A Cape September 2014

Eastham windmill

The beginning of September is a peculiar time of year, not really Summer anymore, but not much like Fall, either.  Baseball season isn't over yet, but football has begun.  Our Patriots flag has replaced the seashell flag.  I suppose there isn't much chance of needing the Red Sox mini-flag up any longer this year. The Cape is still a big tourist destination in the Fall, but once the yellow school buses start their parade down the highway, the roads and store aisles are much more manageable.  The post-Labor Day vacationers tend to take things a little slower, perhaps because the kids are grown and not clamoring for ice cream in the back seat.  The sunset is much earlier, but we still have awhile before Eastern Standard Time plunges us into inky blackness with just the occasional bobbing headlights coming up the road.  I tend to enjoy Cape Cod in reverse, staying focused on being a busy innkeeper during the summer and avoiding the crowds, bugs and heat.  But, let the temperatures and the traffic drop off and I'm immediately on vacation in my own neighborhood.  All summer long I've heard guests tell me about the deer they saw while taking early morning walks in Fort Hill, and I smile and nod, agreeing how lucky we are to be so close.  "One of these days", I joke, "I'm going to get out of the house early enough to see them for myself."  

I DID IT!  This could be habit-forming.

I've often praised Fort Hill as one of the places not to be missed on Cape Cod and I never forget how fortunate we are to live within a short stroll.  If ever there was a portal to another world, the short walk from busy Route 6 to the top of the Fort Hill lookout over salt marshes and ocean, and the wooded paths populated with cautiously curious wildlife must qualify as one.  Leaving the busy hum of humanity for the soft rustle of ocean breezes through fields of wildflowers is very much like stepping from one world into another.  In our B&B rooms, we offer all sorts of reading material about the area and I recently took the time, while sorting through and updating to read some history about my Fort Hill neighborhood that reminded me to be doubly grateful to learn about its close call:

Perhaps the most dramatic story coming out of the birth of the national seashore was the last-minute rescue of Fort Hill from developers.  The property had been subdivided by 1961, and a developer had stakes outlining house lots and a graded perimeter road.  It had sold 10 of the 33 "Fort Hill Estate" lots.  In April 1961, Senate and House subcommittee members toured the proposed Seashore one last time by helicopter and flew low over Nauset Marsh and landed at Fort Hill.  They immediately realized that Fort Hill should be in the national seashore boundary and halted further development.  The 50-acre pastoral property possesses what every historian dreams of:  multiple layers of the past - the archeological record that is part of the Nauset Archeological District, a National Historic Landmark; open fields and stone walls reminiscent of the agricultural scene; and historic homes including the Captain Edward Penniman House.  Today, Fort Hill is the most visited national seashore site after the beaches.

Here comes the parade!

September's first weekend began with the 37th annual Windmill Weekend festival, which takes many forms over two days, as you can see by the impressive schedule.  A totally volunteer-run event, this year's theme was "Winds of Change" and there is always something for everyone to enjoy.  The weather was so uncharacteristically hot and humid on Saturday, I skipped my favorite event this year, the Sand Castle Contest at First Encounter Beach, but Ron and I dug out our Staff T-shirts and manned a raffle table shift again on Sunday afternoon.  It's our favorite time because that's when the parade comes through.   Our weekend B&B guests from Ireland arrived by bus on Saturday, which dropped them off right in front of the festivities on Windmill Green.  We couldn't have provided a more exciting welcome than that if we'd tried.  

Yankee Magazine was very generous to Cape Cod with its many ratings of all things New England this year:

Arnolds, in our town of Eastham, made the list of 12 best Lobster Shacks in New England again, saying :  Touristy though it may seem, Arnold’s is the place to go for succulently steamed lobster on the Cape. Owner Nate Nickerson III keeps the lines moving while serving more than a thousand customers on most summer days: lobster rolls, of course, but also crab cakes topped with guacamole and summer salsa.

The Friendly Fisherman, also in Eastham made the list of 10 Best Lobster Rolls in New England, saying:   On a relatively tame stretch of U.S. Route 6 about 20 miles south of Provincetown sits the Friendly Fisherman, a quaint seafood market with a tree-shaded seafood shack attached to it. This place serves up an honest, genuine cold lobster roll with five ounces of meat, a touch of mayo, a crispy leaf of lettuce, and a mightily burdened split-top, buttered, toasted hot dog bun.  Big chunks of claw meat always appear on top of the roll for presentation’s sake—and what a presentation it is. Cold rolls only are served here; butter may be mixed in, upon request. 

