Why, hello there blog! I haven’t done a post for about two months now, which you can attribute to the fact that I have WAY too many hobbies. Some of which will have me holing up at my apartment for days at a time when I’m not at work (reading, watching kdramas, cuddling with and cooing at my pets). I also may have gotten a bit stressed from vacation blogging overload, so I’m taking a break from that and writing about a place a little bit closer (by that I mean thousands of miles closer) to home: Cape Cod. Also known as: The Cape.

Before I met my husband, whose parents have a cottage up there and has been vacationing up there pretty much his entire life, I knew and had heard very little about the cape. In my mind it was immortalized as THE place to escape because of the song “Escape (the Piña Colada Song) by Rupert Holmes:

 

“If you like Piña Coladas,
And getting caught in the rain
If you’re not into yoga,
If you have half-a-brain
If you like making love at midnight,
In the dunes of the cape
I’m the lady you’ve looked for,
Write to me, and escape”
So from this I learned a few things.

FACTS ABOUT THE CAPE I LEARNED FROM THE SONG “ESCAPE”

  1. Smart people who love to be lazy and get drunk on beach cocktails will likely love this place.
  2. There are dunes at the cape
  3. Dunes + beach cocktails had me leaning towards the fact there there might be a beach/beaches there (I might have gone with a desert if the cocktails were not involved)
Aaaand that was pretty much everything I knew. Impressive, no?
So for those of you who are just as informed as I was back in the day (all you non-Americans, or New Yorkers who don’t care to research any place beyond Manhattan and Brooklyn, or New Yorkers who hate anything even remotely related to the Boston Red Sox), I’ve come up with this more informed list.

ACTUAL FACTS ABOUT THE CAPE I LEARNED FROM GOING THERE (AND WIKIPEDIA)

  1. It is located in the easternmost portion of Massachusetts (the portion of the state that looks like a flexed arm or a hook)
  2. There are indeed, many, many beaches on the cape
  3. I like to be lazy, I drink cocktails, I’m pretty sure I’m at least half-smart, and I love going to the cape. So there you have it. That song was pretty much spot-on. Or actually, I’m very compatible with the lady in the song.
Kidding aside, the cape has indeed become one of my favorite places to escape to. It does have a lot of beaches, but for me it’s all about the endless amounts of delicious food, the relaxing atmosphere (which makes me forget that I’m supposed to be dieting so I am able to enjoy the delicious food), and the overall feeling of well-being that I get just by being there. It’s also a great place to hang out at and read a book all day, if you’re not too busy eating your way towards diabetes. I’m sure you’d like more information than that though, so here are just a few things I like to do when I’m there. Most were introduced to me by Mike, some suggested by my sister-in-law Ali, some suggested by my friend Kim (who grew up in Cape Cod), and some I found myself through Yelp.

Sitting on the jetty at Seagull Beach

Seagull beach is a few minutes drive from the cottage, so it’s pretty much our go-to beach. It’s very peaceful out there on the jetty, and it’s one of our first stops whenever we’re there. I can actually feel the knots of New York City stress getting unraveled by the salty sea breeze when I’m hanging out there. The beach can be littered with seaweed and shells at times but the sand is very fine. It’s perfect if you’re all about walking barefoot at the beach.
Vida and Kim just chillin’.
Go ahead and take those shoes off 🙂
Carlo enjoying the sea breeze. I love this photo despite the fact that I failed at focusing properly.

 

Random discussion at the jetty

 

Keltic Kitchen

Yes. With a K. No visit to the cape is complete without a breakfast at Keltic Kitchen. They market it as a place to get a “traditional Irish breakfast” but it’s oh so much more than that. It’s THE place to get breakfast. ANY kind of breakfast. Period. Well, maybe not congee, or tapsilog, or, err… ok fine. It’s THE place to get a European/American breakfast. Let’s just say if today were the last day of my life and I could have any breakfast I wanted, I would select something from their menu. Ok enough talking, more pictures to make you drool. GO.

Creme Brulee French Toast
 
 
Chocolate Chip Pancakes
 
 
2×4 with rashers – 2 eggs, 2 sausages, 2 rashers, 2 pancakes
 
 
Keltic Benny (my personal favorite) – 2 poached eggs on corned beef hash, english muffin, hollandaise sauce, and home fries
 
 
Keltic breakfast sandwich
 
Pumpkin hot chocolate
 
Fruit! If you’re the “I need something healthy” sort
 
Fruit pretending to be a cocktail
 
They have plenty more fun things on the menu like “bacon, apple, and cheddar potato pancakes”, “portuguese sweet bread french toast” (amazing), lemon blueberry ricotta pancakes, omelettes, and they actually do have a traditional Irish breakfast which includes black and white pudding (think “betamax” if you’re Filipino). They also have a seasonal menu that has stuff like pumpkin pancakes during the fall. Even their regular (and bottomless) coffee is fantastic.  Oh, Keltic. I’m drooling just thinking about you.

