The Season is Upon Us!

Spring is a wonderful time to treat ourselves to places and spaces that speak to us about this area we love so much.

Let’s start at the Cape Cod Canal, where the bridges provide a lifeline for so many to connect with Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. If we time it right, we can visit the canal for the lowering and the raising of the Railroad Bridge—it’s memorable! I never tire of observing the barge, tug and freighter traffic below the bridge.

Along those same lines, I find the Steamship Authority ferries great fun to watch. Leaving the docks in Woods Hole and Hyannis, they sound their horn and very carefully cross the harbor. Plus, the harbors alone are busy with marine traffic, from pleasure craft to large fishing vessels. I enjoy seeing a boat well handled, large or small.

Who doesn’t have their favorite harbor to visit, from Falmouth to Chatham to Provincetown? All the bays and inlets in between connect us to Buzzards Bay, Vineyard and Nantucket Sounds, and the open Atlantic. And we find our favorite beaches there. The south side beaches from Woods Hole to Chatham offer the warmest water for swimmers. Have I ever mentioned Craigville Beach? But there is no beach walk in the world more beautiful than that below the sand dune cliffs of our Nauset coast. From Provincetown to Sandwich the beaches on Cape Cod Bay invite the nature lover within us. The low tide flats of Brewster, Orleans and Eastham are famous worldwide. Gazing west across the bay from the Outer Cape, we see the entire shape of the Cape in the distant shorelines disappearing beneath the golden setting sun.

Lighthouses open for public viewing, historical societies and museums help us find the old world and our proud heritage. Our charming villages and main streets provide endless opportunities for shopping and dining pleasures.

If you yearn for greater exploration, a short ferry ride across the sound carries us to the enchanting worlds of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. Here we find the same array of natural beauty and manmade fun and fascination. From Menemsha to Edgartown on the Vineyard, and from Madaket to Siasconset on Nantucket, there are always treasures to discover.

Enjoy the season.

My best,

Brian Shortsleeve