A Cape Cod Vacation

Though the calendar claims that spring has not yet arrived, the thermometer shows sixty-two degrees in New York City, which has me outdoors enjoying the warmth and eagerly looking ahead to summer.  With the sun on my face I find that if I close my eyes I am transported to one of my favorite summertime places; the windswept beaches of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

The crocuses have pushed through the scattered snow in my backyard and with each colorful blossom one can feel Old Man Winter giving up his chilly grip.  This is a sign that there is no better time than right now to start making plans for a special summer vacation on Cape Cod. If this will be your first visit you can find a wealth of helpful information available on-line.  You still have time to do some web-surfing to help you choose the area of the Cape that best meets your idea of the perfect vacation spot.   Speaking for myself, nothing is closer to heaven than a seaside retreat on Nantucket Sound in the Dennis Port or Harwich Port area.  Each year my sweetheart and I tend to shift back and forth between these towns, depending on how many will be in our party. When it’s just the two of us we favor a little motel where we’ve enough history to exchange the occasional friendly off-season e-mail with the innkeepers, David and Jon, while our larger family vacations find us renting a wonderful old beach house that’s more remote, and very special.   

Either way, they both share the same warm salty breeze and sitting on the beach with toes digging into the sand you’ll find yourself hypnotized by the rush of the surf washing onto the beach and the calls of the gulls as they hover over the waves. 

Generally speaking, as you count the exits eastward on Route 6, you may feel the subtle differences in the towns you pass through.  It isn’t so much that places become more remote, but as one heads further east everything becomes less compressed.  I see ‘the Dennises’ as a dividing line of sorts between the more modern, suburban Cape and an older Cape, though with an area extending from Cape Cod Bay all the way down to Nantucket Sound, Dennis isn’t a place that is easily labeled.