You're sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod

[rosarugosa]

Sounds like a great childhood, rr! I would have probably loved the crummy cabin, as we almost always stayed in the back of our pickup truck that had a camper shell - not a real camper- over it. Sleeping bags and all that. And seldom in camp grounds - who needs a shower or a *ahem* bathroom? All our family vacations when I was a kid were either fishing - which we all enjoyed- or scoping out good sites for bear hunting in Canada. You know where bears like to hang out? Garbage dumps. My vacations were visits to garbage dumps in Canada, lol. Made for some interesting "what I did on vacation" essays! And we saw lots of eagles and seagulls, and I got pretty good at looking for bear signs. Of course the country between dump sites was pretty! Cool about your early rock collecting, rosa. I'm not a rock "collector" and know very little about rocks, but I am a "picker-upper" of things that talk to me, and I generally have several small rocks, shells, seed pods, pretty leaves, or whatever, in my pocket. I have to be very careful in protected areas to NOT just pick up the pretties! I think the Berkshires are lovely. We stay at the Black Swan hotel -not swanky but nice (IMHO), reasonably priced, and you can request a room with a tiny lakeside balcony - and we have breakfast/brunch at the Chocolate Springs Café. We always try to make that a stop on our up-East trips - sometimes we manage to stop both coming and going.

The Black Swan is our favorite place to stay in the Berkshires! Small world, isn't it? The last time we went (2021), we were disappointed that hotel guests were no longer allowed to walk over the causeway to Sandy Beach, which had always been our morning walk while staying there. I'm not sure if that's a permanent change or if it was Covid related, but the inn is not in a very walkable area otherwise. We do love looking at Laurel Lake from the porch though, and their restaurant is very good if you like Indian food, which we do.
I made myself kind of sick one time when I had the bright idea of "let's just skip dinner and go to Chocolate Springs instead, and eat lots of chocolate and drink cocoa and maybe some cognac!" It was not one of my better ideas, lol.
The other place we often stay is the Holiday Inn in North Adams, not fancy by any means, but we have a deep affection for NA. It's a very walkable little city, and we get a kick out of the trains and MA MOCA. We can manage a pretty frugal stay there with IHG points.
I want to stay at The Guest House at Field Farm sometime: https://fieldfarm.org/. We are members of The Trustees, so that would give us a bit of savings, but it still is a bit pricey. We were pretty extravagant this year, so next year I should strive for a more frugal vacation.

[rosarugosa]

Early: That is hilarious about the bear hunting and the dump sites! I probably would have been fascinated by the dumps themselves and the wildlife, but I would have strongly disapproved of the lack of indoor plumbing. You certainly get better stories to share from vacations like that! We did middle-class motels, often in the White Mountains with their many family attractions: The Flume, tramway cars up the mountains, alpine slide, etc. We also often vacationed in the Bangor area because we have relatives there.

[littlebittybobby]

Okay----I was drawn to this thread simply because the caption sounded like a wonderful old Brill Building song from the late-40's or 50's that I had not had the chance to hear, yet. But no, it was about something else. But, irt COULD be the lyrical basis of one. Just have to find a starving-artist-musician in NYC to write you a catchy melody, and you'll have a top 40 hit in a jiffy. Yup. Hope that helps you some. Thankk Mee.

[rosarugosa]

DH bumped into this online recently and we thought it was hilarious, so I had to share:

https://youtu.be/FnILnuqOXII

[iris lilies]

DH bumped into this online recently and we thought it was hilarious, so I had to share:

https://youtu.be/FnILnuqOXII

Nice try, but I wont be trying Cape Code during the winter!

[early morning]

Actually the Cape usually has milder winters than we do here in west central Ohio. DH's 97 yr old aunt did the Polar Plunge on the Cape yesterday. It was 50 degrees and the water, according to her, was "lovely". I'm a big fan of "off season" lol. Except in the South. You won't find me in the south in the summer. Or any time at all, at least by choice, come to think of it....

[rosarugosa]

Actually the Cape usually has milder winters than we do here in west central Ohio. DH's 97 yr old aunt did the Polar Plunge on the Cape yesterday. It was 50 degrees and the water, according to her, was "lovely". I'm a big fan of "off season" lol. Except in the South. You won't find me in the south in the summer. Or any time at all, at least by choice, come to think of it....

Wow, I am impressed by your DH's aunt! We too tend to prefer the off-season, or the shoulder seasons. As far as the South goes, that's Rhode Island, right? I like Rhode Island.

[nswef]

We were in Maine in Sept. several years ago. It was a warm day and I went into the water-quickly. I stopped breathing by the time I was in to my thighs. The cold water was shocking! In September!!! Later that week we saw a lady with a cane, went down the steps to York Beach, went right in the water....She must have been 80. They make them tough up there. I don't like hot water for swimming but neither do I like frigid.

[Tybee]

They may make them tough, but it seems like many Mainers die each year when they are getting their boats in the water and they fall in and succumb to hypothermia. That happened to the fire chief in a town near us but they rescued him before he died. I believe it was in May?

They also die falling through the thin ice. Someone died this week doing that, even though they warned everyone to stay off the ice on January 1, as it's been too warm. I saw a man and his son out on the ice near us and thought later maybe I should have called child protective services. There were big patches of water visible. If you want to kill yourself, that is one thing, but you shouldn't kill your kid.

I told my husband I could never have a lake house because I would not want to have to rescue someone falling through the ice. And they do it all the time.

[nswef]

Oh my, Tybee. People often have too much trust in themselves or fate!