"Hi! It's me, Violet! I'll be your guide on this trip to Cape Cod. I went last weekend with my best friend, Inky. Here I am at our campsite.
"This is the first picture I took, so that I could test out the camera. It's Inky's leg! I know it's a weird picture, but I thought I did such a good job using the macro mode that I didn't want to delete it."
"On Saturday, Inky and I went to the Provincelands. That's a part of Cape Cod that is full of giant sand dunes. I found this awesome bee!"
"Inky climbed up to see the bee too, but it flew away because she made so much noise. We decided to pretend we were Olympians on the balance beam, but a Ranger saw us and made us stop. Oops."
"After the Provincelands, we went to Corn Hill Beach. Cape Cod is a peninsula that sticks out into the ocean and curls around, like a hand beckoning. This beach is on the bay side, so the waves are a lot smaller. Inky had her kayaking lesson, so I decided to come along and watch."
Inky looked awesome! She is taking kayak lessons because they were developed by her ancestors. Inky is from tribe of indigenous Arctic people in what's now Russia. I was really impressed, especially when she showed me that she could flip all the way over! I decided that I'm going to ask Mama and Daddy for kayak lessons when I get back to Utah.
I was cheering Inky on when I looked down on the beach blanket- and there was something there! "Inky!" I yelled, "I think there's something on the blanket with me!"
Inky couldn't hear me, she was way out in the bay.
I tried yelling again. "Inky! There's something alive on our beach blanket!" That time, she heard me and came paddling back. "Take a closer look!" yelled Inky. "Make sure it's not a sea monster!"
It wasn't a sea monster- it was a teeny, weeny crab in a stripy shell.
I picked up the little crab. It was so little! I couldn't believe it had come all the way up the beach to my blanket.
Inky arrived and we looked at the crab up close. It was amazing the way that it could curl itself up inside of its shell. I wondered what it looked like inside? I decided that I would ask a Ranger about them when we went to the Visitor Center.
"Should I pick it up again?" I asked Inky. "Can I try?" Inky said. "Of course! But be careful, I don't know how strong hermit crabs are when they get dropped."
Inky picked up the crab and put it on her leg. Right away, the little crab curled back up into the shell. I decided the crab was a little girl, named Olympia, after the Olympics.
Inky and I sat very, very still. Finally, Olympia waved at us from her shell! It was amazing.
Olympia finally crawled out and started to walk around on Inky's leg a little bit. Her eyes were on little antenna thingies- it was so cute!
Some kids on the beach came up and asked if we were going to keep her. I guess lots of people keep hermit crabs as pets, but I think they are a different kind than Olympia is. Inky and I decided to let her go, and we watched her crawl across the sand. She was really fast for being so small!
The next morning, Inky and I went to Truro to see the Cape Cod Light. Lighthouses are awesome! We learned that the cliff this lighthouse is on is eroding. In fact, it was eroding so much that they had to move it back 400 feet from the cliff. The Ranger told us that someday, when Inky and I are grown up, they will probably have to move it again. I took this picture of Inky in front of the lighthouse.
Then Inky took this picture of me! It was really windy up on the cliff. Luckily, we both had long-sleeved shirts in our backpacks. When we pulled them out, we realized that we had the same one! Inky and I laughed and laughed. I thought it was especially funny that we were wearing firefly shirts, because they light up just like lighthouses!
Sometimes, Inky is a little too adventurous. She suggested that we walk right up to the edge of the cliff and look at the beach below. I was a little nervous, but I decided to go with Inky. I made her promise that we would stay a few feet back, because I know Daddy and Mama would not be happy if I walked right up.
It was so cool! The wind blew my bandanna up in the air. Inky told me that you could tell the earth is round, not flat, because you can kind of see the curve from way up here.
Here is another picture of me. Inky kept offering to take photos- I think she was a little scared of the edge too! Look how far below the beach is! When you are down on the beach, the waves are so high, but from up here, they look tiny.
Inky says I look really pretty in those photo. She made me put it up here. How embarassing! My hair is all crazy from the wind.
Then I took this picture of Inky. Doesn't she look cute? The funny thing is, you can see her arm reaching forward. She was so nervous to be on the edge that she held onto my sleeve!
Ta Da! Inky braved it out after all. We decided that someday, we are going to run away and be lighthouse keepers together. I would build a giant slide from the top of the cliff to the beach. We would slide down it every day to play.
We tried to take a picture of us together. My camera has a timer. It seemed like it would never go off, so Inky started to reach out to see what was wrong- and that's when it went "click!" Oops.
After that, we walked back to the lighthouse. We wanted to get pictures of each other right next to the tower, but it was really hard because it was so, so tall. I had the idea that we should climb the fence. Here I am just about to jump over to the other side!
Here I am! Don't I look just like a real lighthouse keeper?
Here's Inky! Once we had taken our photos, it was time to go back to our campsite for lunch. There was a lighthouse activity in our Junior Ranger book that we had to complete.
Once we did our activity, Inky and I decided to go to the ocean beach. I wanted to try Inky's boogie board and Inky wanted to try setting a trap for shellfish.
