Juniper Disco

First off, let’s just agree to ignore that blizzard. You’ll find no snow photos here. I’m forgiving Old Man Winter and am trying hard to forget. Until Tuesday when I actually have to leave the house (my new schedule allows me to work from home on Mondays.) And then you will hear the rant, the grumble, the irritation, and the usual I’M MOVING! posturing that I do.

Until then, let’s take a look at some of the randomness on my mind lately …

The Americans — Felicity has a gun! And she’s a Russian! Have you watched the first two episodes? It’s brilliant! Cold War spies in the 80s Reagan era. And it’s not the fun part of the 80s. I have to say it was a little alarming to see a show set during a time that I clearly remember. 

Wellfleet Sea Salt Company — Sea salt from the waters of Wellfleet? Land of the oyster and my second favorite town on the Cape? Count me in! 

30 Days of Lists — I find out about most things on Twitter these days. The latest is this awesome thing that is happening in March where we get to make a list every day. And share it with other Listers on about 13 different social media venues. God knows I love a good list! And there is a whole tribe of people who do, too. You can still sign up. It’s free.

House Hunters International — So I am guessing you have all been watching this show for years, right? Well, I’m a little late to the game. And I watched a gazillion episodes in a row this weekend while we were snowed in. I’m obsessed. They never pick the house I would pick. But maybe that means that house in the DR is still available?

Mailbox App — Allegedly, this little app is revolutionary. But I have to wait to find out. So not good at that. (Note: this morning we were down about 50,000 people and there were close to half a million behind me. Better get in line soon, everyone!)

Personal Branding E-Course — This is my second Braid Creative course. These ladies are so wise and share the best advice. I’m really excited about this one! “Blending who you are with what you do” is the focus. As someone whose career to date has been so separate from who I am, I’m excited to chart a course that brings the two together.

I started packing. — I was so trying to hold off until the long weekend but then that blizzard that we’re not talking about dumped a bunch of snow on us. What else was I supposed to do? I’ve thrown all my clothes on the bed and started lining up full outfits. I’ll be working on them until I leave but the swimsuit/beach coverup combos are done! And my pile of All The Things has been created!

For more like this, see last week’s edition of Random.

Devouring a whole lobster can be a lot of fun. Unless … but we’ll get to that later. First, let’s celebrate the fact that Moby Dick’s in Wellfleet has been in business for 30 years! 

When we arrived (early, I might add), we had to wait in line outside. This place is so popular. And with good reason …

The choices are mindboggling. It’s really amazing how many options there are here. And we’ve never had a bad meal.

Brilliant. Just brilliant. Pre-mixed dark ‘n stormy. In a can. Perfect for a BYOB establishment. 

The Mr. ordered a full clambake so he got a bunch of littlenecks to start the meal. Clams are not my thing. And littlenecks, with those little necks, are really not my thing. I ate one, though. Little neck kindly removed first by the Mr. and then dunked in a ton of butter.

My mom ordered the sea bass, which she graciously allowed us all to try. Again, never a bad meal.

And the rest of us had lobsters. N’s was the most photogenic.

Mine and the Mr.’s looked a little less perfect.

How cute are we in our lobster bibs? I really need to wear one of these at every meal. Something always ends up on my shirt. I’m certain I am not the only one with this problem.

I’m no lobster sissy (remember I watched my lobster hacked to death two inches from me when I was in Jamaica?). But this lobster gave me hell. My claws were tough and the Mr. had to help me. One knuckle was stubborn and the Mr. had to help me. Again. When I tore off the tail, the tomalley was super gross and remained attached to the tail. So, so gross. And there was so much roe, I had to scrape it off everything. I had my napkin out wiping down my precious tail meat. You can see the little red specks everywhere in the photo below. You can also clearly see that I ate the whole thing. Despite the icky bits.

This is the line when we left. It was 5:30! You really need to get there super early to avoid the wait. (Yes, mom. You were right.)

This week my mom and I participated in a heron watch in Eastham sponsored by the Wellflleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. After getting our fill of seafood at Cooke’s in Orleans, we pulled into the tiny parking lot at Hemenway Landing. A short distance off of super busy route 6 is this Cape-Coddest-Of-Cape-Cod views.

And the buggiest place on the planet. Glistening in bug spray, we all headed upland to Skiff Hill — a very short walk that felt like a mile as deer flies flew in my ears and no-see-ems swarmed my head. So completely annoying.

It was woodsy, too. 

But totally and completely worth it.

Sigh! If I weren’t being devoured by bugs, I would have swooned. This is a calendar photo. A painting. A too beautiful to be real spot. Can you see the ocean on the far horizon?

These are hard core birders, as you can see. Bob Prescott is the same man that ran my marine animal stranding field school a couple of years ago. He is Cape Cod. He knows everything! And what is that rock in the corner, you ask?

It’s a community grinding rock used by the Nauset Indians.

How cool is that? You can see the grooves created by their arrows and spears and whatever they used.

Oh, right, the HERONS! We saw a Great Blue Heron and two snowy egrets fly across the marsh. None of us could stand the bugs for very long so we disbanded early. Before any of the night herons flew across the marsh on their nightly sojourn. And that was totally ok with me.

Friday morning, the Mr. texted me asking if I wanted to take the 2:00 boat to Ptown instead of the 6:30. You can guess my answer.

The four and a half hours that we gained were filled with wonder and amazement. Our trip out of the Boston harbor took us past some of the first Tall Ships to arrive for the OpSail celebration during Harborfest and the huge Fourth of July extravaganza that happens here.

The sailors are in town, too!

The boat was having some trouble — one engine appeared to be down — so we had a more leisurely pace to the Cape. There are several lighthouses on the trip out of Boston and this one is my favorite. Minot’s Ledge juts out of the water off the coast of Cohasset.

As we were approaching Ptown (directly across from where this is), I spotted a whale spout a few lengths away from us. If the engine hadn’t been down, we very well could have missed it, or the boat would have been so loud that the whale might have gone for a deep dive. But there it was just logging (that’s whale behavior terminology.)

When we docked, we saw that Mary Oliver (yes, the Mary Oliver) was parked right across from us picking up her own herd of travellers from Boston. This town is filled with poetic and artistic souls.

The entire trip we were craving lobster rolls! After a quick stop to pick up the mail at the post office in town, we were on our way to PJ’s in Wellfleet.

These lobster rolls were so yummy! Just the right balance of mayo to lobster (light on the mayo) and no filler (I hate celery in my lobster roll.) The bun was toasted and so buttery.

The Mr. ordered onion rings, which are not french fries.

I ordered the corn on the cob, as my fry-substitute.

After our meal at PJ’s, we travelled to Wellfleet Harbor for some ice cream!

That melted so quickly! 

This was our view from where we ate our ice cream. So nice to put your toes in the sand and look out over the water.

We also investigated the osprey pole in Wellfleet Harbor.

And the ospreys, which I am calling The Ospreys, put on a lovely show for us. How incredible is that?

As we headed back to the car, we saw two children pulling in a cage. Happy to share their crabbing technique and explain what they were up to, they had caught seven crabs. Which they planned to release. What a great example of doing something just for the sake of doing it. No goal. Just for the fun of it.

Which I think was the lesson of the whole day. We could have filled those four and a half hours with emails and phone calls and meetings and paper pushing. But instead we got all of this! Next time someone asks you to do something, say yes. Leave early!