This was the only day we spent entirely on Cape Cod. We began the day with a train tour:
It was the type of train car with a glass dome, for maximum visibility. We made ourselves comfortable:
...and so did Trooper:
Quite a lot of Cape Cod consists of salt marshes:
...and cranberry bogs:
Of course, I couldn't see any cranberries from where I was, so I took it on faith that they were out there. I was rather surprised to find out that cranberries are such a major crop in Massachusetts - I always thought that New Jersey was the primary source of cranberries, but according to the narration, it's in second place behind Massachusetts.
Where Cape Cod joins the mainland, there's a canal (w) that cuts across the Cape, allowing boat traffic to and from Boston to get past the Cape without having to sail all the way around it:
The canal is crossed by three bridges, two for cars and one for trains. This is the Sagamore Bridge, which we drove across almost every day we were there:
Before turning around and going back, the train stopped for about an hour at the Pairpoint Glass Company. Most of the passengers got off the train and toured the factory and shopped at the company store. Terry elected to stay on the train, and I got off and walked around the area for a while, and then briefly looked at the glassware in the store. It was impressive, but you'll have to take my word for it, because I neglected to take any pictures.
After we got back, we had lunch at the colorfully named Spanky's Clam Shack, where I had a lobster roll (w), for the first time in my life... but hopefully not the last. The lobster meat was piled so high in the roll that I had to eat it with a fork until I got down to the level of the bun, so that I could pick it up.
The next thing that we did was indulge one of my many idiosyncrasies. I like to drive to "the end of the road," and as you can see from the map above, there's a highway that goes almost all the way to the tip of Cape Cod. So off we went.
On the way, we made a brief stop. In Harwich, very near our resort, there's a kite shop with the whimsical name of Dr. Gravity. Right next door - and under the same ownership - there's a candy store with the even more whimsical name of Dr. Cavity! When I walked into the candy store, I found it empty. Apparently, there's only one employee for both stores. I had to walk next door to the kite shop to find someone to take my money for the fudge I wanted to buy. I probably could have just walked out with it.
Anyway, we continued driving, until we had reached the farthest point that could be reached by car:
But I wasn't satisfied. I wanted to get all the way to the very tip. Notice the dotted line on the map that cuts straight across the water. In the real world, that turned out to be a breakwater made of piled up stones. I walked out on it, hopping from rock to rock. I got about halfway across, but realized that I didn't have enough time to get all the way across, let alone get all the way to the tip. So I turned around and took a picture of where I'd been:
...and then turned back and took a picture of where I didn't go:
...and then turned around and went back to the car. Along the way, I passed this little critter:
Driving back, I thought that I at least could stop at the Pilgrim Monument, but it was too late in the day, and the Monument was closed. Yet another missed opportunity.
Along the way, I passed a sign. What it said didn't register at first, but when it hit me, I turned around and went back for another look:
And that was it for the day. We drove back to the resort, had dinner - I forget where - and did some laundry. I saw some rabbits in the field adjoining the parking lot, but couldn't get close enough to get a picture.