Nina at
Nobska Lighthouse |
DESTINATION: CAPE COD
Neilie’s Point
 T
WAS simply serendipitous that a most meaningful experience on our
five-day tour of Cape Cod happened near the Nobska
Lighthouse, built in 1828 and visible for 17 miles at
sea.
It happened when we visited
the town of Falmouth, the second largest town (after Provincetown)
with a population of 33,000, at the southwest corner of the Cape.
This is the closest point of departure for Martha’s Vineyard,
served by three ferry lines. We found the lighthouse in the tiny
Woods Hole, one of eight villages in Falmouth. (Cape Cod consists of
15 towns, each with its own cluster of villages.)
There on the bank stood two
persons, cleaning and polishing a wooden bench facing Vineyard
Sound. They certainly didn’t look like your typical parks
maintenance crew.
They were Anne Heffernan
and her husband Kent Kannenberg engaged in a weekly ritual of
personal catharsis. Anne’s daughter, Neilie Anne Heffernan Casey
of Wellesley, Mass., was one of the passengers aboard the doomed
American Airlines Flight 11 with which Islamist terrorists turned
the World Trade Center into dust.
“My daughter got engaged
here at the seashore,” Anne said. “She and Michael had their
wedding pictures taken in front of the lighthouse.
“When she died in the
first plane that crashed into the North Tower, she left behind a
six-month-old daughter, Riley Eileen. Senator Edward Kennedy
arranged for a plaque and this bench to be placed here.”
Anne comes to Neilie’s
Point once a week to maintain the bench in perfect shape for anyone
who wants to pause at the seashore, gaze at the tranquil ocean and
contemplate one’s destiny. You may post a message for Neilie Casey
at www.sept11thmemorial.com.
Jim Murray and wife
Gwyn at Nimrod |
Falmouth
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for lunch or dinner? In the center of Falmouth seaport, actually on
Main Street, is the lively Irish pub of Liam
Maguire’s. Liam himself will greet you and make sure
you get your corned beef and cabbage or anything you desire from his
extensive menu – entrees such as New England clam chowder ($6),
Chesapeake style crab cakes (an authentic Maryland recipe, $18),
Gaelic steak ($18) as well as such sandwiches as roast beef ($8),
Cape Cod fish ($9), and even a meatless burger ($7).
Culture? There is an array
of houses depicting life in the 18th and 19th
centuries in these parts. Historic house tours are $5, children
under 13 free.
Be sure to explore the Falmouth
Museums on the Green, a two-acre complex in the heart of
town that showcases period furnishings, toys, whaling industries and
pre-Civil War medicine (you’ll faint when you realize what those
people had to endure at the hands of
their medical practitioners).
Conant House Museum |
One of the finest
restaurants on the Cape is the Nimrod,
owned by chef Jim Murray and his wife Gwyn. The big structure has
capacity for 250 diners in various rooms.
Martin Scorsese discovered the Nimrod during the Woods Hole
Film Festival. It is also a favorite location for fashion shoots.
At Conant
House you’ll learn about Falmouth’s most famous
native, Katharine Lee Bates. She wrote the poem America the
Beautiful, which was later set to music to become America’s
most beloved patriotic hymn.
Sandwich
 AMED
for the seacoast town of Sandwich in, Kent, England, this is the
oldest town on the Cape, population 20,000. It is small village with
big ambitions. Take the Heritage Museums
& Gardens, with its spectacular array of beauty with
Dexter rhododendrons on 100 acres of gardens and trails. You ought
to spend at least half a day to explore the grounds and attractions.
Since 1969 the Heritage has
featured several museums, including the Josiah K. Lilly III’s
personal Antique Automobile Collection exhibited in a Shaker round
barn. Probably the most important cumulation of antique cars in the
country. It was
fascinating to see the earliest moving vehicles that tread the
streets at the turn of the century.
The centerpiece of this
spectacular show of antique American cars and bicycles has to be
silver screen star Gary Cooper’s lime green and primrose yellow
1930 Duesenberg Model J Derham Tourster, one of eight produced for
$14,000.
You will also see the first
presidential car – President Taft’s White Steamer.
Back in the gardens we shot
a picture of the Old East Mill, a working 200-year-old windmill, and
then proceeded to the Art Museum, which holds a restored 1912
hand-carved carousel. A spin on the carousel was fun, but left me
dizzy.
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Dexter’s Grist Mill
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Belfry Inne |
The
Sandwich Glass Museum
displays wonderful jewelry and other valuable wares that were made
during the town’s thriving glass-making period between 1825 and
1888. More recent acquisitions are also on display. The hottest show
in town takes place when Donald Parkinson, 27, who’s been blowing
glass for nine years, holds daily demonstrations at the fiery glass
furnace.
Around the block you’ll
see Dexter’s Grist Mill,
built in 1654 and restored in 1961. Here is where the local citizens
brought their corn to be ground into meal, their most important
food.
When it was time to turn in
we turned to the Belfry Inne & Bistro
with its strict non-smoking policy. Christopher Wilson’s hotel
consists of three properties: Drew House, an 1882 Victorian manor
house with 11 individually decorated guest rooms ($135-165); the
Abbey, a former 1900 church with six uniquely furnished chambers
($165-215), and the Village House, a Federal style wood frame
shingled structure with six rooms ($110-135). See more at www.belfryinn.com.
Of the 715 dining spots on
Cape Cod, the Belfry is one place that encourages you to dine light
– but go wild on their $8 desserts such as Banana and White
Chocolate Mousse, Vanilla Crème Brulee, Hazelnut and Coffee Torte,
Flourless Chocolate Dome and the Bellfry Pillow (flaky pastry and
Bavarian cream with berries, toasted coconut, raspberry and white
chocolate sauces). This is one pillow to take at bedtime.
Dennis
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made a stop in the charming village of Dennis consisting of 16,000
people. In its day Dennis was an important whaling, shipbuilding and
farming community.
Today it boasts the Cape
Museum of Fine Arts, a fine institution that since 1981
has been showing Cape Cod art from 1899 to the present as well as
work by contemporary artists inspired by the Cape. Among the 850
pieces in its permanent collection are treasures by Hassam,
Hawthorne, Chafee, Selman, Hoffman, Cahoon, Hensche and others.
This fabulous museum
comprises seven exhibition galleries, research library and lovely
landscaped sculpture garden. During the summer there are painting
classes plus a children’s art camp.
The museum shares the
grounds with the Cape Cinema, Playhouse Bistro and Cape Playhouse
Center for the Arts.
In 1993 the Cape Museum of
Fine Arts joined with 14 other museums to create the Consortium of
New England Community Art Museums to share resources.
To share their important
collections, the group has created an exhibit that has been
traveling around Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
This exhibition, spanning a hundred years of American art, will be
housed at the Cape Museum of Fine Arts from November 13, 2004, to
February 27, 2005.
Envisioning New England:
Treasures From Community Art Museums (University
Press of New England, soft cover, 96 pages, $24.95) is a gorgeously
produced catalogue of this traveling exhibition.
Cahoon Museum
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Cotuit
E
couldn’t pass through the tiny village of Cotuit, in the robust
town of Barnstable, without taking a glimpse at the Cahoon
Museum of American Art. After all, we were on a cultural
kick on this trip.
This quaint 1775 Georgian
Colonial has been showing artwork for 20 years, especially the
paintings of Ralph and Martha Cahoon, in addition to a choice
collection of 19th and
20th century marine landscapes and portraits. You’ll
also enjoy browsing in the enchanting gift shop.
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