and then they were out of glazed donuts (what I wanted) and jelly filled (what Janice wanted). We ended up get some Munchkins - chocolate cake donut holes and miniature jelly filled donuts. We weren't impressed, but we did admit it was late in the afternoon so they might have been out there for a while.
On Wednesday while exploring the Cape we had seen a couple of Honey Dew Donuts shops. It is another MA donut company. Not as old as Dunkin' Donuts (the first Honey Dew Donuts opened in 1973), its creator, Richard Bowden, started making donuts with his dad when he was 12. Since we hadn't been too impressed with the Dunkin' Donuts, we knew we wanted to try the Honey Dew Donuts.
Even though there was one in Mashpee that was in the opposite direction from where we intended to go that day, we went to bed Thursday night with plans to have breakfast there. The doughnuts were so good. I ate a glazed one and Janice had her jelly filled one and then went back and got a powdered sugar one. (I think she shared the powdered one with Leon. Our husbands had ordered breakfast sandwiches instead of doughnuts.)
Other than eating our breakfast at Honey Dew Donuts, once again we had no definite plans when we left the cottage that morning. If we saw something that looked interesting, we would stop. Route 28 continues throughout this part of the Cape and even branches off for Route 28A just like Route 6 did with 6A. The state map we had showed other roads that went closer to the beach, but didn't identify them. I also had a Discovery Map for the Falmouth Area which did give street names.
It was foggy that morning as we drove through Falmouth. Martha's Vineyard across Vineyard Sound wasn't very visible. We stopped at one area and could see two ferries, one that had left Martha's Vineyard and the other one almost there from Falmouth cross in the choppy water. We couldn't help but notice how the beach areas changed as we drove around the southern tip of the Cape. By the time we made it to the Nobska Lighthouse the rocky shore was beautiful but a surprise.
 |
| Nobska Beach |
Woods Hole is one of those picturesque New England harbor village.
In North Falmouth, we stopped at Uncle Bill's Country Store and Silver Lounge Restaurant. We stopped just for the Country Store, but after Janice and I took so long choosing what we wanted to buy, we decided to eat lunch at the attached restaurant.
"Taking the scenic route" as Janice and I call it, we saw much of the area before we finally found Wing's Neck Lighthouse. (I have zoomed in to get this picture. We were not this close to it.
 |
| Wing's Neck Lighthouse |
Eventually working our way back out to 28A, I noticed a tower like structure above the trees on my left. Since no one else saw it, I had to turn around to see what it was. That's how we stumbled upon the Cape Cod Canal.
Not sure if you can tell from the picture, but that is the train track. When a train comes along, the section is lowered for the train to cross the canal. The current was really swift coming from Cape Cod Bay . Janice and I watched a family of ducks out for an afternoon "float" down the canal. They were moving too fast for me to get a picture of them, but the little ducks were so cute.
The Cape Cod Canal connects Cape Cod Bay to Buzzards Bay. We had crossed the canal on the Sagamore Bridge at least seven times and didn't realize we were crossing a canal. When we crossed it the eighth time going back to Mashpee and our cottage, I looked down at it to recognize we were crossing the canal. I should say the Sagamore Bridge is 4 narrow lanes and probably everyone was watching my driving over it and not looking down at the water.
Driving back to Mashpee and stopping by Roche Bros again to get something to eat for dinner back at our cottage, the day would win with Janice and me beating our husbands in our last game of canasta. That meant we won 3 of the 5 nights we played. After never winning on our trip to Mesa, AZ back in April, it felt good to come out the CHAMPS!
Our week had been a fantastic one overall. Even though we didn't get to see a lot of the things we had hoped to see, we were very happy with what we did see. We will just have to go back another time to see more.
A number of things stand out in my mind as I think about the week....
How nice everyone was. From drivers waiting and signally me to pull out on the road when the traffic was heavy ... to helping us with the mass transportation ... to the attendant in the parking garage that didn't make us pay for a lost ticket ... to the girl who told us about Sullivan's Tires in Quincy ... to John at Sullivan's Tires opening up to help us with our flat tire (He even called me while we were in Boston two days later to make sure we were okay) ... to the two ladies in the visitors' center in Plymouth who gave us a lot of information about getting around in the area ... to the construction guy who volunteered to give me directions in Boston ... to Alex, the young student from Spain we met and visited with in Qunicy Market in Boston to .... I could go on and on.
How fortunate we were to "luck" up on places that were so memorable to us ... the Adams Historical Sites ... the Cape Cod Canal ... our first lighthouse experience (Nauset Lighthouse) ... experiencing the commuter rail ... most of the eating places where we ate ... the beach nearby our cottage ...
Boston and the Freedom Trail. Whoever thought of "marking" the trail in that manner was a genius.
I loved their accents. (Only one person, except my husband, made fun of my accent...one of the park rangers we met.)
The lack of commercialism on the Cape. At least where we drove, we saw no chains - like fast food places or stores. On the last day we did finally see a Wal-mart in Wareham and we saw a few McDonald's, Wendy's, and DQs. One of the things I enjoy so much when we travel in different parts of the country is the area places to eat and shop. Only if there is no other choice do I eat at a place I can eat at back home.
The Dunkin' Donut shops on just about every corner.
The houses. I didn't take any pictures but I loved the quaintness of the houses with wood shake shingles usually left unpainted. Some of the people had covered the front of the house with clapboards painted a color.
The lighthouses we managed to see.
All the beautiful flowers. As I said in an earlier post, they were about a month behind us here in Kansas City. When we left, the trees were already leafing out and many of those early spring flowers were starting to fade. I didn't get pictures of all of the pretty flowers because of driving, but I enjoyed them as we drove by everyday.
 |
| Huge forsythia were everywhere |
 |
| Beautiful azaleas |
 |
| Daffodils |
The resort where we stayed
And last but not least ... our (almost) nightly canasta game. Did I tell you that Janice and I were the CHAMPS?
On Saturday, Day 7
For lunch we stopped about 30 minutes from the airport at a Not Your Average Joe's Kitchen & Bar. Don't remember what town we were in, but we enjoyed a very good lunch there .... one last chance to have clam chowder.
The drive into Boston to Logan International Airport wasn't too bad. Everytime I saw heavy, slower traffic ahead, Jill, on the Garman would tell me to take an exit. That was very nice.
At the airport Janice and I saw yet another Dunkin' Donut but they were out of most of their donuts. We did want to give them one more try.
And before we knew it we were back in Kansas City ready to plan our next vacation.
READ about our day in Boston
No comments:
Post a Comment