Taking in a show or two at the Cape Cod Playhouse has become an annual tradition for us as it has for many Cape Cod locals and visitors since its inception more than 80 years ago. This year, our very dear friends gave us a gift certificate to the Playhouse for Christmas. Dreaming about a sultry summer night out got me through more than one dark and chilly night this winter. So it was with great anticipation that I read the lineup for the 2011 season recently. Always attracting a roster of fine actors, the Cape Cod Playhouse strives for a balance of comedy, mystery, musical, and perhaps a little mayhem too. This year they present:

An Evening with Lucille Ball, “Thank you for Asking” (June 13-25)

Directed by Lucy’s real-life daughter Lucie Arnaz, the show provides a peek behind the curtain of one of Hollywood’s most beloved actresses.

No Way To Treat a Lady (June 27-July 9)

Billed as “an uproarious, and sexy musical that gives new meaning to the phrase “knock ‘em dead’” this comic thriller is a blend of humor, romance, murder and music.

The Graduate (July 11-July 23)

One of the most popular movies of all time, this 60s hit comedy is brought to life onstage. The story revolves around a coming of age college graduate and the mother and daughter next door. You know the plot line, even if you’ve never seen the movie.

Footloose, the Musical (July 25-August 6)

What happens when a small town is turned upside down by a kid from the big city who moves into town and falls in love with the preacher’s daughter? Nominated for Best Musical Score.

Crazy for You. All Gershwin (August 8-August 20)

Billed as “The New Gershwin Musical Comedy”, the story is largely based on the songwriting team’s 1930 musical, Girl Crazy. The musical won the 1992 Tony Award for Best Musical

Unnecessary Farce (August 22 September 2)

A contemporary American farce, full of door slamming, double-entendre, and impossible mix-ups. It’s laugh out loud funny from start to finish.

Reserve your seats now for the upcoming season and make it a true getaway by booking a stay at the High Pointe Inn. The Playhouse is located just 20 minutes down the road from us and this year two new restaurants have opened up on or near the Playhouse campus in Dennis. Stay tuned for my review of Summer Stock and Fin.

“In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.” –Albert Camus

To enjoy Cape Cod in winter, you must abandon all previous thoughts of what makes this remote peninsula so alluring at other times of the year. Gone is the penetrating warmth of summer sand, and the omnipresent mopheads of hydrangea blossoms. What remains is stark, cold, and infinitely beautiful.

We took a walk on Corporation beach in Dennis last Sunday. The sun was warm and the sky impossibly blue after days of winter’s gray. After breakfast at Grumpy’s, a local joint worthy of visit from Guy Fieri for an episode of “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives”, we felt the need to walk a bit, and with Casey, our faithful yellow lab along for the ride, a beach seemed the ideal destination.

Corporation beach is one of those perfect crescents of sand, bounded by a rock jetty at either end, with the deep blue sea in between. Actually it’s the bay, as in Cape Cod Bay, to be exact, and on this day it was a magnificent Mediterranean blue, with just enough surf to create a crescendo of waves pounding against the shore.

Casey was in her element, frolicking on the beach, her sniffer pressed deep against each new heap of seaweed she encountered. Rich and I marveled at the wide expanse of sand nearly deserted at this time of year, the stiff wind against our cheeks, and the thrill of being the first to find a treasure amidst the flotsam and jetsam that washed ashore. Rich came home with a new lobster buoy to add to his collection, and I, a handful of colorful sea glass burnished to perfection by the tumultuous sea.

The summer homes that bordered the beach were locked and shuttered to protect them from winter’s wrath, with their steep wooden stairs that lead to the beach pulled up and shackled to prevent them from becoming driftwood on some far-flung beach. As we walked in silence, each lost in our own thoughts, my mind drifted to all the beaches I’ve had the pleasure to walk along: from Maine to Florida to California; and further afield, Mexico, Hawaii, Tahiti, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Bali, Komodo Island, Australia, Rio, the Caribbean, and even a remote beach halfway down the Amazon.

As we made the turn at the end of the beach, it occurred to me that the simple act of strolling along the sand with the waves curling close to your toes is a pleasure unlike anything else. It matters not whether the calendar reads winter, spring, summer or fall, nor if you are attired in earmuffs and down parkas or an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny yellow polka-dot bikini. What matters is the company you keep and the song you sing in your heart. And for me that would be Frank Sinatra’s Summer Wind.

