Return to the Cape

Best Things Nearby:
Just a short stroll nearby, and you find yourself in the quaint little New England seashore town of Falmouth, as well as being a stone's throw away from Falmouth Harbor. Then there is the bike path to Woods Hole, and the visual scenery of the ocean, if you just want to sit and listen to the waves crashing on the shore.

Best Things About the Resort:
The quietness, and in particular, during this "off season" time, there aren't as many people populating the local beaches and it makes it easier to navigate around the surrounding areas. Then our resort faces the ocean, and it's just a 5 minute walk to Surf Drive Beach.

Resort Experience:
As stated, this is like a wonderful respite and well deserved, just following one holiday and then moving on in anticipation of the next (Christmas). Our family has enjoyed the pastoral and scenery, and the magnificence of the breathtaking view of Martha's Vineyard from our spot on the beach, making this oceanfront resort one of our favorite haunts.

• Unit Type: 2 Bedroom
• Activities: Not Available
• Amenities: Good
• Unit Satisfaction: Very Good
• Family Friendliness: Very Good
• Service: Good

This was a marvelous time for our toddler girls, and we accompanied them, along with their grandparents, and we all had a very nice time. Watching the girls interact with all the other children, as well as climb into the pirate ship, castle, and try to figure out some of the scientific puzzles was a challenge to not only them, but to the adults. Mostly the adults. There were many interactive and educational displays, and I believe we all learned a great deal that day. There were many opportunities for photos, and the staff were really helpful and assisted all of us. The puppet show was a real hit, as we all had a hand in showing our girls and the other children just how much can be had by using some imagination. It was a super time!!!

This little store was on one of those little side roads off of Sandwich Road and it was settled into a little strip mall. It was more of a store front church, with a store attached to it.

This particular evening, it was cold, and we found some solace from the chill of the evening; and the pickings were pretty nice, as there were many bargains. Our little girls liked the place too, as they got real comfortable with the staff and wanted to roam all over the place.

A nice little place to stop. Off the beaten path, so to speak.

What started out as a really nice idea, turned into a short-lived stay, as four days after our arrival at Beachside Village in Falmouth, our twin girls got really sick, and we had to rush home, only to discover they both had double ear infections.

We had hoped to visit more of some of the "out of the way" spots on the Cape. There are so many wonderful spots to visit on the Cape, and it's our hope to cover the entire Cape in search of areas of interest to travellers, and in particular, to us.

This was a sad time for us, and especially intense, as we were very glad we were only a couple of hours away from our home in Winchendon, Massachusetts. One of the nice things about vacationing on Cape Cod.

One of the more interesting aspects of our shortened vacation this time around was the night before our trip back to North Central Massachusetts. Around 5:00 PM on the 3rd of December, 2003, we suddenly lost our lights and everything else which is powered by electricity. This proved to be very instructive to everyone concerned.

First of all, we discovered that our timeshare/resort - Beachside Village - had not adequately prepared for this, in that many of their "emergency light" batteries had not been updated. And as we had been the only ones vacationing in the particular building we were in, we had some interesting journeys up and down the stairs. We own the penthouse on the top of the building overlooking the ocean, but even those emergency lights only lasted so long.

We couldn't get in touch with any staff, as the phones were out, and trying to get a local radio station's news was useless, because the local AM Falmouth station was down as well. The only other station was an FM station and they never reported on the blackout.

For about two hours, we sang songs, and played these little games with a one flashlight and fading emergency lights, and then we discovered that a woman who lived in the building next to us decided to come to our building looking for some companionship. She was also alone. Like I said earlier in this travel journal, we were vacationing "Off Season." Come to find out, this lady was by herself, and she was from the town next to ours - Ashburnham, Massachusetts - so...we struck up a great little friendship and kept each other company. Our little girls had a pretty interesting time as well.

Within 15 minutes of our neighbor coming over to visit us, we then saw the lights begin to come back on from our vantage point from across the ocean in Martha's Vineyard, and then locally to Falmouth. The following day, as we returned to our home in Winchendon, we discovered that there had been literally thousands of residents without power on this particular evening, and there were many theories why, from local terrorist (which was untrue), to a problem with the local power supply (very much true). All in all, one of the highlights of our vacation.