Cape Cod Massachusettes

Her View

Cape Cod - Caywood's perspective

Cape Cod: a city of politeness. I don't think we met or saw a single rude person in Cape Cod - no people running in front of you in line or on the sidewalks, no horns honked. Drivers were so quick to stop to let pedestrians cross the road, even with most of them being jaywalkers. Great people here.

The first thing we checked out in Cape Cod was the brewery, Cape Cod Beer. Complete with outdoor benches, corn hole, and a food truck, this brewery had a nice chill atmosphere to it. Feliks got to try a half pint of five of the six beers they had on tap for only $5. And he got to keep his glass. We met a great married couple at the brewery, who we quickly decided was another us. This couple had just finished a road trip from Washington State to Virginia, and we're able to give us some great recommendations for our next two stops. As for the beer, I'll let Feliks speak to that.

Next we took a tour of the Cape Cod chip factory. This was a bit disappointing. It was neat to see some of the chip-making process, but I wished I could have seen more. The entire tour consisted of us walking through a narrow hallway that was about 12 yards long, and of course ending in the gift shop. We did get a free mini pack of chips though. I'm glad this tour was free.

Next we walked around Main Street in Hyannis, which was my favorite part of the Cape. Again, the people were awesome. This was a great downtown area with a wide variety of restaurants and bars, gift shops, a few monuments, beaches, and easily accessible public restrooms. We went in a cute gift store called Vanilla & Chocolate to buy a postcard, and the owner tried to give it to me for free! When we successfully paid for the postcard (and then some), the man asked us what job we did. We were quick to answer "sales," which came to no surprise to the man.

We spent the night in Monument Beach with Barbara and Bill, the parents of my high school choir teacher. Silly coincidence, but one of the greatest nights of our trip so far! They were so generous to open their house (and kitchen) to us. We got a home-cooked dinner and breakfast (the best bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich of my life), a real bed, a warm shower, AND a hot tub on their back porch that was right on the water. Such great hosts.

On our way out of the Cape we stopped at the Whistlestop for some homemade ice cream. Chocolate chop cookie dough in a waffle cone. All homemade that day. Amazing. Delicious. The end.

My advice from our experience:

1. If you pick up one of the map tourist maps, check it against your GPS. They are not to scale. We learned this after trying to walk what looked to be about half a mile to the beach; Google Maps let us know the beach was closer to 3 miles away.

2. You must go to Whistlestop. Their portions are large so if you aren't very hungry I recommend a kids size. Feliks and I split the kids size, which they claim is one scoop but it is ONE LARGE SCOOP.

3. Get ready for some roundabouts, or as they call them "rotaries." They were everywhere.

His View

Cape Cod - Feliks' perspective

Cape Cod - definitely one of the most beautiful spots we've been to so far. I totally underestimated the amount of time it would take to see everything, so we didn't get to explore as much as we wanted to. We started off by going to the local brewery and did the beer tastings there. Cape Cod Beer was pretty good; they had six beers on tap and for $5 you get five four ounce tasters. After that we did the Cape Cod potato chip tour, a very short tour. A very short self-guided tour of mostly looking through windows at machinery and you have no idea what it really does. I did see the frying bath for the potato chips and was able to figure that one out. Other than that, I have no idea.

Afterwards we drove to Hyannis, a nice little town with a really long Main Street. I highly recommend a stroll down to see all of the shops and restaurants. Please ask somebody for directions because I thought it was awesome that everyone used their entire arm to show you where you are on the peninsula. There were lots of beaches, as we were told, and we drove down to Kalmus Park Beach and took a nice stroll. We did see a lot of horseshoe crabs hanging out on the beach... I don't think they were alive though. The beach was nice. It was clean - obviously had some seaweed, not very busy. But it was a little bit chilly.

We spent the night with Caywood's choir teacher's parents, who had an amazing house right on the beach. Their hospitality and bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich will never be forgotten. On our way out we stopped at the recommended Whistlestop for some homemade ice cream. Amazing. Passing on recommendation.

Overall, we did not see a fraction of Cape Cod that we should have. This is definitely a place I'll be coming back to and spending an entire week. They like their roundabouts (or rotaries), and I was a fan as well, as it made traveling a little bit smoother. Parking in the cities was medium difficulty. Two hour limit meters are pretty much everywhere.


Cape Cod chip tour	Huge tree on Main Street
We picked plums!	The plums were sour
Kalmus Beach	Wind sail
Seaweed	Lots of horseshoe crabs
Monument Beach	Our home for the night in Cape
Papa's Cape Cod fried fish	Homecooked meal
Our gracious Cape Cod hosts	Homemade breakfast - delicious!
Whistlestop Ice Cream