A Day at the Zoo

Posted on August 27, 2013August 27, 2013 by Dusty Roads

I think the saying is “a walk in the park” but for me and my friend and her family it was a “day at the zoo”. Nancy has been working 3 jobs all summer so squeezing in our annual summer jaunt was turning into a challenge. We were down to the wire when a Tuesday opened up in all our schedules at the same time! YAY! I picked up Nancy and her two children, Alex and Dawn, and we made a bee line to the Franklin park Zoo.

I love zoos and it had been a couple of years since I’d been to this one. Nancy said the kids hadn’t ever been to this one. Located in the Dorchester section of Boston, Franklin Park Zoo is truly an urban zoo. You can even get to it by subway.

A really unusual feature is FREE PARKING! In Boston that’s more rare than the animals on exhibit!

We had a beautiful day for our visit. The weather was sunny and warm but there was a breeze.

There was a new playground since my last visit and we spent a good deal of time there.

We spent the whole day! The Zoo was closing up shop as we made our way out the front gates.

We’d covered everything from the petting zoo to the Bird World.

We saw the gorillas and the tigers and lions.

My favorite is the Budgie Aviary and I think the kids liked that too. They didn’t want to leave.

We also enjoyed the Butterfly enclosure.

Alex was reluctant at first but pretty soon the turtles had his attention.

The giraffe was a treat as it was right at the fence stretching it’s long neck to eat right over the heads of the crowd.

I had to stop by the prairie dog enclosure. The sentry even smiled for the camera.

Leaving the ostrich behind we made our way to the car after a great day!

The Other Cape

Posted on August 25, 2013August 25, 2013 by Dusty Roads

No Not Robin’s , not even Batman’s. It’s not a style of home. I’m referring to the less famous cousin of Cape Cod, Cape Ann.

What makes a “Cape” anyway? In geography, a cape is a headland or promontory of large size extending into a body of water, usually the sea. A cape usually represents a marked change in trend of the coastline. Their proximity to the coastline makes them prone to natural forms of erosion, mainly tidal actions. This results in capes having a relatively short geologic lifespan. Capes can be formed by glaciers, volcanoes, and changes in sea level. Erosion plays a large role in each of these methods of formation.

Cape Cod’s coastline is constantly changing and eroding when winter storms come through. A great example is Monomoy Island In Chatham. Not so long ago it wasn’t an island, it was a peninsula. A “wicked” Nor’easter came through a couple of years ago and washed away part of the barrier and now it’s an island.

But today we’re talking about Cape Ann, the north shore “cape”, the neglected cousin.

On that bright blue day a couple of weeks ago I took a water tour around the cape. I was feeling really nostalgic as Cape Ann was home to most of the dives I made in Massachusetts while I was certified. Cathedral Rocks and Folly Cove being my favorites.

Looking at the dive map above I am amazed at the number of beach locations now. I didn’t know of all those places back in the 70’s. Back then getting access to the water was never easy. Many of the entries were blocked by private land.

But back to the harbor cruise. We boarded at the town landing in Gloucester and headed across the harbor. In spite of a slight haze we could see the skyline of Boston all the way from here!

As we motored through the harbor we passed all types of fishing boats from the classic lobster boat to the various trawlers. The captain explained each type of fishing as we passed .

We got a glimpse of the Turret of Hammond Castle on our left and the Annisquam river Bridge which is where we’d be returning.

We passed motels and million dollar homes hugging the rugged coast.

We slowed down as we passed the mouth of Folly Cove.

I could see the restaurant where we always had lunch after diving.

We hardly realized when we left the ocean behind and entered the estuary that is Annisquam River.

As we got further into the river we had buildings on both sides. The properties to our left were very rustic with no electric or other utilities. To our right were more gorgeous homes.

A Spanish style home was reported to have sold for over 2 million dollars yet the captain said the interior was totally trashed and would have to be rebuilt! Location, location, location!

We passed under an old railroad bridge and then waited for the draw bridge on the next bridge.

There were cute little house boats but unless you are “grandfathered” you can’t put one in anymore. 🙁

Someone thought the lovely scenery wasn’t enough and painted some rocks to look like a frog family. I guess a little whimsy never hurts.

Following the shoreline of the inner harbor we passed the Gloucester Fisherman then spotted a young man trying to master the round pole.

Every spring this pole is greased and contestants dress up in costumes and lingerie and try to make it to the end before they fall off. This fellow better not bother to try when they grease it. He had enough trouble because it’s round!

Approaching the dock at the end of our tour we spotted a little harbor seal. Unlike the seals of Chatham this little guy was not going to hang around for a photo shoot.

All in all a perfect way to spend a late summer day.

Faneuil Hall

Posted on August 18, 2013August 18, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Faneuil Hall is part of the area of Boston known as Quincy Market. Since it’s origins in 1742 Faneuil hall has served as a market place and meeting hall.

