Things to do on Cape for school vacation week: From a winter carnival to an animal show

Gwenn Friss, Cape Cod Times
·4 min read

Amazing Animal Ambassadors

The Cape Cod Museum of Natural History in Brewster presents a chance for children aged 3 and older to meet animals with Cape Cod captive wildlife care expert Bethany Jakubson. The program is at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 18, at the Brewster museum.

Meet Jakubson and some of her favorite members of the natural world including Mocha the Boa Constrictor, Simon the Blue Tongue Skink, Dixie the American Alligator, Fredrica the Opossum and Jinx the Blue and Gold Macaw.

Also, on display will be an assortment of smaller reptiles and insects. Jakubson grew up on Cape Cod and started her company using some of the animals she rescued over the years, and since then has been expanding the business to include a wide variety of reptiles, birds, mammals and even amphibians and insects. Tickets: $15 (does not include museum admission) www.ccmnh.org or call 508-896-3867, ext. 133.

Jinx from the Amazing Animal Ambassadors is making appearances during school vacation.
Jinx from the Amazing Animal Ambassadors is making appearances during school vacation.

Yarmouth winter carnival

A synthetic outdoor skating rink, s’mores, food trucks and family-friendly activities will be held at Skull Island, 934 Route 28, South Yarmouth on Saturday through Monday, February 18-20. The event, sponsored by the Yarmouth Recreation Authority, is open to all. Learn more at yarmouthcapecod.com/.

Children's activities at Cotuit Center for the Arts

The Cotuit Center for the Arts is planning a week of activities, at $10 each, for school vacation week, beginning with 10 a.m. shows Tuesday through Friday with the Happy Cabbage Puppet Theater and 2 p.m. shows of the movie "El Canto" on Tuesday, a live "Mad Scientist" show on Wednesday, Amazing Animal Ambassadors on Thursday and "Shark ID" on Friday. Tickets and more info: artsonthecape.org, 508-428-0669.

‘Verticals and Horizontals’ at Truro Public Library

There will be a staged reading of Gary Garrison’s “Verticals and Horizontals” at 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18, at Truro Public Library, 7 Standish Way, North Truro. The event, produced by the Truro Playwright Collective and Truro Public Library, is five 10-minute plays – comic, comic-dramas and dramas – from Garrison’s anthology of the same name. Admission is free. Call 508-487-1105 or email tpl_mail@clamsnet.org to register. More information: www.trurolibrary.org/.The series' last two playwrights are Julia Salinger on March 18 and Dennis Anderson on April 15.

'How to Rob' makes Cape premiere

Sean Price and Jimmy Winters are a two-man stick up crew, robbing criminals from Boston to Cape Cod. Sean wants out of the game but it’s not so simple when a couple of killers are hunting them for retribution over a past robbery.

The film, featuring Cape actor Josh Koopman, will have its local premiere at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Cotuit Center for the Arts, 4404 Route 28, $16, https://ci.ovationtix.com/31005/production/1151164.Winner of the Audience Award at 2022 Independent Film Festival Boston and 2022 New Hampshire Film Festival, "How to Rob" is written and directed by Peter Horgan. It starts Cape restaurateur and actor Josh Koopman and Chinaza Uche, Kevin Nagle, Caitlin Zoz, Vera Teixeira, Jacob Popoloski, Anthony Firicano, Damien Di Paolo, Sue Costello, and more. Wednesday's premiere will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers.

See Oscar-nominated short films

The Cape Cod Museum of Art, in conjunction with Cape Cinema, will once again this year present the year’s Oscar Nominated Short Films in the Museum’s D’Alessandro Auditorium from Friday, Feb. 17 to Thursday, Feb. 23. The Cape Cod Museum of Art is located at 60 Hope Lane, just off Route 6A in Dennis Village. Tickets, at $11 for one or $21 for three, are available on the Museum’s website: www.CCMoA.org/oscar-shorts

Looking at the state's underwater resources

Dave Robinson at the Marshfield wreck.
Dave Robinson at the Marshfield wreck.

The Cape Cod Chapter of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society presents "An Uncommon Wealth: The Underwater Archaeological Resources of Massachusetts" with David Robinson at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 22, at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History 869 Main St. (Route 6A) in Brewster. This program will also be available virtually to MAS Cape Cod Chapter Members.

Learn about the extraordinary underwater archaeological resources of the Commonwealth and the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources (BUAR).

"A portion of the presentation will focus on BUAR's current efforts to assess the vulnerability of coastal cultural resources from the growing threat of erosion caused by climate change-induced sea level rise along the Massachusetts shoreline, and on opportunities for becoming involved in a BUAR-led citizen science response to this threat," according to a written statement from the group.

Robinson is the director and chief archaeologist of the underwater resources board and a MAS trustee. He has conducted applied underwater archaeological research over the past 32 years throughout New England, as well as in the Mid-Atlantic, the Great Lakes, Lake Champlain, the Gulf of Mexico, Mississippi, and in Scandinavia. He was also a marine archaeologist at the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography.

The program is $5 per person or free to society members.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Things to do on Cape Cod this weekend through February school vacation