Massachusetts – TRAVEL WORDS

Postcards from Around the World

Leaf Peeping in New England (8)

[Leaf peeping is an informal term in the United States and Canada for the activity in which people travel to view and photograph the fall foliage in areas where leaves change colours in autumn, particularly in northern New England]

When I was teaching it meant holidays could only be taken during the school holidays when it was more expensive and busy. And I couldn’t tag on to the OH’s conferences either. Which is why during one October half term we decided to do a fly drive holiday to the eastern side of the USA and do a spot of leaf peeping.

Provincetown

is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts. When we arrived there the weather had improved and we stopped to take a walk around what is quite a quirky little town, with a lovely harbour. Often called “P-town” or “Ptown”, the locale is known as a vacation destination for its beaches, harbour, artists and tourist industry.

Interestingly there was a strong Portuguese heritage (mainly immigrants from the Azores) whose families fished the waters off Cape Cod for over 200 years, built a major fish packing and distribution industry and made an important contribution to the history and culture of Provincetown. There was an art installation on one of the wharfs when we were there, but I imagine that has long gone due to the weather.

Unfortunately we didn’t visit the Pilgrim Monument and Museum which allows you to walk up the tower for spectacular views. I guess we were just all walked out by then.

We ate fish and chips in a café on Fisherman’s Wharf before setting off back along Route 6¹ to our hotel in Sandwich. It was getting dark as we approached the more urban areas and I couldn’t understand why oncoming cars kept flashing their lights at me, until I finally realised that my car was on full beam! The joys of a hire car.

¹U.S. Route 6 (US 6), also called the Grand Army of the Republic Highway, a name that honours an American Civil War veterans association, runs east-northeast from Bishop, California to PROVINCETOWN, Massachusetts. From 1936 to 1964, it had its western terminus at Long Beach, California. During this time, US 6 was the longest highway in the country!

This is the last of the leaf peeping trip. I hope you enjoyed the scenery as much as I did.

Postcards from Around the World

Leaf Peeping in New England (7)

We only had a couple of nights on Cape Cod as I had decided I would rather be closer to the airport on the Friday night for our Saturday flight back to the UK. There were so many building and roadworks around the airport I wasn’t taking any chances.

Cape Cod has always fascinated me. I don’t know whether it is the name or the shape of it looking like a scorpion tail, or the quaint villages, seafood shacks, lighthouses, ponds and miles of soft golden sandy ocean beaches and bays. Offshore islands like Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard just sound so romantic. And of course all those English place names!

Coast Guard Beach in Eastham. A classic Cape Cod beach with plenty of sand, dunes and gorgeous views of the sea.

So on the first day we simply headed all the way up the State Highway (6) to Provincetown. Stopping off at various landmarks and beaches along the Cape Cod National Seashore. Seeing a lot of the natural beauty of the region disappearing led President Kennedy to sign a bill in August of 1961 protecting forty-three thousand acres of space from Chatham to Provincetown and preserving it as a National Park.

First stop was the boardwalk at Sandwich which leads out to Cape Cod Bay.

Then it was in the car to explore. Coast Guard beach was our first stop and is actually the site of the first landing of the Mayflower! They didn’t hang out here long before realising they were somewhat north of Virginia, so seeking a safe settlement site near the Hudson River they headed back out to sea to set a course southeast. Once the ship became enmeshed in the shoals off the coast of the cape, though, they turned back north and found safe harbour at what is now known as Provincetown where they remained for a month before setting sail for the mainland where they established the Plymouth colony.

Old harbour life saving station and museum

On the second day we spent it mostly along the Massachusetts Route (28) again stopping off at various points before heading back up to Boston in the late afternoon.

Waquoit Bay is a public national estuary, which is typically used as a research reserve. It is a part of Nantucket Sound and is located on the southern shore of Cape Cod , in the towns of Falmouth and Mashpee.

***South Cape Beach State Park, Great Oak Rd., Mashpee.*** This 460-acre park has a beautiful barrier beach sheltering Waquoit Bay to go along with a pair of ponds, Sage Lot and Flat Pond along with many walking trails. The premier trail is the Dead Neck Trail which parallels the barrier beach and runs roughly a mile out to the shores of Waquoit Bay.

The weather wasn’t great on our first day though it improved towards the late afternoon and I think perhaps September would be a better month to visit this region when it’s not so busy with summer holidaymakers, but whilst the weather is still warm.

My final post of Cape Cod will be a look at Provincetown itself.

