Cape Cod, Massachusetts

JFK Museum

JFK & Family

Early Days JFK & Jackie

Cape Cod Seaside Cabin

Cape Cod, Massachusetts is another one of those places I had always heard about, and wanted to see. After our 3 day visit to the area, we agree it is one place we would love to have a cottage overlooking the sea and spend a whole summer enjoying the sun & the sand. This place must really buzz during the big US summer holiday. The weather here in spring is so variable - last week it was glorious and next week it will no doubt be the same. but for our visit? Not so lucky.

There are two main island masses to the south of Cape Cod, one is Martha's Vineyard, and the other Nantucket. Both of them are the playgrounds of the rich & famous, but we decided to visit Martha’s Vineyard. We took the 9am passenger ferry (35 min) across and spent a pleasant 4-5 hrs touring the area. The ferry landed in the NE of the island, and our bus tour took us from there south then to the most western point, before returning on a northern route completing our circumnavigation. The reason the island is so popular as a summer escape for film stars and ex=US Presidents etc is that the properties are so large that all you can see from the road is scrub – their cape cod homes are on the beachfront, well away from prying eyes. Did you also know that property ownership here extends to the low tide mark, so no one can access their bit of beach, as it is private property! There are some lovely public beaches, but they are well away from the private residences. The view of the cliffs and lighthouse at the western point Aquinnah was pretty, but I think we have been spoiled for cliffs after seeing the Cliffs of Mohr in Ireland, and our own cliffs along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. The tour bus driver told us that the permanent resident population is 22,000 on the Island, and swells to 120,000 residents in the months of July, August, and that is not including visitors that catch the ferry over like we did. A similar growth explosion happens on the neighboring Nantucket Island.

As we continued our drive up Cape Cod, Massachusetts, we couldn’t resist calling into Hyannis Port and visiting JFK’s museum. We wanted to drive past the Kennedy houses, but they are only accessible to homeowners. I recall so many of the photos of the Kennedys’ in summer was set with Hyannisport as the backdrop, with their houses just one lawn away from the water’s edge. A really beautiful place to spend the summer - sea, sand and seagulls.

This morning we drove up to Provincetown, the northernmost tip of Cape Cod - we saw lots of lobster shacks and typical Cape Cod houses (built to withstand the wet, windy weather and notable for shingled (each shingle made from white cedar wood that weathers to a grey colour) roof and sides). Very picturesque.