Summer at the Cape with Kids!

This journal will allow you to spend a week in Cape Cod with beach suggestions as well as plenty of activities that both children and adults will enjoy. Since my kids span in age from 4 to 11, I have tried to focus on things that everyone truly loved.

Quick Tips:

Here is an overview of some terrific places to visit, some of which I will cover in detail within the summary journals:

Beaches: Of course there are tons of beaches on the Cape and where you go will be somewhat driven by where you stay. However, be aware that the beach on the east side of the "South Cape" (above the elbow) are directly on the Atlantic, so they will have the biggest waves. Some of our favorite beaches will be listed under the beach section.

Historical Places of Interest: Plymouth Plantation and the Mayflower II, Heritage Plantation.

Activities: Whale watching cruise, the Children's Museum in Mashpee, lighthouse tour, hiking, and biking.

Restauarants: There are plenty, and I will cover a few in the attached journals.

Best Way To Get Around:

A car is necessary to get around the Cape. However, you won't be able to take your car to Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket (unless you want to pay a small fortune), so either take bikes or you can rent bikes/mopeds when you get there.

Briarwood resort is about two miles away from the beaches in Falmouth. Most of the units are townhouse style with two bedrooms upstairs (queen bed in one bedroom and two twins in the other). There is also a full bathroom upstairs. Downstairs is a kitchen, living room with dining area, and half bath. We stayed in one of the 8 or so ranch style units on the property, which we enjoyed more since there were no stairs. It was a bit difficult having only one full bathroom with three kids.

The resort is clean and spacious and the staff is friendly. The pool is small but adequate. There is no kiddie pool but the adult pool starts at three feet. As with most resorts on the Cape, this is definitely not a Gold Crown resort and it's easy to tell. There were torn screens in the unit, some of the sheets had shrunk too much to fit the beds (they were easily replaced), and there are none of the fancy amenities you might find in a Gold Crown resort, such as a jacuzzi or a TV in each bedroom. (There was one TV in the living room and one in the master bedroom.) Also, all masters have queen sized beds rather than king sized ones, which may be an issue for some.

However, despite all this, I would stay at this resort again. They gladly gave us a cot when it was determined that the mattress on the pull-out couch had springs poking through, and the cot was comfortable. You can also easily walk to the pool from any unit. There is a nice playgroud on the property, as well as some mimimal events at the pool area (i.e. bingo) in the afternoons. The unit was air conditioned, with units in both bedrooms as well as the living room. The units also have nice, fenced-in areas in the back for extra privacy.

Falmouth is a good location to stay on the Cape because it is a short drive in (hence, not as much traffic to worry about) and near some other great towns.

Best Things Nearby:
Famouth is a great location to stay on the Cape for several reasons. It's a short drive in from the "entrance" to the Cape at Bourne Bridge, and it's also far enough in so that you can take a day trip up to the very tip of the Cape (Provincetown) within a couple of hours.

Best Things About the Resort:
Small resort so everyone can walk to the pool. Family friendly and helpful staff.

Resort Experience:
Briarwood resort is about two miles away from the beaches in Falmouth. Most of the units are townhouse style with two bedrooms upstairs (queen bed in one bedroom and two twins in the other). There is also a full bathroom upstairs. Downstairs is a kitchen, living room with dining area, and half bath. We stayed in one of the eight or so ranch style units on the property, which we enjoyed more since there were no stairs. It was a bit difficult having only one full bathroom with three kids.

The resort is clean and spacious and the staff is friendly. The pool is small but adequate. There is no kiddie pool but the adult pool starts at three feet. As with most resorts on the Cape, this is definitely not a Gold Crown resort and it's easy to tell. There were torn screens in the unit, some of the sheets had shrunk too much to fit the beds (they were easily replaced), and there are none of the fancy amenities you might find in a Gold Crown resort, such as a Jacuzzi or a TV in each bedroom. There was one TV in the living room and one in the master bedroom. Also, all masters have queen sized beds rather than king sized ones, which may be an issue for some.

However, despite all this, I would stay at this resort again. They gladly gave us a cot when it was determined that the mattress on the pull-out couch had springs poking through, and the cot was comfortable. You can also easily walk to the pool from any unit. There is a nice playgroud on the property, as well as some mimimal events at the pool area (i.e. bingo) in the afternoons. The unit was air-conditioned, with units in both bedrooms as well as the living room. The units also have nice, fenced-in areas in the back for extra privacy.

Falmouth is a good location to stay on the Cape because it is a short drive in (hence, not as much traffic to worry about) and near some other great towns.

• Unit Type: 2 Bedroom
• Activities: Fair
• Amenities: Fair
• Unit Satisfaction: Good
• Family Friendliness: Very Good
• Service: Fair

This is a chain of restaurants; we visited the one in Falmouth. They serve typical family fare, but we thought the seafood was particularly good. Their website is www.hearthnkettle.com.

I had the scrod when we visited. This fish is caught fresh every morning and is a house specialty. It was terrific.

My husband and son had the lobster roll. Lobster roll seems to be served in just about every restaurant on the Cape, but this restaurant's was particularly good. On another night I had a lobster at Hearth and Kettle, which was a little less impressive (you can probably find much better elsewhere).

This is an old time diner with a casual atmosphere and great food. The waitress recommended the fried clams (she said they were "killa" and they were!). There are a wide selection of foods offered as in any diner, but the food is much better than your typical diner.

I wouldn't travel from the other side of the Cape to go here, but if you're staying in or near Falmouth, I would definitely recommend it.

There are actually two areas to eat in this Inn: the formal dining area and the bistro area. We chose the bistro area (more casual), but were able to order off the formal menu as well. The kid's menu was terrific, and they had crayons and placemats to color. The food was absolutely fantastic and we all had different things. I understand the the Sunday Brunch here is particularly good.

