Cape Cod, Massachusetts – July 2021 – Sam and Katelyn's Travels

July 10, 2021- July 18, 2021

Where We Stayed: Airbnb in Hyannis, MA

Trip Highlights:

Nantucket
Boston History and Cannoli
So. Much. Lobster.

Favorite Restaurants:

Our vacation in Cape Cod began with a full day’s drive from Philadelphia to our Airbnb in Hyannis. We had thought this would take about six hours, but once we hit the road and got stuck in traffic in both New York City and Connecticut, it ended up taking us closer to eight hours. But at the end of the day we arrived in Hyannis and rested up to begin our first full day on the Cape in Nantucket.

Nantucket

The following morning we woke up bright and early to catch the first ferry of the day over to Nantucket. Nantucket is an island off the coast of Cape Cod known for its whaling history and shingle-style buildings. To prep for this trip, we had previously watched the Gilmore Girls scene where Emily Gilmore volunteers at the Nantucket Whaling Museum and enthralls children with her inappropriate whaling stories. Because we’d recently watched this (and because the museum was highly rated) we decided to start our day at this museum to check it out.

Once we got the museum we realized it wasn’t just a museum about whaling, but was instead also a historical museum about Nantucket itself. Obviously whaling isn’t practiced in Nantucket anymore, so the museum also told modern-day stories of the conservation efforts that take place today to save the whales in their waters. We spent nearly the entire morning at this museum, and we could have spent more time if we hadn’t gotten hungry for lunch!

After lunch at The Tavern in Nantucket, we spent a bit of time wandering throughout the streets of Oak Bluffs. Eventually, we split up and some of the group took a rest in a shaded area while Shannon and I went shopping at a few of the local stores. We met up to take a bus up to Sconset, an area on the eastern shore of Nantucket. After wandering around the area for a while, we took a bus back to Oak Bluffs, enjoyed another meal at The Tavern, and boarded the last ferry of the day back to Hyannis. Nantucket was one of our favorite day trips during the week, and we’re very excited to get back and explore even more in the future.

Boston

On our second full day, the group split up to enjoy two different nearby cities. Todd, Monica, and Shannon travelled to Newport, Rhode Island while Sam and I drove up to spend the day in Boston. Sam and I spent our morning on a walking tour from Free Tours By Foot, our favorite company for walking tours. This tour was focused on the first part of the freedom trail, a red brick trail that wanders through Boston passing by most of the major historical sites in the city. Our guide led us to the famous sites, explaining their historical significance and telling stories of Boston past and present. He was a super eccentric guide, which just made the tour all the more fun. We had a blast, and it was a great way to see many of the major sites in rapid succession.

The tour ended near Quincy Market, so we decided to make it easy and stop for lunch at the market. While this was the easy choice, it probably wasn’t the wisest. The market was packed, and while there were many options to choose from, neither of our respective meals were all that great. It was a convenient lunch stop, but I don’t think we would go there again on a future trip.

After lunch we walked across the river to The North End, which is Boston’s own “Little Italy.” Our mission was to taste the quintessential Boston treat: Cannoli. There are two rival bakeries known for their cannoli in Boston, and we chose to try Modern Pastry, primarily because in addition to their standard cannoli, they also offered a gluten free option I could try. These cannoli were AMAZING. Granted, I had never had cannoli before, so I’m not sure how they rank with others, but these were the perfect balance of sweet and cheesy with a slight crunch. Just a heads up if you’re looking to pick some up for yourself the next time you’re in Boston – the bakery is cash only. The line was nearly out the door, so we weren’t aware at first that this was the case, and we had to scramble a bit to make sure we had cash on hand!

We spent the rest of our time in Boston wandering around a bit before driving back to the Cape. We only got a small taste of Boston on this trip, but I really enjoyed it.

Provincetown

After spending a few hours relaxing at home the following morning, we decided to trek all the way to the tip of the Cape to Provincetown, Massachusetts. Provincetown is an adorable little town, known as an LGBT haven and full of cute shops and restaurants to explore. We had lunch here at Tin Pan Alley, which had great views of the ocean and some of the best food we ate on the entire trip. After lunch, we explored some of the shops and picked up gelato and sorbet at a tiny shop named I Dream of Gelato. We agreed that this was easily the best gelato/sorbet we had tasted, not only on this trip, but EVER. Of the three sorbet flavors I tried, my favorite was strawberry champagne, which was unlike sorbet I had ever tasted before.

Martha’s Vineyard

Our next day trip was out to the island of Martha’s Vineyard. Like Nantucket, we boarded a ferry from Hyannis to get to Martha’s Vineyard early one morning. On this day, we once again split up, with Monica taking the morning to explore the gingerbread houses, and Sam, Katelyn, Shannon, and Todd taking a van tour with a local tour company. While the van tour stopped at a few neat spots on the island, including Menemsha and the Aquinnah Cliffs, we overall wouldn’t repeat the tour, as the van was packed to the brim and most of the morning was spent squished into the van listening to a lackluster tour guide.

After our tour we met up for a quick lunch at the Lookout Tavern, another great find for food, enjoyed a bit of ice cream and sorbet for dessert at Ben and Bill’s, and eventually boarded another ferry back to Hyannis for the evening.

Spanky’s and Nauset Beach

Most of the rest of our days were spent relaxing at our Airbnb, taking short trips to local areas and restaurants. One evening, we had dinner at a local seafood restaurant, Spanky’s, where Shannon, Monica and I all enjoyed delicious lobster dinners. This was my first time eating a whole lobster, and while it was messy and a bit of a challenge, the taste was incredible. Despite the work I’d do it again.

After dinner we drove up to Nauset beach to enjoy the sunset on the beach. We took quite a fun photos from this beach adventure, though I particularly enjoyed this series of photos where Sam, Shannon and I get a little surprised by this incoming wave.

We hadn’t realized that we had access to beach chairs at our Airbnb until after this night, so we instead grabbed a few deck chairs from the house. This led to us eventually moving one of these chairs directly into the tide and watching as whoever was sitting in the chair was eventually blasted in the face when a large wave came in. We also had a quick chat with a local who told us that they don’t swim at this beach anymore because too many great white sharks have been spotted just off the shore. We didn’t do too much swimming after hearing that either, but we enjoyed walking in the shallow water instead.

Relaxing at Home and a Seafood Dinner

After another day of playing cards and relaxing at home, Shannon, Sam and I decided to try one last restaurant before heading home: Tugboats. Here was the first time I ever tried raw oysters on the half shell, and while I was a little apprehensive at first (as you can probably see in the photos below) I was surprised at how good they ended up tasting! We had some of the best seafood at this place, including swordfish and a delicious seafood pasta!

Overall this trip was a nice introduction to Cape Cod. Even before we left, we had decided that we would be back in future years, and are hoping to make this a place we visit every summer from now on!