Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #118: Gurnet Trip, City Goose, Watch Your Ears, etc.

1. It’s probably been a year since I went on a true photo trip. Ironically, it started in the exact same way. My buddy Steve’s family has a summer cottage out on The Gurnet in Plymouth, Massachusetts. It has been in their family for over 130 years. The Gurnet is a private community and also a four-mile drive down Duxbury Beach. In the spring, Steve likes to bring some belongings up to the cottage as they prepare to open it up. I tend to tag along, as it is a perfect excuse for a photo trip. It also allows me access to Gurnet Lighthouse, which is at the point. I have been out there probably close to 10 times now, and every time I go, I get the same photo of the lighthouse looking back toward Duxbury Beach from atop an earthen fort. As much as I like trying to find different angles of photos, this one, for some reason, speaks to me.



2. The trip didn’t begin too early. I got up at 6am like I would on any workday. I made sure everything I needed was packed the night before, since it’s my thousandth photo trip or something like that. Of course, it wouldn’t be a normal trip without me forgetting something on my end. This time is was forgetting to charge my camera battery. You can’t blame me, though, as I hadn’t touched my camera since November when I shot my nephew’s Senior photos. Since then, it’s been in its bag collecting dust. It didn’t end up affecting the trip much though, since I was fully prepared to use my phone and selfie stick.


3. Speaking of that selfie stick, I put it to good use while driving the four miles out to The Gurnet. I rolled down the window and filmed much of the ride out. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary except for the other vehicle that came flying up behind us. I am sure they were either curious or irritated by me, who must have looked like some vlogger or influencer recording the drive out. Hey, I’m not famous, but I’m not above trying to get some good footage to try to go viral. I half expected them to follow us up to Steve’s cottage to yell at us for not going faster on the winding, holey, dirt road.


4. A usual spot we hit on the annual Gurnet trip is Gunther Tooties. It is a small bagel and coffee shop with five locations, typically located inside gas station markets. They have a bunch of different bagel types and cream cheese flavors. Each time I go in, I have no idea what I want. It’s like I need to learn what a bagel is or something. The toughest choice was the flavor of cream cheese. The girl at the register told me where the flavors were listed on the board. I saw chocolate chip and said I wanted that. Unfortunately, that was a bagel flavor as I was not reading the right list. Feeling a bit dumb, I think the girl could tell, and so she recommended honey walnut cream cheese to go with my French toast bagel. I agreed. As we drove off, it dawned on me that I believe that I get the same order every time, yet I go in the next time like it’s my first time. It’s like the mind eraser from Men in Black is located in the door as I exit.

The Plymouth location

5. I have wanted to go to Gooseberry Island in Westport, Massachusetts, for years. The main reason is a concrete observation tower from World War II. The island itself is 73 acres and has more than just the tower and the other smaller tower near it. However, I had tunnel vision and could not have cared less about the ocean scenery on either side of the walk out. The towers didn’t disappoint, despite being coated in graffiti. There were no secret entrances to either tower, although I might have been able to squeeze sideways into a narrow opening in the smaller tower. The piles of trash inside though, stopped any foolish ideas. It was while we were out at the towers that we noticed dark clouds increasing. As the sprinkles began to fall, I hesitated, hurrying back to the truck since there was an outside chance of a rainbow appearing. That became a running theme of the rest of the photo trip: hoping for a rainbow as it rained. There never was one.



6. Much like not being able to read the flavored cream cheeses at Gunther Tooties earlier, I had another ‘eyes playing tricks on me’ moment while leaving Gooseberry Island. I walked past a gray SUV that was covered in bumper stickers. I spotted one with a weird message in cursive on it. Now, after the fact, I realized that the sticker said ‘Kinda Sweet. Kinda Savage.’ What did I think it said? Kinda Sweet. Kindness Sausage.’ Is this the same as mishearing lyrics in a song? Someone needs to make that bumper sticker now. I had to laugh and then had a whale of a time explaining to Steve why I was laughing. Hey, they have ‘kindness rocks,’ why not kindness sausage?