“The summer wind, came blowin’ in – from across the sea.

It lingered there, to touch your hair- and walk with me.

All summer long, we sang a song – and then we strolled that golden sand.

Two sweethearts, and the summer wind.”

The first ever list of 1000 Great Places in Massachusetts was released yesterday, July 12, 2010. Selected from over 12,000 nominations, the range of Great Places shines on every part of the state, but none so much as Cape Cod. Intended to celebrate what is truly special about Massachusetts, the list of 1000 Great Places gives visitors the opportunity to see the variety and richness the state has to offer. For those of us who live and work on Cape Cod, it was a point of much civic pride to realize that nearly 10% of the identified 1000 Great Places are right here on the lovely peninsular we call home.

So here in alphabetical order, are the places known and loved by many that make Cape Cod special, not only to the residents, but to those who come to visit us year round. You can view the whole list of Great Places in Massachusetts online, or visit the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism website.

Barnstable

• Cahoon Museum of American Art
• Hyannis Harbor
• JFK Museum
• Long Pasture Wildlife Sanctuary
• Melody Tent
• Sandy Neck Beach
• Sturgis Library
• The Hyannis National Guard Armory

Bourne

• Aptucxet Trading Post Museum
• Cape Cod Canal Bike Path
• Scusset Beach State Reservation
• The Herring Run Recreation Area at the Cape Cod Canal

Brewster

• Cape Cod Rail Trail
• Nickerson State Park
• Stony Brook Grist Mill
• The Brewster Flats
• The Crosby Mansion
• The Old Mill

Chatham

• Chatham Light
• Chatham Village
• Monomoy Island
• The Chatham Fish Pier

Dennis

• Bass River
• Cape Cod Museum of Art
• Cold Storage Beach
• Mayflower Beach
• Scargo Tower
• Sesuit Harbor

Eastham

• Cape Cod National Seashore
• Coast Guard Beach
• First Encounter Beach
• Fort Hill

Falmouth

• Ashumet Holly Wildlife Sanctuary
• Bourne Farm
• Falmouth Museums on the Green
• Falmouth Shining Sea Bikeway
• Highfield Hall
• Nobska Point Lighthouse
• Spohr Garden on Fells Road
• The Knob, Woods Hole
• Woods Hole Village

Mashpee

• Cape Cod Children’s Museum
• Old Indian Church
• South Cape Beach
• Waquoit Bay

Orleans

• Academy of Performing Arts Playhouse
• French Cable Station Museum
• Nauset Beach
• Rock Harbor
• Plymouth
• Brewster Gardens to Jenny Pond
• Ellisville Harbor State Park
• Historic Plymouth Harbor
• Jenney Grist Mill
• Myles Standish State Forest
• Pilgrim Hall Museum
• Plimoth Plantation
• Plymouth Rock
• The Cordage Historical Society in Plymouth

Provincetown

• Cape Cod National Sea Shore
• Commercial Street
• Fine Arts Work Center
• Hatches Harbor
• Herring Cove Beach
• Pilgrim Monument
• Art Association and Museum
• Race Point Lighthouse
• The Breakwater’s Rock Passage

Sandwich

• Benjamin Nye Homestead
• Heritage Museums & Gardens
• Historic Village and Historic District
• Sandwich Glass Museum
• Sandwich Grist Mill
• The Board Walk
• Thornton W. Burgess Society

Truro

• Ballston Beach
• Highland Light
• Highland Links Golf Course
• Artist shacks in the dunes
• Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill

Wareham

• A. D. Makepeace Store
• Church Street Historic District
• Cranberry Bog Farms Trail
• Onset Beach/Village
• Plymouth County Cranberry Country Routes 58 and 28.
• The Porter Thermometer Museum

Wellfleet

• Jeremy’s Point
• Marconi Station Site
• Mass Audubon Society Wellfleet Bay Sanctuary
• Newcomb’s Hollow Beach
• The Beachcomber
• Town Center and Harbor
• Uncle Tim’s Bridge
• Wellfleet Drive-in

Yarmouth

• Boardwalk onto the Marsh at Gray’s Beach
• Cultural Center of Cape Cod
• Edward Gorey’s House
• Judah Baker Windmill on Bass River

View Great Sunsets On Cape Cod in a larger map

When I was working on cruise ships, in a pre-innkeeping lifestyle, sailors would tell me stories of seeing the “green flash”, a phosphorescent burst of greenish hue that supposedly occurs just as the final remnants of the sun disappear into the water. In all my days at sea, above and below the equator, I paused at day’s end to watch intently as the sun set. Try as I might, however, in my five years at sea, I never witnessed the “green flash”.

