When you're planning a vacation, a museum visit might not be the first thing that jumps onto your itinerary. But I'm here to say it should be! Cape Cod, one of our country's first artist communities, offers fantastic museums showcasing not just art but nature, antique cars, glass, authentic pirate treasure, and more. The variety of museums on Cape Cod rivals any major city. Here are five of my favorites!

Cape Cod Museum of Natural History - Brewster
I've been visiting the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History since I was a kid in the 70s, and I love it even more now than I did then. Situated on a beautiful stretch of Rt. 6A, the museum offers a look at how the peninsula of the Cape was created and how it has changed over time, a cross section of a live beehive (behind glass! phew!), an aquarium, an osprey cam which keeps an eye on the osprey nest perched on a nesting pole just outside, an exhibit about the Wampanoag people, the first inhabitants of the area, and much more.  Just outside is a screened butterfly house. Venture inside to view many colorful species - there is a good chance one will land on you to say hello! Just past the butterfly house is the Wing Island Trail to Cape Cod Bay. It is one of our favorite hikes and passes through a salt marsh with osprey nesting pole, a beech forest, and a sea meadow. It's simply beautiful in every season.

Cape Cod Museum of Art - Dennis
The Cape Cod Museum of Art offers the sophistication of art museums found in major cities. Showcasing work that is inspired by the region, the museum also offers a wonderful outdoor sculpture garden and gift shop filled with locally made art, The museum offers many new exhibitions annually - there is always something new to see! It's located on the grounds of the historic Cape Cinema with its amazing ceiling mural and the renowned Cape Playhouse - make it a three-fer and visit all three!

Whydah Pirate Museum - Yarmouth
View and interact with the world’s only authenticated pirate treasure! The museum's exhibits were raised from the bottom of the ocean from the pirate ship Whydah which sank in 1717 off the coast of Cape Cod. The Whydah was captained by notorious pirate Samuel “Black Sam” Bellamy (who, as pirates go, wasn't actually too bad of a guy). You'll view the ship’s bell, a replica of the Whydah ship, countless pillaged gold and silver coins, and many artifacts from daily pirate life. Don't miss it!

Sandwich Glass Museum - Sandwich
The museum exhibits nearly 5,000 pieces of glass produced at the Boston & Sandwich Glass Company in Sandwich between 1825 and 1888 – then the largest producer of glass in the world. Learn about the history of glassmaking and see historic examples of all types and colors of glass objects. A great multi-media show and live glass blowing demonstrations take place throughout the day.

Heritage Museum and Gardens - Sandwich
Heritage is famous for its multiple museum buildings and Dexter rhododendrons that bloom late May into early June. A Shaker-style round barn houses the (amazing!) J. K. Lilly III Antique Automobile Collection with its stunning display of antique automobiles. The American History Museum hosts an impressive collection of military miniatures, antique firearms, and the distinguished bird carvings of master carvers A. Elmer and Cleon Crowell – which have sold at auctions for over $1 million. A working hand-carved carousel (rides are free) and many of America's most distinguished artists' works are on exhibit in the Art Museum. Heritage has miles of walking paths and three museums featuring American art. Visitors are welcome to bring their own lunch, though no alcoholic beverages are allowed. Plan to spend the whole day!

When our daughter was a sophomore in high school, she and her girlfriends discovered thrifting. On the weekends, they'd scout around and come home to show me treasures from their favorite brands, excited about how little they had spent of their babysitting and part time job money. Being a Gen Xer, thrifting just wasn't something I knew a lot about but boy has that changed thanks to my daughter - and TikTok! Here are my top 5 best Cape Cod thrift stores.

Second Glance Thrift - 265 Main St. (Rte. 28), West Harwich
This is a great example of curated thrift. The shop is always bustling and it's clean, bright, and well organized. The volunteers who work there are absolute gems and the shop offers women's clothing, accessories, shoes, and jewelry, and a small selection of men's clothing. You can also find housewares and furniture. All proceeds support The Family Pantry food bank so shop and feel great about it!
Favorite finds: Patagonia women's puffer vest for $20 and a men's Polo rugby shirt for $15. 

