Cape Cod

Why Cape Cod:

I was traveling to Massachusetts for the wedding of my former coworker. The wedding was in Plymouth but accommodations there were very expensive. I discovered that there is a hostel in Hyannis, just 30 minutes to the south on Cape Cod, the flexing arm-shaped peninsula in the southeast corner of Massachusetts. Moreover, I discovered a cheap flight to Hyannis’s own tiny airport and a good rental car deal. As weird as it sounds, Cape Cod was actually a cost saver for me. 

I have been to Cape Cod once before for a family reunion in Falmouth. However, we did not spend much time sightseeing (since it was a family reunion). I was excited to see The Cape on my own terms. 

July 24, 2024: Hyannis

I flew direct to Hyannis from Washington DC. The flight took 90 minutes but was very eventful. During the drink service, we were hit by a major turbulence which caused drinks to fly around the cabin and for the flight attendants to fall to the ground. This scared the flight attendants so much that they stopped the drink service early. 

Then, thick fog prevented us from landing, so we had to do a go-around. We were able to finally land on the second attempt. The flight attendant said it was her roughest flight in 9 years with the airline.

On the ground, I got some ice cream and walked the 30 minutes into the town center of Hyannis. 

Hyannis is the largest commercial area in Cape Cod. It is also the main transit hub: in addition to the airport, Hyannis is the main port to catch the ferry to Nantucket. 

The center of Hyannis is Main Street, a surprisingly long strip of restaurants and shops. 

The main tourist attraction here is the JFK Museum. Hyannis is the historic home of the Kennedy family. Joseph Kennedy purchased a cottage in Hyannis in 1928. Eventually the family purchased two more adjacent houses. The family considered this compound home.

As a member of the Kennedy family, John F. Kennedy spent summers growing up in Hyannis. When he won the Presidency, the compound became known as the Summer White House. President John Kennedy would fly on his helicopter here from DC nearly every weekend to spend time with his family before returning on Sunday evening.

The museum, while not chronological, nicely explained the significance of the compound and had some great photos and artifacts. The most interesting exhibit was a full Kennedy family tree. Having heard so many of these names of the years, it was nice to be able to piece it all together. 

The JFK Museum also had a brochure for a self-guided Kennedy walking tour. I visited the now abandoned armory where JFK gave his victory speech after the 1960 election.  

Down the street, I visited the Catholic church where the Kennedy family attended Mass every Sunday. 

The Kennedy walking trail then passed by my hostel, located right near the ferry terminal. 

Further south, I walked through a residential area to reach a memorial to JFK. 

I then continued walking to reach Kalmus Beach with a view of the Kennedy Compound. While Kalmus was public, there was a sign noting that only homeowners were allowed to proceed along the beach to the west, as it was a private beach. Private beaches do not exist on the West Coast, so this led me down a rabbit hole of research. Apparently, Massachusetts’ beach laws date back to the Puritan times when in 1647, the Colonial authorities extended property rights from the high tide mark to the low tide mark. That standard has remained except people are allowed to enter the intertidal zone when fishing or birding.

Moreover, many beaches are owned by municipalities and restrict access to property owners in the town. Finally, many beaches are technically public but ban parking for non-residents making it a de-facto private beach. The result of all these restrictions is that only 12% of the coastline in Massachusetts is open to the general public, by far the lowest of any state in the country. While Massachusetts is considered a progressive state, this is one of a few instances where its intolerant Puritan past rears its head (another example is alcohol). 

For dinner, I ate clam chowder at a restaurant next to my hostel called the Black Cat. It was very lively! I noticed that 100% of the people (patrons and staff) in the restaurant were White. Cape Cod is 95% White. Additionally, I noticed that most of the staff in all the establishments were teenagers or college aged. I am guessing this reflects the seasonal nature of the hospitality industry here. 

Finally, I strolled down Main Street which was bumping! The restaurants and bars were packed and there was a free patriotic concert from the local town orchestra.

