Woods Hole, Cape Cod

I spent Sunday with my eldest nephew, the one and only Son of, at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. We had a marvelous day, walking all over the little town, which is right on the south end of the mainland, protected from the hardest waves of the North Atlantic by the large island blobs of the little-known Elizabeth Islands (which continue the "peninsula" of land parallel to the mainland), Martha's Vineyard (looking close enough to swim to across Vineyard Sound), and Nantucket (out of view beyond the Vineyard). I forgot my camera, which is too bad, because the day was bright and clear, with a stiff cold wind blowing off the ocean to remind us it isn't summer yet.

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(Get rid of the obscuring white tag on the map, by clicking the little blue X in the top right of the label, just above the word "Map")

You get there by driving from the North Shore (where the COGses reside) to the South Shore. Cross the Cape Cod Canal, turn right, and drive until the land stops. Voila, Woods Hole. (Near Falmouth.)

The driving is actually a little more complex than that, but resolves to mere details handled by the GPS unit in the car. One of the details, in this case, involved driving through the newly constructed Ted Williams Tunnel. This Tunnel under the Boston Harbor feels like driving a quite spacious four-lane highway with a roof. Still, it crossed my mind somewhere in the middle that I was enjoying the tunnel about as much as I enjoy root canals -- a period of unpleasant numbness that you hope will pass quickly and not bring agony after the drugs wear off. I am a little claustrophobic, and long highway tunnels remind me of Princess Diana. And not in a good way, not like huge puffed white sleeves and royal scandals remind me of Princess Diana.

On the map you'll see all the larger settlements and geographic landmarks -- Falmouth, Yarmouth, Martha's Vineyard, Brewster, Barnstaple Town, New Bedford -- the sign of longtime English occupation. But zoom down in (click on the + sign), and treat yourself to the syncopated susurrus of the remnants of the Wampanoag Indians who first settled Cape Cod. The language they spoke (extinct for 200 years) lives on in the geography, in the wonderful words:

Sippewisset

Saconesset

Teaticket (reminding me of Terry Pratchett's assassin, Teatime)

Acapesket

Nantucket

Chappaquoit

Chappaquiddick (infamous for other reasons)

Poppenesset

Massasoit

Massachusetts