7. One thing that you notice right away when driving around certain parts of the south coast of Massachusetts is that there is a lot of farmland. Like you wouldn’t expect that much. There are urban areas like New Bedford and Fall River, sure, but then there are stretches where it's wide open areas with cattle and rock walls. Towns like Westport, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, and Middleboro have a mix of both. You drive and see barns, silos, animals, and then a few minutes later, you’re on a main road littered with fast food and strip malls. Even on Cape Cod, we don’t have that much wide open space. Any farm down here is like pocket-sized. Don’t even get me started about how much different Western Mass is compared to the east. That’s mostly due to the Berkshire Mountains. The south coast of Massachusetts makes for a scenic, if not unexpectedly so, photography trip.


8. I love road trips. That being said, I also unfortunately get terrible car sickness. The same goes for boats. So, as much as I loved the idea of Steve driving the 200+ miles we ended up doing on the photo trip, there was also lingering dread in the back of my head. Would I get carsick? I always take Dramamine about an hour before being the passenger in someone else’s car. Sometimes it works great, other times not so much. The irony is that I feel fine when I drive. I have learned it’s because my brain is in control of anything from movement to acceleration, etc. That’s not the case when a passenger. We were out from just before 8am until close to 5pm on that trip, and I did well. Granted, I had my Dramamine, a few ibuprofen during the trip, and an extra hit of caffeine to stave off any nausea. I wasn’t taking any chances. I’d much rather just sit and be the passenger on any road trip, but due to motion sickness, I tend to be the driver the majority of the time. At least my car is great on gas.


9. Visiting Gooseberry Island was out of order for our itinerary. We had anticipated stopping first at Parsons Reserve in Dartmouth. It is a walking trail known for its incredible field of daffodils in the middle. I had ideas for photos and videos that were dancing in my head. Unfortunately, with it being school vacation week, loads of families had the same idea. We drove past the main parking lot. It was full, and they had security directing people. So we drove a few hundred feet to the backup lot. It was also full. That’s why we ended up at Gooseberry Island. Once we finished there, we headed back toward Parsons Reserve as the rain began to steadily fall. It was touch and go as far as bringing our cameras out there, but I said, since we were there, why not just give it a try? It wasn’t like we could just go back the next day since it’s about an hour drive for us. We wandered about ¼ mile to get to the daffodil field. Signs were telling you no professional photo shoots and no equipment. Little did they know my selfie stick was also a tripod, so joke’s on them. Even in the rain, there were probably 15-20 people wandering the rows of 27 different varieties of daffodils. Signs were telling you which direction to go, including one-way signs. Dogs and screaming kids were there as well, but I can always use editing techniques to get rid of those sounds when making videos. The rain fell throughout the time there, but it made for some cool ASMR videos. It is recommended to visit Parsons Reserve and the daffodils during the spring. If you’re going in the off-season, it’s not going to be anything special since the daffodils are the main attraction.



10. Fort Rodman and Fort Taber in New Bedford make up a historic site that I have been to many times. Rodman is a granite structure, while Taber is an earthen fort that is pretty creepy and also grimy when you step inside. Years ago, when I went there were holes smashed out of some of the lower-floor granite of Fort Rodman, which allowed you to see inside to an overgrown, creepy courtyard. Now those have all been sealed over. Still, there is a hole in the front wooden doors, so you still get a little bit of a view. I wanted a video walking through Fort Taber. Even though it’s a public area and the fort itself isn’t as big as it seems, I still made sure to wait to make sure a couple of people I saw weren’t going to follow me inside. I like the historic site, but some places in New Bedford are sketchy to say the least. This part of the photo trip ended with me walking a long concrete walkway to get a close-up photo of Butler Flats Lighthouse, located a half-mile or so offshore. Unfortunately, while standing all the way out there, I realized I needed to pee. It was doubly unfortunate because no bathrooms were open on the grounds. I briefly debated the pros and cons of peeing over the side into the ocean, but remembered the entire property was under video surveillance. That’s not the type of thing you want to be known for. I wisely held it in.

