more Cape Cod

My family's home is 3/4 of a mile from Coast Guard beach and I sooooo took it for granted when I was growing up there. I thought nothing of riding my horse on the beach and in the surf all the time. Former Secretary of Defense, Elliott Richardson's family estate was near by, also within the Nat'l Park, and was a popular place for me to ride. They had lots and lots of open - cedar tree dotted pasture that overlooked Nauset Marsh. One time Mr. Richardson caught me, and told me I was trespassing on private property... I was a smart little tart, and whipped back to him that "hmmmm, this wasn't private property it was the Cape Cod Nat'l Seashore Park, and my Dad paid his taxes, and therefore I had every right to be there (on the Nat'l Park) He called my Dad that night, and told him he needed to do something about me !!! My Dad just chuckled.

Monday afternoon after taking Ansel on the mini tour down to Provincetown, Ansel was ready for an afternoon nap. So while he napped my sister and I decided to run down to the beach to cool off. It was sooo hot and the ocean water felt soooo good. It was probably 58-60 degrees. Amazing how that can seem refreshing but it was. I enjoyed watching these city kids run from the waves.

Cape Cod primer

The green depicts the Cape Cod National Seashore Park, and the red arrow shows

Eastham, where Nauset Light and Coast Guard Beach are. The town of Eastham is apprx. 3 miles wide.

Cape Cod, known as "The Cape" is shaped like an arm. The bicep part of the arm closest to the mainland is called the 'upper cape' and the fore arm, wrist and fist - farthest from the mainland is referred to as the 'lower cape'. The town of Chatham would be the elbow. This is all admittedly a little oxy-moronish since much of the 'lower cape' is actually north of the 'upper cape'. Cape Cod was shaped by glaciers on all sides and it’s really just a large sand bar. Cape Cod was discovered by Gosnold Champlain in 1607, the pilgrims arrived and looked it over in 1920, first mooring the Mayflower in Cape Cod Bay, and sending a scouting boat to explore the Cape lands on the bayside. When they landed at Eastham, they had their First Encounter with the Wampanoag Indians... the bayside beach is thus named First Encounter Beach with a small monument documenting the event. The Pilgrims ended up sailing west across the bay to land near Plimouth, MA.

'Upper' Cape towns include Bourne, Falmouth, Mashpee, and Sandwich. 'Mid' Cape towns include Barnstable, Brewster, Dennis, Harwich, and Yarmouth. 'Lower' Cape towns include Chatham, Eastham, Orleans, Provincetown, Truro, and Wellfleet. For those curious, the Kennedy Compound is at Hyannisport (not shown) just west of Yarmouth.

Cape Cod, quaint little villages here and there...

Funny... those of you who know Ansel well, know that he often recites lyrics, from popular songs of yore... he remembered Patty Page very well, but couldn't remember her infamous song Old Cape Cod... he could almost do most of the Tennessee Waltz... but no glimmer of recognition of Old Cape Cod... of course growing up on the Cape... it was a banner song... I assumed everyone born before 1945 knew it.


Our destination is 5 MacPherson Way, Eastham, Mass.. My family home, that my sister Bonnie and her husband Dick now own. My father built the house in 1956. Both my mother and father were raised in Quincy, MA a suburb of Boston… Quincy is probably most well known as home to the John Adams. They purchased the 3 acres on Cape Cod in 1955 and lived in an army tent on the property while building the house. I am the youngest of four. My mother's sister, "Ah"ntie Bert bought the adjoining property and built a quaint little house 1/8 of a mile up the road. She was a single mother with two boys, so the six of us kids were all raised together.

When my mother died in 1995, Bonnie and Dick were able to purchase the home from the estate and keep it in the family. I suppose of all the siblings, I benefit the most since I live so far away and that is where I stay when I visit. Bonnie and Dick have done a considerable amount of updating and remodeling, but the house is basically the same. It sits within the Cape Cod National Seashore Park, which preserves the 30 miles of ocean shoreline from Eastham to Provincetown. The park was created in 1963 and it just about takes an act of Congress just to build a privacy fence. The Stevens house across the way, was built in the 1700’s. The town of Eastham was incorporated in 1651, farming of asparagus and white turnips was the main industry as Eastham didn’t have a harbor, oh yeah, I mean "hah-ba".

