I'm on a Boat/Kalmus Beach

So t'boss invited us out to his place in Hull for an office retreat on Friday.  He drives, but he gave us a pass for the ferry.  The weather was rotten, but the trip was still awesome.  The downside was that I really was only able to get two pictures from the boat that were worth sharing, and they aren't even that great.

 

The boat back had a full-service bar.  All in all not a bad way to commute.

Then  here's the view from t'boss' back porch.

Yeah, seriously wish I had some money.  Of course if I lived somewhere like this you wouldn't be able to pry me away to go to work.

Then yesterday was supposed to be rainy as well, but just about as I was finishing up laundry, the sun came out.  I checked the radar, checked maps, threw a box of granola bars and some water in the car and headed to Hyannis to look for shells thrown up by the remnants of the first tropical storm of the season.

Holy cow, Kalmus beach was full of shells.

Now I can't say that I've been where I could go shell hunting all that often, but I have a rep for finding the good ones (it's the same skill that means I trip over four-leaf  clovers and makes me good as jigsaw puzzles).  When you've got piles like this, anybody can find good shells, though, so I just got picky and looked for the ones with the best markings.  I turned up four conch-types, though they were in pretty bad shape, so I only brought back one tiny one.  The scallops and slipper shells are absolutely beautifully marked.  I need to get some mineral oil to bring out the colors in what I brought back:

I've seen scallop shells in Myrtle Beach, but I've never seen them so big, or in such a variety of colors.  And I didn't bring back any quahogs -- I know where to get ones of those so big you can use them as plates, and that's the city beach, believe it or not!

Some photos of the beach itself:

I pretty much had the place to myself; I think the storm predictions and the fact that it cleared up late pretty much kept everyone but the locals home.  It's also a little early yet for tourist season.

The ocean was wonderfully warm, and I walked the tideline with my shoes off while I was searching.  I also got incredibly sandblasted because the wind was very high; I don't know if that's typical there or if it was just the day.