My Day

Being mid June, Father’s Day weather can be hit or miss. This year it cooperated and we were able to get in a full day of fun. In the morning I took the girls to bike in “The Bogs”, a defunct cranberry bog purchased by Buzzards Bay Coalition for open space preservation which ties into a bunch of other preserved properties along the Mattapoisett River. I have been trying to get the girls interested in off road biking and the first foray last week, into Nasketucket Bay State Reservation went fairly well but mostly because I rewarded them with ice cream sandwiches for not complaining (too much) while forging through spider webs and muck for an hour. Since the bogs are out in the open and well occupied by birds I was hoping the bugginess would be reduced. The riding paths are essentially along the berms that the original owners constructed to enclose individual bogs and be able to control water flow through them at harvest time using mechanically controlled dams. This provides for a dry raised pathway along several ponds and streams that are littered with turtles and water striders and an incredible number of birds. It is, however, flat and fairly featureless so we entered the woods along a fairly worn trail on the far side of the bogs and proceeded about a mile before the trail started to narrow and get mucky at which point we decided to turn back. Looking later at the maps we were not more than 1/2 mile from an access road which would have allowed us to get back to the car so perhaps we will push on next time.

After the ride we returned home and I opened my father’s day gifts and the cards the girls picked out for me. Phoebe’s card featured a bunch of hedgehogs playing rock music with confetti on the cover and played a Motley Crue song when opened. Ellie’s was a significantly more serious card replete with two full paragraphs of Hallmark drivel. When the breeze picked up we headed out to the boat and girls swam while we got ready and we were able to sail over to the Woods Hole entrance and back in a perfect low teens breeze under full sail while the girls sat on the bow watching for waves. We were a bit late getting back so we skipped lasagna dinner and instead went to the slip where the kids joined a larger group messing around with the tide pools on the shore while we waited on the burgers. A solid Father’s Day.