​Clothes Den - 35 S. Orleans Rd, Orleans
Not technically a thrift store, this gem offers past season and seconds from great brands. You have to have patience in your search because it can be a little disorganized, but it can also be VERY rewarding. On my last visit, the store was stocked to the rafters with J. Crew, Pacsun, Sperry, and North Face.
Favorite finds: J. Crew lobster print maxi dress NWT ($128 retail) for $15, men's NWT blue J. Crew khakis for $15

ReStore - 28 White's Path, South Yarmouth
This furniture and home accessories thrift turns over its inventory quickly - every visit offers a ton of new items. The styles range from Victorian to contemporary and the prices are super reasonable. Proceeds benefit Habitat for Humanity which builds affordable homes for Cape Cod residents which is a wonderful thing!
Favorite find: Pottery Barn slipcovered sofa for $150

Whimsy - 121 Main St. (Rt. 28), West Harwich
This darling of a women's consignment shop is located in a former sea captain's home. Think curated items from brands like Lilly Pulitzer, Eileen Fisher, Brahmin, and many others.
Favorite find: Calvin Klein metallic puffer vest for $25

Goodwill - 141 Corporation St., Hyannis
Offering a large selection of men's and women's clothing and housewares, this is one of the Cape's most popular thrifting stops. Clothing is organized by color rather than by size - which drives me nuts - but there are great finds on the right day. 
Favorite find: John W. Nordstrom men's dress shirt for $8

Do you have a favorite thrift store on the Cape? Comment below and share your favorite find! Thrifting to me is like searching for seaglass (another of my favorite pastimes) - a true treasure hunt. I hope you enjoy my top 5 best Cape Cod thrift stores!

The first time I came to Cape Cod, I was three weeks old. It was 1970 and my grandparents owned a small, two bedroom ranch in South Dennis on Old Bass River Road where they spent their summers and many getaways in the fall and spring. They had upgraded from their 60s vacation camper and it was a wonderful thing because it meant there was now room for my parents and me - my sister wouldn't arrive for four more years. The living room walls were planked in traditional knotty pine. It had an outdoor shower (an absolute requirement on the Cape, then and now), a screened porch off the side of the house  - the "breezeway" - a sandy driveway and no garage.  The yard was scrub pines which dropped twigs and pine cones everywhere, oak saplings and not one blade of grass, save for the occasional lump of crabgrass. Walking barefoot was de rigeur and took physical and mental fortitude to make it from one side of the yard to the other while dodging sticks and prickly pine cones. Forever since, the smell of damp pine needles on the ground immediately transports me to that yard.

My friend Craig lived a street over and we spent lazy afternoons using our white rope hammock strung beneath two of the sturdiest pines as an inefficient swing. At night, my grandparents would drive their apple green VW pop up camper into the back yard for special kid sleepovers. Cousins who had put down their own Cape summer roots in Eastham were frequent visitors, bringing fishing rods and raw chicken with string for blue crabbing. Many rounds of cards were played at night and Seagram's 7 and 7s were my grandmother's and her friends' cocktail of choice. There was laughter and fun and a lot of both.

We got to the A&P, the only grocery store within miles, via a dirt road from Upper County Rd. into the back of the store's property on Rt. 28. A dirt road from Main St. in Dennis also got us to Harney's for live lobsters, peanut butter & jelly, bread, milk, and cocktail ingredients - the necessities of summer. Now closed for decades, I still remember the layout of the store we were there so often.

A nameless pond near the house was the habitat of countless "peepers", tiny frogs the size of your fingernail that live near the water. I'd pedal my light blue, banana seat bike to the pond with a sand pail hanging from the handlebars and gently collect as many peepers as I could. Back at home, I built elaborate outdoor frog houses and furniture using sticks, rocks, and leaves and still remember my surprise when they immediately hopped out the door. The sofas were never used once.

