X Marks the Spot

 Hot Lava and I got out and looked for the X that marked the spots. Lots of social distancing going on. But nice to be out and about on this beautiful day.

Hay There!

We didn't have to go far to find the Hay Boat at Salt Pond Visitors Center but we decided to adventure further anyway.

It was a misty and foggy morning.  It was a beautiful walk and we enjoyed meeting up with a little bunny along our way.

Remembering

This was the perfect walk on a beautiful Cape day with Cubed, Hot Lava, and Joe Money! I read the comments from challenged "In Memory of" finders. After some deep searching, we found it.

It's in great condition but the logs which it was under have rotted. We moved it just a little bit under two small fallen limbs between two standing live oaks that are beyond the large pine referenced in the clues. 

It's such a great carve, we don't want it to be impossible for others to enjoy it as well. 

Denied, denied, denied

I was feeling lucky and it had been years since I tried so I gave it another go. Nope. Denied, denied, denied. I know I'm right there, just can't quite come up with the prize.  The sea of poison ivy didn't help.  

If anyone out there wants to join forces with me on this, drop me a line. Maybe another point of view or set of hands could help... ARGH!

Catch of the Day

I was very excited to find a fresh catch of the day just minutes away. Seems like it has been a while since I've been FTF! Pretty cool to see this view from this vantage point, as we are often seeing it from the water.

Soaking it in

Fort Hill View

I absolutely adore Cape Cod.  We often talk about living here some day.  But for now I have to settle for a handful of weeks each year.  So when my time here is over I get very despondent and just want to soak in as much of the area's beauty and fun as possible.  So today, in between loads of laundry and packing I stole a few minutes to take in a visit to Fort Hill, Penniman's House, the Eastham windmill, and to Stage Harbor in Chatham.

Eastham Windmill

Funny story about our trip to Penniman's House. The visit went great. Hot Lava was telling me about how he played the game camouflage when he visited here with his camp.  It was a delightful walk to find the box. A really great hidey hole. It was a little buggy as we rounded a bend but then as it opened up to the view the bugs left us alone.  Just then we spooked a large deer who bounded away from us.

Stage Harbor

We sat on the bench and logged in while taking in the views of Fort Hill.  As I was putting my stuff back in my bag I realized that I didn't have my car keys.  I began to freak out a little so Hot Lava and I booked it back, retracing our steps, looking for my dropped keys. We didn't see them.  We raced to my car and realized that not only had I left the car open, but I had left the keys in the car as well.  I guess I was just so excited about getting my fix of letterboxing that I spaced out.

An Artisan Show at the Brooks Academy

Since we had to drive right past the Brooks Academy to get back home, we decided to stop by. Much to our surprise, there was an artisan show set up right in the sunken garden.

We milled around and I made a few purchases.  Cape Cod artisan shows are the best places to get one-of-a-kind gifts!  So I stocked up on a few.

I was milling around, surreptitiously reading the clues and following the directions. Once I figured out where the box was exactly located I put my purchases down and pretended to arrange all of my bags while I reached down and took care of business of retrieving and logging in.  I don't think anyone even noticed anything out of order.  It was perfect: letterboxing AND shopping all in a beautiful and historic spot.  What a wonderful combination!

History Lesson in Harwich

 At a delightful little hike in Harwich we learned about some Civil War nurses.  Clara Barton I knew about already but was interested to learn of Walt Whitman and Harriet Tubman's involvement in the Civil War.  And I met Dorothea Dix as well.

a cute little swing on the trail

Fortunately there were benches nearby three of the four boxes because there was a man hiking behind us who apparently thought I was relieving myself at the first box. I was squatting down to retrieve it and he kindly gave me some space and looked the other way.  He was so quiet and stealthy I didn't realize how close behind us he was.  It would have been *even more* awkward if he thought I had to "go" again and again (and again) at the other boxes. HA!

A Six Sided Surprise

I nabbed a six sided surprise today. It was superb! And, by the way, it made my fingers all inky too, fil.

Arnold's is pretty fun too. But we didn't stick around to eat this time. We had things to do!

Kent's Point

I knew Kent's Point was a popular spot to walk your dog but I had no idea!  Everyone and their brother was walking their dogs at Kent's Point today!  We were the only ones with our dogs on a leash.  Seriously, are leashes not required in this park?  And what about poop bags?  Also not required apparently. Ick. Hot Lava got a hot mess all over his shoes.  :(

Great walk for us and the dogs, though. Nice views. I was able to find A-bear lying low as well as work out some clue updates for Licks.

A Gogo

 I had been here before several times but it is such a nice walk that I thought it would be perfect for the day. Besides, the h2o a gogo gave me another reason to return.

I brought along some others who often complain but they seemed to enjoy it today, much to their surprise.

The views are spectacular and the hike is very nice.  The boardwalk over the swamp is easy to travel and allows great views of the neat ferns, mosses, and shade loving growth.

Rising

It was the perfect day to visit the falls.  It had been 7 years since we were here before. Hard to believe. No wonder the boys didn't remember it well.

