Advice for a fabulous Cape vacation

For those of you who have never vacationed on Cape Cod, I thought I’d share a little advice about how to make a Cape vacation fabulous.

A place to stay… I’ve stayed with the same innkeepers every time I’ve come to the Cape, and I am not the least bit hesitant to recommend Brewster by the Sea or the Captain Freeman Inn as hands-down the best places to make your home away from home. Not only are the rooms spacious and wonderfully decorated, the common areas and grounds provide lots of options for hanging out, reading, and relaxing. (And swimming if you enjoy that.) Donna and Byron Cain are the warmest innkeepers you’ll ever meet, and their team is top notch.

  
The Freeman Inn… the lovely stained-glass tableau is just outside my room.

Hearty breakfasts… Breakfast at the inn is always yummy and will fill you up until dinnertime. For example, on Wednesday, I tell you I had apple pie for breakfast. Technically, it was apple pancakes, but with thin slices of apples and a crepe-like pancake with lots of cinnamon – it was hard to tell from the best apple pie you ever had! There is always a beautifully presented fruit course to begin as well as fresh juice and tea to round out the meal. Truly, when I stay here, I eat breakfast and dinner, with just a piece of fruit in between.

Many walks on the beach… Cape Cod has beaches to match your every mood.  The Bay side in Brewster features gentle waves and narrow beaches – when the tide is in.  When the tide is out, you can actually walk for miles on the “flats.” On the ocean, you’ll find wide beaches backed by dunes and pounding waves to provide percussion on your walk. Walking the beach – especially at sunset – is a real treat. It’s what I come here for.

   
Sunny and sparkling on Nauset Beach… if you’re reading this, I said a prayer for you this morning – for many of you by name. If the beach really is just this side of heaven, then I hope you’ll have something good happen to you soon!

And… There’s more, of course – you can shop in lots of eclectic stores and art galleries. You can visit the museums. You can go whale-watching or seal-watching (in season). There are many wonderful restaurants, especially if you like fresh seafood. “Getting lost” is always a fun option – you can drive around and admire the scenery and the architecture. You can walk or bike the rail trail.

But all I needed was The Freeman Inn, a pile of books, fabulous fall weather, and great beaches to walk, and I feel like a new woman!

My itinerary for my last full day on the Cape was just those three ingredients… It was breezy and seasonable (mid-60s) with plenty of sunshine. I had a lovely breakfast and headed for Nauset Beach, where I walked for over an hour. Then I was determined to find a waterside hideaway where I could sit in the shade and read – and I quite by accident found a wonderful spot called Pilgrim Lake, near Pleasant Bay. I was able to hang there for several hours in relative solitude. Breeze, sunshine, interesting reading… heaven.

 My new-found reading spot at Pilgrim Lake. 

Late afternoon, I returned to the Inn for a quick rest and long catch-up conversation with my friend, Nick. Then out to dinner in time to get back to the beach for sunset. Since then, I’ve been reading 🙂 and thinking about packing to go home 🙁 .

   
These may be beautiful, but pictures of sunsets are like pictures of fireworks… no matter how stunning, they don’t hold a candle to the real thing. Awe-inspiring. Peaceful. Glorious. My favorite is the last one… click to open to get the full heart-stopping effect.

Thought for the day:

You need to be purposeful about including self-directed, thought-provoking, and capacity-increasing stimuli into your life on a consistent basis.  ~ Todd Henry, The Accidental Creative

Cape Cod is both stimuli and respite for me, and I will be back.