1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (16 page)

MacMillan Wharf is the berth for much of P-town’s fishing and whale-watching fleet.

Art’s Dune Tours take visitors on excursions around Provincetown’s sandy surroundings, pointing out the battered “dune shacks” that for decades have served as retreats for the artists who came for the end-of-the-world atmosphere and special light; the shacks are now National Historic Landmarks.

W
HERE:
115 miles southeast of Boston.
Visitor info:
Tel 508-487-3424;
www.ptownchamber.org
.
W
HALE-WATCHING:
Dolphin Fleet of Provincetown, tel 800-826-9300 or 508-240-3636;
www.whalewatch.com.
When:
mid-Apr–late Oct.
T
HE
L
OBSTER
P
OT
: Tel 508-487-0842;
www.ptownlobsterpot.com.
Cost:
dinner $30.
N
API’S:
Tel 800-571-6247 or 508-487-1145;
www.napis-restaurant.com.
Cost:
dinner $32.
L
AND’S
E
ND
I
NN:
Tel 800-276-7088 or 508-487-0706;
www.landsendinn.com.
Cost:
from $165 (off-peak), from $265 (peak).
When:
closed Nov–mid-May.
C
ROWNE
P
OINTE
H
ISTORIC
I
NN:
Tel 877-CROWNE-1 or 508-487-6767;
www.crownepointe.com.
Cost:
from $119 (off-peak), from $189 (peak).
P
ROVINCETOWN
T
HEATER:
Tel 800-791-7487 or 508-487-7487;
www.ptowntix.com.
When:
late June–Dec.
A
RT’S
D
UNE
T
OURS:
Tel 800-894-1951 or 508-487-1950;
www.artsdunetours.com
.
When:
mid-Apr–Oct.
B
EST TIMES:
spring and fall for pleasant weather and relatively small crowds; mid-Apr–Oct for whale-watching; mid-June for Provincetown International Film Festival (
www.ptownfilmfest.org
); late June for Portuguese Festival; late Aug for Carnival Week, with Mardi Gras–style revelry.

Pristine and Wild, New England’s Summer Playground

Massachusetts

Cape Cod National Seashore is a 40-mile stretch of rolling dunes and gorgeous beaches. It lies on the Outer Cape, from Chatham north to Provincetown (see p. 50). President John F. Kennedy, a longtime summer
resident of Hyannisport, granted the seashore federal protection in 1961, well over a century after Henry David Thoreau (who wrote of “the bare and bended arm of Massachusetts” in the mid-1800s) wandered the dunes, where “a man can stand and put all America behind him.”

More than 43,000 glorious acres unfold along the unruly Atlantic, where lighthouses overlook wide beaches, vast stretches of dune grass, nature trails, salt marshes, and kettle ponds, and where the play and quality of light have long drawn artists and writers. At some points, dunes tower hundreds of feet above the shore, and at low tide strings of sand bars stretch for miles. South of Chatham, the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge extends 8 miles into the ocean and attracts 350-plus species of birds that use the Outer Cape as a flyway. Once a peninsula, the refuge now spreads over three distinct islands and is uninhabited except for its summer population of some 7,000 gray seals. Back on terra firma, follow the two-lane Old King’s Highway (modern-day Route 6A) from Orleans west to the Cape Cod Canal, which separates the peninsula from the mainland. Over its 34 miles, the road opens onto dramatic water views and passes a plethora of antiques shops to fill your afternoon with browsing.

A classic Cape Cod seascape in Chatham.

The old sea captain’s town of Chatham is one of the Cape’s most desirable addresses. Shops, art galleries, and eateries line picture-perfect Main Street, a stretch of clapboard buildings, white picket fences, and flowering gardens and window boxes. Built in 1839, the dignified Captain’s House Inn has romantic rooms with four-posters and fireplaces. You can walk to dinner at the Impudent Oyster, where the sophisticated menu (mainly seafood) and white-linen ambience are a welcome break from the ubiquitous clam shacks and sub shops. For the best dessert head to nearby Buffy’s, where the ice cream is homemade daily and the plain old vanilla is heavenly.