Looking toward Fort Rodman from atop Fort Taber

11. My saving grace was a Wendy’s in New Bedford. Steve wanted a quick bite. I needed a bathroom badly, and we both won. The standout moment from this part of the trip was not the fact that I resisted a spicy chicken sandwich and fries. No, it was a lone goose just relaxing in a small grassy area right off a busy street at the edge of the parking lot. Mind you, this is a highly developed section of New Bedford. There were no ponds nearby, hardly any trees. It was all busy streets and shopping plazas. This one goose was lying down, seemingly undisturbed by the number of cars, people, and overall noise. I thought about going over to try to get an up close photo of the city goose, but I figured it might end one of two ways. Either the goose gets mad and comes at me and I have to run away. Or the goose gets scared and flies into traffic and gets turned into a piñata for cars. That second one would, of course, lead to people looking at me for scaring an innocent goose. I decided to just let it be.


12. I created a retrospective video about the 6 weeks or so that the north side of Cape Cod was choked with ice back in winter. The irony is that I was holding off to make sure we had no chance of getting any more snow. I didn’t want to release it on YouTube and then have a freak snowstorm happen. I figured it would look like I jinxed us. Well, we didn’t get a snowstorm, but we did get a brief but intense hailstorm one day this week. The hail was smaller than peas, but it fell so intensely for 10-15 minutes that it made the ground white. So it might not have been a snowstorm, but it was close. Now I think we should be safe from freak spring snow (knocks wood).



13. Sometimes I have to stop and really appreciate how lucky I am. This is a two-part story. First, I was lucky that this week I got to spend some time hanging out and having fun with my 7-year-old niece, Sylvie. She is a bundle of energy and is already very sporty. So she wanted to be out in the yard kicking a soccer ball around. That’s easy enough for me. While running around and kicking, I stopped paying attention to my surroundings. That came back to bite me as I went running for the ball too close to a bush. In a one-in-a-million shot, one of the branches literally went right into my ear canal, slamming into my eardrum. It was a shocking pain, and I immediately grabbed for my ear. I was terrified that I had done permanent damage. The first thing I did was start snapping my fingers next to my ear to make sure I hadn’t lost my hearing. That was the other lucky part. I have no clue how close I came to bursting my eardrum and suddenly being partially deaf. All the while, I had to not let my niece see how much pain I was in. I just kept playing with her all the while checking my ear for any damage.


14. Humbled and grateful are the words I would use to describe my feelings after my first author event of the year. It was held at the West Dennis Library, not too far a drive for me. I was speaking about Cape Cod history and specifically my 10th book, In Their Footsteps: The Interesting People, Places, and Events of Cape Cod History. There has been loads of construction going on in West Dennis, and once I pulled into the library parking lot and saw that there was half of the parking lot was surrounded by a chain link fence, I didn’t have a good feeling about turnout. I was wrong. People filed in, and kept filing in. The staff had to grab several more chairs to fit the 30 or so people who came to hear me speak. The event went great, even if my voice started getting raspy. The fact that so many people came out to see me is something I will never take for granted. It still surprises me that I have people willing to take time out of their day to come to an event of mine. I do my best to make it fun, engaging, and interesting. I also sold a whole bunch of books, nearly my whole stock. It was a wonderful time, and I hope I can do many more of them this year and next.


15. Having worked as a trainer for 10 years and watched my overall health for a lot longer, I have tried everything. Any exercise, any class, any type of cardio, any diet, any supplement. You name it, I have tried it. I wish I could sit back and tell people, whether clients or just friends and family, that I had a cheat code for them to get in better shape (whatever that might be). The bottom line is that there is no cheat code. It comes down to consistency. It comes down to discipline. It comes down to diet. That doesn’t mean you need to eat 1,000 calories a day, do an hour of cardio, and lift for another hour 6 days a week. No, consistency means making a plan and sticking to it until it becomes a habit. One healthy meal doesn’t make you healthy. One lifting session doesn’t make you strong. One walk doesn’t give you S-tier cardio levels. I get it that getting into shape is hard, especially if you’ve been on the other side of that equation for a long time. I tell people to break it down into small, manageable goals. Eat well for a day, then another day, etc. Find 30 minutes to do some sort of exercise one day, then another day, etc. My only frustration comes when people ask me for advice, and I give it, and they ignore it because it’s not ‘oh snap your fingers and you’ll be where you want to be.’ Once you get people asking you for advice constantly for months, and you find yourself repeating the exact same stuff, it gets to the point where I just want to tell them, ‘you obviously don’t really want to get healthy, so go do whatever you think is right and stop wasting my time.’

