Frankly My Dear, I don’t Give a Clam

Posted on September 20, 2015September 20, 2015 by Dusty Roads

News flash…Summer is not over. Nope not at all. Don’t believe me? Just ask my sister.

We just had an awesome weekend. In my family you don’t just go visit someone. You need an excuse like a wedding or funeral or birthday and the perfect excuse presented itself this weekend. This was the weekend of the Scallop Festival.

Now anyone who follows this blog knows I am a sucker for a plate of scallops. Well my sister is the same way. So I was pleased, if surprised when my sister said she was willing to drive over from upstate NY for the weekend and go to the Scallop Festival with me.

Sandy arrived Friday night and after getting her settled we went to the Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner. I have to tell you their $12.99 dinner combo is an amazing value. We started with a salad. (we both chose Caesar), then a sirloin steak (6 once which can be upgraded) cooked to a medium rare perfection with a baked potato that was really baked, not microwaved. Even though we were pretty stuffed we couldn’t say no to the cinnamon carrot cake for dessert. Yummy! and all that for only $12.99 each. The service was excellent too.

We returned home and rolled out the air mattress for me to sleep on . Sandy got the bed. I expected the cats to be all over me since I was on the floor at their level but no, Rocky checked out the situation and retired back to the living room.

Buddy had to see if he could get the bed from Sandy so he took a leap right onto her back. I’m not sure who was more surprised but he didn’t linger. He jumped down, landed on my air mattress, took a couple of staggering steps to solid ground and apparently gave up.

He did persist in standing guard at the bathroom door whenever someone was using the facilities.

So after a good night’s sleep and breakfast the next morning at I HOP we were ready to check out the Scallop Festival in Falmouth (on Cape Cod), MA

A Whale’s Tail

Posted on August 3, 2015August 3, 2015 by Dusty Roads

As fast as the Real Estate rush began it stopped. I went from working every waking moment to suddenly having time on my hands. I keep thinking there’s something I’ve forgotten to do. There was no gradual slowing down…just slammed one minute and then nothing the next! So with a quiet Sunday staring me in the face I thought a whale watching trip might be in order.

I ordered my ticket online and headed to Plymouth at 11:30. I figured I’d get there early, have some lunch and then line up for boarding. It was a beautiful day, close to 90 degrees and sunny.

A perfect day to be on the water.

The activity at Plymouth Harbor proved my assumption. Traffic was brutal and parking nonexistent. I was very glad I gave myself extra time. I finally parked in the Citizens Bank lot which had been opened up for a fee of $10.00 for the day.

But once underway the hassle was all worthwhile.

We passed Bug light and then Gurnet Point Lighthouse which marks the end of the harbor. We headed out to Stellwagon Bank which is an underwater plateau. These plateaus cause “upwelling” which stirs up the nutrients and makes for rich feeding grounds. It’s also a protected marine sanctuary. One corner of the plateau comes quite close to Provincetown on the tip of Cape Cod. It was my guess that this was where we were headed.

The Pilgrim Tower in Provincetown hadn’t quite come into view when I saw something breach and splash. Then others saw it when it happened again. It was so quick none of us knew what we were seeing. Finally the naturalist on board got on the PA and told us we’d just witnessed some tuna jumping! Tuna, I never would have guessed!

A few minutes later we entered the Marine sanctuary and immediate spotted 4 humpback whales . They were an Association not a Pod as Pods are families and these were 4 unrelated whales.

It was the day of the tails.

They’d cruise along on the surface for a bit then dive and all of them liked getting their tail flukes out of the water.

2 of the Whales came right up next to our boat. Of course, I was on the wrong side. Just my luck!

No breaching or flipper slapping today but we got great looks at the tails. The tails besides being so very photogenic are also like fingerprints. Each whale has a different pattern and the scientists have thousands of tail flukes cataloged. I’m sure the photographer on board is sending all of her photos out for identification.

We saw some other whales besides these 4 but they were more distant and these four were happy to stay and play with us so why search for more?

I had a whale of a time!

Yummy Roast Beef

Posted on July 24, 2015July 24, 2015 by Dusty Roads

I’ve been living south of Boston for quite a few years now. I’ve been in Taunton for 9 years. I lived in Randolph for 6 years before that and a couple of years in Norwood and in all that time I have not found a really good roast beef sandwich down here.

Oh we have great sea food and I found a few adequate prime ribs and steaks but no classic roast beef.

When I lived on the other side of Boston we had Bill & Bob’s, Riley’s and the standard by what all others were measured …Kelly’s Roast Beef.

When I lived on the North Shore the Kelly’s at Revere Beach was the one to go to. It didn’t just offer roast beef either. You could get your greasy fix with awesome fried seafood, onion rings and french fries. It was always mobbed.

A few years before I moved to the “other side” Kelly’s expanded and built Kelly’s in Saugus. I remember it opening but I never went there. Now there are 5 Kelley’s locations. Revere Beach, Saugus, Natick, Danvers, and Medford.

Finally getting a few hours off I felt a craving for a really good roast beef sandwich so I took the plunge and drove through Boston. 1.5 hour drive…like going to NYC for a cup of coffee! Since it was almost 90 degrees out I figured I’d never get near the beach so I headed to location #2, Saugus.

What a neat place! It’s huge and the decor is of a carousel.

They also have a huge fish tank.

You place your order at the counter and receive a plastic number, find a seat and first thing you know someone brings your lunch tray.

The place is sparkling clean and the roast beef turned out to be as good as I remembered….and this is a small!

Now I’ll have to try out the other locations!

Make way for Ducklings

Posted on May 26, 2015May 26, 2015 by Dusty Roads

Although different birds mate at different times, spring is in fulls wing here in New England. So it seemed strange to me that I had not seen any baby ducks.The swans are still on the nest and the Canada Geese have tons of baby goose-poop machines.

I spotted a baby Osprey but where are the ducklings?

There’s a little pond near my house so I took a drive over there with the camera. I brought along a book and settled in to read and watch the birds. There were lots of Canada Geese, no goslings here, however. There were some gulls and few Mallards but no babies of any kind.

I rolled the window down and started reading my book. The birds wandered across the road from the pond to the lawn on the other side and back again. Several geese stopped to check the car out. Apparently trying to figure out what this thing was in their path.

I’d been there about 20 minutes as the mixed flock crossed back to the lawn again when I saw a Mama Mallard with quite a brood of ducklings. I bet she had a dozen! The babies were swimming and diving like corks while Mama chased away all adults, even the much larger Canada Geese!