Woods Hole, Part 1

Got up one day to beautiful, perfect weather for a change.  I couldn't let it go to waste by staying inside crafting & cleaning or doing boring errands.  Decided that it was high time I finally made the trek to Woods Hole.  Woods Hole is located on that teensy point sticking out to the left, at the very bottom of Falmouth, and is home to the world renowned Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (hereinafter referred to as WHOI), as well as the ferries to Martha's Vineyard.

The only 2 times I've been there, it was to get on the ferry to MV, so I never got to walk around.  First of all, parking is a frickin nightmare.  I had NO idea there were no public lots like in other towns.  The streets are as narrow as Provincetown's, and there is very limited metered parking.  I NEVER keep spare change on me, it all goes into a jar at home.  By some miracle, I had one quarter in my wallet.  It bought me enough time to walk to the nearest shop to buy something and get change.  The lady at the counter said to me, as she handed me a bunch of quarters, "You should be OK...he hasn't started his rounds yet.  That cop is mean.  Seriously, he's really mean about tickets."  A lot of stores will tell you that they won't give you quarters for meters, even if you do buy something. However, it seemed to me like this woman is more than happy to give as much change as is asked for, just to spite the cop so that he can't give out any tickets. The store is called Woods Hole Market & Provisions, on the Main Street.  .25 bought 15 minutes, so I had enough quarters to buy me nearly 2 hours of time which was plenty, because the town is so small.

The ship on the left, R/V Knorr, is a WHOI research vessel.

That's the store where I got my meter money, with the blue awning.  Thank you!!!!

This is the tall ship Corwith Cramer, owned by the Sea Education Association sailing school.

These colonial buildings are frickin massive.

Ferry parking and line up.

The WHOI campus is pretty huge.  There are labs and buildings all over the place, plus 4 research ships.  And an aquarium, but I just didn't have time to do museums on this trip.

Marine Biological Labs.

Another WHOI/MBL building.

Ferry coming in from MV.  I'd love to take my car over someday but in summer it's almost impossible to get reservations. I could go as a pedestrian but would be limited to being in Vineyard Haven all day.  When I was very young, in high school, I did walk from Vineyard Haven to Oak Bluffs& back with a bunch of friends, and I remember it was a long, hot round trip.  Not something I want to do now.  So yeah, if I'm gonna go, I need to do it right and that means I need my car to get around.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, is also located in this small corner of Cape Cod.  I mean seriously, who knew?

The head and arms are mirrors...you're supposed to stand there and see yourself, but I didn't do it.