During this meal, we all had different things and all were good. My husband had steak, and my son tried Lobster Roll for the first time. I had chicken and sampled a variety of flavored coffees that they had on hand.

The only negative was that the service was slow. We were there on a weeknight, so I'm not sure if this would get worse on a weekend, or if they might be better staffed. However, the food was worth the wait.

We drove from Falmouth to Provincetown to take the cruise because Provincetown was the recommended location. We used Dolphin Fleet of Provincetown. Their phone number is 1-800-826-9300 and their web site is www.whalewatch.com. It's usually best to make a reservation in advance.

The photos attached will give you a better idea of what the cruise is like. The boat has a top level (all outside) and a bottom level (inside and outside). In the indoor portion of the boat, there is a food counter, which serves basics like burgers, hot dogs, chili, and, of course, clam chowder! There are drinks (both alchoholic and non) available as well. Even on 90 degree days, it does get chilly out on the water, so bring a sweater or a raincoat. Even though we only spotted one whale during our cruise, my three children (ranging in age from 4 to 11) were fascinated by all of the other sights (waterfowl, other boats, and the open water in general) and were not bored for one minute.

We took this route up from Falmouth to Provincetown (where we had whalewatch reservations) leaving plenty of time to explore. Here are some of the places we stopped:
Mrs. Mugs in Sandwich (all kinds of souveniers for sale) Sandwich Lantern in Sandwich (beautiful handmade lanterns...great if you're a collector like I am.)
Hallet's Old Fashioned Ice Cream Shop (This is a must stop and see--yum) in Yarmouthport
Cape Annie's Lighhouse in East Sandwich (wonderful miniature lighthouses among other things! We bought a beautiful throw blanket that had all of the Cape's lighthouses pictured on it).
The Brewster Teapot (This place serves scones with strawberry jam and real clotted cream, and well as other typical English fare such as Cornish pasties. There is a small shop attached where you can buy tea-related memorabilia).
We would have stopped at more places, but we ran out of time!

We only saw six of the ten lighthouses on the Cape, simply because they are so spread out. However, Provincetown has three lighthouses, and the one in nearby Truro was ordered to be built by George Washington! There are also lighthouses in Falmouth, Barnstable, Hyannis, Yarmouth, Chatham, Orleans, and Eastham.

Martha's Vineyard has four lighthouses in Gay Head, West Chop, East Chop, and Edgartown. All are accessible. Nantucket has three lighthouses in Great Point, Sankaty, and Brant Point. All are accesible except for Great Point, which is at the end of a three mile long barrier beach.

This is not really an amusement park in the classic sense, but has lots of activities for kids including kiddie rides, paint ball, miniature golf, go karts, laser tag, an arcade, and bumper cars.

This is a "living history" museum made up of several areas:

1627 Pilgrim Village: You can wander around and strike up conversations with the folks in the village, who all stay true to characters living in the 1600s.

Wampanoug Indian Homesite: Hosted from a third person (not in character) perspective.

Crafts Center: Watch a craft (i.e. woodworking or glassblowing) being demonstrated.

Shops

[Mayflower II: While this is technically part of the Plimouth Plantation, it had its own admission fee--unless you buy a combo ticket--so I will cover it in another summary.]

Don't forget to ask about why they spell it "Plimouth" instead of "Plymouth"!!

This is a recreation of the original Mayflower, and the boat is actually Seaworthy and has been sailed. There are both in-character folks that will tell you what they are doing on the boat, and third-party narrators that will tell you about the history of the Mayflower II as well as the original Mayflower. There are several areas and levels of the boat to explore, including the sleeping quarters, the gun room and the forecastle.

Plymouth Rock is just a short walk down the road. It is fairly unspectacular . . . just a rather small rock with a fence around it that you can stare down at and take a photo of . . . but as long as you're there, you might as well take a look and say that you've seen it! (This was actually one of the funniest parts of our trip. As my four year old peeked down between the rails to see what everyone was staring at, she said "We walked all the way over here to see a WOCK?!" All the folks around us laughed, and one guy said he was thinking the same thing!!)

Here are some recommendations. Keep in mind that the beaches on the eastern part of the island are directly on the Atlantic and so have bigger, more powerful waves. You may not want that for small children, but your older kids and teens would enjoy it.

Old Silver Beach: On Buzzard's Beach in Falmouth.

Beaches along Cape Cod National Seashore: CC Nat'l Seashore stretches from Chatham to parts of Orleans and Wellfleet. There are beautiful sand dunes and a wonderful shoreline.

Beaches on Martha's Vineyard (take a ferry from Woods Hole, Falmouth, or Yarmouth).

Surf Drive Beach: In Falmouth . . . small but uncrowded.

Nauset Light Beach: In Eastham . . . and see the lighthouse too! (On the Atlantic)

Woods Neck Beach: Falmouth . . . lots of little inlets and shells that will appeal to the younger kids.

Finally, here are some beaches that do not have lifeguards, so you may want to think twice about them if you have young children:

Breakwater, Crosby, Paines, and Robbins Hill beaches in Brewster
Lighthouse Beach in Chatham
Cooks Brooks and First Encounter in Eastham
Chapin Beach in Dennis

Many hands-on exhibits and a large "play-in" pirate ship for the very young children (5 and under). There are some science-based exhibits for the older kids, such as sound bouncing (kids can talk to each other from opposite ends of the room) and optical illusions. There is also a planetarium; however, it was not open the time we visited.

Did you know that Cape Cod has a baseball league? We had a great time watching the Falmouth team play. If you're a baseball fan, you should definitely check this out. The games are really fun to watch!