Summer holiday in Cape cod

Cape cod in MA is a geographically unique place and considered as one of the best place to visit in this cost of US. The 'arm' of cape cod goes inside the ocean forming a totally different envirnment. From Danbury, where we stay its around 220 miles away and its a 4 hour drive. We started on July 4th 2008 to spend our long weekend there.

The hotel was booked sometime in advance (Americas best value inn, Hyannis) and the google maps were taken and ready. Google maps were a back up in case my TOMTOM GPS fails in some case (which did not happen). So the journey started around 7 AM and the TOMTOM told me the that we will be reaching there around 11:30 AM. It was drizzling and the journey was good. On the way we stopped once for breakfast in Mcdy's and reached Hyannis at around 11:30 itself. Checked in to the hotel and was welcomed to a decent room. Due to the long weekend rush, the rates were too high I should say, paid around $139/ day for King bed room. Just a quick freshening up and we came out to explore cape cod. The first thing we realized is that, its not a good idea to drive around in this traffic. The traffic was heavy (though nothing compared to Bangalore jams). To explore Hyannis, best way is to just walk around.

We headed to Kalmus beach and it was quite near. The parking fee was $15. The beach was good and with family crowd. Preksha got into her swim suit quickly and headed for enjoying the sand and water. She soon found some company and really started to play in the water. The beach had lot of wind surfing going on and it was the first beach experience for Nisha and Preksha after coming to US. Preksha loves the sea, we realised that when we went to Goa and preksha was a 1 year old. She just refused to come out of water!! After that, everytime I go to Kannur; my home town in kerala, we visit the Payyambalam beach and that really is a wonderful and neat beach though not known much.


Coming back to Cape cod, the rest of the day did not have anything much but a visit to the famous Baxter's Boathouse for the dinner. We tried some fried clams and they were good. The best thing was the setting of the restaurant, you will be sitting on a deck that is build on the shore extending to water. In the evening sky the july 4th fireworks started soon. We enjoyed the dinner and walked back to the hotel ending our day 1 in cape cod.

Next day morning we woke up to hear the sound of rain outside. It was kind of gloomy outside and soon it spread all over our face too. The day was planned for visiting Martha's vineyard Island. Marthas vineyard is a small Island in the Atlantic and its around 30 minutes ferry ride away from cape cod. We went to a place called Fallmouth to board the Island ferry. The rain had stopped a bit but was still drizzling. We went to the ferry parking and it was crowded. But got a place to part and headed towards the boat.

The journey started soon and withing minutes we were out in the middle of the ocean. It was windy and cold but the air in the sea is quite different. For all 3 of us it was another 'First' experience. We had never been so far out in the sea. Soon the island became visible from the boat and we headed towards the oak bluff port of Marthas vineyard. There are two main ports there, one is Oak bluff and another Vineyard heaven. The Island Ferry that we took heads for Oak bluff whereas another major ferry 'Steamship authority' lands in both places.

Marthas vineyard is not very big in area, but it has some of the best beaches in US. We landed in oak bluff, went around for a while walking through those stone paved foot paths. The roads are not very wide here, so driving there is not a good idea. Moreover traffic is too slow to move around. The trasportation options are rented Scooters, cycles or Buses. We opted for VTA buses. They have some 13 routes which covers most of the island. As we had done the homework before starting, we knew which bus to take. The rain was getting heavier occassionally. We took route 13 bus to edgartown and spent some hours in that beautiful place. We walked around those green streets and checked out many small cute shops. Went inside vineyard vines showroom and found some of the costliest Tee shirts ever saw in US. Undoubtably good quality stuff they have but not quite in our range.

Moved ahead and we all were hungry by then. Looked around and saw a crowd near the next street munching food on the road side. The eatery was called Quarterdeck and the smell of fried seafood was in the air.. Went straight ahead and ordered some fried clams and onion rings. Preksha had french fries. I am not sure if this is a known famous eater around here, but the taste of clams were superb and anyone who likes seafood shouldn't miss them.

After luch we walked towards the VTS bus stop in Church street (reminds me of chrurch street Bangalore, though similarity is only in the name!!). On the way went to a shop and picked up some T-shirts to carry back and remember the visit. Took the route 8 to south beach to go to KATAMA beach. The bus was not at all crowded as the the rain had increased little more. Reached south beach in 15 mins and got down there. This beach is called Katama beach is beautiful. The atlantic ocean ahead was not very calm due to rain. There were not many people on the beach, surprisingly most of them were Indians!! Its such a great feeling to see your fellow country men so far in such a place. Me and preksha went to the waves and got ourselves wet in no time. We saw a Seal in the water and some people told us that they are seeing a lot of seals these days as they migrate to cape cod in summer. Almost an hour back we were back in bus to Edgartown. From there to Oak bluff again.

Bus stop in Oakbluff has a scenic park in the background. We had our snap taken there and slowly headed for the ferry back to Cape cod. It started raining heavily while we waited for the ferry. Preksha had already fallen asleep, we had one umbrella with us. I had sleeping Preksha in my lap, Nisha holding the umbrella for all three of us we waited there in the ferry dock. Soon we took the ferry and landed in falmouth. Took the car and headed towards hotel and crashed on to bed.

That day's dinner was Indian Rice and kerala style morukari!! No surprise, we had carried moru mari with us while going from Danbury itself and the rice cooker helped us in cooking the rice. It felt so good to eat that homely food after many episodes of burgers and french fries.

The next day morning was bright and sunny unlike the previous day and the plan was to go for whale watch. We headed towards Provincetown to get into the boat known as Dolphin fleet. It was hot and bright and the ride to provincetown was smooth. The highway is not very wide and speed limit in most of the places is only 40 miles. So it took some time to reach there. Took the tickets and we waited for the boat to arrive..

The boat soon arrived and the guide Dennis started explaining about whales and stuff like that. To see whales we have to go little deep into the sea, almost an hour ride it was and the more we went inside to the ocean the weather felt very different. The color of the sea was getting greener and darker as it became deeper.. The guide showed us some charts of the common whales found around and was talking about various things. Soon we found our first whale, there were two whales swimming in tandem. It seems its a mother and calf, apparently her 10th calf. They were huge, by almeans of course thats why everyone goes to see them!


In another one hour we had seen couple of other whales and they really were amazing animals. This was a trip that we wont forget for a long time. We headed back by 3 PM to the shore and slowly the cape code light houses began to appear on the banks as we kept coming nearer. . slowly the boat came to Provincetown shore and we got town saying bye bye to those wonderful boatmen. It was getting hotter and we had some real good homemade Ice creams from there. It was around 4 PM and we decided to head back home. Another 4 hours drive guided by our GPS and we reached back Danbury by 9:30 PM. The highways in US are just amzing, for the first time in my life I crossed speeds of 90 miles/hour (around 145 Kms) and it was such a smooth thing thanks the the dependable and stable Honda civic. Back home with wonderful memories of a short trip. That was the first big outing for Nisha and Preksha after coming to US.