Day 4 ( part a) Cape Cod

You probably knew this - but! Being in Rhode Island meant we weren't very far from Cape Cod. So I had researched Lighthouses that we could see on the cape.... and on Day 4 - we headed out to see what we could see!

This is the Chatham Lighthouse 

and!! it is still active!!

It is maintained by the United States Coast Guard . Isn't that just a gorgeous place!

For some reason I figured Lighthouses would be On the water... but they aren't always - some are set back so we headed down to the beach to get a better perspective

I think you can still see it!

and I timed it to get the light shining at me.

( you are impressed - aren't you?)

When I was a kid I read the Misty of Chincoteague books and they always talked about the salt grasses and the marsh grasses - but I had never seen them.... well ! now I have! this is pretty cool 

we had to head down the beach a bit just to see what we could see.... 

as you know - we like to hike - so we had researched a hike out to another lighthouse. We drove to the start point and headed to the trail - only to find the whole side of the beach was washed out. 

For some reason Dogs like me. When we were at Chatham a golden retriever found me and made me his friend - we played fetch and I know he left some hair on my sweats.

While we were contemplating what to do at the new trailhead - a lady with another golden walked by and her dog ran to me and decided I was his new best friend. Which made her talk to us, and realize we were not from here.   We told her our dilemma and she said - Don't tell anyone I told you... but here is the work around. 

Which we immediately followed and headed out on a 5 mile hike.... to nowhere haha!

There was some cool trees and salt marshes with horseshoe crabs growing in them

and we of course - took the high route out - so we could see houses like this! We were kinda on an island with beach on both sides. I loved it!

And this was the Big Beach side

We found Conch shells. When I was a kid we would go to the west coast and search for these thing and NEVER find whole ones. We found 2 whole ones on this walk. 

aren't they pretty?  We left them for the next people to enjoy

And horseshoe crabs. Obviously he washed up!

My husband decided this was the inspiration for Darth Vader!!!

as we were hiking along there was another set of hikers down on the beach ( we were still on the top of the island) and they yelled at us. So we leaned over the edge to talk with them. Turns out - they could tell we weren't native - and warned us that we had till about noon and then we would be stuck as the tide comes in and covers a lot of the place we hiked over.... oops!! 

Good to know tho right?

We were hiking out to see another lighthouse, but because of the hurricanes and storms  a good part of the trail was washed out - so we didn't get to hike to it. 

The reward - we found a local diner that did ALL GLUTEN free food - I could live there!

Got my Clam Chowder and I was ecstatic!!

On to the rest of the day.....