Ansel enjoyed meeting my sister and family. The first night we were there we had a delicious bbq dinner on the deck. Megan (the middle niece) and her family came over to join us and meet Ansel. Bonnie, Brandon, Scott, Blake Bruce, Megan and Dick

Ansel as close to putting his toes in the sand as he's gonna get. We just couldn't convince him that taking his boots off and pushing his bear toes down into the white sands was the thing to do... We are at Coast Guard Beach in Eastham, this is on thet eastern shore of the Cape which runs north and south in the Atlantic ocean SW of Boston. We used tell visitors that this was as close as you'd probably ever get to Spain. (However I think Maine probably has us beat, but that's what we used say anyhow)Bonnie is explaining how much of the beach has been washed away by storms over the last 30 years.

The Coast Guard Station now serves as dorm and school site for educational groups to come for field trips. The Coast Guard stopped using it in an official capasity in the 60's. It is now a restored landmark.

Again... the scooter was a life saver. I certainly makes all things possible for Ansel to see and get close to... It was the best purchase yet. (this trip I kept the battery charger with the scooter)

Headed to Cape Cod

Before we went to bed Saturday night we said good bye to Gib and Amber as they were headed back to Oregon at 5am the next morning. It had been a whirl wind trip, but a very memorable one. We got up Sunday morning and packed the rental car and headed to Cape Cod. (We flew into Providence, RI and rented a car there, drove it to NYC) Turns out it was and unforeseen blessing. I had chosen this itinerary, since I wanted to go visit my family on Cape Cod, and it’s easy to fly out of Providence. Gib and Amber paid as much to rent a car out of JFK for two days, as we did getting one for 7 days out of Rhode Island. Guess the pricing is all about markets and demand.

It was a pretty easy drive actually. We headed north and then west on 95 through southern Connecticut and into RI, and then over to Cape Cod. NY had several toll roads and bridges. One bridge toll was $5.00.
Connecticut has very nice rest areas. They call them service areas, they have large rest rooms, gas stations and a fast food court. It was really nice to not have to get off the freeway and hunt for gas or a snack. Again I was intrigued by the midget toilets… I even took a picture… Maybe Conn has a high population of short folks… The seat measures 16 inches off the floor. Guess I’m just easily amused... At some point later in the day, while we were still in Conn I stopped for gas. Ansel was ready for a restroom break, so I pulled around to TravelMart store for him to go inside. I always make a point to open the glass doors for him, because some of the doors are very heavy and they knock him off balance. As Ansel got out and started shuffling up toward the glass door, and I jumped out and when I ran around the front of the car… tripped over the cement parking block and splat - - fell in a pile on the asphalt… ouch was my pride ever hurt… it was blazing hot… I was horribly embarrassed, then an off duty fire fighter (I make this assumption based on the t-shirt he was wearing) came running over and of course wanted to call out the cavalry... It wasn't any big deal... I knew I was fine... just tweaked pride and wrenched my ankle a little and got a little road rash on my arm. After we got all collected up again, we headed out for the rest of the drive to the Cape. It wasn’t a bad drive at all… total on-the-road-time I think it was 3 ¾ hours.

the Belmont after glow

After we left Belmont Park… we headed back to our hotel neighborhood… just getting out of the parking lot proved to be a challenge. That really was the only time that we encountered the “masses”. I bet it took us 30 minutes to go ½ a mile. But after we got past the bunch getting on the freeway it was a piece of cake to surface streets in normal traffic load back to the hotel. Then we headed for a relaxing dinner and libations at a restaurant near the hotel.


Speaking of the hotel that we stayed at… our friend Lynn Sirrine was the one that told me about it. When I first started trying to put our itinerary together for the trip most of the hotel rooms that I came up on internet searches (Hotwire, Orbitz, Travelocity, etc…) were either sold out, or were ridiculously priced out of our budget. So I sent out an SOS email to my email circle of friends and family asking if anyone had any connections or ideas for lodging? And Lynn promptly wrote back that I should try The Five Towns Inn, that it was close to JFK, and that she stayed there frequently when she traveled to NY on business. She also said they put up several flight crews, and that was an indicator of how nice the place was. So I tried them and sure enough, they had vacancies and were very reasonable. Gib and Amber were also able to change their hotel reservations to the same place which made things nice.
If you are ever in the JFK area, stay at the FIVE TOWNS INN.The staff at the hotel treated us like family… the lobby and rooms were nice, and it was conveniently located near everything. I think it was only 10 miles to Belmont Park from the hotel. I wish we had taken another day to poke around there. It would have been nice for Ansel to see the Statue of Liberty and a few other attractions. But the bottom line was that we were able to fulfill his wish, and he was able to attend the Belmont Stakes. We’re still a little blue that we didn’t get to see a Triple Crown victory, or to see Big Brown give a valiant effort to get the Triple Crown… it’s hard to believe that it was all over so quickly. In the blink of an eye, they were in the home stretch. The whole experience was a fairytale, and I’m so thankful to those who had a hand in making it possible. !!!! There were so many wonderful things that worked out, answers to prayers, that made this trip possible. In the morning, we'll start our the next chapter of our adventure driving up to Cape Cod. Stay tuned :-)

Belmont Stakes cont.