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #66: Dream Chasing, Found Money, Lost Nerve, etc.

1. There are loads of famous quotes about chasing your dreams. The gist of them all is to keep pursuing them if you truly want them. My dream has been the same, to become successful in a field using creativity rather than simple manual labor. It has evolved over time. Writing, content creation, and photography are all a part of my dream. Now it has evolved into acting, whether on camera or voice acting. To do it though, you need to audition or at least apply for potential roles. Maybe you get the part, maybe you don’t, but you definitely won’t if you don’t apply. It’s better to apply, get a part, and have to figure out how to make it fit into your schedule, rather than worry about how it will fit into your schedule and not even bothering to try.

2. It is mating season for animals. Knowing this made a lot of things from the past weekend make sense. On a run I came across 3 turkeys standing in the road. The male had his tail feathers spread wide while a pair of females gawked at him. The funniest one though was running past an osprey nest on a pole. I found it odd that 1 osprey was seated in the nest and another flew down and literally landed standing on the other’s back. I thought it was weird until someone at work mentioned it being mating season. Suddenly, that awkward landing by the osprey made sense. They just needed some romantic music.

3. The older I get, the more I find myself living by the credo ‘say yes to whatever and figure it out later.’ Meaning if an opportunity you want comes along you accept it and figure out how to do it, or fit it into your life later. Being that I am trying to get some more acting gigs I have recently put that credo into action. I auditioned for a role in a movie set to film beginning at the end of May. If I get it I might need to put in for serious time off from work on relatively short notice. However, you never know what opportunity might be the one that changes your life. It’s a risk that needs to be taken sometimes. We’ll see what the results are.

4. Creating an audition tape is a unique experience. For the film I mentioned above I had to give some basic info about myself and also answer questions specific to the role I am trying out for. I was pleasantly surprised at how smoothly the recording went. Granted, I was able to edit out some long pauses and looking at the questions on my phone but that’s beside the point. Recording tons of videos and podcasts along with doing lots of speaking events, has made public speaking, or at least describing myself to strangers, much easier. I’m not saying that it means I nailed the audition and should get a call back soon. I’m just saying that I’m a way better public speaker than the shy, nervous, introvert I was growing up could ever have imagined.

5. I was at the grocery store one night this week. It was a standard trip until I got the self-checkout. It was then that I realized I’d left my wallet in the car. Part of me wished that I had actually loaded my debit card into my Apple Wallet after months of deliberating. Sadly I had to alert an employee. I had to let them know I was running to my car to get my wallet and that I wasn’t just ditching a full bag of groceries like some loser. After I paid and was leaving I thanked the employee for understanding. Their reaction was one that felt like they wanted to laugh but didn’t want to get in trouble. I still haven’t set up my Apple Wallet by the way.

6. In more money fun I mentioned a while back that I paid off a credit card I had maxed out years ago. I got it when I was desperate for extra money and it has an extraordinary interest rate. I wanted to keep the account open as it’s supposedly better for your credit score. However after getting slapped with a $99 annual fee I decided enough was enough. I have no intention of ever using the card again so I reached out to cancel the account permanently. I’m all for keeping my credit score up but I’m not willing to just throw money at this company like an idiot. I did that for years just paying the card off.

7. Located within sight of the parking lot at Chatham’s Lighthouse Beach is a rustic shack that you’d think has been there forever. The Occupy Chatham shack is 1/3 mile hike across the sand. It’s only been there since 2015. It’s a fun photo op, especially when the weather is good. I went this week with my buddy Steve and even though it was cloudy there were still great photos to be had. One photo op I passed on though was the litany of dead eiders on the way out. We counted 3 of the black and white ducks dead on the walk. I’m sure if we’d have kept walking we’d have found more but that was enough sadness for a quick trip.

