Category Archives: Massachusetts

Cape Cod National Seashore

Posted on by

Cape Cod National Seashore consists of forty miles of sandy beach, marshes, ponds and uplands supporting a wide variety of species. 

The views are spectacular including lighthouses, cultural landscapes and historic buildings, wild cranberry bogs and beaches for swimming. Not a swimmer, no problem there are walking and biking trails to be explored.

I lived north of Boston for so long that I didn’t begin to explore the wonders of the Cape until recent years. Even now I still have to remind myself that it’s just a short jaunt for me even with the summer  traffic. One of the rangers said he likes to tell people it’s only two hours from the heart of downtown Boston. My response…depending on traffic.

The Cape Cod National Seashore has 2 Visitor Centers. I am most familiar with the one in Eastham known as the  Salt Pond Visitor Center. It’s right off RT 6 so you really can’t miss it. This was the Visitor Center I stopped at where the ranger told me about the whales. But I have been to this one several times before. I have enjoyed the movie they offer and walked most of their trails. There is still one “spur” trail that I haven’t covered yet. I am going to have to make a point of it this summer.

At the tip of the Cape in Provincetown you will find the Province Lands Visitor Center. This center has an awesome elevated deck with ocean views. I was there once last summer with my friend JR. That was a great day.

But back to the Salt Marsh Vistior center in Eastham, the Buttonwood Trail is a short, easy walk with a boardwalk over a pond.This time of year you can’t even see the pond  because of all the Buttonwood plants growing in it. I’ve seen a lot of red wing blackbirds and ducks there.

The Nauset Marsh Trail is a bit longer but still an easy hike. That trail runs alongside a pond  until it reaches the marsh. At that point a wooden bridge leads you over the marsh.

On my most recent visit the pond was filled with white swans. I bet there was a dozen or more. As I crossed the little bridge near the pond I also spotted a little rabbit. He was hiding in the shade under the bridge. I stayed very still and pretty soon he popped back out again.

Crossing the marsh bridge the sky was beginning to cloud up and the air was getting heavy and humid. The birds seemed to sense a storm coming so there weren’t too many flying. I have watched hawks hunting and loads of other little birds flying around when I’ve walked this path before but today it was quiet.

Once you cross the bridge the trail climbs through the woods before leveling out again and opening up to overlook the marsh and the ocean in the distance. I didn’t complete the walk today but I have walked it many  times in the past.

Those are just 2 of the many trails that wind through the National Seashore. I believe there are 12 “self-guided” trails that are open year round. Buttonbush and Nauset Marsh that I just mentioned; Fort Hill, Red Maple Swamp and Doane trails are all in Eastham.

In Wellfleet which is farther south heading toward the lower cape you can walk the Atlantic White Cedar Swamp and Great Island Trails.

In the Truro- Pamet Area you’ll find Bearberry Hill Overlook, Small’s Swamp, Highlands Woods Walk, and Pilgrim Spring trails.

Not to be left out is Provincetown on the tip of Cape Cod. Here you’ll find the Beech Forest Trail.

This year is special for the Seashore because Cape Cod National Seashore’s 50th anniversary celebration is underway. There will be special programs along with commemorative items at the park bookstores and visitor centers. The special logo was designed by Eastham’s own Joe Fish a 2010 graduate of Nauset Regional High School.

I love the cape..not just the National Seashore but the whole area. There’s always something new to discover. I am really hoping to get to try some of the bike trails as well as more hiking trails before the season ends. There just never seems to be enough time.

From swimming and sunbathing to fishing and whaling, clams and cranberries, artists colonies and galleries, Pilgrims and Native Americans, glass blowing and jam making, even a great white shark or two looking for a quick-lunch on the seals off Monomoy Island there’s certainly something for everyone to do and see.

Just watch out for traffic jams in the summer months! I’m sure I’ll be making many more visits here and will share all my experiences with you.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Franklin Park Zoo the finale

Posted on by

When we left our heroine, she was..oh sorry wrong story.

I believe I had just recognized the other entrance as the one that I had taken the first time I explored the Franklin Park Zoo. Since I had arrived from the right side I followed the path to the left to circle back around to the start at the Zebra entrance. This took me by the hyenas enclosure but I didn’t see any. It was getting very warm and a little humid so maybe they were sleeping. I moved on.

Next up was a Baird’s tapir. This was larger than I expected. I guess since they are related I was expecting something more along the size of the little javalina’s like I saw in Arizona back in ’08. This was much bigger than that! It was just patrolling the perimeter fence.

At the top of the hill was another snack bar area but it was closed. Seems to me it was closed when I last visited too.

Turning the corner I passed the camels in the same place I remembered them from before.

A bit farther on was the lion enclosure.

 I searched around that exhibit for quite a while before I finally spotted “Christopher”, the African Lion. He was stretched out in the shade in a corner of his enclosure. I wanted to get a picture but the only angle was through the glass window and there were loads of other Zoo Visitors in the way. I commented that he was alone and one of the other visitors said that a couple of years ago they introduced a female lion and he killed it. Then they had another male lion in there for a while. No one seemed to know what happened with that but Christopher was back being alone and that’s the way he seems to like it.