Luckily, we had a map from the Ranger at Provincelands that showed us all the different beaches. We decided on Head of the Meadow Beach, because it has a big sand bar so it would be safer for us to swim.
Once we got to the beach, I scouted out the best place to ride the waves. I wanted to be near the lifeguards, just in case.
Finally, I spotted the perfect place, just to the right of the sandbar.
Of course, Inky ran right in! "Hurry up Violence!" she yelled. Inky had been to this beach before, so she felt pretty confident.
I couldn't wait anymore- I ran right in!
Inky walked out further onto the sandbar and set her lobster trap. Since she's not allowed to kayak on the ocean side yet, she had to set it close enough to shore to swim to. She set the trap and the buoy floated to the surface.
Boogie boarding really wipes you out! After an hour, I decided to hang out on the beach towel.
"Inky!" I called. "Come up here and build a sandcastle with me!"
She ran right up the beach to me! We didn't bring any buckets or shovels, so we had to use our hands. Somehow, Inky had managed to bring a flag. "I only had Kazakhstan," she said. "But I'll teach you a song to go with it!" We stuck the Kazakh flag on top of our sand fort and sang. "Kazakhstan- Greatest Country in the World! All the other countries are run by little girls!"
"I don't know the rest of the words," admitted Inky. "But I'm pretty sure that's their national anthem." Kazakhstan was part of the Soviet Union (where Inky's from) before it ended, so I believed her.
"Hey!" I said. "Shouldn't you go check the lobster trap now?" I was pretty excited. I've had lots of different seafood, but I've never eaten something I caught myself. Inky jumped right up and ran down to her trap.
"I think there might be something in it!" she called. Everyone else on the beach got excited and ran up to her. Just kidding! I'm not sure why they all ran by just then, but I don't think it was because of Inky's lobster trap. One lady did say that she thought Inky and I were very pretty. I told her thank you.
Inky dragged the trap up the beach to our fort. I was so excited! I'd never seen a lobster trap up close before. The lobsters crawl in and then they can't get out. Actually, one of the rangers told us later that most of them do get out, so they changed how the traps look. Inky still had one of the old-fashioned kinds.
"Violence, do you think I caught anything?" asked Inky. She seemed a little bit nervous.
"Maybe!" I said. "Open it up! Maybe you did!" I could tell Inky felt like she had to catch something so I wouldn't think she was bad at fishing. I admit that I really hoped she had, but if she hadn't, I wouldn't be upset.
Inky opened the door and dumped the trap out. Lots of water came pouring out- and something else!!
It was a crab! An eating crab! We'd already caught a hermit crab the day before, but you can't eat those. I was so excited- fresh seafood for dinner!
We went back to our campsite and changed. We only packed one t-shirt and one long-sleeve shirt each, because we had to carry all the rest of our stuff to the site- like our sleeping bags, tent, camp stove, and Inky's lobster trap.
I decided to do the cooking, since Inky caught the dinner. We brought a camp stove and some pots, so I boiled the water and steamed our crab.
"You steam them for 25 to 30 minutes, until they turn red." I said. I love cooking. It's so much fun to learn different ways to do it! Next time Inky visits me in Utah, I'm going to show her how I cook in my dutch oven.
After about half an hour, our crab was bright red and ready to eat. Yum!
Inky and I roasted some marshmallows over our little fire and made smores. We had a little feast of crab, smores, and limeade. Yum! I love camping food!
The crab was really good. I was surprised! It was so cool that you can just catch something and then eat it. It made me feel more connected to our dinner. It must have been so hard back when you couldn't just go to a grocery store. We were so full, so as soon as the sun went down, we went to bed.
The next morning, it was time to get our Junior Ranger badges! There were three rangers at the station, plus another Ranger who's a doll!! He was really excited to see other dolls at the Visitor Center. The rangers checked our Junior Ranger books to make sure we had done our activities. They asked us a few questions about what we learned- and then they awarded us our badges!
After that, we went up on the roof to take photos by the ocean. The Visitor Center is like the top of a lighthouse, only not as tall. I decided that the Visitor Center is like the top part of a cupcake, just missing the bottom part that goes in the paper.
Back inside, the rangers asked us if we wanted to take a picture by the Lyle Gun. We did! Inky and I learned about Lyle Guns in our Junior Ranger activity books. Surfmen would use them to shoot ropes to boats that were wrecked. Then, the sailors would swim along the ropes to safety.
Then, we found a secret spiral staircase! It was covered in netting so that dolls and little kids don't fall down. Inky and I pretended we were lobsters in a trap. We waved our arms around like pincers.
Eat us! Eat us! We called down to the rangers.
But just as one of the rangers got to the bottom of the stairs, Inky and I scampered back out onto the balcony! We asked the ranger to take a picture of us together, and he said yes! Here we are with our Junior Ranger badges. We were so high up that we could see the lighthouse we visited, which was miles and miles away.
I took a picture of Inky. Isn't Cape Cod beautiful? I love the ocean, the dunes, the beach, the trees- all of it! It's so much fun.
Then, Inky took a picture of me. Cape Cod rocks!
So that was our trip! After we had our badges, we spent the rest of the day at the beach. The next day, we drove back to New York City. On the way, we went to another National Historical Park, but that's another story. Bye!