8. From the ‘Almost Disaster’ files: I switched car insurance a few months ago. I ended up saving about $400 a year on the new policy. Afterward, I had gotten several letters from the former insurance company. I piled them and some other junk mail on a shelf. The time came when I needed to get rid of all of that junk. I started tearing up all of the letters. The ones from my old insurance company were all about life insurance, or so I thought. So I’m ripping these all to shreds but the final one I had a little trouble tearing. Luckily I pulled the contents out to see what it was and to my surprise there was a reimbursement check. It wasn’t a ton, like $50, but still I almost ripped up free money.

9. I typically don’t have any trouble sleeping. However every so often, maybe once every other month, I have a night where I wake up and am instantly wide awake. This happened this week and it was even less fun because I had an early wake up for a photo trip I was going on. The irony was that my mind was wide awake as I started seeing the potential photos I could take the next morning. It took a good hour but finally I did fall back to sleep.

10. Speaking of that photo trip. I joined my buddy Steve as he went to begin opening up his family’s cottage on the Gurnet which is a private seaside peninsula that is in the towns of Duxbury and Plymouth in Massachusetts. I love going there because there is a historic lighthouse that I can get up close photos of. On this trip there was a man and a woman doing some sort of cleaning inside the lighthouse. The front door was open and everything. I hung around a bit trying to be out of the way but polite. My thought was if I was there long enough and was friendly, they might ask me if I wanted to check out the interior of the lighthouse. Sadly this didn’t happen, but the photos were still great.

11. A favorite part of these Gurnet trips is stopping at Gunther Tooties for a tasty bagel and flavored cream cheese. There are six locations in the southeastern part of Massachusetts. I lean toward the sweet flavors like cinnamon, French toast, and honey cream cheese. They do, however, have more savory offerings. If you enjoy bagels and cream cheese, definitely check them out.

12. From the ‘Of Course’ files. Steve and I went on a quest to get out to this recreation area in a village named Humarock. It’s a part of Scituate. Anyway, there is a cool tower out there that I believe is one of the observation towers built during World War II. It seemed like everything was good to go as we followed the GPS out to the recreation area. Of course it couldn’t be that easy. Yes, there was a recreation area. The problem was that it was on Air Force property and gated. No chance of sneaking in for a few photos of the tower unless I wanted to be immediately cuffed and hauled away.

13. We headed out to get some photos of the newly renovated Scituate Lighthouse. Many years ago I had walked to the end of the nearby breakwater, scaled a tower, and taken a great panoramic photo of the lighthouse and coastline. My mind was set on doing that again. We walked all the way out and I got to the tower. About halfway up the ladder, I froze. Suddenly, the tower felt like it was 100 feet tall. The howling wind didn’t help my confidence. I climbed down and then felt ashamed so I started climbing again. A second time I got halfway up and froze. I don’t know if my brain sensed trouble could be ahead if I kept climbing but this time I climbed back down and gave up. Better to get a photo safely from the ground than get blown off the top of the tower. 

When Cape Cod Became A Vacation Destination: 1873-1900

    Today, in the 2020s, Cape Cod is a major destination for travelers looking to escape the grind of the city. Exchanging smog for salty air, bustling sidewalks for windy country roads, and the rat race for relaxation.

    It has been this way for generations. Cape Cod is relatively docile during the colder months and swells to the point of bursting during the summer. However, it was not always that way.

    Long ago Cape Cod was rustic, virtually deserted except for the hearty locals that plied their trades along the seashore and dirt roads. Then something changed. Well, two things.

    First came the classic novel Cape Cod written by Henry David Thoreau. Released in 1865 it gave a first-person romantic view of the sandy peninsula so few knew about. It gave people nearby a reason to pay Cape Cod a visit.

    Second, the Old Colony Railroad finished its expansion into Provincetown. Reaching the end of Cape Cod in July 1873 the railroad now gave people from farther away access to the places that Thoreau’s book had described less than a decade prior.

    These two things together were the genesis of creating a vacation destination. It did not take long for railroad cars filled with travelers to take the ride from near and far. They stopped in Sandwich, Falmouth, Chatham, Provincetown et all. These people poured into the villages in search of Thoreau’s Cape Cod. So what was it like to be a tourist on Cape Cod in the early days? We will take a look at a vacation on Cape Cod in the late 19th century.

Provincetown railroad station c. 1900(Picryl.com)

    The arrival of the Old Colony railroad in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in 1873 was a major turning point in Cape Cod's transformation from a working maritime region to a sought-after summer tourist destination.

