Big Fish, er, Mammals and Even Bigger Houses

So, I have changed the name of this blog from Daily Observations to just simply "observations" for obvious reasons.  I have not exactly been very diligent in keeping up with the daily posts.  I'm about a week behind.  Sooooo....I decided to do one post on for the current day and another "catch-up" post and hopefully I'll get caught up!! 

Right now I am staying at a place where the only room that there is internet access is in a community room.  At this very moment there is a lot of very lively community going on.  A room full of very loud people routing for the Celtics.  It is very loud in here.  But I am trying to concentrate.    Focus. Focus. Focus.   :D

For the last week we have been staying at Cape Cod....or "The Cape" as I have been told all the locals call it.  I have to say it is as if we showed up a week early for a visit to a friend who is busy doing spring cleaning for an important guest the following week.  In other words, we showed up a week before "the season" begins. 

Today, the season began and luckily we are leaving tomorrow.....and leaving the crowds behind.  We decided to head to New Bedford, MA to visit the Whaling Museum and then head over to Newport, RI.  I was very leery of this because I anticipated a lot of traffic coming back.  I had reason to be leery....There was traffic.  But it turned out to be not too bad. 

The Whaling Museum was very interesting but it made me very sad.  I just hated the thought of killing all those whales.  They pretty much hunted them to extinction!!    And it was a really sad industry in which the crewmen were away from their families for years at a time!!  

Russell in front of a skeleton of a sperm whale.  This whale had actually washed up on shore in Nantucket in 2002 and the skeleton was preserved.

Not liking this photo of me.  I'm giving the whale some serious competition in the size department......

A view from of the deck of the museum of the fishing boats in the harbor. 

We next headed to Newport.  It was a very cool city.  I liked it a lot.  Of course we went and checked out the mansions.  Holy heck, those are some big houses!!  I got some photos of the outside of The Breakers.  We didn't go inside because I was too cheap to pay the $24 per person to see how rich people lived!!  Here are a couple of photos....

We went back to the waterfront area and had lunch.  I also got a big box of salt water taffy (which should make my dentist very happy!).  

And that was our day in a nutshell.  Hopefully I can get this thing caught up!  We'll see....Boston and New York are next.  I might be just a little busy!