Exploring Massachusetts' Coastline in Spring! OLA

a blue and yellow gingerbread cottage in Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard

nice  Cape Cod welcome!

It should be fall! But we have to be in Nova Scotia in July so we are here at springtime instead. And the long coastline, cute lighthouses, fresh seafood and a multitude of pretty flowers are so refreshing in these parts of Massachusetts we had not yet explored. Bill and I have each been to Boston several times but not Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and New Bedford! The Gateway to Cape Cod in Rochester, Massachusetts where we were camped made all within our easy reach!

The Bared and Bended Arm of the Sea

Plymouth Rock, marked 1620 when the Pilgrims came

Cape Cod

Heralded as The Bared and Bended Arm in the Sea, Cape Cod was formed as the recessional moraine of a glacier, resulting in a peninsula in the Atlantic Ocean. But in 1914, the Cape Cod Canal was cut through the base, forming what may be loosely termed an island. Unofficially, it is one of the biggest barrier islands in the world, shielding much of Massachusetts, including Boston, from North Atlantic storm waves but also suffering erosion of its cliffs, at the same time.

Mayflower II, the ship that carried the Pilgrims to our shores

the John F. Kennedy Memorial in Hyannis

At its shoulder is Plymouth where the Plymouth Rock and a replica of Mayflower II are well-known tourist attractions. The Monument to our Forefathers, on the other hand, is a hidden gem!  In the middle of the upper arm is Hyannis where the Kennedys maintained a compound, now donated for government research, though still closed to the public. The city also has an elegant JFK Memorial and a simple JFK Museum surrounded by Rose Kennedy’s roses.   Harwich, Chatham, and Brewster counties form its elbow. There, at the Stony Brook Grist Mill, we saw a herring run.

where the herring ran, beside the grist mill at Stony Brook

remnants of the Marconi's site for the US station
in the first transatlantic wireless transmission to the UK

The Cape Cod National Seashore is its lower arm. Near the Salt Pond Visitor Center are Captain Penniman’s House and the oldest windmill in the US. Near its wrist, at Wellfleet, there is only a mile of land between the gulf and the ocean. Marconi chose the site for the first transatlantic wireless transmission because it had an undisturbed line of sight to Cornwall in the UK.  Along the beach is also where I savored my first bowl of New England clam chowder! Finally, Provincetown, where the Pilgrims first landed before proceeding to Plymouth, makes its fist. A Pilgrim’s Monument and four small lighthouses are highlights of the area, beautifully dotted by flowers that thrive even on its sandy soil.

getting some rest from the sun at a seafood place on the beach at the Cod

Martha’s Vineyard

Steamship Authority ferry to Martha's Vineyard

One sunny day we took the one hour drive to Woods Hole at the Cod’s armpit and rode the 45-minute Steamship Authority ferry to the island called Martha’s Vineyard. The captain who discovered it named it after his daughter Martha and the wild grapes he found growing there. With a land area of almost 90 sq. mi., it is the largest island not connected to mainland US by a bridge or tunnel. The year-round population is about 15,000, swelling to over 75,000 in summer. A study found that cost of living on the summer colony is 60% higher than the national average; housing prices are double.

Tabernacle in the middle of the Camp of gingerbread cottages
 Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard

Ricky and Megan with us at Coop de Ville harbor resto

We docked at Oak Bluffs and immediately proceeded to the well-known pretty gingerbread cottages which surround the Camp whose center is the giant Tabernacle. There were all kinds of pastel colors and designs but I favored those that had yellow, of course. A real estate listing showed that one such small cottage is available for upwards of $350,000! At the Harbor’s Coup de Ville restaurant, not only was my second bowl of New England clam chowder waiting for me but also Ricky and Megan, a lively newly-wed couple of three days! We had a blast!

the island of Chappaquiddick with its ferries

found my spot of yellow daisies
at the end of North St. in Edgartown.

Then we took a 15-minute bus to Edgartown to which the small island of Chappaquiddick (where former Sen. Edward Kennedy’s car accidentally went into the water and his young female companion drowned) is connected by a small ferry.  But the best part of this town is walking along North Street which runs parallel to its coast. It is lined on both sides by beautiful homes, one side enjoying the waterfront at their backyards. But all the front yards are adorned by pretty spring flowers and verdant greens. I found my spot at the far end on a field of yellow daisies with a small lighthouse at the background!

a North St., Edgartown home...with yellow flowers!

