To the Cape

Another incredibly warm day, with 66F forecast.  We decided to head for the coast, just south of here, to Cape Cod.  We’ve heard plenty about the place, had vivid pictures in our minds of smart coastal living, Kennedy family haunts and cool sea breezes.  Just the thing to keep us awake and amused for our last full day here.

Of course, we drove through places with familiar names once more – Massachusetts is full of them- and stopped for breakfast in Falmouth at Crabapples.  The corned beef hash fan was fully in favour of this choice and the pancake girl wasn’t disappointed either!

Taking the suggestions of the wise lady in the Falmouth Visitor centre on board, we headed along the coast slightly south of the town, to Wood Hole.  We expected a cosy, charming coastal town, sleepy in this closed season, but what we actually found was a busy build up community centring on the Coastguard HQ and a marine science research facility.  We drove a little further north along the coast and almost by mistake, stumbled upon the beach.  Aha!  this was the kind of thing we were expecting.  We decided to drive a little further up the coast and stop for a while to take a walk.

Sadly, it took many miles of driving through what seemed to us like ordinary US suburbia with no sea or sand in sight before we arrived in Chatham.  At last, we could get out of the car and stretch our legs, admire the views and feel the wind in our hair.  Chatham itself looked just the kind of place we’d imagined – but we’d had to travel quite a way up the Cape to find it.

Once again, the National Parks came up trumps.  We stopped at the Visitor Centre for the National Seashore and chatted a while to the lady on the desk, gladly hearing that the northern part of the Cape was going to be the windswept coast we were looking for.  Whilst we were there, we learned a little about cranberries, too.

We’d driven past several “dried up ponds” – or so they appeared, but here we caught sight of a photograph of a cranberry bog and realised what we’d been passing by earlier in the day.  Of course, once we’d learned to recognise a cranberry bog, we didn’t see another…until we were about to leave the Cape behind later in the afternoon and I was able to catch a snap through the car window. 

Sorry, a truly hopeless photograph but hopefully having shared it, we’ll all recognise a cranberry bog when we next see one!

We managed to get as far as Wellfleet before feeling that we ought to turn around and start heading back.  We’d seen horrendous traffic on the way out this morning and we didn’t want to risk having to pay another day’s hire for the car because of it.  Nevertheless, we had time to park on the pier and enjoy a wander around the harbour, which was very quiet today.

I enjoyed taking some pictures of the kind of thing I sometimes take pictures of – if you know what I mean!  I have no idea what these things are, but I have a couple of dozen very interesting photographs of them from all angles and degrees of zoom.

I then discovered I had company!

And a namesake.

But half an hour and the light was beginning to go.  Time to head on back.

We negotiated the “Rotarys” once again and amused ourselves with possible interpretations of another road sign we’ve seen for the first time today.

Of course, we were back in Boston well before closing time at the Hertz facility and in plenty of time to consider the one remaining dilemma of the day.

Where to eat dinner tonight?!