When we were around 8, Craig and I and other neighborhood friends were allowed to ride our bikes to the penny candy counter at the Red Cottage to buy candy cigarettes, wax bottles with sugary colored liquid in them, and gum shaped like an LP record that had songs like My Sharona printed on the packaging. I never wanted to leave without a sour apple Jolly Rancher stick (which cut the roof of my mouth every time, but I loved anyway), but when I didn't have enough change in my rubber coin purse to buy anything really good, I made do with those colored candy dots on paper - the only thing that cost less than five cents.

My grandfather, Poppa Red, taught me to dig littlenecks, cherrystones and razor clams at low tide on our bayside beaches, no permit needed. We would look for shoots of water coming up from the sand and dig as fast as we could. Nearly always successful at finding the clam, we occasionally encountered a dreaded sand worm which would put me off of clamming until the next time.  In the late afternoon, we'd head home with our bushel of clams, ready to be steamed open on the grill.

This is my 52nd year of living on and loving Cape Cod. 52 years of many great memories, and many more to come. The dirt roads to buy groceries are gone, but the huge place in my heart for the Cape will never change. It's been one of life's great blessings to share the Cape with my own kids - who each made their first trip here at three weeks old, just like their mom.

​Some traditions are worth keeping.

(This is me at 11 months snoozing on my grandfather, Poppa Red, in the breezeway. )

 I don't need to tell you that 2020 has been anything but normal. In March, our Governor instituted a two week period of distance learning for students. We decided that since my and my husband's offices were closed and the kids weren't going to be physically in school, we'd go to SEAS THE DAY for a few days and work/study from there. We threw a few random items of clothes and the perishables from the fridge into bags and off we went. And ended up staying four months. 

That time away, although stressful in some ways because there was no way to know when things would be back to normal (news flash: they aren't), was a blessing. It was conference calls on warm, sunny April days sitting on the patio, countless hikes to new and beautiful spots across the Cape (photo of my daughter on a National Seashore trail below), lots of cooking, watching our backyard chipmunks reemerge from their winter hiatus and begin their thousand daily trips to the bird feeder, and LOTS of house projects that we never would have had time for. I discovered a true love of power washing. Seriously, look at that deck.  
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Cape Cod had low COVID cases all through the spring and summer. We welcomed guests beginning in July who enjoyed the very best of the Cape in spite of the less than desirable circumstances including our world renowned beaches where visitors took social distancing to heart, outdoor restaurant dining, shopping, exploring the Cape's 15 charming towns, but most importantly, making memories with loved ones. That is what time on Cape Cod should be all about and maybe, just maybe, that is the tiny silver lining of this pandemic. 

I wish you and yours health and peace and look forward to welcoming you to this very special place someday soon.

It's 1989 and I'm a sophomore in college waitressing on Cape Cod for the summer. I have the weekday 'outdoor deck shift' and on sunny days my fellow waitstaff and I have all kinds of time on our hands because our customers are at the beach. We talk about everything during those slow hours - plans for after work, boyfriends, college majors, the adorable muskrats that swim by the waterfront restaurant deck (we worked at Clancy's in Dennisport), and admire each other's jewelry. And here I discover the first Cape Cod Screwball bracelet I have ever seen. My coworker said it had been her mom's and it was made at Eden Hand Arts in Dennis. She let me try it on. I loved it. I had to have it. I had lots of cash from waitressing! 

