Cape Cod Capers - Kettle Ponds, Lighthouses and Beaches

Yes, Cape Cod has all of the above - in abundance! The Cape is a glacial deposit that is constantly undergoing natural changes, as winds and water move sand along the shorelines,tearing away one place and building up another. Away from the shorelines, there are many indentations in which ponds, known as kettle ponds, were formed after glaciers receded. We passed many such ponds in our wanderings around the Cape. It seemed that, no matter where we looked, the sun was reflecting off some body of water or another.... if it wasn't a kettle pond, it was an inlet or the ocean itself.
What a variety of beaches we visited! Herring Cove, at the north end of the Cape, had the wildest waves, and it was easy to see why nearby Race Point Light was so necessary. As is the case with so many of the lighthouses on the Cape, there was no access for the general public, so we were just able to gaze from a distance.
The site of the oldest lighthouse, known as either Cape Cod Light or Highland Light, was easily accessible though. The original structure, however, had been taken down and replaced by a newer one. Because the sandy shore is so easily eroded by wind and waves, the new lighthouse was erected some distance farther inland from the shoreline.
The lighthouse closest to where we were staying was, of course, the Chatham Light, guarding the entrance to the harbour, ensuring that vessels don't run aground on the long sandbar that stretches some distance out to sea, down the east side of the harbour. The sandbar was clearly visible from the beach, and the powerful force of the waves has even broken breached the sandbar recently.
The current claim to fame of the beach in front of Chatham Light is that it is shark-infested!! Apparently a great number of seals have moved in, and this has enticed the sharks to come for the easy pickings! As it was a beautiful sunny morning when we were down on the beach, I couldn't resist kicking off my flip-flops and wading into the chilly Atlantic - which actually wasn't too chilly! My time up to my ankles in the waves was brief, and the moment I exited the water, there was a flurry of activity nearby...but thankfully it was just a few seals approaching the beach to see what was going on!
Many of the beaches we visited had interesting names: Head of the Meadows, Longnook, Coast Guard, Great Hollow, Pilgrim Heights and Corn Hill, which gave us a clue as to what had happened there in the past and/or the kind of terrain to expect. As our bag lunch each day was enjoyed at a different beach, we visited a number of beaches then, plus explored others during the day. Many of the beaches were surrounded by fragile sand dunes, with signs erected to discourage people from climbing the dunes, or even from walking on them, for that matter... We were told that much effort has been put forth in recent years, as volunteers have painstakingly planted tufts of grass on the dunes, in hopes of to cutting down on wind erosion. As we drove along, we certainly saw evidence of the power of the wind to shift sand - negotiating our way through a number of mini sand drifts was much like driving through drifting snow on the prairies!