Tuesday 30 June Cape Cod

It’s a beautiful sunny day and we get on the road early.  Drove first to Hyannis, a nice little town and one of the main ports for ferries trips to the offshore islands. Got lots of photos of the Cape Cod houses and of course the land is surrounded by water so lots of water shots too.  Surprised to find all the beaches have parking areas which cost anything between $15 to $40/day, although most have lifeguards, restrooms and snack bars.  We didn’t find any beaches which you could get onto for free.  As a result we had to dodge quite a few people loaded up with beach chairs, kids, bags, chilly bins etc, walking along the narrow roads down to the beaches.  Lots of ocean and lovely fine gold sand, probably worth paying for but we are Kiwi’s after all, it goes against the grain.  Anyway we have other stuff to do, even if it is a perfect beach day!

There is what looks to be a  very well utilised two lane biking trail through most of the cape, it probably runs for 20 miles or so and only intercepts the highway in a couple of places, it was very well supported.  And it’s all flat so probably very nice.  Instead we had a monster ice-cream at the famous Cape Cod Creamery, and sat outside in their colourful wooden deck chairs to enjoy them and watched the world happen around us.

Cape Cod is the cranberry growing district of the USA, who would have thought?

Then we made our way down to Falmouth Harbour and had a look around some of the residential areas bordering the beaches.  Lovely big homes, with unobstructed views of the sea, it is so flat here.  Most of the houses have the steep roofs and were clad in shingle tiles, just as you imagine.

 At 3pm we joined the Island Queen ferry across to Martha’s Vineyard.  It was a beautiful crossing, only took about 35 minutes but it was lovely to be on the water, front seats on the top deck in the sun.  We docked at Oaks Bluff and wandered into the township.  Found a lovely little restaurant called  Coop de Ville where I had the Tuesday special of steamed lobster and corn for $10.99 – made a mess of the bib, the plates, the table, myself and enjoyed every morsel.  Kim chose the Coop de Ville burger, equally satisfied!  The burger patties are usually made with really good quality hamburger meat and when you order a burger at a restaurant they ask how you want the meat cooked!  Not Macca's style!

By the way there are no vineyards on Martha's Vineyard!  Apparently it got it's name from wild grape vines which were growing there when it was first settled. 

On the way back to base we had to drive through Mashpee (hee hee – I know – it's just the kid in me coming out).