critters & trails

Another cool, cloudy day. The forecast called for rain late in the day, so I decreed we'd go to the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History. If it were up to the kids, they'd spend all day playing video games and building forts with blankets and chairs, or playing video games inside their forts. And eating.

Brewster is a bit of a haul from East Falmouth, but it was an easy drive today, before school is out, and before the tourist crowds hit. Later in the summer I imagine it would be pretty horrific, but for us it was only around 45 minutes, which isn't bad at all.

The museum itself is quite manageable, with a small aquarium downstairs and a great "marsh view" room on the main floor. There's an osprey's nest which they have on camera, so you get a close-up view of what's going on in the nest at all times. The marsh view itself is gorgeous, and there are plenty of bird feeders drawing the local fauna to the windows for our entertainment.

Lucky shot: photographing squirrels is hard enough, but chipmunks are impossible. This looks like some kind of gray squirrel/chipmunk cross.

View from the marsh room, left

View from the marsh room, right

We walked the wildflower loop and a little bit of the marsh trail, but didn't have time for extensive hikes -- energy was flagging, too, since the kids had a sleepover last night and didn't get to sleep until about 1AM. The trails were well-maintained and easy. Happily, sometime in the past couple of years, the children have decided that they like to walk around in nature.

Funny how we associate blueberries & summer... these won't be blue for at least another 6 weeks.


These blossoms were everywhere in the woods around the marsh.

Laurel? Raspberries? If I figure it out, I'll update.

I think the high point of the kids' day was the ice cream we got at Kate's Seafood.
Classic Cape roadside restaurant.

On the way home, DS1 commented that it was "a nice trip, but I really want to go to the beach."

So do I, baby, so do I.