Cape Cod MA – "From Sea to Shining Sea"

Excited to have a 50-degree day in December, we headed to the Cape to explore the area.

We found a letterbox at a nice little park overlooking the Cape Cod Canal.  Then we went to Buzzards Bay Recreation Area where we saw the Cape Cod Canal railroad bridge

and Bill began the 7-mile bike ride along the mainland side of the Cape Cod Canal Bikeway.

If you look carefully at the picture above you can see Bill in neon green heading to the canal bikeway. Here is a sign that shows the bike paths.

He biked under the two bridges to Cape Cod and then we met at Scusset Beach State Reservation.

 

We actually took a similar picture at the Pacific.

We then headed to Falmouth where Bill bicycled the Shining Sea Bikeway from North Falmouth to Woods Hole and then back to meet Barbara for a total of about 13 miles.  The bikeway goes past cranberry bogs

and the ocean.

 

Barbara found a few letterboxes: one near the grave of Katherine Lee Bates, author of America the Beautiful.  The Shining Sea Bikeway got its name from a line from America the Beautiful.  Given our cross country travels, we love that line "from sea to shining sea."

Bill also hiked to the Punch Bowl, a pretty pond in Beebe Woods. This land and other tracts are owned by the 300 Committee, a Falmouth land trust founded in 1986 on the 300th anniversary of the Town of Falmouth. 

2014 Year in Review

As many of you know... after much research and planning we ordered a 19' Escape Travel Trailer made in British Columbia, drove across the country to pick it up, and then spent two months traveling in the Pacific Northwest.  Our previous blog post sums up the trip and the June - August posts chronicle our daily activities. We thoroughly enjoyed the adventure!

Bill & Barbara (1) Olympic National Park (2) Washington Pass (3) our trailer in Ohio

Earlier in the year we saw the Biltmore Estate in Asheville NC en route to Barbara's parents' place in Florida.  We saw a few other relatives on that trip.

Kate lives in a house in Lexington MA with some other young women.  She perfected her coffee barista skills at several coffee shops, but then grabbed an opportunity to serve at a restaurant in a newly opened inn.  Check out innathastingspark.com to see where she currently works; it's part of an elite group of inns. She's also studying business part-time at Northeastern University and attends the young adults group at church.

Kate (1) dog-sitting with Maggie (2) with Carrie (3) coffee barista

Carrie's on her second year at Boston College.  Her Presidential Scholar Program included a spring break trip to Italy, a summer program on social justice in Boston, and an upcoming Christmas break trip to Nicaragua.  On top of that she spent the rest of the summer working with a microfinance organization in Uganda.  Among other projects, she created a video highlighting a Ugandan loan recipient.  She is now interning this academic year with a non-profit called Accion which gives small business loans.

Carrie (1) Bologna, Italy (2) Arua, Uganda (3) Gloucester, MA

Bill delved into many projects including three weeks in Ohio helping his parents after his mom's ankle surgery.  We also spent some time in Florida with Barbara's parents.  After over 4 years, Barbara transitioned out of her role as Teaching Director of the North Shore class of Community Bible Study this November.  Barbara so appreciated her time serving in that role and will miss it greatly, but looks forward to the next chapter.

Speaking of the next chapter, with us both in retirement mode – we plan to move in 2015, but have yet to work on getting the house ready to sell and narrowing down where to move.  Stay tuned to see where we end up next and what the next trip will be.