As If the Guy Doesn't Have Enough to Worry About

This past August, we went down the cape camping.  It happened to be the same weekend as a big hurricane was passing offshore.  We managed to survive at the campsite without getting soaked or blown away and we decided the next day to go exploring at the beach and see what kind of damage had been done.

First we went to Coast Guard beach, but couldn't get close enough so we went to Nauset beach instead.  When we first got there they weren't letting anyone down on the beach, but eventually we were determined to be trustworthy enough to stay out of the water and we got an up close look at the waves.  There were some idiots trying to surf, but the undertow was so bad, they couldn't make it past the first 20 or 30 feet into the water.  I did get some good pics though.

On second look, I took pictures of these surfers on the NEXT day.  They're still pretty good considering the storm has passed by two days prior.  There were a LOT of surfers.  I had no idea there were so many in Massachusetts.  I never would have figured that we had prime surfing areas here. 

Back to my original story.  The day after the storm started out pretty gloomy, but by noon time the sun was out and it was hot.  We decided to go to the Wildlife Refuge at Monomoy and take a walk along the beach.  The weather was glorious and there were quite a few people out walking.  Now, if you have ever spent time at the beach down the cape, you know there is no escaping the greenheads.  They are flies that are all over the place and their main goal is to land on you and bite.  Hard.  There are boxes all over the place in saltmarshes that are designed to capture these little bastards, but alas on this day, we were being swarmed.  It makes an enjoyable walk almost unbearable.

On the beach I found this cool weather-beaten tree that kids had obviously decorated with ornaments.  It was kind of sweet.  (Click on the picture to see it bigger).

They were all hand-made and had cute sayings like "Summer 2009 with Grandma," or "Happy Birthday Daddy Nelson 2009."  There was no way to tell who made it.  I think it probably started out as one or two ornaments then people just started adding to it.  I spent some time looking at and reading a bunch of them.  Then I found one at the back that needed a closer inspection.

Oh, if only after dealing with bailouts, health care reform, Afghanistan, Iraq and all the other things the president has to worry about he could actually make the flies go away.

I Need to Get Out More

So, John found this link to a site where you can map all the states in the country you've visited.  He's only got about five more to go.  Sadly I've not been around as much.

http://bighugelabs.com/map.php

Pretty cool.  You can check it out here.