Cape Cod holds a special place in my heart. I grew up vacationing there, and have many happy memories of building sandcastles with my sister, hunting for sea creatures in tidepools, and souvenir shopping and eating ice cream in many of the quaint Cape towns. As luck would have it, my husband also spent many of his childhood summers on the Cape. When we started a family of our own, we knew right away that we would continue the tradition!
Dreaming of the dunes, the sun, and uninterrupted family time gets us through the coldest New England winters. Once the snow clears out and the trees sprout leaves, we begin our countdown to our annual Cape Cod vacation! As much as we love exploring new places, there’s nothing like the comfort of returning year after year to this beautiful, fun, relaxing spot. This year, we documented our trip for CAPE COD LIFE magazine, and had the opportunity to stay in the adorable, comfortable and convenient CHATHAM SEASIDE COTTAGES, just steps from beautiful Ridgevale Beach.
We spent much of our time enjoying all that Ridgevale has to offer – great tidepooling, swimming in calm waters at high tide, flying our kite in the gentle breeze, and feeding the sea gulls.
One day, we ventured further up the coast to First Encounter Beach in Eastham, where there’s (almost) always an ice cream truck, and the tidal flats stretch for miles at low tide. Our kids filled their buckets with hermit crabs, fish and other creatures for hours until the tide came in, when we headed to Marconi Beach in Wellfleet to do some boogie boarding! Of course, we had to stop at SEABERRY SURF for some souvenirs on the way!
We did have some clouds during our trip, but that didn’t keep us from exploring between rain storms! There is a lot of great hiking on the Cape, and we walked both the MONOMOY NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE in Chatham and the ATLANTIC WHITE CEDAR SWAMP TRAIL in Wellfleet. Even after all of these years coming to the Cape, we are still discovering new hidden gems! The Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge was a hit with our kids. We visited the visitor center first, where the kids each borrowed a backpack filled with the essentials for a fun afternoon – binoculars, magnifying glass, and a net! I’d highly recommend checking it out if you are in the area, but be aware that it is easiest to explore the area during low tide. The Cedar Swamp Trail featured a long boardwalk meandering throughout the tall trees. Not only was it a unique landscape, but it also provided some much appreciated shade when the sun peeked through! We were glad to have our bug spray for both walks, though – the mosquitos are also fans of these woods!
We did have one rainy day that limited us to mostly indoor activities, but we all enjoyed some morning snuggles in the cottage, watching seals at the CHATHAM FISH PIER when the rain cleared, bowling at the LANES BOWL AND BISTRO and ice cream at the POLAR CAVE.
Back at the cottage, we enjoyed more lazy beach days with a good amount of kayaking sprinkled in. The cottages came with access to 5 kayaks, so everyone in the family could paddle their own!
On our last full day, we headed back to First Encounter to take in a spectacular sunset. Although sunsets are beautiful throughout the Cape, First Encounter is sentimental to us because it’s where Simon popped the question 14 years ago! First Encounter is a popular spot, so there’s always something new and interesting happening there. This year, a vintage fire truck showed up and the owner gave people rides around the parking lot!
It wouldn’t be Cape Cod without copious quantities of seafood – fried, baked, or on the half shell! Not all of our kids are huge fans of fish, so there were a few burgers thrown in too. It’s tradition to start our trip with breakfast at the WEE PACKET in Dennis Port, where I just can’t resist the lobster eggs benedict. Sooooooo good! ARNOLDS is another old standby that we visit at least once every trip. The line often stretches around the back of this upscale clam shack, but one bite of the fried lobster or scallops makes the wait all worthwhile. They also have a beautifully landscaped mini golf course on-site if you want a little family fun before your meal! This year, we also tried the CHATHAM SQUIRE restaurant for the first time, and while the grownups enjoyed some crispy calamari, the kids inhaled the generously sized burgers. Last, but not least, we visited SPANKY’S in Hyannis for one last seafood meal on our way back home. It was right on the water, the chowder was fresh and delicious, and the oysters were out of this world. It was a great way to end our trip!
On days that I didn’t want to lug my big camera around, we all enjoyed using the GOPRO6. It takes up virtually no space in my beach bag, and allows us to capture images in situations to which I’d never expose my professional equipment. Here are a few fun snaps I captured along the way.
Just for fun, we decided to recreate an old photo during our trip this year – the top shows me teaching my sister about horseshoe crabs in 1987, and the bottom is me with my daughter Julia!
Of course, all vacations must come to an end. After we packed up our car and prepared to head back to reality, I snapped some photos of the COTTAGE so you could see just how nice it was without all of our mess around 🙂 Not only was the location ideal, but the hospitality and generosity of the owners truly made us feel like this was a home-away-from-home. They were helpful without being intrusive, and were willing to share everything from where to get the best fried clams to how to navigate the marsh with our kayaks. By the end of the week, we were sad to say goodbye to both the cottage and our hosts! We can’t wait to start planning a return trip soon….
To see more posts about vacationing on Cape Cod, CLICK HERE and HERE and HERE.
Sarah Jordan is a lifestyle photographer based out of Boston, MA but often travels to Cape Cod, New York and Los Angeles for sessions. CLICK HERE to get more info if you are looking for a Cape Cod Family Photographer!