Postcards from Around the World

Leaf Peeping in New England (6)

The last part of this autumn trip was to spend a few days on Cape Cod, south of Boston which meant about a 5 hour journey without stops, so pretty much the full day. We set off after breakfast and because I am never fond of doing the same route twice I decided to head down and around Lake Winnipesaukee which is the largest lake in New Hampshire, located in the Lakes Region at the foothills of the White Mountains. It is in a pretty stunning location and I would not say no to a holiday in one of the lakeside resorts there. Unfortunately the weather was much the same as yesterday with dark clouds and rain.

After briefly stopping to look at the lake views we continued south and joined the I93 at Tilton. As I mentioned earlier, Cape Cod is to the south of Boston, which means of course having to traverse the city. And that meant entering the tunnels. Where you have to keep your wits about you so that you don’t miss the turn off. Traffic speeds through these tunnels (though it is supposed to be restricted to 45mph) and having seen one car bounce off the central reservation just before entering them I was already a little nervous! Afterwards I’m not sure why I didn’t take alternative routes around the city!

Leaving the interstate at Quincy we joined the Pilgrims Highway (3) which later becomes the Grand Army of the Republic Highway (6) leading to Sandwich where we had booked the The Dan’l Webster Inn & Spa for the next three nights. Sound familiar? Yes. It was the same Daniel Webster that the highway was named after which we took en route to Mount Washington.

Incorporated in 1639, Sandwich is the oldest town on Cape Cod and one of the oldest towns in the United States, settled by European immigrants nearly 150 years before the American Revolution. Another historic hotel this one dates from the 18th century, previously known as the Fessenden Tavern. Daniel Webster was a highly successful Boston lawyer who had a room booked at this Tavern from 1815 to 1851.

Duck Pond

Dexter Gristmill

To stretch our legs after the long drive we had a wander around the town admiring the architecture but as the light began to fade on a very dull day we headed back to the hotel for dinner and a well earned Margarita cocktail in the bar where I got into a lively conversation about a Red Sox game that was on the TV. The OH ushered me out before there was any blood shed.

A sign I still regret not having bought!

Postcards from Around the World

Leaf Peeping in New England

We began our trip in Boston where we stayed in a city hotel for a couple of nights before returning to the airport to pick up the hire car.

We arrived late on the Friday – just before midnight and were shown to a very second rate room as although we had specified a late arrival it seemed our actual room had been given to someone else. We were moved to a much better room in the morning and after breakfast we headed out to explore the city, beginning with the famous Public Garden where we had hoped to see the Swan Boats, but they were closed for the season, and we completely missed the ‘Make Way for Ducklings’ sculptures. I remember reading the book of the same name by Robert McCloskey to my daughter when she was a child.

The Parkman Bandstand. Named for George F. Parkman, the bandstand was constructed following his death in 1908, in honour of a $5 million donation he had willed for the care of the Boston Common and other city parks.

From there we wandered around the Beacon Hill area, one of Boston’s oldest neighbourhoods and full of charming, narrow cobblestone streets, federal style row houses and gaslit streetlamps.

And as our visit was shortly before Halloween it was decorated with pumpkins and skeletons and all things ghostly!

It takes time to walk a block in Boston, there is so much architectural detail to see. There are a lot of tree-lined streets and parks. And cars.

After dinner we set off to find the Old State House and wander down to the harbour where we followed the harbour walk as far as the Boston Tea Party museum, which was closed, before heading back to the hotel.

Tall Ship

Wharfs along Fort Point Channel

The ‘Tender’s House’ demolished in 2008

Northern Avenue bridge, closed 2014

The Custom House Tower is a skyscraper in McKinley Square

Massachusetts State House

Old State House nestled among the towering skyscrapers of Downtown Boston

Old South Church an ornate, 1875 church housing a congregation founded in 1669

Old South Church

Along the Harbour walk

Boston Tea Party

Northern Avenue bridge, closed 2014

A lot of this will have changed by now (this visit was in 2007) I know that the Northern Avenue bridge was in danger of being demolished along with the rundown Tender’s House next to it. The bridge is unique in that it is a rotating swing bridge built in 1908.

(It was closed in December 2014. Apparently there were plans to reconstruct it as a pedestrian/cycle only bridge, but because of Covid the project came to a halt in 2020. The Tender’s House was partially demolished in 2008. The boarded up and rambling structure served for nearly a century as a home for the keepers of the rotating swing bridge – who had to be available, night and day, to let ships through. As one local said “This is demolition by neglect” )

Boston is an interesting city, though I would not like to drive in the city centre, even driving through the tunnels (a later post) was enough to give me nightmares.