An Extra Day of Ocean

     It was supposed to rain today AND one of the two bridges onto Cape Cod is nearly shutdown. We spent over 1½ hours trying to get across the canal yesterday. When we heard it was going to rain today we decided to delay our travel across the bridge and stay for one more day on Cape Cod. But it didn’t rain – at least not yet.

     When we woke up to sunshine we decided to do more sightseeing. We drove into the old town of Sandwich and walked out to the ocean across acres of salt marsh. The city has built a boardwalk over the marsh and dunes to a beautiful sand beach. We could see dozens of birds flying over the marsh and lots of small fish in the bits of open water. When we got over the top of the dunes to the sea the sun was shining on the water and the surf was up. What a glorious goodbye to the ocean!
     A little further down the shore is the Cape Cod Canal. This man-made water way divides the peninsula of Cape Cod from the main land – making it essentially an island. It cuts about 100 miles off the route from Boston to New York for merchant ships, but is used by cruise ships and pleasure craft as well. We toured the Visitor Center and learned more about the bridge that is currently under repair and causing traffic jams. We didn’t see any ship larger than a schooner go through the canal, but there were pictures of some really large ones.
    Now we are a day behind on our schedule or maybe two, I have lost track. But the extra time sitting by the ocean and listening to the surf boom was worth it.