Woods Hole Walk

I feel like I've been running all week. But today I got to get out of the office and go to Woods Hole on Cape Cod.  This is a work trip, one I do every year at this time (except the year I got schnookered out of it). I also spent a summer at the Marine Biological Laboratory here when I was in college, so I'm familiar with the area.

The familiarity is kind of creepy, though, because this place is so very much like Bellport.  Geologically Cape Cod and Long Island are identical - both terminal moraines of the same glacier. The biology and cultural histories are also very similar, at least up to the twentieth century. Woods Hole itself has hills and rocks, so its more of a North Shore ambiance. Falmouth, where my hotel is, is so very very Bellport that walks in previous years constantly gave me a feeling that I would turn a corner and be on Brown's Lane, or see Wallen's on Main Street.

Today, after a sprint to the office, drive to airport, tedious flight, another couple of hours drive from Providence to here, the most important thing to me was to get outside and take a walk. It was raining desultorily, not drizzling but rather big drops sparsely falling, and I had no raincoat but I HAD to get out there. I drove down to Woods Hole itself, by the ferry, and took a stroll.

I love this place. I love the architecture, which is the shape of houses from "home". I love the landscape, and I love the seascape, again partly because it speaks to me of "home".  It's great to come from a place I can think of as paradise, so when I go visit those beautiful places on earth that knock people off their feet I can say casually, "oh yeah, it's almost as nice as Bellport".

My time here at Woods Hole during college was not all happy. Attending high school graduation has me thinking about the process of becoming Nan - how did it come about? I've unearthed some old journals, including from my summer here. I totally loved the work and the place, but socially did not thrive here. Instead I began a process of turning inward, one that lasted for several years. I also passed up an opportunity here, an important fork in the road for me, and still wonder what my life would be like had I seized the moment rather than funked it.

Sadly, my inward process did not result in a lot of physical activity, unlike now. I didn't walk then, except when necessary. Walking for pleasure wasn't on my horizon. Exercise for its own sake hadn't been invented yet, as far as I was concerned. I did bike - starting the summer I was eleven, I took long solo bike rides and used that to get my exploration kicks and also to think through tough issues. But I don't think I had access to a bike while I was here, so I stuck very close to the dorms. Daily, though, I was out on the research ship and that was the best part of being here. 

The map of today's walk - only a mile and a half, because it got dark - can be seen here.  Tomorrow, there will be ten hours of meetings, and a lobster dinner, bookended by walks and maybe a little bit of a hotel room workout in the morning.