We saw loads of warty little toads and even found a tiny snapping turtle.  It was almost cute.

I checked in on the feather spirit but the tall stump it had been languishing in had rotted and fallen away. It was no where to be found. But thanks to bones, who found it last week (prior find was 2011!), I persevered and located the rising spirit.  After watching the family frolic in the falls and slide down the rock slide, I found a new place for it.  One that is much more accessible.

It's a cool little park.  Really enjoyed it today!

Vive le Monde!

I love to kill time in cemeteries.

Vive le Monde!
Long live the World!





...and I might've heard the muted sound of accordion playing as I turned to leave...

Stony Brook

Over at the herring run in Brewster we had a beautiful walk. There's a fantastic little picnic area with a delightful vantage point.  Although I've been to this spot several times before, I hadn't taken in the view from this spot before.  I greatly enjoyed the local color.






Unfortunately, the herring wasn't spawning today. But the spot was gorgeous and we were glad to walk around and check things out.

The grist mill is also quite scenic and not to be missed!

Dizzy? Maybe. Itchy? No!

It was great to avoid the poison ivy at Kent's Point!  I enjoyed the spinney too!

Adventures in Eastham

Of course we were familiar with the Evergreen Cemetery. Not only had we been here before but it is just across the street from Arnold's and that's hard to miss.  A lot of people love Arnold's but I don't believe they serve pasta.  More like lobster rolls and fried clam strips.

As we were exploring the cemetery, we encountered a coyote.  That was pretty exciting for us.  Fortunately, it didn't take much interest in us but we were a bit spooked to see it out in broad daylight.

Of all the time I've spent on the Cape exploring and I've never met the three sisters. I have never even heard of them.  Until now.

They were very cool to visit. We will have to return in the off season so we can get to the images that eluded us today.

On our way out we spotted this guy making a trek across the road.  We stopped and provided crossing guard services to make sure he was safe. We don't see box turtles around like we used to!

Snowy

After dropping the kids off at the yacht club, I walked across the street and met Snowy.  An adorable little guy in a beautiful spot.

No Luck in Lancaster

One of my kids had day camp at Millersville University so I decided to seek out the highly recommended (and anticipated) Safari Man attractions while I had a few hours to kill.  I found the cemetery with no problem and located the Viet Nam Memorial immediately.

But then things weren't so easy....

I followed the clues but it was obvious that some major pruning and landscaping work had been done very recently.  There was a finder just 10 days ago.  Unfortunately for me, looks like I just missed it.

The box must've gone missing with all of the recent landscaping.

I quickly texted Blue Delft who confirmed along with her partner in crime, idlemoon, that they remembered the box being hidden under some large arborvitae type of bushes.  Now only two small bushes remain at the back of the circle around the memorial.

Bummer.  I heard it was superb.






And between that, the fresh grave a worker had just begun to dig, the creepiness of being (kind of) alone in a very large graveyard, and the promise of stinging nettles and poison ivy guarding the other boxes, I decided to move on.

I'll be back in the off season to catch up to the ones I passed on today.

Thanks for planting, Safari Man.

Here's a 2008 photo I found of the memorial from online.
 I can see many other bushes that are no longer there.

The adventure was an interesting one none-the-less!  

Long Overdue

There was a time in my letterboxing "career" when I would have set out within a day or at most, a weekend of a new box being planted in my area.  Boy have times changed.  Now my letterboxing habit takes a very back seat to many other things.  But since I was having a sad day realizing that my kids are growing up way too fast, my (no longer a) baby decided to take pity on me and he agreed to hike with me in my favorite local park.

More than a year ago, I was along on the plant for hop along home but it seemed that I was not an official finder until I found it on my own. Which I did today.

Then Hot Lava and I scaled some rocks including a case of rock stairs.

Yikes!...Oh Fudge!  A fawn must've been resting nearby because it jumped right out in front of me and made me scream.  A few moments later I screamed again when I lifted the SPOR to find the box and a snake slithered over the box.   I was jumpy all the rest of the hike.

We had a little trouble finding the protruding "goggly eyes." It is funny to me how many trees I can construe into "protruding googly eyes" and how many of such trees have corresponding V trees with kick stands!  HA! We did persevere and were rewarded with a beautiful delft tile!

It was a super day after all!

Brachycephalic Boys at the Beach

I am not much of a dog lover.  I like dogs from a distance just fine.  You might even be surprised to know that we have two dogs, although I always say they are my husband's dogs and I just let them all (husband included) stay at my house.  ha ha.

So I was away for the weekend with the extended in-laws and it rained.  I was able to drag four noxer extended family members with me over to Ocean View to meet some brachycephalic boys.  It was fun to visit them and reminded us of our boy we had to leave at home.

The stroll was super.  Just the right amount of break from all of the in-law commotion.  We even made a new friend who was guarding the first box.  Although, he (she?) was pretty anti-social.  We tucked him away until we found the second box then circled back to find him again but he had taken off.  We weren't gone that long and couldn't believe he made such headway.

Really glad I got to come here.  Made a rainy day with the in-laws a happy, fun one!