Eden Hand Arts is a small artist studio on the corner of Sesuit Neck Rd. and Rt. 6A in Dennis. I had driven by it hundreds of times over the years and never noticed it. On this day, I pulled into the empty, tiny parking lot and entered. The studio was filled with sterling silver bracelet, earring, necklace and pin displays. And there to the left in a little nook was the owner, John Carey, at his jewelry bench hard at work making bracelets. ​

This was about thirty years ago and I remember my conversation with John that day like it was yesterday. At the time, he was 68 years old. The studio was empty except for the two of us and we started chatting. He told me about the sterling silver gauge wire (I had never heard this term before) he used to make his bracelets and the process. He told me that his wife Eve crafted all of the beautiful jewelry in the studio other than the bracelets and that he had been a teacher before he retired - well, before he semi-retired - and they started Eden in 1964. We somehow got on the subject of the Sandwich Glass Factory which was located down the road in Sandwich in the 1800s and was the largest producer of glass in the world. I loved art glass then and still do. John opened one of his many bench drawers and took out a red, white and blue striped glass cabochon that was about a half inch in diameter. He told me it had been made at the Sandwich Glass Factory in the late 1800s and he wanted me to have it. I said something like, "No, I couldn't possibly."  He insisted.

Our conversation that day lasted over two hours and I walked away with more than an original Cape Cod Screwball bracelet and a piece of historic glass. John was the type of person you could spend a full day talking to, he was just that interesting and knowledgeable and kind. I am grateful to this day for the opportunity to have met him. How many people would take two hours of out their work day to talk to a 19 year old kid? 

​Though John and Eve have passed away, their family continues to own and run Eden Hand Arts. They are the only (repeat: only) authorized maker of the Cape Cod Screwball bracelet.  They do no sell their bracelets through other jewelers, or online, or anywhere at all except through their studio in Dennis. The bracelets have become so popular that many knock-offs exist and the true Eden Hand Arts bracelets now have an identifying tag on them. Back in 1989, this wasn't the case and my original bracelet was tagless.  The bracelet pictured (one of many I now own) I've had for about 15 years.
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If you want to show off a Cape Cod bracelet, or an armful of them, please honor the legacy of this special man and his original and iconic design and buy it at Eden. They custom fit you at the studio and you'll leave knowing that you've bought a piece of true Cape Cod history.

For info: Eden Hand Arts

If history classes in high school nearly put you to sleep like they did me, Cape Cod is the place that will change all that for you. I recall class being mostly about wars and assassinations and Roman aqueducts (I don't know why, but aqueducts are still front and center in my memory all these years later!  HA!).  Then I became an adult and we bought SEAS THE DAY on Cape Cod and because of that, we were LIVING RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of one of the most fascinating historical places in the country. Pilgrims, sea captains' homes, famous artists' dune shacks, shipwrecks, Native American tribes, the summer White House of JFK, it's all that and more. History at your fingertips.

Most people think that the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, MA (on the mainland just off the Cape) upon arrival to the new world.  Incorrect!  The Mayflower first stopped in what is now Provincetown Harbor in 1620.  The Pilgrims went ashore in Provincetown and found their first fresh water and food - and had their first skirmish with the Native Americans.  It was here they wrote the Mayflower Compact which was the first governing document of the new world. Lots of firsts on Cape Cod! The land was deemed too sandy for farming and the Pilgrims left and settled across Cape Cod Bay in Plymouth.  Today, there is a fascinating tribute to these brave original settlers, the Pilgrim Monument, in Provincetown - it also happens to be the tallest all-granite structure in the United States. 

​From the arrival of the Pilgrims to the present day, the ocean has been central to life on Cape Cod. . Hundreds of sea captains lived here from the 1600s to 1800s, sailing their clipper ships to faraway places like India and Asia, gone for months or years at a time. Many of the sea captains' homes still exist today as private residences and nearly all are on the National Register of Historic Places.  In Yarmouthport (a hop and skip from SEAS THE DAY), the historic Captain's Mile showcases more than 50 historic captains' homes like the Capt. Bangs Hallet house which is open for tours. 

