When an unsuccessful adventure is still a success just by doing it

 

Post adventure Wood Frog

On Tuesday I went on a river exploring mission with my friend Adam. Adam, who lives in Matunuck part of the year, suggested over the winter that we fish the Saugatucket River in Wakefield. His reasoning was the water could be untapped because no one ever fishes upriver of the bike path bridge. I had to agree that this was a good idea and we planned to go this year. 

   We were supposed to go on a whale watch Tuesday but the wind was too strong and the whale watch was cancelled. Adam suggested we go try the Saugatucket exploration. Since it was on my summer " to do list" as was the whale watch, I thought it was a great idea.

   We met at the free parking lot behind the downtown shops. It was very obvious that the weeds would hamper my trolling motor. We decided that even if fishing sucked it was okay because we were both were curious about what was upstream. 

  Unfortunately, not much. Around the first bend the river narrowed to the point where you could still paddle a small kayak but fishing from a two person canoe was impossible. We moved upstream a few more yards and Adam looked at the satellite imaging of the river. It stayed narrow upriver without any openings or small ponds. We really had no choice but to turn around. Adam caught two rainbows from the spring stocking that will surely be dead after the next heat wave. I blanked.

I really wanted to explore this water. Despite not being very productive (or navigable) my curiosity was satisfied. I now know that I never need to  put my canoe in there again. I will no longer wonder "what if?" So in that regard, Tuesday's misadventure was a success. Since it was still early, we went to Trustom. We saw two snakes and a Wood Frog.

Adams National Historic Park

    Last Saturday, Laurie and I went to the Adams National Historic Park in Quincy. This area is dedicated to the protection of the birthplaces of John Adams and John Quincy Adams, the second and sixth presidents of the United States. The home called the Old House at Peace Field is also protected. John Adams lived in this house in the latter years of his life as did the next four generations of Adams.

   Because Trump is an asshole, the budget only allows for this national historic site to be open four days a week. To make things even worse, you can go inside the houses of the two president's birthplaces on Thursday and Saturday or you can go to Peace Field on Friday and Sunday. The park does not normally have the funding to have all of the buildings open all four days. Very sad, that Americans can not see an entire national historic site all in the same day.

   Luckily, and I mean very luckily, the Saturday Laurie and I went, the town of Quincy was having a festival. As part of the festivities, all the houses were open on this particular Saturday. Laurie and I arrived at the visitor center around noon. We watched the 25 minute program about the Adams family. Then we bought our timed tickets for the houses. The houses of the president's births are a mile from the VC. The house at Peace Field is also not in the same area. Luckily, there is a trolley that takes you to both spots and runs on a 45 minute loop.

John Adams birthplace owned by his father

  We boarded the trolley about 1:15 and went to the saltbox houses the Adams's were born in. They are self guided and it doesn't take long to see both homes. There is a ranger (and/or volunteer) to answer questions. After we looked into both homes and asked a couple of questions we waited for the trolley to pick us up and bring us to our next stop. 

John Q Adams birthplace
John Adams home with Abigail

   We had a fifteen ride to the almost mansion sized home at Peace Field. John and Abigail bought this farm later in life. John Adams despite his brilliance for knowing the law loved farming. He would have been just as happy as a farmer as a Founding Father. The land is no longer farmland but now a Victorian type formal garden. One of his grandchildren turned some of what is left of the property into a formal garden which is very pretty.

Peace Field

    Usually you can take a normal guided tour of the house which talks about the Adams family and the house they lived in but there was a special tour running that we took instead. The tour was unofficially known as "the death tour". It concentrated on the deaths and last few days of John Adams, Abigail Adams and also Thomas Jefferson. Adams and Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826. This is exactly fifty years to the day since they signed the Declaration of Independence. This tour was quite amazing. It was lead by a park ranger dressed in period attire for mourning death.

The room and bed Abigail Adams died in

  We did see the room that Abigail Adams died in and the bed is original to the room. Since Adams lived to be ninety in a time when most people were dying young, he experienced many deaths in his life. Abigail died before him, so did a daughter of breast cancer. Most of the other founding fathers died before John Adams. John Adams final words were "Jefferson survives" not knowing Thomas Jefferson died a few hours before John Adams the same day.

Our noble steed

   After our tour was over we went back to the Visitor Center via trolley and then the ten minute walk back to our cars. All in all, we had a fantastic day. We got extremely lucky to do all of the houses on the same day. 

