Sandwich, MA

 

Words to live by

  The last couple of weeks I have had Tuesday off from work and on Monday I have a day shift. So, when I got out of work on Monday at 4 pm we have been heading straight for the Cape. The routine is to go straight to a campground, pitch the tent, make dinner ( hot dogs one week and burgers the next) on the grill. After dinner we have gone to the beach shark fishing. All of this is in the hours from 5-11 pm.

   The next morning we have explored. The first week we went to Crane WMA in Mashpee. We go there a lot looking for butterflies. This day, we saw four new species which was great. We were in a slump for lifers. After Crane we went to Market and got a sub and ate at the Railroad Bridge. We went home kind of early that day.

   This Monday we were better prepared and got to the campground early. We made supper and went sharking. No sharks were to be had. The highlight was watching a lightning storm over Martha's Vinyard  the entire time. For three hours we watched six or seven strikes a minute. The storm was moving east over the ocean and still going strong when we left the beach.

   Tuesday, we explored a little bit. We stopped in the center of Sandwich. There is a nice little veteran's park with monuments to many wars from the Civil Wat to Vietnam. There is also an old grist mill. It made for great photos but I'm thinking the mill would make calendar quality photos during peak foliage season. It may be worth a trip down just for photos.

   Also in downtown Sandwich was an old church. The church is very picturesque. So much so that it was used as an album cover for Elvis Presley (holy crap!). the album was called " How Great thou Art". That was pretty cool. 

  Our best find however, was a natural spring right next to the town hall. The spring is popular with locals who filled up gallon jugs and large Poland Spring jugs while we were there. I took a drink and the water was ice cold and delicious.

 

 the spring next to Sandwich Town Hall

    After our stint in the quaint ( I despise that word) town of Sandwich we headed to Onset. Laurie swam for an hour and I looked for shells and stripers ( I walked to a bridge). After my walk I was low on energy ( diabetic bullshit) so treated myself to a Pepsi with sugar (instead of diet. I never drink regular soda but needed sugar this day) and a small bag of popcorn. I sat at the bandshell until Laurie was done swimming. 

   After Onset we went back to the Canal and ate a steak and cheese sub by the water. We sat at a bench eating fruit as a desert after enjoying the ocean breeze until it was time to come home.

Post script- The campground we found  cost less than twenty dollars a night. It is almost empty on weekdays. We had a side road to ourselves. The road had seven other sites and we were wonderfully alone. Laurie liked the trip so much that she went back on Thursday last week. She went to Onset and swam first. Then went to the campground. Friday she took a walk on the canal and had lunch at the Sandwich Marina. Today she left to do the same thing. It works out because I have to close on Thursday nights and open on Friday. She has the two days to herself and we reconvene Friday afternoon.

The light was not good on the church
no matter where I stood

   

Imagine this photo with fall colors

There is a cemetery near the center.We found gravestones of both Revolutionary War and Civil War vets. 

Th

Leopard Frogs

 

Laurie and I took our annual trip to Great Meadows in Concord, MA to see Leopard Frogs. This is about the only place I know where I can see them regularly. Not much of a story, there were a lot there. I caught a couple and we took some photos. 

Little Lies, Fleetwood Mac Tribute Band

 

The Stevie Nicks and 
Lindsey Buckingham
of Little Lies

  Last year, proving we are old, Laurie and I went to a couple of summer concerts in Onset. They actually had some high quality bands. One of the ones we tried to go to was Little Lies. Unfortuanetely, by the time we got down there all of the parking spots were full. Disappointed by this, we ended up seeing them at a bar in Pawtucket a couple of months later. We were blown away by how good they were. Equally surprising, I really didn't know that Fleetwood Mac had so many hits. 

   We kept track of not only Onset's concert lineup for the summer, but also Little Lies website. On July 22 they played at Onset again. Normally, the concerts are at the half shell across from Onset Beach. This is a great place to see a concert. You have the beach across the street, ice cream at the venue, and pizza on the block. This year, renovations are taking place so the concerts are at the VFW (as if I didn't feel old already)

 

 So we went to the VFW where the concert was outside under a roofed pavilion. This is not as good of a place to see a show. It is cramped and because there is a roof, the sightlines are bad. Still, we got to see these guys and it was better than not going at all. 

  Fortunately, they played last Wednesday in Canton. They played at a field in front of a school. There was plenty of parking and room to put down a chair. Straight up, this tribute band is awesome and I almost feel guilty that the concerts are free. 

  They have two female lead singers, one that sounds like Stevie Nicks and the other that sounds like Christine McVee. They have a guitarist that sings Lindsey Buckingham's songs including two of my favorites "Monday Morning" and "Secondhand News". All three singers are great. The band is also great. They have a drummer, bass, and a keyboard. All of which get at least one solo during the show. The keyboard player also plays an accordion. 

Little Lies in Canton

   I highly suggest you go to one of their concerts if they are in your area. We are actually going to see them again this coming Wednesday. They are playing in Easton only ten minutes from Laurie's house.

https://www.littleliestribute.com/schedule