Right on the Atlantic is the Chatham Bars Inn, a 200-plus-room establishment that offers guests the classic New England resort experience. Wicker rocking chairs line the porch overlooking the water. Many families return each summer to be welcomed by the
white-gloved staff and enjoy the Wednesday night clam and lobster bake under the stars.

W
HERE:
Chatham is 90 miles southeast of Boston.
Visitor info:
Tel 888-33-CAPE-COD or 508-362-3225;
www.capecodchamber.org.
C
APE
C
OD
N
ATIONAL
S
EASHORE:
Tel 508-255-3421;
www.nps.gov/caco.
M
ONOMOY
N
ATIONAL
W
ILDLIFE
R
EFUGE:
Chatham. Tel 508-945-0594;
www.fws.gov/northeast/monomoy/
.
C
APTAIN’S
H
OUSE
I
NN:
Chatham. Tel 800-315-0728 or 508-945-0127;
www.captainshouseinn.com
.
Cost:
from $185 (off-peak), from $250 (peak).
I
MPUDENT
O
YSTER:
Chatham. Tel 508-945-3545.
Cost:
dinner $32.
BUFFY’S:
Chatham. Tel 508-945-5990.
C
HATHAM
B
ARS
I
NN:
Tel 800-241-3333 or 617-536-5700, 617-912-3355 (dining reservations);
www.chathambarsinn.com.
Cost:
from $149 (off-peak), from $360 (peak).
B
EST TIMES:
spring and fall for smaller crowds; warmest water in mid- to late Aug; Sept for Harwich Cranberry Festival (
www.harwichcranberryfestival.com
); traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas at Chatham Bars.

A Treasure Trove of Architecture in the City of Peace

Hancock, Massachusetts

Hancock Shaker Village was the third of 19 major Shaker communities that flourished in the 1800s and extended from New England as far west as Indiana and Kentucky (see p. 407). The Shakers (so named for their
trembling and whirling during worship) were a religious sect established in England in 1747. They lived communally, seeking to create heaven on earth, a goal they pursued by living simply, in a society that treated men and women as equals and practiced pacifism and celibacy. They added members through adult conversion and became one of the most successful separatist societies in America.

When the Hancock community was formally settled in 1791, its inhabitants called it the City of Peace—and so it seemed with some 1,200 acres of rich farmland, rolling meadows, and lush woods. When the Shakers dispersed over 150 years later, it became the largest restored Shaker community in the Northeast. It’s a living history museum consisting of 20 buildings that have gained Hancock a reputation as the best place in the East to experience and appreciate the Shaker architecture and aesthetic, an austere, unadorned style that is timeless in its appeal.

Inside many of the structures are displays that show off the members’ tenet of worshipping God through handiwork: The village’s collection of more than 22,000 objects of unparalleled craftsmanship includes baskets, boxes, furniture, clothing and textiles, and farm and kitchen equipment.

Hancock Shaker Village was primarily a farming community, which reached a peak population of some 300 in the 1830s. Its best-known structures are the Round Stone Barn and the five-story Brick Dwelling that housed nearly 100 community members, known as brethren and sistren. Among the other buildings on the property are the 1793 Meeting House and the Sisters’ Dairy and Weave Loft, still furnished with butter churns, spinning wheels, and looms. The Barn Complex holds the Discovery Room, where children enjoy weaving and other hands-on activities or trying on Shaker-style clothing, while parents peruse some of the reproduced
Shaker items so coveted by today’s design enthusiasts.

W
HERE:
144 miles west of Boston. Tel 413-443-0188;
www.hancockshakervillage.org
.
W
HEN:
daily year-round; guided tours midOct–Apr.
B
EST TIMES:
Apr for baby animals; mid-July for fine arts and crafts fair; late Sept for country fair; Oct for Shaker Suppers.

