Cape Cod, Massachusetts

We took a red eye flight out of Phoenix on Oct. 21st and arrived into Boston about 6 am on Sunday Oct. 22.   We thought it would give us all day to see things on our way to the Timeshare Condo in West Yarmouth.  We saw some of the sights in Plymouth and beaches on our way down to the timeshare, but quickly ran out of steam as we had not slept well on the plane, so we went to the condo and just waited until we could check in, which was not till 4:00 pm.

Plymouth:  In Plymouth we went down to the waterfront where the Plymouth Rock is secured, which is the same general area where the Mayflower II is usually anchored.  The ship was in Connecticut being maintained so we did not see it.  Since the rock has been moved multiple times, it's size has definitely gotten smaller over the years.

We also visited the National Monument to the Forefathers.  This monument is 81 feet tall and it is thought to be the largest granite monument in the US.

Cape Cod National Seashore and Provincetown:  In Provincetown we visited the Pilgrim memorial Monument and Museum.  The monument was built from 1907 - 1910 to commemorate the first landing of the Mayflower Pilgrims in Provincetown.  The tower is 252 feet tall and rises 350 feet above sea level.  It has 116 steps and 60 ramps, and is the tallest granite structure in the US.  The walk up was easier than other monuments we have done and once on top, the view of the harbor,   bays and landscape around Provincetown were beautiful.  

While walking around the town and harbor, we decided to do our first lobster dinner while on the Cape.  The dinner was wonderful.  

On Tuesday and Wednesday, they were forecasting lots of rain (we got in excess of 4" on Wednesday) and high winds, with gusts up to 60 mph.  We thought we would go looking for the Fall Colors on the Cape before the wind blew off the leaves.  The Cape is not known for the colors like some of the other New England states, but we did find this small pond with the swans.

On Thursday, we drove to Newport, Rhode Island to visit the Newport Mansions. They give you an audio device as you enter each mansion and it does a great job in educating you on the house, people and many of the artwork and antique pieces within the home.

The Breakers - 1895
The Breakers (70 room summer estate) was built by the fortunes from the New York Central Railroad by Cornelius Vanderbilt II.

Marble House - 1892
The marble house contains 500,00 cubic feet of marble and was built for Alva Vanderbilt and Richard Morris Hunt.

Rosecliff - 1902
The Rosecliff was built by Theresa Fair Oeirichs, a silver heiress from Nevada.  She was the wife of Herman Oeirichs.  In 1941 the estate was bought by Mr and Mrs J Edgar Monroe of New Orleans who had made his fortune in the ship building industry.

Pierre Cardin's exhibition that featured 42 original
designs from his private archives.  

The Elms - 1901
This was the summer retreat of coal magnate Edward Berwind and his wife Herminie and was very technologically advanced for the time period.

Green Animals Topiary Garden - this is one of the oldest topiary gardens in North America, with more than 80 pieces of topiary throughout the gardens.   The 7 acre estate was purchased in 1877 by the Brayton family.  It was closing for the season about two days after our visit, but the grounds looked very good considering it was the end of October.

Copper Beech Tree - Approx 160 years old

Martha's Vineyard:  We took the high speed ferry,  HyLine cruises, leaving from Hyannis. We arrived into Oak Bluffs and took a tour of the island with a 12 passenger van, leaving from the Dockside Inn. On the tour, we visited multiple lighthouses, all six cities on the island, and various highlights on the island.  After the tour we enjoyed our first lobster rolls at Lookout Tavern.

Telegraph Hill

Rock walls in Chillmark

Gay Head Lighthouse

Gay Head Cliffs

Gingerbread Cottage Row

Flying Horses closed for the season, oldest carosel in America 

HyLine cruise passenger ferry

After we got back to Hyannis, we drove down to the harbor and went to the JFK memorial and then watched the sunset over the harbor.

Our last day we went to Sandwich, MA the oldest city on the Cape.  Sandwich is most known for their glass.  In 1825, Deming Jarves created a new factory in Sandwich called Sandwich Glass Manufactory, Inc. which later became the Boston & Sandwich Glass Company.  It was in operation for 62 years and created blown and pressed glassware.  Glass that was created in the old factory is now on display at the Sandwich Glass Museum.  

Exhibit by Sidney Hutter - laminated glass

Sandwich Boardwalk out to the bay

Driving around the Cape was quite interesting as during certain times of the day they open up the right shoulder of the road called the Breakdown Lane and truly it was just the shoulder of the road with all the debris and pot holes, but it apparently helps traffic flow.  We also drove through some neighborhoods  that had signs of "Thickly Settled" rather than Congestion road signs.

This picture was taken from the back of our condo unit, great picture for the end of our trip.

                                      

We left for Boston on Sunday, Oct. 29 and since there was a big storm coming in with again flooding rain and high winds, we decided to turn the rental car in and just spent the evening in the hotel.  We flew out Monday morning and luckily after the storm, all flights were on time and went smoothly.