Our road twists and bends, but it never ends
This is the last DaddyMom road trip as we know them. By the time we tear another 12 months from the calendar, Grant and Kyle will join the Monkey Troop after Sandie and I marry in October. And, John will be about to leave for college. While not truly a DaddyMom anymore, I'll treasure the title every day God gives me on this earth.
The National Seashore undergoes ongoing changes due to the forces of nature. Hard to believe, but this area was once densely forested. Settlers stripped the land of trees to create shelter and heat in winter.
The parks service has been struggling to save the land for years. From the looks of it, they’re not winning the fight. One more thing: if you look closely at the waters behind the kids, you can see seals riding the surf near the beach.
In 1903, Marconi used the broadcast station depicted in this model to transmit a message across the Atlantic. It made history and opened a new era for broadcast communication.
Today, this is all that’s left of the station. It’s from one of the towers—one of the towers farthest from the ocean. The rest was lost to erosion.
Even though the visit here was kind of a yawn for the kids, it’s a tradition for me to stop by the Marconi site when I come to the Cape.
Nauset Light on the Cape Cod National Seashore in Eastham is the one pictured on every bag of Cape Cod Potato Chips. We visited today while Kate helped Josephine and Chris get ready for John’s birthday party.
Every summer, the best college players from across the country come by invitation to play in the Cape Cod Baseball League. I have been reading about the league since a client turned me onto the book, “The Last Best League: One Summer, One Season, One Dream.”
After returning from an afternoon on the beach, I settled into watching The Red Sox hammering the Astros back in Houston’s Minute Maid Park. Ironic, eh? But, a sound outside lured me out on to the deck: the clap of a bat and sound of applause that could only be a baseball game. The glow of outfield lights above the treetops behind our hotel confirmed my suspicion: it had to be a Cape Cod League game.
I strapped on my Tevas, grabbed the camera and followed the sound and lights to find the Hyannis Harbor Hawks in the top of the 8th inning against the Wareham Gatemen. The 9-5 score told me the game was pretty much in the bag for Hyannis. The play-by-play announcer, pictured here doing the Internet broadcast, pretty much confirmed that conclusion. But, in baseball as in life, it’s not over till it’s over. So, I stayed for the remaining inning-and-a-half.
These guys are watching closer than most. They’re professional scouts looking for talent. Chances are some of the players they’re watching will next play in major league baseball. These are the stakes for the talented ones chosen to spend a summer playing baseball on fields like the one behind our Cape Cod hotel.
I will admit it: this is the meal I was looking forward to while planning our trip to Cape Cod. Clam roll. Pure comfort food. Fit foods be damned.