Cobie's, in the town of Brewster, made the list of 10 Best Clam Shacks in New England, saying:  In the tony Cape Cod town of Brewster, there are several fine clam shacks, and Cobie’s is at the top of that list. Housed in a tastefully whitewashed shack at a bend in Route 6A, this place has heavenly fried clams, juicy burgers, thick milk shakes, and a great cold lobster roll made with knuckle meat only. The ice cream stand, with more than 30 flavors of hard and soft ice cream, makes for a great dessert or mid-afternoon snack spot.

Seals off Chatham

The articles, A New England 101 and 10 Best Summer Road Trips in New England praised the drive from the town of Sandwich down "The Kings Old Highway" (Route 6A) all the way north.  Special mention also went to the seals off of the town of Chatham and Monomoy Island, designated in 1970 as a federal wildlife refuge.  [Remember, where there are seals, there are sharks looking for dinner.]  Also mentioned was the Wellfleet Drive-in, in the town just north of Eastham, the Cape Cod Canal' 100th year and the promise of great shopping and antiquing in every town. 

Thanks, Yankee Magazine!

Happy 100th Birthday to the Cape Cod Canal!

Whether by car, boat or plane, in order to reach Cape Cod from all points west, the only way in crosses the Cape Cod Canal, but this was not always so.  Here are some fun facts about the Cape's newest centenarian: 

1623 -  Myles Standish first proposed separating the Cape from the mainland for safer more efficient travel.

1914 - It took 291 years until the canal finally opened

$11,990,000  was the cost and 20,000,000 cubic yards of earth were removed 

1,750 shipwrecks while sailing around the Cape in the 50 years before the canal opened;

   600 people drowned in those shipwrecks

14,000 boats now pass through every year

100x25 feet  -the canal's original width and depth was too narrow and shallow for

many ships to pass through

700 jobs - were created during the Great Depression for further construction and improvements

$21 million - spent between 1935 and 1940 to widen and deepen the canal

So, think about all of that next time you cross the bridge and give a tip of the hat to this amazing undertaking.

USA Today also gave us a nod when they included Nauset Light Beach in Eastham as one of the 10 Uncrowded Atlantic Beaches:  "Compared to much of the East Coast, any of Cape Cod's beaches seem quiet and uncrowded, but if you venture into the Cape Cod National Sea Shore, you'll find some of the best.  The broad, sandy Nauset Light Beach is accessible via a steep staircase winding down the cliffs from the parking lot.  With lifeguards on duty, showers and changing rooms, this beach blends isolation and convenience seamlessly."

We often joke with our guests that one has to have a "beach plum connection" on the Cape to be able to provide the little jars of beach plum jelly that we have in our B&B rooms.  It's only partially a joke because they are such a sought after commodity here that pickers never reveal where they've found their stash.  The tart little berries are only ready to pick in the month of August and some years the quantities are better than others.  The lady who makes our jelly does it for a philanthropic organization that provides scholarships for women all over the world.  When one of the jelly makers has a large order and not enough processed juice to fill it, the call goes out to see who still has some in their freezer.  The Cape Codder weekly featured an article this month on the delectable beach plum and I learned that people also use them to make beach plum brandy, beach plum barbeque sauce, and beach plum marinade for meat.  Hummingbirds and orioles also love them.  It's probably for the best that I haven't yet learned to identify the bushes because I'd probably be braving the brambles and poison ivy, too.  Best to leave that to the experts.  Anyway, there's a lot of other things to do here in the Fall.  

   October 3 – November 1 across Cape Cod and the Islands

Fall for the Arts is a family-friendly month-long celebration that showcases local art and culture.  Events include:  live performances by local musicians; open houses at theaters, museums and historical sites; readings and lectures; art activities for children; guided art and heritage walks; plein air painters; special art exhibits; and much more! 

All Fall for the Arts events listings will be available at artscapecod.org


My raised bed garden taught me a lot this summer.  Mostly, I learned what not to grow, i.e. broccoli, brussels sprouts, squash or swiss chard.  That left tomatoes and cucumbers as my only successes, but just barely.  The second planting of chard actually did well, but I'm pretty sure the deer made short work of it because this year's resident wild bunny couldn't reach that high.  And, speaking of the food chain, we've been getting daily visits from a falcon, which loudly sets off the small birds who nest in the honeysuckle by the porch and sends Bunny cowering in his favorite hiding place within the large hostas.  Being at the top of the food chain [so far], it's easy to forget the harsh laws of nature and want to interfere.  Perhaps my finger-shaking at the hawk bought another day for some of our yard critters, but tomorrow's a new day.  And, speaking of critters, and particularly the toothy ones who also enjoy summering on Cape Cod, I leave you for now with these statistics: