Whether you’re a born-and-raised Cape Codder, a washashore or a summer visitor, you have felt the hold the Cape & Islands has on one’s heart. Every year, we receive thousands of photo submissions to our Annual Photo Contest encompassing just that. This year, for our July Photo Portfolio, in honor of those who continue to share their love of the Cape & Islands with us, we decided to feature of few of our favorite submissions surrounded by the entrancing words of passionate readers who muse over the place we are lucky enough to call home. We hope these reflections of the Cape & Islands evoke for you, the feeling of a quintessential Cape Cod summer. 

Beach Lovers Salvation 

By Josephine MacDonald 

I stand looking out over the water. The sand is cool and grainy under my feet. I look up, soaking in the warmth of the sun. The beach is stretched out before me like an old familiar friend. A friend that knows you so well; knows your pain, your dreams, your fears, and is there to comfort you. It lets you feed on the salty air and hypnotic rhythm of the waves caressing your feet: saying, “I’m here–let’s recover and restore you.” Looking, I am struck by the vastness of the ocean and I think about how alive the water is, always moving, deep and never-ending, full of life with fish and plants. The way the sunlight dances like sparkles on the peaks and ripples. I walk back to my blanket, thin and worn linen, teal blue and white stripes with a thin yellow streaky stain running down one side, left there from years of being stuffed carelessly amidst the seasonal arsenal located in the crowded...