This week we have been sweltering in record temperatures on Cape Cod, just south of Boston in Massachusetts. The highest ever recorded temp at Brewster in the middle of the Cape where we were staying at 104°F or 40°C. But it was the humidity that was the killer and the combined index that they use in the US called the heat Index had the real feel temp as 115°F. We ventured outside on the first day for a walk at the Cape Cod Natural History Museum that has a large reserve in one of the wilder and marshier parts of the Cape.
In the afternoon we went for a drive to the South Coast of the Cape (we were on the North side) but the traffic was a nightmare, the parking all full, so we drove around for a while and then headed back to the cool of the air conditioning at the campground.
Cape Cod is a pretty peninsular jutting in a curve some 90 miles out to sea. It is the holiday playground for Bostonians and hence gets very very crowded in season. Our campground was full and the traffic non stop all day long.
On one of our days there we drove to the end of the Cape to the town of Provincetown, the site of the first landing on the Mayflower Pilgrims. They stayed here for 5 weeks in 1620 before moving over the bay to Plymouth. It is an eclectic town with a lot of character but again ever so crowded in season to the point of bursting. It was very hot so we didn't wander as much as we would have liked.
Some of the houses were very old, and many of them were very pretty in the understated Cape Cod style.
But soon it was time to move on and in the bumper to bumper traffic we turned South off the Cape and headed to Rhode Island State, the smallest in the US. It is dominated by its huge Narragansett Bay, home to the Americas Cup for 50 years, with the capitol Providence at the top of the bay and at the mouth of the bay on an island connected by bridges to the mainland lies Newport, a jewel of a city.
We spend a day in Newport wandering around the town admiring the old houses and the vibrant docks.
We had Clam Chowder at The Black Pearl and then went around the coast a bit to view the great mansions built in the late 1800s by wealthy mining and railroad magnates like the Vanderbilts as described and filmed on site in The Great Gatsby. Cornelius Vanderbilt built The Breakers mansion and it is a stunning masterpiece of this gilded age. Gold leaf everywhere, old masters and priceless antiques. The phrase ‘conspicuous consumption’ was coined to describe these great mansions. But alas for Cornelius, great wealth does not buy you health and a year after The Breakers was finished he suffered a severe stroke and died shortly afterwards.
All along the cliff top between the gardens of the mansions and the sea runs a cliff walk. From here you can see for free into the fabulous gardens and view the facades of the mansions.
We have a couple more days in Rhode Island before we turn North for a while to explore Central Massachusetts and the States of Vermont and Upper New York. You can view our trip on the map on our web site as usual.
