Wareham and Cape Cod, Massachusetts (Sunday, August 30th, 2015)

We woke up at the lake house this morning, and had a wonderful egg breakfast and coffee.  The boys all went out tubing one last time before they headed back to school, and then we adults started getting packed up as well.  

We went to Captain Al's Tiki Bar and Restaurant in Buzzard Bay for lunch.  

Captain Al's Tiki Bar and Lounge, with it's great patio overlooking the bay

They served all kinds of seafood, and some land food as well.  The food was good, and the atmosphere was really fun.  We sat at a table on the deck overlooking the bay.  We just love being outside like that!  Once lunch was over, we said goodbye to our wonderful friends, and Steve and I headed out to Cape Cod, and our friends all headed back to the lake house.

Thanks for a great time, girls!  Wow, you make me feel tall!

A great time with great friends!

As we crossed the bridge into Cape Cod, there was really no change in the landscape.  It continued to be very forested.  

We are staying tonight in Hyannis, which is about 1/3 of the way onto the cape.  It is a nice town, but really no different than what we have seen on the mainland.  We arrived at our hotel and checked in at about 3:00, and then headed to sea gull beach.  The temperature was about 83 F and it was a gorgeous day.

There was a $15 charge for parking for the beach.  We made our way down, and the beach was fairly crowded but we found ourselves a nice spot in the sand.  

Our little spot in paradise!

We took a walk along the beach and noticed that there were dead horseshoe crabs all over the beach.  It appears that they wash in and get stuck in the waves.  Unable to escape the pounding of the surf they eventually die.  It was kind of weird how many there were, literally hundreds from one end of the beach to the other.   We even found a live horseshoe crab during our walk, so Steve took it out into the water and let it go further out in the water.  

Hopefully this guy made it safely out to sea after Steve gave him a hand

Most of the beaches on Cape Cod seem to have a concession stand and public restrooms, but most also charge a fee.  There appears to be different beaches for different activities.  Swimming and sunbathing are at all of the beaches, but windsurfers have their own beach, kite surfers have their own beach, etc.

Kitesurfers

Windsurfers

We have had a lot of really heavy food today, so we really wanted something lighter for dinner.  We found a grocery store called Shaw's, and they had a really nice sushi platter, so we bought it, and headed out to find a nice place to eat it.  We ended up on one of the beaches where the locals hang out, just past the ferry ports.  We sat and overlooked the harbor and ate our California Roll.  It was a really beautiful atmosphere for a nice light dinner.  As we stood on windsurfer beach, the fast ferry to Martha's Vineyard came by.

The fast ferry to Martha's Vineyard from the windsurfer beach

and we ended our day with a gorgeous sunset

We toured around the town a little longer before returning to our hotel for the night.

Newport, Rhode Island and Wareham, Massachusetts (Saturday, August 29th, 2015)

Today we will be going to our friends lake house in Wareham, Massachusetts, but wanted to go through Newport, Rhode Island on the way.  One thing we have noticed driving in the New England states is that it always takes us longer to get where we're going than we think it should, even if there isn't much traffic.

So we had breakfast at the hotel and then headed out for Newport.  We took the southern route from Warwick, Rhode Island to Wareham, Massachusetts, which took us over a couple of bridge with Jamestown and Beavertail State Park on an island in the middle.

Our first bridge, leading to Jamestown and Beavertail State Park

The lighthouse and Visitor's Center at Beavertail State Park

The park is open from dawn to dusk for fishing or whatever else you want to do

The current light house

The original lighthouse at Beavertail State Park was build in 1749, and was the 3rd lighthouse to be built in the American Colonies.  It was built right on the coast, and was demolished in a fire in 1753.  A stone tower was then erected on the same foundation, but was destroyed by the British in 1779.   The current lighthouse was built on a new foundation, further back from the coast in 1856.  This lighthouse was used to provide save passage into Narragansett Bay, but as you can see from the next picture, that wasn't always the case.

Coming back out from Beavertail State Park, we saw this old windmill.

The toll bridge to Newport

Our next stop was to see the mansions along the Cliff Walk in Newport, Rhode Island.  As we drove through the town of Newport, we noticed that it is a really charming town, one that would be fun to spend some time in, but we definitely wouldn't have time to do that today, so we just took in the sights as we drive through.  We made it to the Cliff Walk, and found parking right away.....our lucky day! We were able to take in about a mile and a half of the Cliff Walk before having to turn around and head back.  The mansions alone the Cliff Walk we're incredible, as were the oceans views that accompanied them.

Some of the beautiful rock work along the Cliff Walk

We were also able to see 40-Steps before we left.  It is a spot in the Cliff Walk where you can take stairs down to the rocky shoreline.

I wish that was a whale behind me, but it was just a rock

View to the left from 40-Steps.

View to the right from 40-Steps.

When we were at the bottom of 40-Steps, another tourist had crawled out on some of the rocks that were covered in sea moss, fallen on his butt, and almost went over the edge into the ocean with camera and other electronics in his hand!  It was scary to see, and was a good reminder of how slippery those rocks can be.  We really enjoyed the Cliff Walk, and would have loved to have seen more of the town before having to leave.

We were supposed to be at our friends, Steve and Liz's home at about 2:00, but by the time we finally got there, it was much closer to 3:00.  We felt bad, but again, just can't seem to get around this area as quickly as the GPS says we should be able to.

When we got to their lake house, it was incredibly gorgeous!  Much more majestic and nice than the pictures we had previously seen.    They have been working on this house for the last year, and have just recently finished the project.  They bought an older fixer-upper but as they started tearing into it, decided to take it down to the foundation, and start again. They were required to keep the footprint of the new home exactly the same as the old one which we now understand made for some challenges in building the new home. They have done a great job, and now have a beautiful new home right on the water.  

There are a lot of conservation laws in the state, and everything you do, even on your own land has to be approved by the conservation people.  It guess it is a very tough process.  In fact, they have a lot of Poison Ivy growing on their land, and aren't able to get rid of it because of the conservation laws.  It would be an incredibly frustrating situation especially for someone who lives in the wild, wild west where we just do things!!!

Steve and Liz were ready for us when we arrived, and we all sat out on their deck overlooking the lake having a few drinks and snacks. 

Their beautiful lake house

Looking from the deck to the front yard

Looking from the deck to the beach patio

Looking from the deck to the boat dock.  The men are getting the boat ready to go out

The boys heading out to go tubing

We watched Steve and Liz's son and his friends (who were still home from college for the summer) do some tubing, and then we went for a boat ride as well.

We watched the boys tube from the deck

Steve's view of the boys tubing from the boat.

Our view from the boat, a heron fishing from the shore

At about 9:00 p.m., their other friends Tom and Sally arrived after dropping their daughter off at college, and we all had a really nice steak dinner.  It was such a nice evening catching up with everyone.  

Gorgeous Evening on the lake

Time for a camp fire

A fabulous way to end a fabulous evening with wonderful friends!