New Bedford Whaling Museum

New Bedford

New Bedford was once the richest city in the world; it was the center of the great whaling industry and now its Whaling Museum is the largest in the world. Beside it is the the Mariner’s Home next to the Seamen’s Bethel (or church. At its Harbor, the old Schooner Ernestina is still docked as another reminder of the whaling days. There is also a memorial to those who lost their lives at sea and a Fisherman’s Memorial fronts the fishing boats. Downtown there is a Whalers’ Memorial which reads, ‘a dead whale or a stove boat’ beside the statue of Lewis Temple who invented the harpoon tip.  But the affluent times are best memorialized in the large mansions and lush gardens around town.

Downtown Bedrord's Whalers' Memorial

flowers on the sandy shores of Cape Cod

Although I felt that the Outer Banks of North Carolina are still better than Cape Cod, the totality of the coastal communities of Massachusetts…the Bare and Bended Arm, Martha’s Vineyard, and New Bedford…offered more variety for everyone’s notion of beauty. New England is truly lovely…and, I can now say, not just in fall! Sigh…our children are all in the west so that is still where we will probably settle! Maybe, just a gingerbread cottage for summer, Bill?

a lonely biker during low tide at the Cod

For more pictures, please go to my albums on our facebook account named billncarol colborn!  
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OLA: Being in the New York State of Mind

Joe, Dottie, Bill, me and at a campfire in Rondout Valley at New York's Cartskills

Carol on the grounds of the Vanderbilt Mansion

It is difficult to tell you stories about our trip to New York. It was a dichotomy of rural and urban, traditional and modern, agricultural and industrial. Billy Joel’s New York State of Mind prefers the former.

Yappy from MegaLink days!

                                       So this will be about the less known part of New York (the Big Apple will be the subject of  the next post) where we camped at the Rondout Valley Resort which is the home park of good friends Joe and Dottie whom we met early in 2010 in Florida. It is in a region of New York State called the Catskills along the Hudson River Valley: pretty, hilly, cool, green, rural, and serene.  Upstate New York, it’s called! And that’s where a friend of 12 years ago, Yappy, who now works in Manhattan preferred to visit with us.

Woodstock with 500,000 in 1969
 with Scott, Carl and Claire today!

And just 45 miles southwest was the site of the pivotal music festival of 1969, Woodstock in Bethel, New York, attended by almost 500,000, graced by about 30 well-known artists  like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Blood Sweat and /tears , Credence Clearwater, etc., and extended to 9 instead of 3 days! There, at the monument built by the owners of the dairy farm where the festival was held (it was an alternate site when at the last minute the city of Woodstock did not issue a license), we met three other enthusiasts: Scott, and Carl and Claire.

Bill at Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Springwood in Hyde Park

The place now houses a Woodstock Performing Arts Center, the Museum at Bethel Woods, and the hallowed grounds.  I identify with this flower power community, a rebellion in spirit. I was back in the Philippines, a sophomore in the University of the Philippines, seat of student power, at the time. We were rebelling against the establishment and, as a University Councilor of the Student Council, we had just laid the cornerstone of a piece of university land w called Freedom Park!

Eleanor Roosevelt's Val-Kill in Hyde Park
a couple of miles from Springwood

Martin van Buren's Lindelwald in Kinderhook

The Hudson River Valley is home to many mansions and estates. Martin van Buren’s (8^th president) estate called Lindenwald is in Kinderhook. The homes of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the only 4-time elected president of the USA, and his First Lady and UN Ambassador, Eleanor Roosevelt are in Hyde Park. The Roosevelt family estate is called Springwood and his retreat, the Top Cottage. Eleanor’s is called Val-kill (kill means river) and the Stone Cottage. As a matter of fact, the stately Vanderbilt Mansion also lies in the Park! All these are now under the care of the National Park Service.

Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park

Walkway on the Hudson
longest elevated pedestrian bridge in the world, near Newburgh

Actually, also in Hyde Park is the sprawling, lovely, and unique campus of the Culinary Institute of America. It beckons with awesome residence halls, comfy classroom buildings, and aromatic restaurants and bakeshops. Just a day’s class costs $250 so I can only imagine how much a degree costs, especially if one lives on campus!  Nearby,  on the road back to our campground, we saw a long unusual bridge across the Hudson. We found out it is called the Walkway on the Hudson, the longest elevated pedestrian bridge in the world (12 miles)!