​Before modern navigational equipment, hundreds of ships wrecked off the outer edge of Cape Cod.  Dune shacks were built by the US Lifesaving Service beginning in the 1800s to house the men who worked to help wrecked ships, now known as the Coast Guard, as well as the sailors on those ships. In the 1920s, the Coast Guard was no longer using the shacks and they became popular with artists and writers who stayed there in the summers to hone their crafts.  The most famous residents included Jackson Pollock, Tennessee Williams, e.e. cummings, Jack Kerouac and Eugene O'Neill.  Today, the dune shacks still stand - and still do not have electricity or running water!  Humble in design, they sit majestically atop the parabolic dunes of the Cape Cod National Seashore looking out across the Atlantic Ocean.

So, about those shipwrecks!  One of them, the Whydah, wrecked in a storm off the shore of Wellfleet on April 26, 1717 and is really something special.  Why?  It's the only authenticated pirate ship in the world and it holds a literal and metaphoric ton of treasure at the bottom of the ocean. The Whydah was discovered by underwater explorer Barry Clifford in 1984. Recovered treasure from the Whydah includes countless gold coins, weaponry, jewelry, apparel and even a leg bone! Its captain, "Black Sam" Bellamy (because he wore his black hair in a ponytail rather than donning a powdered wig), was an Englishman who was the top-earning pirate in history.  Bellamy captured at least 53 ships in his brief stint as a pirate captain before he perished in the Whydah wreck at the age of 28. 53 ships is a lot of treasure!  You can see it at Cape Cod's fascinating Whydah Museum - a quick 15 minutes from SEAS THE DAY!

In the early 1600s, the Native American Wampanoag Nation spanned the geography from Provincetown at the tip of Cape Cod to Narragansett, Rhode Island. These native peoples had an incredibly vibrant culture which lives to this day.  The Mashpee Wampanoags on Cape Cod hold an annual powwow to which all are invited.  The event showcases the artistry and history of these first inhabitants of Cape Cod and offers an incredible glimpse into Native American traditions.  

Come experience this fascinating history for yourself on Cape Cod!

Some background...
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In November 2015, Expedia agreed to buy HomeAway and its subsidiaries which include VRBO, vacationrentals.com and a long list of others. (These companies are referred to as OTAs - Online Travel Agencies.) Expedia paid $3.9 BILLION for the sale of HomeAway. This might not have been interesting news around your dinner table, but it has reshaped what it looks like for travelers to rent a vacation home. 

How? Expedia is a public company.  That means they have one primary goal - to raise the price of their stock for shareholders. They do that by generating more revenue and profit. In a market where they do not own the product they sell - their product, vacation homes, are owned by the homeowners - there is only one easy way to generate more revenue and profit.  FEES.

In the pre-Expedia days, vacationers would find a home to rent on an OTA site, contact the homeowner through that site, and make their reservation. Money exchanged hands directly between the guest and the homeowner through personal check or credit card.  The homeowner was able to email and talk with the guest to answer questions, help with vacation itineraries, and generally provide personalized customer service. The OTA made their money through subscriptions homeowners bought each year (typically $400 to thousands, depending on type) in order to be listed on the site.

Vacationers were happy.  Homeowners were happy. Wonderful vacations in wonderful homes were enjoyed.

Flash forward to early 2016. Expedia has to justify the $3.9 billion sale and so institutes a 'service fee' on each rental that the vacationer must pay in order to book the vacation property.  This service fee can be as much at 20% of the rental cost and it goes directly to Expedia's bottom line.  There is a behind-the-scenes algorithm used by Expedia to determine the service fee % on each rental, which means there is no way to predict how much it will be until you get an online quote through the site. A recent guest at SEAS THE DAY in October 2017 paid a 17.5% service fee - $245!! - when they booked our home through an OTA. Yikes. I can think of about a thousand better things to spend vacation money on than fees. The fee can be hundreds - and in some cases, thousands - of dollars, depending on the cost of the rental. Again, this service fee goes right to the OTA's bottom line, it was never intended as a way to provide you, the vacationer, with additional 'service'. The service you get comes from the vacation rental owner - it always has.