    The line connected directly to Boston, making travel quicker, cheaper, and more accessible—especially for the growing middle class. With the arrival of the train, Cape Cod began to shift away from industries like whaling, fishing, and saltworks—many of which were already declining—and embraced the growing economy of leisure and summer escape.

    Once arriving via rail, one could take a horse and carriage to a nearby resort, hotel, or cottage. It was far different back then. There was no such thing as a hotel chain. It was single-location hotels and/or resorts. The average room at a lodging establishment would run you anywhere from $1($26 in 2025) a night in the early 1870s to about $6($229 in 2025) a night in the late 1890s.

    Interestingly there were countless boarding houses and seaside inns that began popping up. These were similar to today’s bed and breakfast locations. Also, it was rare to stay for a night. Typically the average visitor would plan for a week, month, or even the entire summer.

    Some of the popular hotels one could have stayed at on Cape Cod during those latter days of the 1800s included the Cape’s first resort, Hotel Chatham, which opened in the summer of 1890. There was The Globe Hotel in Barnstable Village which opened in 1827. It would later become the Barnstable Inn and remain in business until 1972.

    Visitors could also have stayed at the extravagant Chequesset Inn in Wellfleet. Built in 1886 this resort hotel on a wharf over the water at Mayo Beach was unlike anything else on Cape Cod. The Central House in Sandwich, which opened in the mid-18th century, was a popular spot and later became the Daniel Webster Inn. The Santuit House in Cotuit was one of the original hotels on the peninsula, opening in 1860. There was also the iconic East Bay Lodge in Osterville, which opened its doors in 1886 and remained in business for over a century.

    Of course, if one was looking to walk in Thoreau’s footsteps, they could literally stay where he stayed. The Highland House in Truro, formerly the Small Farm, opened as a boarding house proper in the late 1860s after the release of Thoreau’s Cape Cod.

    If resorts or hotels weren’t desired there were also normal everyday people who would open up spare rooms in their homes to travelers. It is not too unlike today’s AirBnb company. The local residents began catering to visitors with services like horseback tours, fishing charters, beach outings, and homemade meals. It was an economic boom for Cape Cod.

Chequesset Inn in Wellfleet

    It didn’t take long before wealthy Bostonians began summering on Cape Cod, often for weeks or months. Over time, the seaside towns that had once been tightly knit fishing communities opened up to a seasonal rhythm of visitors that is commonplace today. Cape Cod was praised for its “invigorating sea air” as a remedy for the city’s industrial ills, especially for treating "nervous ailments" and "weak lungs."

    In one article from the Boston Globe in August 1885 Cape Cod was said to have three “productions.” They were men of ability, pretty girls, and undisputed excellence of its cranberries. It is no wonder people near and far began flocking to the “right arm of Massachusetts.”

    The beautiful scenery was similar to what one sees today on Cape Cod. However, the amenities were far different. It was top-of-the-line for the time. That being said, electricity was very rare, even in the late 1890s. Rooms were lit by oil lamps. Also, indoor plumbing was a luxury; you would have to make do with a chamber pot or outhouse in most locations.  

    Meals at a hotel, resort, or boarding house were formal affairs, often with fresh seafood, local vegetables, and multiple courses. Think clam chowder, broiled fish, blueberry pies, and pitchers of lemonade or ginger beer.

    If you wanted to venture out on the town to get a meal there weren’t restaurants as you’d think of them today. Typically, taverns doubled as ‘eating houses’ so you could enjoy a drink and a meal. The dress code even at casual ‘chowder houses’ was fancy by today’s standards. Men wore jackets, often even hats, to the table. Women wore dresses with high collars and long sleeves—even in summer. Once inside and seated, you were expected to sit up straight and speak quietly.

    The fare was classic New England. You could get clam chowder, baked or steamed fish, or chicken. There were vegetable choices like beets or stewed tomatoes. Desserts consisted of various puddings and pies. One thing you wouldn’t be expected to do while eating out was tipping, although that practice was becoming more common at the turn of the 20th century.

