Cape Cod is stunning, it is the beach holiday park for New Englanders and it is a true get away if you live in one of the busy cities outside the Cape. As Rosie has said, as soon as you set foot on the sandy spit that is Cape Code, time winds back and gets slower. No one is in a hurry here, the sky and sea are blue, the houses are grey a keen breeze ruffles your hair.
The coves and harbours are full of expensive sailing and motorboats, Rosie thinks you can tell a local by the leathery brown tanned wind blasted skin, everyone in this neck of the woods are sailors of some kind. People sit fishing off piers or just pulling up in their trucks and looking out to sea. 
Most of the houses are built inland from the sea or around harbours rather than on the seafront, Chatham was an exception. The white sand was so fine it coats the lovely lawn frontages and starts trailing up the side roads that lead to the water.
The Cape is surrounded by 404 miles of sandy beach, there is not a rocky outcrop in sight. Every town and some has its own light house, there are 12 in total on The Cape with 6 still working, all warning ships of the danger of the sand bars close at hand. We followed the Old Kings Highway on Route 6A, it was the scenic highway and it did not disappoint.
This is the windswept beach directly across from (the above) Chatham lighthouse. Rosie and The Operator were musing about cranberries, yes cranberries….will come to that later, when two guys came up and asked where we were from. The had each married a NZer, sisters in fact, they lived the summer on the Cape and wintered in Florida, really nice chaps who were out for their morning bike ride. They told us about how this was a deep sea channel and asked if we could see the seals bobbing in the water, in the summer when the sea was warm the area was inundated with great white sharks who fed on the seals. We talked about this and that and then said we were off to lunch, they asked where? We said we were heading to The Brewster Fish House……they said good choice, nice to have an endorsement from a local! The chap said we must order Fried Oysters, Fried Scallops and Sweet Potato Fries…..
…..so we did, with the addition of Fresh Clam Chowder…..How could we not have this while in Cape Cod. It was the most delicious richest tasting soup I have ever had, they give you a little packet of oyster flavoured crackers (croutons) to go with it, yummmmmm.
The Brewster Fish House is the best seafood Restaurant on the island, their numerous awards tell us so as well. It was full while we were there and people were waiting at the bar for a table. Rosie was ear wigging at a table next door that said ‘in season’ you line up in the carpark and wait over an hour for a table sometimes……nah, Rosie and The Operator can never be bothered waiting that long for there chow. 
Back to the cranberries….these are cranberries, they grow on bushes and are one of the three indigenous fruits to the US, (FYI Blueberries and Concord Grapes) Massachusetts produces 80% of the worlds cranberry juice.
They grow on scrubby low bushes in bogs. When the Cranberries are ripe they flood the bogs, a floating harvester type agitator wriggles the bushes and the berries float to the top, booms then push all the berries to the edge of the bog and the berries are sucked up. You have seen the advert for the cranberries on TV and seen the big red pond full of them – TRUE! It was harvesting time in about 3 weeks, these dudes are weeding the bog. Rosie picked a cranberry and ate it….it was bitter and so not juicy, 20 min later it gave Rosie the squints…..or maybe it was the rich clam chowder….Rosie is blaming the cranberry.
The Mayflower landed with 102 English Pilgrims who were sick and starving from the sea voyage and were saved by gifts of food from the local Indian tribe…..the grateful pilgrims then staged a harvest festival for the natives which today is celebrated annually as Thanksgiving. They then proceeded to buy the land in exchange for blankets and muskets…..sound familiar……
This is the prestigious house where Plymouth Rock is situated. The rock has been moved over time and is not in the original location, the stone is said to be the first one that the Pilgrims stood on to disembark the rowboats that took them ashore from the Mayflower. Sounds exciting!
Its a Rock Star! This plastered together rock is apparently about a quarter of the size it originally was. The rock that America was built on…is a tad disappointing….its about the same size as a 44 gallon drum…..
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