Escape to the Cape

I loved driving around the Cape, looking at the beauty of the ocean! It would be hard to beat the Fourth of July fireworks bursting and shimmering above the beautiful sea line.

The people there seemed to be exceptionally nice.

As a lover of lighthouses, I was excited to see several of them. I was somewhat disappointed not to get to go inside any, but it was great nonetheless.

The beaches are almost all "pay" beaches and are either rocky or seaweed-ridden; as a beach bum, I found them a disappointment. So don't go for the beaches; go for all of the great factory tours and historical sights.

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Provincetown Museum has treasures and artifacts of the pirate ship "Whydah". Wydah is the only pirate ship ever found, so the relics that have been rescued are certainly a spectacular find. Each item has to be carefully restored and preserved--there are many exhibits that explain the processes that the pieces go through in order to stop the deterioration and restore some of the original characteristics--amazing!

Free two-hour parking with museum admission

I often imagine what life was like in the years long past, and with the Hoxie house, imagining it is easy. The tour takes you through various rooms where period furnishings make you feel like you have stepped back in time. The Hoxie House is Cape Cod's oldest restored house. The original house was built in 1675.

This is a great historically recreated icon of that era that is worth exploring. You will want to compare the way people lived more than 300 years ago to the luxurious life of today.

The Nobska Point Light is a beautiful, 48-foot cast-iron lighthouse originally built in 1828 and then rebuilt in 1876. The fourth-order Fresnel lens is still used but has been automated since 1985. You won't be able to wander inside the lighthouse, but it is still a worthy visit. Stop and look at the ocean's glorious beauty at the spot. It is truly breathtaking. I keep a collector's piece of the Nobska Point Light in my living room to remind me of the vacation.

Tour the old-style kitchen where jams and jellies are made in old-fashioned tradition. Jams and jellies of ordinary and extraordinary types fill the rooms with a fantastic, sweet fruity aroma.

At the end of the tour you will find a multitude of shelves filled with jars of jams and jellies that are made at the Green Briar Jam Kitchen for you to purchase. These sweet souvenirs definitely won't sit around and collect dust--YUM!

Proceeds from the kitchen support the Thorton W. Burgess educational programs.

Our tour started with an explanation of the process and the cleaning and inspection of potatoes--tons and tons of potatoes. Then they were sliced and loaded into vats of hot oil, salted, and reinspected. After the completion of the tour, you go to the gift shop and are given a complimentary bag of Cape Cod potato chips. I love just about any industrial tour, and this was was no exception. Every time I eat a Cape Cod chip, I fondly recall that informative tour.