What a dinig room of a resort might have looked like.(Bing AI)

    Once settled in at the desired location on Cape Cod there was no lack of activities to partake in and attractions to visit.

    Early risers could enjoy the sunrise and a walk on the beach or along quaint village lanes. There was shell collecting, sketching or journaling, and excursions to nearby sites. These were via carriage or wagon.

    If you didn’t like those options, there was always the new mode of transportation called a bicycle. It was invented back in 1817 by German inventor Karl von Drais. Innovations in safety led to bicycles being widely available starting in the 1880s. 

    Be aware though that a bicycle would cost a pretty penny. For example, in 1896, a Monarch brand bike on the low end would cost you $40($1,500 in 2025). A model with all of the bells and whistles could run you upwards of $100($3,700 in 2025).

    

    Heading out and about on Cape Cod in the early years of its life as a vacation destination would bring you to many incredible sites. What you saw depended on where you stayed. In those days, you typically did not venture a great distance from your hotel as a horse-drawn carriage or a bicycle could only realistically go so far.

    One thing that could be seen virtually anywhere was the ocean. Fishing and swimming, or bathing as it was referred to then, were the two most popular activities during a summer jaunt to Cape Cod.

    In Falmouth, one could take a dip at Silver Beach; it wasn’t ‘Old’ yet. In Chatham, it was Harding’s Beach. Orleans had Nauset Beach. The Outer Beach was the name for the stretch of sand between Coast Guard Beach in Eastham and Race Point in Provincetown. One could also partake in the growing activity of pleasure boating, especially in the 1890s.

The remains of Billingsgate Island in 1890(Picryl.com)

    Perhaps you could take a boat to the tip of Monomoy Island in Chatham. A popular activity was taking a boat across Provincetown Harbor to Long Point, something that is still enjoyed to this day. Long Point went from a bustling community in the 1850s to virtually deserted by the late 1870s. Many of the homes that once dotted the ‘fingertip’ of Cape Cod were floated across and assimilated into Provincetown proper.

    Boats at the time would have no issue traversing Vineyard Sound to get from Woods Hole to the island of Martha’s Vineyard as it was roughly five miles. Nantucket from Hyannis might be a little more difficult, being thirty miles offshore. Another option was to sail out from Eastham or Wellfleet on Cape Cod Bay to Billingsgate Island. Though erosion was becoming an issue, there was still a thriving community on the shrinking island well into the 1880s.

    Lighthouses dotted the shore to keep boats safe. The Outer Beach of Cape Cod is seen as one of the most treacherous stretches of ocean on the east coast of the United States. In the early days of Cape Cod tourism the cargo ship Whittaker wrecked off of North Truro in 1876. More famously, the steamship Portland wrecked off of North Truro in 1898.

    Along the eastern shore of Cape Cod, one would notice the Chatham Twin Lights, which were erected in 1877. Further up the coast sat the Three Sisters of Nauset. The diminutive wooden towers were built in 1892 to replace brick towers that were allowed to be claimed by the sea. Continuing north you’d find Cape Cod’s oldest lighthouse, Highland Light in Truro. The different number of lighthouses at the three stations was intentional so that seafarers would have a better idea of where they were.

The Three Sisters of Nauset(Picryl.com)

    There were no movie theaters yet but one could find entertainment nonetheless. The resorts where you stayed often had parlor concerts, dances, and lectures. Most towns had bandstands at the green where concerts were held several evenings a week.

    If you were staying in Truro you would be lucky enough to be close to Cape Cod’s first golf course. Founded in 1892, Highland Links is a nine-hole course that to this day is kept as close to the Scottish tradition as possible. Spectacular views are mixed with natural hazards like Scotch broom and wild cranberry. Back then though the greens were made of sand rather than grass.

    Shopping was a popular pastime in those early days of Cape Cod vacations. However, it was a different experience. There were no department stores yet on Cape Cod. Jordan Marsh was a big deal, but trips to Boston in the late 1800s were few and far between. On the Cape visitors would check out general stores.

    The building itself was typically a weathered clapboard with a wooden sign hanging out front — maybe it just said something like “Dry Goods & Provisions.” The store might be creaky-floored, dimly lit with oil lamps or early gas lighting, and smelling of a mix of coffee, kerosene, tobacco, spices, and wood. Shelves were packed, floor to ceiling, and everything felt a bit cluttered but cozy.