Another new change is that contact information between the homeowner and traveler is blocked. No longer can we talk to guests on the phone or email them to answer their questions before a reservation is made. This restriction was implemented so that homeowners and travelers are forced to run any transaction through the OTA website, ensuring the OTA gets their fee. A classic example of putting profit before customer service.

If you are like my family, you don't want to spend hundreds or thousands of extra dollars on a 'service' fee just so that you can book a property online!  So what to do? 

Here are some suggestions on securing the vacation rental of your dreams WITHOUT paying any additional fees:

1. Go ahead and look for a rental ALL OVER the internet.  Google everything you can think of (e.g. Miami Beach vacation rental, Miami Beach beach rental, Miami Beach beach house for rent, etc.).  Don't restrict your search to HomeAway, VRBO, AirBnB, etc. Most homeowners now have vacation home websites like SEAS THE DAY's.  Do a little homework - it is worth it.

2. If you do find a home you want to rent on an OTA website, try to find that home elsewhere on the internet before inquiring through the OTA. If the home has a name (like SEAS THE DAY) or another identifying feature, Google it and try to find the owner's website and contact information. They will be so happy to hear from you and you will have saved yourself a bundle!

3.  Here's a trick someone taught me - Google a photo of the house on the OTA's site to see if the photo shows up on another website.  Most times, homeowners use the same photos on their OTA listing and on their own website.  To do that, go to the photo of the home on the OTA site and right click on it, then choose Search for Google Image.  It doesn't work every time, but you could get lucky.

4. Join Facebook groups pertaining to where you like to travel. There are lots and they are great resources for vacation rentals directly from owners.

5. Never be shy about contacting the owner directly, outside of an OTA site. Many vacation homeowners are very unhappy about Expedia price gouging YOU - our customers. If an owner would prefer you book via an OTA (which is unlikely, but could happen), they will let you know and you can decide how you want to proceed.

I hope this overview helps you on your next vacation search. Life is short, go on vacation! And don't forget that we would love to welcome you at SEAS THE DAY on your next visit to spectacular Cape Cod. Contact me for information!​

There are so many reasons to love the beauty of Cape Cod - but here's one you may not know. Because of its shape, Cape Cod is one of the only places (perhaps THE only place) on the Eastern seaboard where you can watch the sun set over the ocean.  Why?  Because the sun sets in the west and when you're on the East coast, that usually means it's setting over the land.  UNLESS you're on the bayside beaches of Cape Cod!  These beaches on the "bicep" and "forearm" of the Cape allow you look over Cape Cod Bay toward the west. In the summer, sunset is right around 8 pm.  If you're nearby, you'll know the sun has set because of the applause from those on the beach...Mother Nature's show is truly something special. Can you hear the applause?  Come visit!

It's no surprise that Cape Cod is one of America's premiere summer destinations. Cape Cod evokes a sense of nostalgia few other places can match. Why? New England summer days with skies so blue they seem surreal, white sand beaches regularly selected on "the world's best" lists, sailboats gliding on the pristine bay, shingled historic sea captain's homes one after another on roads lined with 100 year old oaks,  clam shacks and homemade ice cream shops...these are the things that vacationers long for all year long until summer arrives once again.  

But here's something you might not know - Cape Cod in the winter is awesome. We regularly spend time in the off-season at SEAS THE DAY.  During our last visit, just last week, we enjoyed a PERFECT afternoon at the beach. The sun was blazing and warm, the waves were mellow and there was nary another soul to be seen. And the shells! In the winter, the best restaurants are open, shopping abounds, even golf courses are open! We provide our guests with our personal activities guide to the very best of everything so you can spend every minute making memories.

If you need a winter getaway to recharge your batteries, Cape Cod will leave you relaxed, revived and ready to face the rest of winter with a smile!