Around the corner from the Lion’s Den was the tiger enclosure. These big cats were also hiding in the shady areas out of camera range. I spotted 2, one was a white tiger and the other was an orange cat. The only reason I saw the white tiger was because his huge tail kept flipping up and back down almost like it was in rhythm. The rest of him was hidden in the underbrush.

And then I was back at the Carousel with the giraffe on my right and the Serengeti Crossing on my left. Somehow I missed the gorillas, the lemurs and the new  Giant Anteater Exhibit. The zoo was closing at 5pm and rush hour was well underway so I felt that it was more prudent to wrap up for the day than to go looking for the missed exhibits. After all, I can always come back for another visit.

I had a great time anyway. I really loved the Aussie Aviary with the Budgies aka parakeets. I could spend my whole day there.

Lions and Tigers and Budgies?

Posted on by

Leaving my little prairie dog friends I returned to my quest to get back to the first exhibit. I made a slight detour to see what was in a large barn like building. This is the “Little Critters” exhibit. It includes a Boa Constrictor, green tree frog, a sugar glider and a tortoise.

At first I thought the Amur leopard exhibit was closed because it said it was under construction but apparently they are building a new enclosure because as I passed the new one I came upon a lush, shaded enclosure and there was the leopard. It was a truly beautiful animal even if it was just waking from a nap.

I passed a fake termite mound and the Red Panda enclosure but I didn’t see the panda and then I was back on the main path. Coming right at me was the “little engine that could” or at least a little red train. The train was headed to the other side of the zoo with a load of parents and kids. It looked like fun but I wasn’t ready to start riding around yet.

I was headed to the Serengeti Crossing. In this large exhibit you will find Plains Zebra, Ostrich and Wildebeest.

The wildebeest also had a baby. The enclosure had 2 observation decks. For the size of this enclosure I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could see all of the animals listed. The ostrich was front and center drinking from a mud puddle.

 A small group of wildebeest including the baby were relaxing in the shade of some trees and the zebra was patrolling the fence at the rear of the enclosure.

Now that I was back on track I moved on to the Giraffe Savannah. Sure enough, front and center were two marvelous giraffe.

It’s amazing how such gangly animals can move so smoothly and gracefully. The giraffes share their enclosure with another kind of zebra, the Grevy’s zebra.

 I spotted just one enjoying some shade right across from the carousel.

Just past the carousel and the zebra was another enclosure named Butterfly Landing.

Like  Magic Wings in Deerfield, this enclosure was home to butterflies and moths. There were Painted Ladies and Monarch Butterflies to name just two.

There weren’t as many as at Magic Wings. The attendant said they try to keep the numbers down because some people “freak out”. I mentioned that I remembered seeing loads of Painted Ladies gathering on the mud of puddles after a summer shower when I was growing up.

The attendant said yes, that is how they absorb minerals they need from the dirt. Unlike Magic Wings which is open year round, this display is seasonal only.

Leaving the Butterflies to their dirt, I passed the playground with its bungee jumps and the Things Wild Gift Shop to enter the Aussie Outback. I passed the emus, and red Kangaroo and in a separate enclosure, a tree Kangaroo.

 That was a treat because they were very active actually climbing the tree and then coming back down and hopping around their enclosure.

Back outside I saw 2 black swans outside the Aussie Aviary.

 I paid $2.00 for a feeding stick and headed into see the Budgies. This was fun! First of all I knew these birds as parakeets when I was growing up and just like my pet parakeet, they came flying when they thought there was food!

 I finally passed my seed stick to some of the kids so I could free up my hands to take pictures. It was win-win for us all. I spent quite a bit of time here. I think this was my favorite exhibit.

I moved on to Bird World which was a bit of a let down after the aviary and walked through the Flight Cage of the Andean Condor. If there was one, I didn’t see it. The Flamingos were having a party in their enclosure.

Seriously, no sedate standing around for this bunch. They were splashing water, making hooting noises and calls and flapping their huge wings.  They smell! But according to the signs that’s not dirt, it’s just their odor and since they like to be in groups the scent is multiplied by so many bird bodies…kind of like a locker room after a big game.

I had reached the Giraffe Entrance and now it looked familiar. There was a statue outside the gates. There didn’t seem to be as many people over here. It was time to make the swing back.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Franklin Park Zoo

Posted on by

Another wonderful day, sunny and warm. I had to go to work for just an hour for a mandatory meeting. The meeting was at 11:00 in the morning so it kind of limited what I could do for the day landing right in the middle like that. So after the meeting I decided to run some errands while I reviewed my options for the afternoon. As I was driving up Rt 128 I saw a sign for the Franklin Park Zoo. That is on my bucket list but I hadn’t planned on that for today…still there was the sign…maybe that was where I was meant to be today.

So I wrapped up my last errand and headed north on RT 28.

Franklin Park Zoo is another Urban Zoo. This time within the confines of Boston. Rt 28 becomes a main road known as Blue Hill Avenue though Mattapan into Dorchester, both subsections of Boston. They are neighborhoods similar to the boroughs of New York City.

