Retreat, beaches, and grapes

Phew! This past week has been packed full of excitement and it's about time to recap everything. It has been beautiful weather all week here on the Cape, with sunny skies and temperatures in the 70s. Definitely a great time to enjoy the outdoors! Last Sunday was a great day and a bunch of us from the Wellfleet house biked over to Ryder Beach, which is about a two miles from our house. The ride there is pretty enjoyable, as it follows two lane roads, although the hills are pretty rough. Anyway, we spent the day hanging out and playing frisbee and it was good bonding time.

Monday was supposed to be ecology training but the service partner was sick, so we had a free day to explore the Cape. We decided to go down to Chatham to explore the beach and downtown area. Some Great White Sharks have been spotted down at the beaches there (due to the rising seal populations) although we didn't see any. We did, however, find some jellyfish, horseshoe crabs, and other creatures. I also went swimming for the first time so far since I've been here.

Tuesday we had our first training session about aquaculture, which was at the Eastham Department of Natural Resources. Our job for the day was to help cull oysters. As you may know, shellfish are huge on the Cape, so the local DNRs help to raise oysters, clams, and other shellfish for public consumption. The DNR officers brought in bags of oysters from a nearby saltwater pond and we opened them up, cleaned them, and and separated out the oysters that were not big enough to be harvested. We then packaged them back up and took them back to the pond. It was a slightly odd concept to me at first, but basically residents of  the cape pay the local DNR to raise shellfish and then they are able to buy a shellfishing permit and harvest a certain amount. While we were at the saltwater pond, one of the Eastham DNR officers opened up some oysters and offered them to us for a little snack. Since I've never eaten an oyster I thought I'd give it a try. Eating a raw oyster was definitely an interesting experience, particularly after mr. DNR officer showed me the oyster's beating heart...eek. It was salty and slimy, and I don't think I'll be partaking in another anytime soon.

Right after we got done with the oysters we had to head to the retreat, which was Tuesday evening through Friday. Everyone in the AmeriCorps Cape Cod program (and HAC program) went on the retreat at Coast Guard Beach in Eastham (only 20 minutes away). There were about 35 of us and we stayed in a big building that used to be a Coast Guard station. It was right on the beach and absolutely amazing. We did some group building activities, games, and had a lot of social time. I won't lie, it got to be a little too much social time for some of us, and it felt a bit overwhelming at times to have that many people in one house, and no place to escape to for alone time. One of my favorite parts of the retreat was the first night when we made a bonfire down at the beach and were able to look up at the sky and see an incredible array of stars. If that wasn't beautiful enough, one of the girls in my house (Jenny) showed us bioluminescent microorganisms in the sand! It was as if there were stars or lots of tiny lightning bugs in the sand. I've never seen anything like it and it was pretty incredible. Other highlights of the retreat were hiking in a white cedar swamp and canoeing through a saltwater marsh. It was pretty hard to believe I got paid to have fun this week... :)

On Friday we had some more training and then in the evening some of us went to a local bar down by the harbor called The Bomb Shelter. We were a little nervous since Wellfleet is a pretty small town and the bar was bound to be full of regular customers. Also, we figured it might be a little sketchy. Luckily it was actually a pretty nice place and we had a lot of fun. Saturday was laundry day for some of us, and since our house doesn't have a washer, we had to drive south to Orleans (about 30 min away) to the laundromat. On the way home we stopped by an amazing store called The Earth House, which was actually a combination of three stores. It includes a record store, a hippie store and a thrift shop. It was so interesting that we ended up staying for about an hour. I got a bumper sticker and a super nerdy (but obviously awesome) Star Wars glass, circa 1980. In the afternoon I took a bike ride to the beach and later on we watched a movie at the house.

Today was pretty enjoyable and in the morning three of us checked out the local flea market which is held at the drive-in theater. There were a lot of interesting antiques and other goods and it was an entertaining experience. In the afternoon some members of the Borne house drove up to Truro (a town about 10 minutes north) for the annual Truro Treasures festival. The festival was held at the Truro winery so we were able to enjoy some delicious local wines and walk among the grape vines. I tried a Cranberry Red wine which was honestly one of the best wines I have ever had. Yummy and sweet. Plus, we got free wine glasses out of it! Woo! There was a local jazz group there called Moby Dick and the Wailers (ha ha) and we had tons of fun dancing to the music. We also got to stomp grapes with our bare feet and then played a fun game of leap frog... :)

 

Here are some pictures of the house I live in, with 13 awesome roommates (7 girls and 6 guys). Some cool aspects include:
-a compost pile in the backyard
-a garden and greenhouse
-two common rooms, one with a massive couch and tv
-a lovely deck and hammock