Cape Cod Retreat

After our blissful stay in Maine, we drove down the coast to relax in Cape Cod for the last half of our vacation back east. It’s a part of the country we have heard great things about, but never had the opportunity to visit before. Our timing was impeccable – after Labor Day when the tourism drops off, but early enough that the weather is still great.

We explored the Cape on bicycles, which we rented in town. It was a great way to see the different ecosystems – the marshes, cranberry crops, forests, ponds and beaches. Exploring places on bikes has actually become my favored way to travel. You really get to see a lot of the area really close to the ground.

I didn’t take as many pictures of the food because I was too busy enjoying it/stuffing myself. Almost everything I ate involved local seafood – lobster, clams, oysters. The best meal was probably at this little Italian place in Falmouth called La Cucina Sul Mare. We enjoyed every course, but my main course was handmade ravioli stuffed with lobster and asparagus. Oh momma… I want to relive that meal over and over again.

Another cool dining discovery – a bakery that sells pie. But not just boring pie. They have every dessert pie, sure. But they also sell savory meat pies like chicken, turkey, shepherd’s pie, lobster pies, etc. You could eat there or take them home to bake. Why doesn’t Portland, Oregon, have something like this?

Our last day was spent along the Cape Cod National Seashore. In their words: “forty miles of pristine sandy beach, marshes, ponds, and uplands support diverse species.” We went on some trails and spent lots of time on the beach, swimming in the Atlantic.

We were surprised to see wild turkeys running along one of the trails and those Thanksgiving traditions started to make more sense. So maybe that’s why we eat turkey on Thanksgiving – obviously they have them around the Plymouth Rock area. And that’s why we always have cranberries – they grow in this part of the country. I didn’t quite realize that all those basics of Thanksgiving are really inherited New England traditions.

I think I could easily live a happy life on the quiet Cape and this trip showed me yet again that we have some majestic landscapes in the US. Moving the chickens, ducks and my beloved homestead 3,000 miles is not so easy and I quite enjoy our little corner of the world. But our vacation certainly planted a seed of love for New England. Hope I get to visit again.