    Don’t let the aesthetic sway you though; one could get virtually anything you needed on your vacation inside the general store’s walls. This included dry goods like flour, sugar, salt, coffee, beans, rice, and molasses. There were tools & hardware like nails, rope, lanterns, and fishing gear. You could get clothing & fabric like bolts of calico, buttons, socks, hats, and even corsets. There were household needs like soap, candles, kerosene, matches, and enamelware. Don’t forget medicines, local produce or meat, and even luxury items like imported tea. Maybe you could even have a Coca-Cola, which came around in 1886.

    Shopping was also different back then because you had to ask the keeper for what you wanted. There was credit and bartering as options for payment. General stores were also social hubs for the locals.


    Popular general stores from the time included the Hallet store on the Old Kings Highway in Yarmouth Port which opened in 1889. The Knowles General Store in Brewster opened in 1866 and is still in operation today as the Brewster General Store. Brackett’s store in Eastham was supplying the Outer Cape from its opening in 1850. Centerville also had a Hallet’s general store. This one opened in 1856 and is still in operation today as the 1856 Country Store.

Brackett's General Store in Eastham

    Those spending their vacation time on Cape Cod had no shortage of wonderful attractions to enjoy. The Boston and Sandwich Glass Company in Sandwich was one of the largest businesses on Cape Cod. One could tour the glassworks up until its closure in 1888. 

    In Provincetown, a popular spot was the site of the Pilgrims' first landing. Located at the end of Commercial Street, you’d see their landing site, but this was in the days before the Pilgrim Monument, or even the West End Breakwater, which you can walk across to Long Point.

    In Yarmouth, you might gaze upon the Farris Windmill, which now resides in Michigan. In Wellfleet, you might spend the day at the beach in the shadow of Mayo Beach Light, which now resides in California. In Woods Hole, you might be unlucky and be downwind of the Pacific Guano Company. The fertilizer made at this factory was comprised of bird guano, sulfur from Italy, and various small local fish. It went bankrupt in 1889.

    In those early tourism days between 1875 and 1900, Cape Cod was known for fishing and cranberries. Many visitors partook in those activities or at least watched them. Virtually every town on the Cape had one or several working cranberry bogs, with upwards of 400,000 barrels being harvested annually. They also had no shortage of fishermen, rustic shacks, and boats.

(Boston Public Library)

    Spending a week, month, or entire summer on Cape Cod might make you the envy of your family and friends. You could further rub it in by sending them letters or postcards at the post office or telegraph office in town. Telephones were still a novelty in the 1880s and 1890s. This meant that even if you had access to one, the person you wanted to call might not.

    Similar to how life is on Cape Cod in the present day when Labor Day, first celebrated in 1882, approached it was time for many businesses to close up shop for the long winter. The railroad took the visitors back to where they had come from. Whether Boston, Providence, New York, or any smaller village in between, those who spent time on Cape Cod left with cherished memories, and perhaps a few souvenirs.

    As the 20th century dawned there was much to be excited about as far as tourism on Cape Cod. Electricity, telephones, and automobiles all became common. Guglielmo Marconi made wireless communication easier paving the way for radio. This made it possible to promote Cape Cod to the United States as a whole.

    It was off to the races. Kids who visited Cape Cod in the early days returned with their kids. Generations of families have made the Cape part of their summer ritual.

    Some things have changed. Cranberries and fishing are no longer the main enterprises. The roads are paved and named. Retail chains are as prevalent as mom-and-pop shops. However, some things remain the same from the late 1800s. The dunes create a magical landscape. Lighthouses still shepherd vessels safely by. Although there is a canal separating Cape Cod from the mainland, there is still a vibe that cannot be quantified when one arrives.

    Since the arrival of the Old Colony Railroad in Provincetown in the summer of 1873 made it more accessible, Cape Cod has been a vacation destination. The world feels smaller in the 2020s yet when arriving on Cape Cod, it is possible to find that same aura that those who first visited there must have felt. It cannot be explained. It must simply be experienced.

A classic Cape Cod scene.(Boston Public Library)