Cooke’s Seafood

Lots of seafood? Check. Fried everything? Check.
Cooke’s is a fantastic place if you’re a fish and chips kind of person, which I TOTALLY AM. You’ll also find some good choices if you’re an “anything fried” and chips kind of person. They have some lighter fare like grilled and broiled seafood too, for all you party poopers and/or health nuts. Hey don’t fret, I’m THAT person half of my life (the other half I’m scarfing down cakes by the  pound). My absolute favorite here is the fried whole bellied clams platter. Fried clams, french fries, MASSIVE onion rings, tartar sauce, and coleslaw. YUMMEH. They have a clam strip platter too for those less enthusiastic about the taste of the sea.
Fried Seafood Platter
 
 
Fried Chicken Tenders
 

Captain Parker’s

GET THE NEW ENGLAND CLAM CHOWDER. It’s award-winning, it’s rich and creamy, it comes in a bread bowl, it’s amazing. Also, because you’re in New England. JUST GET IT. I don’t care if you don’t like seafood, try it anyway, Then leave the tiny clams at the bottom of your bowl if you so desire, like Mike does.
After that you can get their non-seafood appetizer combo platter, because the potato skins are yummy. They even have zucchini and mozzarella sticks for those who don’t eat meat. The soup is HEAVY, so we don’t ever order entrees. I made that mistake once, I couldn’t move afterwards.  It doesn’t help that we usually have breakfast at Keltic Kitchen, either. They do have the soup in cup size too, if you’re ever tired of just having the clam chowder here.
New England Clam Chowder
 
 
Appetizer Combo

Craigville Beach

I love Seagull beach but I do crave a beach with pristine white sand at times, so I looked for one online before, and the search came up with Craigville beach. The sand is not as feet-friendly however, but it sure looks nice. It’s also usually more crowded than Seagull.
Andrew and Romainne at Craigville beach
@Craigville beach. I’m not in the pic coz guess what? I was taking this photo.

Sam Diego’s

This is a Mexican restaurant. The food is decent, but what we really come here for is the fried ice cream. It’s not quite the same as the Thai equivalent. It’s so much more… evil. It’s wrapped in what seems to be fried tortilla, and topped with a ridiculous amount of whipped cream. I would suggest sharing if you don’t want to go into a food coma after.
Fried Ice Cream at Sam Diego’s

They also have a decent choco-coconut flan. Sounds boring, but I liked it.

 

Choco-coconut flan at Sam Diego’s

Mini-Golfing at Pirate’s Cove

I used to not be a fan of mini-golfing (mostly because I really suck at it), but the course is cute and fun, and makes for a great cool summer night activity.
Apparently Mike was really amused about something
Mike @ Pirate’s Cove

The Cape Cod Creamery

On our last visit I looked up a new ice cream parlor to try called the Cape Cod Creamery. They have cape-inspired ice cream flavors such as “vineyard vanilla”, “monomoy mud pie”, and “craigville caramel crunch”. The names are cute, but what I like about it is the atmosphere, and of course, the actual ice cream. I got a 5 (or 6?) scoop sampler, which I thought was going to be, you know, SAMPLER size. It was not. Just so you know.
Cape Cod Creamery
 
 
Cape Cod Creamery Ice Cream Sampler

Embargo

This came highly recommended by my sister-in-law, and my goodness she was right. Great food, not expensive, and the tapas surprisingly still come in a good portion. We ordered quite a few things, such as:
Lobster Mac & Cheese
Steak & Cheese Spring Roll
Baked Jumbo Mushrooms Stuffed with Manchego and Goat Cheese
Braised Short Rib with red wine La Mancha sauce, cool Tomato Fresca & Mashed Potato
Hickory Smoked Smithfield Baby Back Ribs with Passion Fruit BBQ & Salsa Fruita
Baked Littlenecks with Red & Yellow Peppers, Bacon, and Parmesean Cheese
Mussels
All of these were delicious. We had one thing we did not like: a bowl of chili. Which our waiter immediately removed from our tab.

I did not get good photos of everything because the lighting is pretty dim, but I do have one good one of the braised short rib. For everything else, I tried my best.

 

Braised Short Rib with red wine La Mancha sauce, cool Tomato Fresca & Mashed Potato
 
 
Mussels
 
 
Lobster Mac & Cheese
 
 
Baby Back Ribs
 
 
Stuffed Mushrooms
 
 
Baked Littleneck Clams
 
 
Steak & Cheese Spring Roll
 
Just Chillin’ and Grillin’
 
At this point you’ll probably have noticed that we like to do a lot of unhealthy eating in Cape Cod. I subjected some of my friends to this at one point and at the end of the trip they decided they really needed to get some vegetables in there, so we decided just to have dinner at the cottage and fire up the grill. Honestly, just hanging out there is one of the best things about going to the cape.
I really wish I had arranged these plates better. I think I was too busy eating to care.
Tablet, tea, bench. Why not?
I’ve labeled this entry with the year because, despite having gone to a lot of places there, the cape is HUGE, and there’s so much more to do. For instance we’ve wanted to hit the Truro Vineyards for so long, but it’s about a 2 hour drive from the cottage if I’m not mistaken. And there are many more beaches and towns to check out. You can even take a ferry to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket if you like. So for now, these are my favorites. Hopefully next year I’ll have some more places to write about.
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