July 25, 2024: Wellfleet and the Outer Cape

I woke up in the empty Hyannis hostel and walked over to the airport to pick up my rental car for the next few days. 

I then headed east towards the Outer Cape, the part of the end of Cape Cod that sticks north. The Outer Cape contains four towns: Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro and finally Provincetown.

I met up with my friend Erik who lives in Wellfleet. Erik was the leader of a teen tour I took after college to Cambodia and Vietnam. Now, he runs his own tour company, Off Cape Experiences. He also works on fishing boats and makes knives. Erik has lived on Cape Cod for 11 years and knows the area better than anybody. 

Most of the Outer Cape is part of Cape Cod National Seashore and is undeveloped and open to the public. Our first stop was the Marconi Station from where the first transatlantic telegraph was sent. 

Next, we headed into the town center of Wellfleet. Compared to Hyannis, Wellfleet was much smaller and more artsy. Erik mentioned that many of the businesses here are run by families who came on the Mayflower in 1620. 

Erik also explained how there is a major distinction between people born on Cape Cod (natives) and those who moved here later in life (wash-ashores). Natives are very proud of their heritage, tend to socialize amongst themselves in specific establishments, and often adorn the back of their cars with balls of rope. Erik, who has lived year-round on Cape Cod for 11 years is a wash-ashore. I find it interesting how each community has its own threshold for what constitutes an insider.  In Alaska, you need to survive one winter while in St. Louis you have to attend high school there.

We then drove down to the harbor. Fishing is Wellfleet’s main industry. The most harvested animals are clams. Cod and haddock are also common. Erik sometimes works on a clam boat. The crew typically consists of a captain and three crew. Clams are harvested through long nets that scrape the seafloor. As a crew member on the boat, Erik’s job is the pull the net on to the boat and the get the clams into buckets using a motion similar to a football hike. At the end of the day, the crew will move the buckets onto dry land where they will be sold to wholesalers or restaurants.

Everybody gets paid based on the amount of clams harvested, so the crews are incentivized to stay out as long as it takes to reach the quota. Erik says a typical day on the boat could be anywhere from 10-18 hours. The work is long and tiring, but it pays well.

While technically not fished, Wellfleet is world famous for its oysters, which grow in the massive intertidal zone formed by North America’s second largest tides. 

After checking out the boats, we got lunch at a local restaurant where I got to try the oysters!

Next, we drove north towards Truro to go for a secret hike to a spot Erik called the End of the World. I was surprised by how far down the beach was. 

Erik then dropped me off at Salt Pond the location of the National Park Service’s visitor center. The park had a 1.5-mile hike through the estuary. 

It was now time to head towards Plymouth for the start of the wedding festivities. On the way, I stopped in Yarmouth to try the clam chowder at Captain Parker’s, supposedly one of the best in the entire US. Yarmouth weirdly had a bunch of mini golf courses which seemed off brand for high-end Cape Cod. 

Final Thoughts:

Cape Cod has a lot to see. Each town has a different energy. JFK/transit-oriented Hyannis felt worlds apart from the woodsy and artsy Wellfleet which felt worlds apart from mini-golf laden Yarmouth. Because each town is so different, you can visit many times and have different experiences. 

Cape Cod really comes alive in the summer, as most of the businesses are seasonal. I would not recommend visiting in the off-season. Going midweek was a best of both worlds situation because everything was open, but I did not have to deal with the legendary traffic. 

Cape Cod also is likely the most provincial place I have ever been, which I find ironic given the importance of tourism on the economy. The threshold for being a local is higher than anywhere I have seen and many of the beaches are only open to local property owners. Locals seem to stay within their own town; most people I met had very little knowledge of the other towns on Cape Cod. 

One easy way to visit Cape Cod is flying into the airport at Hyannis which connects to New York and Washington DC. This allows you to avoid Boston, Logan Airport and the traffic driving to/from the Cape.  

If I had to pick anywhere to stay on Cape Cod for a first timer, it would probably be Hyannis due to the transportation options for getting around the Cape and to the islands, but you really can’t go wrong.