A Gorgeous Setting for a Smorgasbord of Culture

Lenox, Massachusetts

When warm weather sets in, performing artists from New York, Boston, and the rest of the world find their way to the Berkshires, where the life of the mind flourishes among the rolling, wooded hills
of western Massachussetts. The Tanglewood Music Festival is the Berkshires’ marquee event. The summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Tanglewood attracts top-flight artists from around the globe who perform works in a wide variety of genres. The lush 500-acre estate encompasses four lovely performance venues with plenty of seating, but Tanglewood’s calling card is a glamorous picnic dinner. Some music lovers spread out blankets and gourmet meals on The Lawn, dining by candlelight, sometimes with china, silver, and crystal. Others bring the kids and tuna sandwiches. The season culminates in early September with the annual Tanglewood Jazz Fest.

The internationally acclaimed Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival offers dance performances, lectures, demonstrations, films, and live music. “The Pillow,” a longtime haunt of the legendary Martha Graham, is famed for encouraging the dance world’s rising stars. You can enjoy ballet one night and hip-hop, modern jazz, or Spanish flamenco the next. Close to Lenox in the small town of Becket, the 161-acre property, a National Historic Landmark, is home to multiple performance spaces, a dance school, and carefully preserved wetlands that can be enjoyed on a self-guided tour of the grounds.

Shakespeare & Company’s focus is—not surprisingly—on the Bard, but its three performance spaces also schedule contemporary works and revivals. The celebrated actor-training program gives the company an energy that makes it irresistible to established stars as well as talented unknowns. Literature is another art closely associated with the Berkshires. The Mount was the home of novelist Edith Wharton from 1902 to 1911. Wharton claimed to be “a better landscape gardener than novelist”—the judges who made her the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction might disagree—and the Mount preserves her legacy.

The venerable Berkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge presents revivals of plays and musicals as well as original productions. Top-notch actors, directors, set designers, and playwrights make and build on their reputations on the festival’s two stages. The company makes its home in the 1888 Stockbridge Casino, designed by Stanford White. Across the tiny town is the Norman Rockwell Museum, home to the world’s largest collection of works by the beloved 20th-century American artist. The iconic
Four Freedoms
and numerous
Saturday Evening Post
covers form the heart of the collection of more than 500 paintings and drawings by Rockwell,
who lived in Stockbridge for the last 25 years of his life.

Anchoring Stockbridge’s Rockwell-perfect Main Street is the friendly Red Lion Inn, a landmark since the late 1700s. The inn offers a variety of accommodations, some with shared baths and some in houses adjoining the main building. There’s even a guest room in an 1899 firehouse down the block.

W
HERE:
Lenox is 130 miles west of Boston.
Visitor info:
Tel 800-237-5747 or 413-743-4500;
www.berkshires.org.
T
ANGLEWOOD:
Lenox. Tel 888-266-1200 or 413-637-1600;
www.tanglewood.org.
Cost:
tickets from $18; lawn admission from $16.
When:
late June–early Sept.
J
ACOB’S
P
ILLOW:
Becket. Tel 413-243-0745;
www.jacobspillow.org.
Cost:
from $24.
When:
late June–late Aug.
S
HAKESPEARE
& C
OMPANY:
Lenox. Tel 413-637-1199;
www.shakespeare.org.
Cost:
tickets from $18.
When:
June–early Sept.
T
HE
M
OUNT:
Lenox. Tel 413-637-1899;
www.edithwharton.org.
When:
closed Nov–Apr.
B
ERKSHIRE
T
HEATRE
F
ESTIVAL:
Stockbridge. Tel 413-298-5576;
www.berkshiretheatre.org.
Cost:
tickets from $28.
When:
mid-June–early Sept.
N
ORMAN
R
OCKWELL
M
USEUM:
Stockbridge. Tel 413-298-4100;
www.nrm.org.
When:
daily; studio closed Nov–Apr.
R
ED
L
ION
I
NN:
Stockbridge. Tel 413-298-5545;
www.redlioninn.com.
Cost:
from $89.
B
EST TIMES:
July–Aug for pleasant weather; mid-Sept–mid-Oct for foliage.