Part of me thought it was an old wives tale, or in my case, old sailors. But part of me, the romantic “I believe in Santa Claus and the good fairy” part, really, really wanted to see it. Years later, after my swashbuckling seafarer days, I was on a cruise with my husband, Rich, that took us south to Guatemala. Leaving port at the end of the day, we were on deck just beneath the bridge waving goodbye to the locals who had gathered to see us off. As we steamed toward the horizon, for some strange reason, I recounted the tale of the “green flash” and my disappointment in never having seen it myself.

Caught up in the moment of wistful recollections, but with some circumspection, he indulged my romantic notion and stopped to watch the sun sink slowly in the sky. Perhaps it was the warm trade winds, or the gentle swell of the ocean beneath us, or even the effervescence of the bubbly in our glasses, but at the very moment the sun slipped softly below the horizon…there it was. Ever so brief, but none the less brilliant, a flash of emerald green. And though we’ve never seen it since, every time we watch the setting
sun, no matter where we are in the world, we hold our breath and hope that it appears.

Very few places on the  east coast of the continental U.S. have a view of the sun setting over water, save for the west coast of Florida, some offshore islands, and parts of Cape Cod. We invite you to witness this phenomenon the next time you visit us at the High Pointe Inn. Even if you don’t see it, it sure is fun trying. Here are some of our favorite spots to catch the sunset on this magnificent peninsula we call home:

Gray’s Beach, Yarmouthport
A long boardwalk across the marsh leads to a viewing platform. Along the way, you might spot a crab or two in the tide pools.

Chapin Memorial Beach, Dennis
Right across the town line from Gray’s Beach. Bring a blanket or a beach chair for comfort.

Wychmere Harbor, Harwichport
Wychmere is considered by some to be one of the prettiest harbors on the Cape. Pull into the little observation area off Rt. 28, but remember that parking is limited to 15 minutes.

Skaket Beach, Orleans
Set right in the crook of the Cape’s elbow, Skaket offers you that rare East Coast treat of seeing the sun set on water.

Great Island, Wellfleet
This secluded section of the National Seashore overlooks Cape Cod Bay to its west and Wellfleet Harbor to the east.

Cape Cod Light, Truro
The view from this vantage point includes dunes, ocean, bay, Pilgrim Monument, and Cape Cod Light to frame your sunset.

Race Point, Provincetown
Race Point sits on the very tip of the Cape, surrounding by water on three sides.

From Sea or Sky
Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard also have beautiful sunsets, but our favorite treat is to catch the sunset from the back of the ferry on our return trip from one of the islands. Even better is to catch it in-flight aboard a Cape bound plane.

View 21 Favorite Cape Cod Clam Shacks in a larger map

Rich and I had lunch at one of our favorite local restaurants the other day. It’s a cozy spot tucked back from the road just off Route 6A in Yarmouthport, MA called Jack’s Outback. We’ve eaten there so often over the years that we’ve gotten to know the waitresses, the proprietor, and some of the other regulars. We’ve commiserated with them when life has dealt a nasty blow, shared funny stories, and gradually become part of the Jack’s Outback family.

We often convene the “Breakfast Club” on a winter’s morning, sharing a table with fellow innkeepers and trading stories of life before and, eventually, after innkeeping.
But this day we snuck off by ourselves for a serving of quiet and calm that Jack’s so easily delivers. It was cold outside, wintery and windswept from a storm that was whipping up the east coast. Inside it was warm and toasty, with the fragrance of all things yummy emanating from the kitchen. We waved to friendly faces and slid into a booth. Most days we just order our “usuals” – a burger for Rich and a BLT for me. But on this wondrous day one of us was in for a treat. There among the “specials” were two words that brought a twinkle to Rich’s eyes:  Clam plate. (more…)