If you go... The cost for the day is $15. As I said in the beginning, this would normally cover either the birthplaces OR the farm. So to see all the park has to offer, you most likely need both days. Due to lack of funding, the park is open Thurs-Sunday. Parking on street is tough and mostly limited to one hour. There is a parking garage and the National Park Service will validate your ticket. The park is only open for a few months during the warm weather and not year round. Because of the distances between the visitor center, the birth houses and Peace Field, I don't think walking to all of the sites through urban Quincy is an option. You can not reserve tickets in advance you have to buy them the day of the tour (you used to be able to buy them in advance until this year)

Front view of Peace Field from the street

So Happy Together

   

Jay and the Americans

   Last week I went to an oldies concert with Laurie, my friend from work Adam and his girlfriend Hannah. The show was at the South Shore Music Circus. The show is know as the Happy Together tour. The main act are The Turtles (who sing Happy Together). This tour has been around for years with The Turtles being the last act. Each year when they tour they add or subtract a band or two so you are always seeing something different. The last time we saw this tour was 2019 when among others, members of Three Dog Night were there.

   This year's lineup was the following...The Cowsills (from Newport, RI), The Vogues, Jay and the Americans, Little Anthony, Gary Puckett, and The Turtles. The Cowsills rocked it with "Indian Lake", "Hair", and "The Rain, the Park, and Other Things".

Gary Puckett

   Each group played five of their signature songs. The Vogues had "Five O'clock World" and "My Special Angel". Jay and the Americans got everyone into it with "Come a Little Bit Over" and "This Magic Moment.  Gary Puckett , who is usually on the tour every year played "Lady Willpower" and  "Young Girl".

   For me, the highlight was seeing an eighty five year old Little Anthony dance as he sang :Shimmy, Shimmy Cocoa Pop". I hadn't heard that song in forty years. He was funny in-between songs as were most of the acts. 

Little Anthony

   

The lead singer of The Turtles isn't the original. It is the guy that was the lead singer of The Archies. Their big song was "Sugar, Sugar". Along with Sugar, Sugar" and "Happy Together" they played "It ain't me babe", and Elenore".

 

     All in all, it is an amazing show if you love the oldies. The groups still sing great. Most members are well into their 70's so don't expect to see all of the members. Most groups had a couple members and the rest was filled in with their house band.  The Happy Together Tour seems to play the South Shore Music Circus in Cohassett every year. I believe they also play at the Cape Cod Melody Tent also. If you can remember to check the schedule next year, I highly recommend going to see The Turtles and whomever they bring with them. 

Adam liked the show enough to
buy a $40 tour shirt

Post script- Twenty one year old Adam had a great time. He is a slut for The Cowsills (his words) and knew most of the songs from the other bands.

Soft Shelled Turtles in New England!

 Extremely high on my 2025 bucket list was to go see Soft Shelled Turtles in western MA. I only found out about them when herper extraordinaire Michael Lupachini posted them last year. I was shocked that a species I associate with Florida lives in Massachusetts

 Spiny Soft Shelled Turtles are not native to Massachusetts. They are considered invasive however it seems their presence has not caused any negative effects to other species. Though not native to Mass, their range does extend fairly close as they are native to Lake Champlain and the Great Lakes.

 Seeing them this year was worth the two hundred mile round trip. Laurie and I went to see them on Saturday. We got a late start and it worried me that they may have been done sunning themselves for the day. The air temp high was 85 degrees. By the time we reached the river it was that temp and humid. Luckily, a quick scan of rocks across the river revealed two Soft Shelled Turtles. The river is wide so my photos are from about a hundred feet away. We looked at the two turtles for twenty minutes. I realized I had my spotting scope in the car. Unfortunately when I walked up to my car to get it, both turtles decided to go for a swim.

  We decided to check another spot on the river. There is a boat ramp with an extensive view of a a beachy shoreline. We found another five turtles! They were really far away, the furthest being at least a quarter mile away. We used the spotting scope and watched a couple go into the water only to climb right back up the shoreline after a five second dip to cool off.

 

 I'm pretty sure I saw a swimming Soft Shelled Turtle in Florida last time I was there but didn't get a photo and the water was muddy. So I never counted it on my official list. I'm counting them this time obviously. I'm pretty sure that Spiny Soft Shelled Turtles are my first lifer this year. Quite a contrast from last year where I got thirty four lifer vertebrates.

  After our turtle adventure we had a picnic of steaks, potato salad, and strawberries at Hopkinton State Park. In the evening, we went the opposite way in MA and went to see Dirty Deeds at Plymouth Memorial Hall (separate post). Saturday June 21, 2025 was a great first full day of summer for me!!!

