There’s a great little show on the Sci-Fi Channel called “Eureka”. It’s about a small town somewhere in the U.S. where all the brightest and best scientists live and create freaky-amazing scientific…stuff. Which, on the TV show, tends to go horribly wrong.
View from the bridge
Today we visited Woods Hole, MA—the real-life, ocean-going version of Eureka. It’s home to NOAH (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) or an outcropping of it, anyway; WHOI (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution); the Marine Biology Laboratory; and God only knows what else in secret locations around, in, on, or under the Cape. The Marine Biology Laboratory is the oldest private marine laboratory in North America. 37 Nobel Prize-winning scientists have worked at the MBI; 11 of them took courses there. Oh yeah. It’s Eureka.
Good day's catch or fisherman's nightmare?
Being us, we spotted this place as we drove into town and began our visit here
It was a difficult decision…
what to choose, what to choose...
…until we saw they had bread pudding. Bread pudding afficianados, that’s what we are. After all, we spend a lot of time at the Meyerson Symphony Center, home of the best bread pudding in Dallas, so we know whereof we speak. And this stuff…
Oh my.
… on a scale of 1-10, this one was a 10. Soft but not mushy, lovely crunchy edges, rum sauce. Yum.
Next we waddled up the hill to the WHOI Visitor’s Center, which packs a lot of information into a small location.
These are the people who found the Titanic! There’s a great little exhibit about it. But first, Rosemary and Vikki did some very important work in Alvin, the submersible unit.
Alvin (not the chipmunk)
Then on to the Titanic exhibit. I’m so glad they decided not to mess with the wreckage, choosing instead to leave a plaque on the stern in memory of those who perished.
We continued our tour at the Aquarium, the oldest public aquarium in the country, btw. Small but charming, and home to harbor seals Lucy & Bumper.
And this curious dancing fish, who bobbed right to left, then back again, all the time looking like he was gasping for air or doing the can-can. Something about it made us burst into Stars & Stripes Forever (the ‘be kind to your web-footed friends’ part) though why that seemed appropriate is beyond any rational explanation.
Wonder if his name is Bob?
Looking at all those fish made us hungry, we we wandered to the other end of town (a whole, what, 2 blocks?) to the Fishmonger Cafe for a little sustenance. Fantabulous view, charming waitress, good food. I had another lobster roll (not, I’m afraid, as good as my earlier one):
Rosemary went for soft-shelled steamers:
And Vikki just ordered all the fried stuff:
Our waitress gave us directions to the local light, so off we went to find it.
Nobska Light
Then, since around here the sidewalks roll up about 4 pm, we went home. Tomorrow is our last full day on the Cape so we have to decide what to do. We do have a date for some pie…more about that later. Now I have a lovely view off the deck and I think I’ll go stare at it for a while.
Tasting God 