Happy Birthday, Dad! We woke up to cloudy skies this morning and a forecast of a rain shower. We checked the weather radar and sure enough, the rain was on the way. Bob took Auggie for his walk before it came. We decided to wait until the rain passed before starting out on our road tour on Highway 28 along the southern side of Cape Cod. While it rained hard for about an hour, we did some trip planning and made reservations for our next three destinations. Auggie got a much needed bath. I called my dad for his 84th birthday and Bob checked in with the Co-op with some business he needed to take care of. After the rain stopped, the sun came out and we were on our way around 11:30. We got on Highway 28 and took a shorter route to begin our tour, near the town of Mashpee to avoid the heavy traffic. This side of Cape Cod is a lot different from the northern side. The northern side is more scenic, has less congestion, and fewer towns. We discovered that right away. Traffic was bumper-to-bumper as people stopped at all the shops and malls along the highway. It was one strip mall after another. We were headed to Hyannis, the Cape’s largest village. We arrived around 12:30, parked the car, and took a walk along the harbor. Ferries and charters depart regularly from Hyannis Harbor. The ferry to Nantucket was just pulling up to the dock when we arrived.
We walked along the water, through Aselton Park and along the “Walkway to the Sea”. It’s a path that connects the waterfront on Ocean Street to Main Street.
We walked along Main St. checking out the shops and restaurants. Hyannis is not as upscale as I thought it would be.
The library was having a used book sale with some boxes of books for sale on the street. Bob found himself a Maine Seafood Cookbook for 25 cents. Something we were surprised to see on Main St. was a “duck” like the ones we have in Wisconsin Dells. Who would’ve thought? It’s an amphibious tourmobile.
We walked farther down the street to the First Baptist Church where they were having their weekly Farmer’s Market.
We crossed the street to get to the Kennedy Museum which commemorates his life with exhibits and photographs.
Nearby, the Kennedy’s made Hyannisport the summer White House putting Cape Cod in the limelight during the Camelot years. He also sailed his boat out of the Hyannis Harbor.
We walked back to the harbor along Ocean St. and checked out the Artist Shanties which line the harbor. The Hyannis Art District set up brightly colored sheds along the walkway. Each shed, or shanty, is used by a wide variety of artists which rotate every season.
We got back in the car and continued along the highway heading for the town of West Dennis. We crossed over the Bass River into town. Many people believe that Leif Erikson sailed up the Bass River, the largest tidal river on the Eastern Seaboard, over 1,000 years ago.
In West Dennis we were looking for Marathon Seafood, the #1 place to eat whole bellied clams. We didn’t have to go far into town before we found it.
It didn’t have much ambiance, but the prices were good and so was the food. We split an order of whole belly clams that came with fries and onion rings.
Bob was a little leery of eating the clams because of how he felt the other night, but that left more for me. I even brought some home with me. We left there, hopped on Highway 6 (the one with limited access) and were back to Bourne in about 30 minutes. We made a quick stop at the RV store on our way to the campground to pick up a part and some RV cleaner. Then back to the campground. Once we got back, Auggie got a haircut, nail trim, and a trip to the dog park. Today he had 5 other friends to play with….a pug, Border collie, Yorkie, terrier, and beagle mix. He absolutely loved it!!! We stayed until almost everyone left and then headed back to the trailer. He was completely tuckered out. Bob and I had leftovers for dinner, since neither of us were very hungry. It finally cooled off at night and we lost the humidity. Tomorrow is our last day in Cape Cod. We decided not to take a ferry over to Nantucket for the day. It is quite expensive, but more than that, the ferry schedule didn’t have much flexibility. We would have to leave Auggie alone for too many hours and that’s not something we wanted to do. They were also having their annual Sailing Regatta as part of Nantucket Race Week and we thought it would be crazy with people. We’ll have to save Nantucket for another time. Tomorrow we want to take a bike ride along the bike path that parallels the Cape Cod Canal. Hopefully, we’ll be able to wash the trailer too. It needs it bad! It all depends on the weather! Keep your fingers crossed for sunny skies!
