All Aboard The Cape Cod Central Railroad

Today's adventure centered around Hyannis.  

Our first stop was Cape Cod Potato Chips.  

I could have stayed there all day.  The chips are some of the best I have eaten.  We sampled the chip of the day which was a low fat variety.  It sounds too healthy to taste good, but they were fabulous!  So, I bought a large variety bag of many smaller bags of chips to sample.  They are very fresh and crunchy due to the cooking method: kettle-cooked one small batch at a time.

All the Cape Cod Potato Chips are all-natural and have no added preservatives.  We toured the factory and saw the fresh potatoes cooked in small batches with simple ingredients.

On July 4th, 1980, in an 800 sq. ft. store front on West Main Street Hyannis, MA,
Cape Cod Potato Chips was founded.

Did you know March 14th is Potato Chip Day!

Fun Fact: Cape Cod Potato Chips uses approximately 44 MILLION POUNDS of potatoes a year!
and
The lighthouse on Cape Cod Potato Chips bags is Nauset Light in Eastham, MA.

• Potato Chips are America's favorite snack food.  They are devoured at at rate of 1.2 billion pounds a year.

We did a little sightseeing before we made our way to The Cape Cod Railroad.
At 9:00 AM it was 64 degrees.  It was a beautiful day on the Cape.

Around Hyannis...

This reminds me of  Dr. Seuss,

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish:

 ‘From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere!’

JFK Museum

It was the best day ever for Lyndie.

She just received some great news!

Lyndie is co-owner and Music Therapist at Toneworks Music Therapy Services, LLC.
Today she received word that Tone Works Community Foundation was awarded a grant to provide music therapy groups in classrooms in the Minneapolis school district for the school year!

We are ready for more adventures ...

It is time to pack a few things and head to The Cape Cod Central Railroad.

Our trip began at the Hyannis railroad station.
Hyannis is the commercial center of Cape Cod.  And we learned Hyanis is a village.

All aboard!

What better snack than Cape Cod Potato Chips!

To quote Lyndie, "Why say no, when you can say yes!'

I will have to order some of these when I return home!
This classic train ride brought us up close to the beauty of the Cape.
We saw woodlands, sand dunes, cranberry bogs, and salt marshes. 

Views from the train.

 A kettle pond formed by glaciers.

Cranberry bog.  

This is the Cape Cod Canal.

The Cape Cod Canal is the widest man-made cananl in the world.  It was started

 in 1909 by August Perry Belmont and opened in 1914 on the same day as the Panama Canal.

Because of the difference in tides between Cape Cod Bay and Buzzards Bay,

 the Canal is like a river which changes direction four times a day.

We traveled as far as the village of Sandwich.

It is the oldest town on Cape Cod (1637), celebrating its 375th birthday.

It was an early Quaker settlement.

The two hour train ride gave us a great feel of the "real" Cape Cod.

The bird perching on the pole is a Cormorant,

 a large, dark plumed aquatic bird of the Cape.

This is a view of the salt marshes of Cape Cod Bay.

They are crucial wildlife habitats and rich producers of food for the many 

species of birds and fish that live on or visit Cape Cod.

Cranberries are Cape Cod's top export.

Cranberries are a native fruit and grow on low-lying vines in bogs

originally formed as a result of glacial deposits.
The name by which cranberries are known today comes from the
German and Dutch settlers who thought the vine blossom resembled the neck, head,
and bill of a crane, hence the name "craneberry".

Kettle ponds, formed by glaciers, are important for cranberry farms

to provide fresh water.

In the early 1800s Henry Hall, a veteran of the Revolutionary War who lived in Dennis Massachusetts noticed that sand blown in from nearby dunes helped vines grow faster. Today, growers spread a inch or two of sand on their bogs every three years. The sand not only helps the vines grow but also slows the growth of weeds and insects. Normally, growers do not replant each year since an undamaged cranberry vine will survive indefinitely. Some vines on Cape Cod are more than 150 years old and are still bearing fruit.

(from http://www.cranberries.org/cranberries/grow_intro.html)

There are two types of cranberry harvests.

One is the dry harvest that accounts for about 15 per cent of the harvest.

Those are the whole cranberries that you find in the produce aisle of your grocery 

at holiday time in bags.  This harvesting is labor intensive.

Here is a photo from Ocean Spray Cranberry Bog Tour.

This is the wet harvest that accounts for 85 per cent of the cranberry harvest.

These cranberries are used in processed food, snacks, juices, and craisins.

Ocean Spray gets a large percentage of the Cape Cod cranberry harvest.

For more Cape Cod Cranberry Association

Concord grape vines grow wild throughout this region.

After our busy morning, we stopped for lunch at the Dockside Restaurant

 on Hyannis Harbor.

Lunch with a view.

We are off for more sight seeing!

"I always go to Hyannisport to be revived, to know again the power of the sea 

and the master who rules over it and all of us."- John F. Kennedy 

The Memorial park also looks out on Lewis Bay and the ocean 

where John F. Kennedy spent so many happy moments with family and friends.

The Memorial features a stone wall set with a medallion 

of his likeness and a pool with a fountain.

 Right next to this park is a Korean War Memorial.

I remember the Presidential election in 1960 when John F Kennedy ran against Richard Nixon.
I was in 4th grade.
I also remember his assassination in 1963 when I was in 7th grade.
As a nation, we mourned the loss of our beloved President.

So, while today was a day of experiencing new sights and adventures,
it was also bitter sweet seeing the place where our
 35th President spent many hours with his family and remembering
how his life was tragically cut short.

For more JFK Life on the Cape