The Plains, West Point parade grounds, where the bleachers cry out: 'ARMY BEAT NAVY'

Bill and I in front of the West Point Museum

We did not have the time to visit the Rockefeller Estate in Tarrytown  or the Sunnyside Estate of Washington Irving, the famous American poet and author in Sleepy Hollow. We also could not find the chance to visit Albany, capital and at the northernmost part of the state, where the tulip festivals were happening.  But we spent a lot of time in that hallowed place where the officers’ corps of the US Army is developed. Joe, a retired National Guard captain, took us on a tour of the US Military Academy in West Point.

West Point from our Hudson Line train on the way to NYC

Douglas MacArthur among the great generals at West Point

West Point has influenced so much of Philippine History. One of our former Chiefs of staff graduated from there in 1950, became a hero in the EDSA Revolution of 1986 that overthrew the 20-year Marcos dictatorship and became the country’s 12th President after Cory Aquino, Fidel V. Ramos. Under him I answered the call to serve my country and served as Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue. 

a view of the Hudson from West Point

We saw the statues of Patton, Eisenhower, and Washington, great American generals  but I was especially drawn to MacArthur who commanded the Pacific Fleet and returned, as he promised, to free the Philippines from Japanese occupation in WWII. They surrounded the parade grounds called The Plains where the graduation of the Class of 2012 will parade in review on Memorial Weekend as part of their graduation ceremonies.

the long gray line at West Point, cadets in review

the West Point Officers' Club

We were first registered at the Visitors’ Center where we viewed short clips of the history and significance of West Point, established in 1802 after the victorious American Revolution against the British. Then Joe gave us a tour of the galleries of the West Point Museum (one of the articles there was the Philippine Surrender Document by the Japanese in WWII). We also had the unique opportunity to dine with officers at the West Point Club, overlooking the Hudson. On Trophy Hill we walked where the American Soldier defended the fledgling country and a Monument in his honor towers over the Hudson.

the artillery at Trophy Hill in West Point

remnants of the chain that blocked the British
 from entering West Point placed at the narrowest portion of the Hudson 

I must admit, Billy Joel is right…the lesser known New York is every bit as amazing as New York City, although in quite a different way! For one, the towns always sleep as soon as it gets dark! 

   

Finding Gems on the Way to Jersey Shore! OLA

Carol reappears with Kozak the Magician after he picked on her all night...@  Atlantic City!

the Hagley Museum, duPont legacy, in Wilmington, Delaware

Dubbed a cultural phenomenon, Jersey Shore is an American reality television series that will return to its sixth season. This very successful show has now been exported to dozens of countries worldwide. I wanted to know what is so special not about the show but about this part of the East Coast. Well, we had the chance but we had to pass through Delaware before reaching the shore.  We stopped in Wilmington, Delaware, parked our home at their Wal-Mart parking lot, unhooked the car, and tried to find, in a day, the town’s gems.

Old Swedes Church in Wilmington, Delaware

the Viking ship at Kalmar Nyckel in Wilmington, Delaware

The Hagley Museum, the original site of the DuPont gunpowder factory, the bedrock of the family wealth built in 1802, is now a non-profit research center on the American enterprise. But we didn’t have the time for the 2-hour tour. We were more intrigued by the traces of the first Swedish settlement in North America in 1638. There is an Old Swedes Church with cobblestones, burial grounds, and a labyrinth. Another is Kalmar Nyckel, an old Swedish shipyard where, docked along the Delaware River, an old Viking ship is being restored. But the biggest gem we found is the over 32-ft Shrine of Our Lady of Peace created by a Wilmington sculptor in 1982. Made of stainless steel, she seems to glow against the blue sky.

Our Lady, Queen of Peace in Wilmington, Delaware

Ning, Ging, Jimmy, Ann, and me and Bill
at Chestnut Lake Campground, Port Republic, New Jersey

Then we continued our trek to the shores of New Jersey where my friend Ann had already arrived at her sister’s house in Somers’ Point.  The Chestnut Lake campground at Port Republic, 30 minutes away from her, had just opened on the day we arrived so there were few RVs and no activities but we had a stunning new picture window of the lake. Ann, her sisters Ning and Ging, and brother-in-law Jimmy came to join us for Bill’s special grilled New York steaks, Ann’s tomato salad, my boiled sweet corn, and Ning’s no-egg yolk leche flan. Good eats and good company!

