Hodge Podge

If the Farmer's Almanac is to be believed, we are in for another horrendous, snowy, cold, miserable winter in the Northeast.  I am doing whatever I can to eek out as much outdoor time while it's still sunny and warm before becoming a prisoner in my house for the winter months.  To that end, I've been spending at least an hour a day reading on the deck.  I brought my sidekicks out with me one afternoon.

I went to Mattapoisett to have lunch with my freshman year college roomie from St. Joe's, Ellen.  We haven't seen each other since 1984 and only recently reconnected via Facebook.  So great to catch up in person and she lives in New Bedford, so not that far at all!  Took some piccies on the main drag and we also went to Ned's Point Lighthouse and a small park in town.

A couple days later, Russell & I went for a walk on Scusset Beach.  It was high tide and the waves were even more choppy than the day I went by myself.  It was really breezy.

Again, I was hoping for a murmuration, but not this time.

High tide plus other people walking around meant only 1 teeny, tiny chip of white beach glass on this trip.

My sweetheart. *swoon*

Two days after that, I had to kill an hour so I went up to Butterflies of Cape Cod.  I thought the weather was perfect but the butterflies were not digging the cool, shady habitat and were reluctant to wake up and fly around.

Om nom nom nom

I am so totally dreading winter.....

Mattapoisett Do-Over and Bonus Walk

Sick of Southeastern MA yet?  ;-)

It's not often we get a 68 degree sunny day so I headed back out to Mattapoisett to track down Ned's Point Lighthouse.   

 I didn't realize that there was a small beach next to it, so I explored there first.  

I found a lot of glass.  Not totally worn and there were way more fresh pieces, but I picked up anything that looked a little frosted and didn't cut me.

It's the beach where brown bottles go to die apparently.  Again, not that I'm advocating littering, but if you must drink & shatter glass at the beach, please remember that Bud Light now comes in cobalt blue bottles.  

I got home around Noon, ate some lunch...checked in on Facebook.  But it was just so incredibly gorgeous out that I had to go for a walk on the Canal.  I did a little over 2 miles round trip, bridge to bridge. 

I saw a whale too!  L41, Mega, was visiting from the Salish Sea.  hahaha  I was surprised to find such a large toy right on the service road and I'm sure it belonged to one of the many children in strollers, but hey you know, finders keepers and all that.  I would have returned it if I actually heard an upset kid or parents looking for it, but I didn't so yeah, mine. 

This was on the other side, at the RV campground.  People really make themselves at home.

No idea what this is but it's all over.

We're very lucky to have this awesome waterway on which to walk!

Gettin' My Kicks on Route 6

Did you know that Route 6 stretches from Bishop, California all the way across the USA (3,205 miles) to it's terminus at Provincetown?  Around here, it was the main route to New York before the interstates were built in the 1950s.  What I refer to as 'The Mid Cape Highway' is 6. It's also known as 'The Grand Army of the Republic Highway".  You can read about the history of the highway HERE.

Last year when we were helping my youngest stepson look for a car, we took 6 from Wareham out past New Bedford and I really enjoyed the ride.  I made a mental note to make sure that I planned a photography road trip.  We also drove right past that cool part of Fairhaven I was in last summer with my cousins when we went to Fort Phoenix.  The original plan was to go as far as Fairhaven but Russell suggested I continue into New Bedford to check out the historic waterfront.  I've always thought of the cities of SE Massachusetts as horrible, run down, crime ridden blips along I-195, and parts of them are.  But the bits off 6 are still pretty nice.  Not as kitschy as Rte. 66, but still has some cute places.  

I ended up shooting 210 pictures, mostly of the amazing architecture and old homes, plus tons in the New Bedford Whaling Museum.  I missed a few kitschy buildings on the way down there so I shot in places like Marion & Mattapoisett both going and coming.  In an attempt to break these down into viewable posts, I have condensed the pics from Marion & Mattapoisett as one entity.  The future posts will be of Fairhaven and New Bedford, respectfully.  Those of you who are my FB friends can view the album in its entirety over there.

Headed out from Wareham

Sadly there wasn't much to take pics of in Marion and I missed the road to the lighthouse, which is actually in Mattapoisett anyway!

I had to cut out the Chinese restaurant next door!  This is so delightfully retro.

Mattapoisett seems to have a seahorse theme.

It's a little crooked because I was driving and shooting!!

Technically this McDonalds is in Fairhaven.  Not sure if it's a new restaurant built to look old, or really one of the first ones.  I could only find some info on that old 'Speedee' logo which was used from the late 40s till 1967 when Ronald McDonald became the mascot of the franchise.

You don't see many of these oldies so I had to stop and get a snappy.  I did not, however, get anything to eat there because, well, Ew.

I am already planning a Mattapoisett 'do over' because of missing the lighthouse.