My Little Town, Part 2

Sandwich really is a pretty town and the historic, downtown core remains largely unchanged.  The town was founded in 1637 and established in 1639.

The duck pond, aka Shawme Pond

Herring run which goes under the road and alongside the Grist Mill, from the pond.

This old church used to be a doll museum.  I used to like going there.  It was dusty, musty, creaky, cobwebby and run down.  The museum closed in the early 90s and a private party purchased the building.  I thought it was a bed and breakfast but the sign out front said it's a private residence.

Town Hall Annex

Sandwich Public Library

A better shot of the old doll museum.

Then I drove over to Boardwalk.

The town worked really hard to repair and reopen it for the spring and summer season.  It was badly damaged by Hurricane Sandy and the Feb. blizzard.

Bird houses in the salt marshes.

My Little Town, Part 1

Happened to come across the cranberry harvest on the large bog along Rte. 6A in East Sandwich.  It seemed early this year.  There were so many people parked on both sides of the road that I had to go down the road that runs behind the bog.  The bog is flooded and the berries rise to the top where they are corralled, sucked up a hose and into the back of a truck.

This is the pumphouse and I loved the weathervane, although it's kinda fancy for a pumphouse!

The view from Chipman Hill.  Damn those wires to hell!  lol

A little lower down the hill; still a great view but not as good as from higher up.

Pretty house on Liberty Street.

First Church of Christ, also known as the Christopher Wren because that's the style church it is.  Elvis Presley used a picture of it on his 1967 album 'How Great Thou Art'.  

Downtown

Grist Mill

Artesian well.  My dad did, and maintained, the plumbing on this 'back in the day'.  People come from all over to fill water jugs with this ice cold and delicious water.

Very pretty house on Grove Street.

The old Newcombe's Tavern, also on Grove Street.  British loyalists hung out here, plotting how to crush the patriots who were down the road meeting at Fessenden's Tavern, which is now known as the Dan'l Webster Inn.

Let Beachcombing Season Begin!

Now that it's cooled off and the tourists are gone, the beaches are once again empty, and also free.  During the summer, I will pay the $7 to park at Scusset if I really need a beach-fix, but I'll be damned if I pay $20 in Sandwich or Falmouth to park for an hour or so.  

I need a beachcombing fix bad, so I headed out one clear, cool morning.  Cleveland Ledge Lighthouse was so clear.

I'm not sure what those white spots/lines are.  If I had to guess, I'd say they are houses with their reflections in the water, but it looks like a mirage effect.

It was at this point, after I shot this, that my trip was cut short due to an emergency (don't worry, it's all fine).

So I went back 2 days later to finish my glass hunt.

Those green things are rusted and busted up garden tools.  I can't tell if they washed up or were used to make this fire pit.

It's soooo nice to have a camera with a clean sensor.  This picture would have been very spotty with the Pentax.

This doggy ran down the beach and over the jetties, then dashed into the woods.  He came back out at full bore, completely ignoring me, and plunged into the water for a quick dip, then ran off!  If you biggify this pic you can see his tongue sticking out!  

This looked better in real life...it's a crystal clear tidepool.  You can see the water ripples at the edges of the pic and around the large rocks.  Every stone glitters like a jewel.

On the way out, I pulled off on the side of the road to check out this beach.  

This part of the road is narrow with a harbour on one side and this narrow, crescent shaped beach on the other.  I didn't have high hopes of getting glass but I found a few pieces plus some great shells for glitter ornaments.  This screen cap of the map shows the narrow strip with the beach at the bottom and harbour at the top.

This stream ran out of a small salt marsh, across the beach and into the water.  I really, really wanted to take my shoes and socks off to play in the water and cross to the other side but I was too unprepared to do that. 

This is by far the largest piece of beach glass I've ever found.  It's actually worn too.  I have found bottles this big before, but they were fresh.  This one isn't. Epic. Score.

This is in the harbour on the other side of the road from the beach.

Then I parked at a little conservation area and took pics of another small harbour.

It's awesome to be surrounded by so many beaches.  I forgot how much I missed it.  To be honest, Puget Sound beaches really didn't cut it.  And to get to the WA or OR coastal beaches, it was a 3-5 hour drive depending upon where you were headed.  Even living in the Bay Area, except for when I was living in the Richmond District of SF, near Ocean Beach, it was a long drive to get to Pt. Reyes or Stinson or anywhere along Rte. 1.  

Oh and I did pretty well on the beach glass....mostly very small pieces, but still a total of 53, with one small cobalt blue and that big piece of green, plus some great shells & quartz rocks.