Originally, my plans for the Fourth of July were to go and anchor out in Buzzards Bay, just outside the New Bedford Hurricane Barrier, and watch the fireworks over Fort Phoenix. I changed those plans because there was supposed to be a 70% chance of thunderstorms and the New Bedford Hurricane Barrier was going to be closed due to an unusually high high tide—3.5-4′ over normal. Instead, I played tourist on Cape Cod and took some of my extended family sightseeing.
We started off the day by heading over to my sister’s condo in Harwich. This is a good base of operations for sightseeing on the outer parts of the Cape. After dropping by to see my sister, her husband and my two nephews, we walked along the beach in Harwich. I took a look at the small channel that runs along the condo complex that my sister’s condo is in, and there is space for me to anchor my boat, should I feel like taking a side trip from Buzzards Bay to the eastern half of Cape Cod. The channel is fairly well protected from everything but a southern wind.
We got back to my sister’s condo and checked to see what they were going to be doing. My sister had to work on the Fourth… being in the media can really have lousy hours. My nephews and their father were going to a friend’s condo and then to the beach, and were heading off to see the Harwich Mariners play that evening. The Mariners are a Cape Cod Baseball League team. There’s a really good book about the Cape Cod Baseball League called, “Baseball by the Beach: A History of America’s National Pastime on Cape Cod“, which I would recommend any baseball lover read.
We headed off to get lunch at Brax. They are best known for their lobster roll, which is excellent. They are located right next to Saquatuck Harbor, pictured below. After lunch, I wandered off to look at the boats. While I was there, I helped a small runabout get tied up to the dock to let a passenger off.
Our next stop was the Chatham Lighthouse. I love lighthouses. Chatham light is one of my favorites. However, stopping there was not to be. The traffic and crowds at the Chatham light made any chance of parking impossible. Oh well… on to our next stop.
Most of the outer part of Cape Cod is preserved as a National Park. The Cape Cod National Seashore takes up about 65% of the outer “forearm” of the Cape. This was our next stop, in the form of the Salt Pond Visitor Center.
The Salt Pond Visitor Center has a small auditorium where educational videos are run during the day. The two we watched were on the geologic origins of Cape Cod, which is mainly the leftover remains of glacier tailings from the last ice age and one on Henry David Thoreau and Cape Cod. There is also a small museum there, which touches on the whaling and fishing industries that made up so much of the economy here in the past.
We also walked down to the trail that runs along Salt Pond. Along the trail we saw a lot of the natural side of the cape, including a few small crabs, one of which I picked up and showed to my aunt. The importance of the wetlands as a breeding habitat for fish and other animals can’t be overemphasized. The loss of the wetlands down in Louisiana is part of the reason the Gulf of Mexico fishing industry has declined, and also partly why the recent hurricanes did so much damage, since the wetlands acted as a buffer zone for much of the coastal areas there, including New Orleans.
From there, we went north, along the outer “forearm” of the Cape to the Marconi Station. This is the former location of the Marconi’s original radio station, where the first Transatlantic wireless message was sent in 1903. Unfortunately, none of the buildings or towers from Marconi’s time remain, and even if they did, over half of them would be underwater or destroyed due to beach erosion by now.
The next stop on our trip was the Nauset light in Eastham. As I said, I like lighthouses. The Nauset lighthouse, pictured below, is modest structure that sits atop a seaside bluff. The lighthouse was actually moved 300 feet to the west back in 1996. This was primarily due to the erosion of the beach, and at the time of its move, the lighthouse was only 25′ from the cliff edge. The marker that indicates the original position of the Nauset lighthouse is now only two feet from the cliff edge, thanks to an April 2007 storm.
From there, we went to Nauset beach, which is just a short walk away. Nauset beach is one of the nicest on the Cape. Unlike many beaches, Nauset beach has lifeguards, including the one photographed below, on duty during the summer tourist season.
After leaving Nauset Beach, we headed up the coast to see Provincetown. Provincetown is an unusual place. It has a fairly large artists colony. It is also one of the larger enclaves of gays and lesbians in the state. To say the place is crowded on the Fourth of July is an understatement. What many people don’t know is that Provincetown is actually the first place the Pilgrims landed when coming to America. They continued on to Plymouth, but did stop in Provincetown first, as seen in this photo of my friends Megan and Francis taken a couple years ago.
On our way back to Harwich, we stopped at Sweet Escape in Truro. Sweet Escape has some of the best ice cream and is well worth a stop if you’re in the area.
For dinner, we ate at the condo complex’s beach front restaurant. The restaurant has some excellent food. The pasta with scallops and shrimp in a scampi sauce was quite good. The leg of lamb and prime rib were also delicious. From our seats in the restaurant, we were able to view the fireworks displays from about five or six different locations, including some that were being launched locally.
Even though the weather forecast had predicted rain, I guess the weather goddess still loves me, and we didn’t see any rain the entire day. While the day was a bit overcast, the weakened sun made the temperatures much more bearable than if the day had been sunny.