The statue of Secretariat that is in the center of the Paddock. It is quite beautiful. (This picture was taken on Friday)

Rudy was the usher in charge of the door nearest our box... he was a sweetheart and treated us like royalty and was very impressed with Ansel. Rudy was a former jockey too.

Shaq with the "little people" :-), He was there giving some sort of presentation... I couldn't quite hear what they were saying on the PA system. Earlier in the day he was sporting Red w/white diamond silks... that was a sight. I didn't get my camera dug out and turned on in time to catch that picture, darn.


The first clue that race 11 was coming up, was when the NYPD showed up enmass. There must have been over 100 NYPD officers on foot as well as several on horseback. We were told they were very concerned that PETA was going to try and sabotage the race.

Big Brown entered the track to a deafening standing ovation... guess this was another example of "it ain't over until it's over" The energy in the whole Park was beyond words, the noise was deafening, the anticipation of witnessing a Triple Crown Victory in just a few moments had the entire place revved beyond imagination. We couldn't hear ourselves think... the bell, "they're off !!!!!" the noise, the energy, the race announcer's voice booming... and suddenly there were gasps, and almost silence as 150,000 plus fans looked in disbelief as Big Brown was pulled up and in last place...

One of the things that I remember thinking was it all happened so fast... and it was over in the blink of a couple of eyes. Seemed one second they were loading the gate... and the next they were around the track coming into the finish... I think 99% of every one there was in shock... total disbelief that Big Brown was a big dud...



The 2008 Winner of the Belmont Stakes: The race was won by Da'Tara, who led the race from wire to wire. The little bay horse had odds of 38-1. Just imagine the few believers in Da'Tara that bet on him to win... 

watching the replay...

I was quietly grinning when the race was over and when I figured out "this" horse had won with the long shot odds... as I had followed the advice of my friends Cindi and Laurie and had bet $5.00 on all 9 horses to win so I'd have a souvenir ticket of the winner. I didn't say anything to anyone... then Amber said something like too bad we didn't bet on this one, look at the odds, and I quietly said, well I did... WHAT ! you did, really ?? !! $5.00 bucks??? you probably got $800-1000 dollars... I was feeling pretty smug as I went to the window to cash in my ticket... However my big head and smug attitude was short lived... When I presented my ticket, the lady stuck it in a computer and then handed me $26.00 cash... and I stood there waiting for more... and she was confused and I was confused... I said I thought it should be more... she showed me why it wasn't... and then I saw it... CRAP !!! when I placed the bet, the teller who took my money, put it on race number 10 instead of race number 11... and there was absolutely nothing that could be done... I did talk to the gal who did it, and she felt bad and remembered and admitted it was her mistake... but none the less there still was nothing that could be done... signs every where warning you to check your ticket before leaving the booth... that little lesson learned was more disappointing than Big Brown not winning. Oh Well... I'll be wiser next time.

The one thing I forgot to do that I intended to, was to buy a Mint Juleps. Oh well, I did buy Ansel a commemorative set of four glasses. One is for the Derby, Preakness, Belmont and Triple Crown each respectfully listing the winners of each for each year. Some of you reading may have seen the Derby glass that at the house that Ansel has from the 80’s. He jokingly refers to that glass as his computer… when he is trying to recall what horse won what Derby, he’ll say just a second I’ll go look that up… and he’s going to look at his old Derby glass. So now he’ll have a current full set.

Ansel is still in awe that he attended the Belmont Stakes... he said over and over again... he thought maybe he was dreaming... He thanked me many times for making it happen for him. We really did have a fantastic time. It was also lots of fun to have Gibb and Amber along... I think especially Ansel appreciated having Gibb there to chat ponies with. It was definitely a fairybook adventure, I'm so thankful we have stepped out on faith and let God bless us. I shall never forget the kindness of Belmont Park in 2008.

Call to Post on video

I was able to capture the trumpeting of the Call to Post yesterday and thought it would be neat to post here.

Click the go arrow to hear it.