The gilded grasshopper weather vane on top of the building was created by Deacon Shem Drowne in 1742. Gilded with a gold leaf, the copper weather vane weighs eighty pounds and is four feet long. The weather vane is believed to be modeled after the grasshopper weather vane on the London Royal Exchange.

The Grasshopper is a well known symbol of Boston. During the Revolution suspected spies were asked to identify the object at the top of Faneuil Hall. If they couldn’t identify the Grasshopper they were detained as spies.

The bell was repaired in 2007 by spraying the frozen clapper with WD 40 over the course of a week and attaching a rope. Prior to this repair, the last known ringing of the bell with its clapper was at the end of World War II, in 1945, though it had since been rung several times by striking with a mallet

On Oct 9, 1960 Faneuil Hall was designated a National Historic Landmark.

On November 6, 1979, Faneuil Hall was the site of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s speech declaring his candidacy for president.

Faneuil Hall is now part of a larger festival marketplace, Faneuil Hall Marketplace, which includes three long granite buildings called North Market, Quincy Market, and South Market, and which now operates as an indoor/outdoor mall and food eatery. Its success in the late 1970s led to the emergence of similar marketplaces in other U.S. cities.

If you visit Boston, this area is a top tourist attraction. Fanueil Hall is a stop on Boston’s Freedom Trail and the market place is always busy with street entertainers, push carts, and lots of food vendors. A personal favorite of mine is the “Boston Chip Yard” where old fashion home made chocolate chip cookies come warm from the ovens! Yummmm!

Sometimes Betsy Ross or Ben Franklin even make an appearance!

Some say it’s become an expensive tourist trap but it’s still not to be missed and even I, after living here more than 30 years, still enjoy a trek there now and then. 🙂

A Seal Of Approval

Posted on August 16, 2013August 16, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Great White Sharks are prowling the shores of Cape Cod once again as the seal population continues to explode. If there was any doubt that the great predators are here to stay it was dispelled when the discovery channel aired Shark Week and the Great Whites of Cape Cod were prominently featured.

I would still like to see a Great White Shark but I would hate to have to go to South Africa to see “air jaws” when we have our own crop of “Jaws” right here at home. At first they were just hanging out in Chatham eating the seals of Monemoy Island but now it appears that they are spreading northward toward Orleans and Truro.

So on a sunny day last week I headed to Chatham to see for myself. My last visit to the seals on Monemoy was back in 2010.

A lot of changes can happen in 3 years. The first change was that the little shuttle isn’t running. I’m still researching ways to get to the island but in the meantime I called the Beachcomber Seal Tours and made a reservation for an afternoon trip.

The tour didn’t leave from the Fish Pier this time. They said that parking had become impossible there so they had us go to their marine showroom and then shuttled us to the boat in a green trolley.

We had a full boat for the afternoon trip. The boats stay in the harbor so are pretty small, certainly nothing like the whale watching boats. As we loaded a seal popped it’s head up right by the dock.

Even though we could say we’d seen a seal, that wasn’t part of the tour. We actually had a bit of a ride to get to the harbor near the seals. As we approached North Beach we saw the first of the seals.

The tide can swing up to 9 ft. here between high and low tide. The tide was still low so the sand bars were just below the surface and the seals were sitting in the water on these submerged sand bars.

Oh what a racket they were making.

They weren’t concerned about the boat in their midst at all. We moved on past Lighthouse beach to another seal colony.

Eventually we reached the fish pier where we passed Chatham’s pirate ship before turning for home.

The whole tour was maybe 1.5 hours. There weren’t any Great Whites but we sure did see seals.

The Old State House

Posted on August 13, 2013August 13, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Walking to the “T” station I was stopped by a group of Asian Tourists. By pointing and broken English they managed to ask me what the “Pretty Building in Gold” was. I tried to explain what the Old State House meant to us Americans and especially Bostonians. I think I managed to convey some of it in spite of the language limitations. That tiny building is still a grand and shining symbol.

The Old State House is the oldest surviving public building in Boston. It was built in 1713 to house the government offices of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It stands on the site of Boston’s first Town House of 1657-8, which burned in 1711. The Old State House was a natural meeting place for the exchange of economic and local news. A Merchant’s Exchange occupied the first floor and the basement was rented by John Hancock and others for warehouse space. As the center of political life and thought in the colonies, the Old State House has been called one of the most important public buildings in Colonial America.

Official proclamations were read from the Old State House balcony, on the east side of the building, looking down State (formerly King) Street. The area beneath the balcony was the site of the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770, when a handful of British soldiers fired into a taunting crowd, killing five men. Today a circle of paving stones marks the spot of the Massacre.

On July 18, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was first proclaimed from here, to the jubilant citizens of Boston.

The Old State House continued as the seat of Massachusetts government until a new State House was built on Beacon Hill. On January 11, 1798, all government functions left the building when the governor, state legislature, and other state officials moved to the new State House.

The building continued to be used for commercial use and entered a period of decline. Eventually a group of concerned citizens formed the Boston Society to rescue the building.