Three of the seven that I saw are in this photo
from a beach across the river

Bonaparte Photo Upgrade

 

    A couple weeks ago a very rare for New England Franklin's Gull was at Misquamicut Beach parking lot. I was working the day it was seen so I couldn't go see it. I did have the following day off from work and went for it. It wasn't there but I did get a photo upgrade of a Bonaparte's Gull. These little gulls are dainty almost tern like. Usually when I see them they are young or not in breeding plumage. Adult breeders have black heads. When they are not breeding most of the head is white with a black smudge on the ear.

   I've gotten fairly close to many of the non-breeders before and gotten lucky with photos. However, I never had great views of an adult. When I went to Westerly there were quite a few adults mixed in a flock with three other species. Some of them were right on the parking lot very close to my car. I didn't have to walk to them. I could use my car as a blind, since gulls at a beach parking lot are extremely used to cars, and was only a couple parking spaces away when I was shooting them with my camera.

Adult Bonaparte with three non-breeding
Bonaparte's Gulls

Dirty Deeds done pretty cheap

 

 It's no secret that my favorite musicians are the late Jimmy Buffett and AC/DC. I've seen Buffett many times but never AC/DC. I've wanted to see them and told myself if they toured again I'd go see them. When my chance came this summer I couldn't get myself to pull the trigger and buy tickets. AC/DC played at Gillette Stadium in May. I couldn't bring myself to pay $125 (plus $60 parking) for nose bleed seats where I would have to watch them on the big screen. It was a tough call but it wasn't worth it to me to see little ants around the stage. I hate Gillette concerts

   Luckily for me, there is a pretty good alternative. There is an AC/DC tribute band called Dirty Deeds that is a great facsimile of the real thing. I saw them last year at the Stadium Theater in Woonsocket and was blown away. I knew I would see them again.

    Dirty Deeds played the Plymouth Memorial Hall this weekend and Laurie and I went. There was an opening band that was a pretty good Guns and Roses Tribute. Unfortunately the music was so loud that you couldn't hear the lead singer at all. To sing along you had to know the words and the beat. None the less, they were a nice surprise.

   After the short intermission Dirty Deeds came out. They played roughly two hours. They did play about four songs that I actually didn't know which surprised me. The only big hit they didn't play is "Money Talks". They also don't seem to play "Big Balls" and the innuendo song about gonorrhea "The Jack". 

   Other than those songs, they played everything one would expect from AC/DC. "Back in Black", You Shook me all Night Long", "Hells Bells", "Highway to Hell", "Jailbreak", "Who Made Who" and a bunch of others. I had a blast and danced extremely badly all night along with losing my voice screaming.

    Dirty Deeds will be around a couple more times this summer. They are playing at the Stadium Theater in Woonsocket again. They are also going to play at the Charlestown Seafood Festival. If you like AC/DC then you won't be disappointed seeing Dirty Deeds. They are awesome. My video that I took exceeds the megabyte limit that I can post so below is a link to them at the Hampton Beach Ballroom playing "Thunderstruck".  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4YAyWNWqS4

Cicadas

   

There are some things that I really want to do in life that I will be disappointed if I never get to do them. Then there are things you hope you can do but don't really give much thought to. Last year when the south was being invaded by seventeen year Cicadas I have to admit I was jealous. I wanted to experience thousands of those insects. While I think my life would still be complete without seeing a mass of Cicadas it was still something I hoped to experience.

   I was told while at BioBlitz that there was an invasion of Cicadas at the Midway Recreation Area on the Cape Cod Canal. The person that told me about them said they may be there another week or so. I didn't want to waste this opportunity to see Cicadas. I had Wednesday off from work and went down after it warmed up a little.

   I was not disappointed. There were tons of Cicadas. As soon as I opened my car door I could hear the constant buzzing. I saw a few while driving into the picnic area and I knew I had a shot at getting a few photos. For the next two and a half hours I listened to what I can describe as the ultimate white noise. I could have fallen asleep to the relaxing sound of Cicadas. I did hear some individual Cicadas. If you can hear an individual they actually sound like they are saying "pharaoh".  I heard a few and sure enough that is what they sound like. 

   Basically, I spent two and a half hours doing a Cicada photo shoot while listening to the relaxing sounds they make. Plenty of photos below.

These holes are from Cicadas that emerged from 
the ground. It is amazing to me that they have lived 
underground for the last seventeen years

These are the shells from Cicadas. Once they molt
these shells get discarded 

I have to admit, that
it feels like they bite when 
I let them stay on my skin