5 Top Secrets of Cape Cod Beauty All Year Long
3 min readOct 10, 2020
- Highway to heaven. The journey is a key part of the trip — there’s gold in those paths you ride to the Cape, leaving everyday life farther and farther behind in your rearview mirror. Look for cranberry bogs on Route 6 East, the big canal glittering under the Bourne Bridge, Cape Cod spelled out in trimmed shrubbery when you land on the other side. Behold the rotaries (traffic circles). Point your car east for Provincetown, the very tip of the Cape, where the land meets the sea.
- Old magic. My parents took a honeymoon road trip to the Cape from New York City in June 1951. Much of the sandy spot remains unchanged. Lighthouses that guided sea captains still dot the coast, though the beacons are now automated, and many have been moved back (very carefully) from perches on eroding dunes. Storybook windmills stand on village greens — one in Eastham dates to 1680. Are you into buried treasure? John F. Kennedy Jr. did a 1985 dive into the old Whydah shipwreck, a pirate vessel captained by badass Sam Bellamy. It went down in 1717, with all hands on deck (nearly 150 people), and a lot of silver and gold. Visit West Yarmouth or Ptown to see some of the loot.
- Seaside history. Your car might hold five people holding modern devices, but you will pass historic highway signs (Entering Eastham, inc. 1651) and houses where oceangoing whalers once lived. My…