Traffic was heavy and I missed the entrance to the Zoo the first time and had to turn around and retrace my steps. When I found parking it was in a secondary, unpaved lot. That one was almost filled too.

The paved path from the parking lot to the zoo entrance was marked by stencilled “hoof prints”. The kids ahead of me on the path were finding these stencils a lot of fun.

I was at the Franklin Park Zoo a couple of years ago but so far nothing looked familiar, not even the entrance which I seemed to remember had a large statue in front of it. I was wondering if I was having a “senior moment” as I paid my admission and asked for a map.

Admission is a bit pricier than Buttonwood Zoo and their senior discount starts at 62 so I paid the full fee of $16.00. As I looked at my map I began to understand why it looked so different. This was the Zebra Entrance. I was at the Giraffe Entrance when I came here before! I wasn’t losing my mind.

Franklin Park is much larger than Buttonwood and has many more exotic animals. They have some fun interactive exhibits too but first things first. It was almost 2pm so lunch was on my mind. There’s an indoor-outdoor  snack bar call the Giddy-up grill.

As far as I know that’s the only option for food. You can get candy and snacks at the gift shop but I wanted  something a bit more lunch-like. I hesitate to say more healthy!:)

I ordered a cheeseburger and onion rings and a bottle of juice. Nothing was cooked to order. It was all in warming  ovens. It showed in the taste, the hamburger was warm but the bun was hard, very hard. There was a wilted lettuce leaf , a tomato slice topped with a pickle  slice. I only ate a few bites as it had a strange flavor that I just couldn’t put my finger on. I chose to sit outside so the little birds appreciated my “fussiness”. I had better luck with the onion rings which were very good.

As I sat at the little table under an umbrella I watched the carousel revolve and a couple of male peacocks with tail feathers trailing that would make a bride’s train look short! They never displayed but they were still beautiful.

The Franklin Farm was on the other side of the tables. Here are farm animals, horses, goats, sheep, chickens, to name just a few,  some of which are available for petting as long as a staff member was present.

After lunch I started to work my way back to the entrance so I could go through the Zoo in an orderly fashion but I kept getting side tracked.

My first detour was to an aviary. Here ducks were swimming around and although there was a feeding station, they weren’t too interested in the offerings the kids were throwing into the water. As you crossed the bridge you soon saw why, there was a big feeding tray and it was freshly filled so it looked as if everyone had already eaten their fill.

As I exited I saw a dirt mound off to my right. I decided to check that out before I went back to the entrance. What a nice surprise.

 There were those little prairie rodents! Yup, a small colony of prairie dogs. As I approached the sentinel dog went on alert but he didn’t “bark” or whistle. It was pretty clear that these guys were used to people and didn’t consider us a threat. It made taking pictures at lot easier than in the wild. That little sentinel dog was quite a ham. It was as if he was posing for you. Then he ran down into a hole , popped back out and threw him self down on the dirt, little paws stretched out as if to say…I’m done..too tired.

He was such a little drama queen.

That’s a good place to break for today. More tales from the Franklin Park Zoo and pictures coming up next post.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I was just thinking

Posted on by

I was just thinking the other day that sometimes I don’t take time to fully appreciate what a beautiful area I live in. Since I started writing this blog I’ve been going at top speed to try to find new material, places and experiences to share. It’s awesome to be finding out so much about the area I live in but it occurred to me the other day that sometimes I get so caught up in all that “exploring” that I forget to appreciate the everyday moments.

For example, I was driving to work a couple of weeks ago. It was a Sunday because it was very early, around 6:15 am and the soft, golden light was enough to take my breath away. I remember thinking to myself that this is what photographers mean when they talk about the “Golden Hour”.

 

On that drive I also saw turkeys, several turkeys as a matter of fact, on the side of the highway as well as on the side road to the office. I also spotted a red tail hawk. It swooped right in front of the car so there was no mistaking it.

The blue heron was in the river at the Herring Run. It was a “Bambi” kind of morning.

And speaking of “Bambi” the same day at the end of my shift as I was on the on ramp to the highway I spotted a deer! It was standing in the middle of the sand and gravel pit. It’s white tail was whipping back and forth like mad. In fact I don’t blame it for being mad. More and more of the fields and forests around this area are being raised for construction. But I am getting off track.

On the opposite end of the spectrum are the sunsets. We don’t get those brillent sunsets every night but there are enough to really get your attention . My Sunday drive home at shift end has given me some awesome sunsets.

I was just sharing how nice  southern Massachusetts can be. It’s days like that when I see the beauty of my surroundings that I don’t ever want to move. On the other hand, ask me when it’s snowing and freezing and I’m shoveling a pile of that white stuff and I’ll tell you that Hawaii is in my future! 🙂

When I retire I hope I’ll be able to get a trailer and hit the road to see all the things I’ve missed. I’d like to spend time in every state  staying as long as needed to fully see the hidden treasures of each area. One week vacations just are not long enough.

 In the meantime I am going to try to appreciate my own area more. Take a minute from my busy life to look around at the nature and flowers that surrounds me every day and of course, share those moment with you!