Cape May Lighthouse at Cape May Point State Park

downtown Cape May

We then executed our plan of covering the Jersey shores. First we went to the southernmost point at Cape May. It turned out that the very day we went was also the birthday of my dear friend May, VP of the Philippines SSS. So we thought of her frequently while we were touring the Cape May Lighthouse and State Park, the neat little Cape May downtown with quaint touristy stores, and the Cape May winery and vineyard. That was the start, Mile 0 of the Garden State (New Jersey) Parkway.

Barnegat Lighthouse, Barnegat, New Jersey

Moffa's Farms' Christmas trees, ready for the bale!

Next we tackled the northern shores with the stunning Barnegat Lighthouse. We also found many Christmas tree farms near the Pinelands National Reserve. The Christmas tree industry is a significant part of the state agriculture, ranked seventh in the nation in the number of Christmas tree growers. There are 1,167 Christmas tree farms, covering 7,628 acres and providing more than 132,000 families with Christmas trees annually!  The first Christmas tree farm was begun in 1908 with the planting of 25,000 Norway spruce near Trenton.  But the the use of artificial trees has been gaining more ground. And a sizable % of homes are not able to put up any Christmas tree at all (that’s a payback project idea!).

Absecon Lighthouse in Atlantic City, New Jersey

Ballys rising out of the haze
at the colorful Atlantic City boardwalk, New Jersey

Finally, we went to the Vegas rival, Atlantic City, the playground of the East. The tallest NJ lighthouse, the Absecon Lighthouse, at 172 ft. and 228 steps, stands right at the north side of the city center. It has already been decommissioned as the bright city lights dimmed its effectiveness. On the south side of downtown stands Lucy the Elephant, a six-story elephant-shaped example of novelty architecture, constructed of wood and tin sheeting in 1882. She stands 65 feet high, 60 feet long, and 18 feet wide, weighs about 90 tons, and is made of nearly one million pieces of wood.  It is the only surviving example of the architecture of animal-shaped buildings.

Caesar inviting one and all to his palace in Atlantic City, New Jersey

the Tropicana lobby full of slot machines
in Atlantic City, New Jersey

Finally, we reached the main reason we stopped for 2 weeks in Jersey. The Atlantic City Boardwalk is all the write-ups said it would be…wide and spacious with glitzy buildings on one side and the charming shore on the other, with happy people walking to and fro in the middle! The grouping of Caesar’s, Bally’s, and the Trump Plaza at the center may have been less glittery than their Vegas counterparts but the big fun nevertheless continues unabated. And, of course, we had to go to an Atlantic City show! 

the Miss America Celebrity Walk in Atlantic City, New Jersey
Heather Whitestone's at the foreground

Lucy the Elephant, 6 stories high...south of Atlantic City!

We chose the Kozak the Magician Act (on his 3^rdyear there after 5 years in Vegas) and had an hour and a half of jaw-dropping tricks and rib-tickling monologue. This was at the Tropicana Hotel whose casino lobbies were humongous! Outside, the Outlet Mall was squeezed into the city’s center streets, quite unlike any other Outlet Mall. And the sidewalks had another kind of celebrity walk, the Walk of Miss America winners through the years. I was delighted to see one for Heather Whitestone, the deaf Miss America of 1985, who graciously did a benefit show for our Philippine Institute for the Deaf.

Historic Smithville shoppes and ducks in New Jersey

the Village Greene at Historic Smithville, New Jersey

Such are the gems we find in our travels, the treasures we gather, photograph, and write about so that later we can have the second journey. Before leaving we even found another gem of a different shopping mecca, Historic Smithville and Village Green. Back to back around a lake, the shops offered a lot of unusual items, including fancy cinnamon raisin bread that we decided to buy as pasalubong for our friends in New York, our next stop.  So now I understand why the shores of New Jersey are a great place to be. But I still don’t understand why Jersey Shore is the success it is.

our picture window at the Chestnut Lake Campground, Port Republic, New Jersey