Cape Cod Insider

Land Ho in Orleans

Land Ho is a family pub that serves excellent food at a moderate price.  It is located at 38 Cove Road just off 6A in Orleans, east of Main Street. The menu is varied from burgers, broiled fish, fried seafood, steaks and a host of other things.  Although there is a printed menu, all the specials (and there are a lot) are listed on chalk boards that hang in the dining area. The floor is wood and there are signs from local businesses hanging from the rafters. The noise level can be impressive as all the tables fill up. There are also Cape Cod, Boston and New York daily papers arranged on a rope that is strung between two posts that help separate the dining area from the bar.  The place has old-fashioned rustic charm.

The restaurant also has a great bar.  It is a classic New England bar that is all wood and brass.  There are two TV’s at either end of the bar to help you keep up with sports, especially baseball (Red Sox) in the summer.  The bar has a large variety of draft and bottled beer available.  You can also get a glass of the house wine for $5.00 a glass!

The restaurant is always crowded even in the off-season, which is a good thing to know and remember if you are a planning to eat there during the summer months.  Plan on getting there either early (between 5 and 6) or late (after 8), but not around 7:00PM.  You can’t make reservations so if you don’t like to hang around and wait, plan accordingly. Of course, if you do get there and find the wait quite long, head over to Main Street and check out some of the shops while you wait.  Main Street is only about a block away.

The meal is always served quickly.  This past weekend, our meal came in about 10 minutes.  It is important to note that most year-round restaurants usually have a more seasoned and professional staff since they are open all year.  There are less seasonal employees so operations tend to be more seamless.

Again. the food is excellent and at a good price!  Check out a few reviews to see what others think of Land Ho!

What is Letterboxing?

Here is a great family or personal activity.  If you haven’t tried letter boxing, you are in for a lot of fun.  On those days that are not beach days, this is perfect!  You won’t be trying to go to the same activities that everybody else is going to. You won’t be in crowds of people standing in line. You will be off exploring new and different areas of the Cape. Below is a quick description of the sport of letterboxing.  My actual experiences have been very low key and simple and most boxes on the Cape are family-oriented, not composed of high level intense and difficult clues.  Here is a “pure’description from Letterboxing.   Don’t be intimidated and think that this is too hard.  Not at all!

“Letterboxing is an intriguing mix of treasure hunting, art, navigation, and exploring interesting, scenic, and sometimes remote places. It takes the ancient custom of placing a rock on a cairn upon reaching the summit of a mountain to an artform.

Here's the basic idea: Someone hides a waterproof box somewhere (in a beautiful, interesting, or remote location) containing at least a logbook and a carved rubber stamp, and perhaps other goodies. The hider then usually writes directions to the box (called "clues" or "the map"), which can be straightforward, cryptic, or any degree in between. Often the clues involve map coordinates or compass bearings from landmarks, but they don't have to. Selecting a location and writing the clues is one aspect of the art.

Once the clues are written, hunters in possession of the clues attempt to find the box. In addition to the clue and any maps or tools needed to solve it, the hunter should carry at least a pencil, his personal rubber stamp, an inkpad, and his personal logbook. When the hunter successfully deciphers the clue and finds the box, he stamps the logbook in the box with his personal stamp, and stamps his personal logbook with the box's stamp. The box's logbook keeps a record of all its visitors, and the hunters keep a record of all the boxes they have found, in their personal logbooks.”

In reality, most letterboxes (at least on the Cape) have simple clear directions that are easy to follow.  Most children can read and with some help follow these directions successfully. What is so great about letterboxing is that you will go to places and areas of the Cape that you probably have never been to or probably never would have gone to if it hadn’t been for letterboxing.  You can easily get a rubber stamp or design a logo that you draw in pen at each box you find.  Kids love this!

Here is a link to an interesting letterbox in the Chatham area (Life Savers Letterboxing).  Check it out. 

Here is another link to letterboxes that are in Barnstable County or Cape Cod.  There are even 6 or 7 Letterboxes in Brewster!! (Cape Letterboxes)  Or check out Letterboxes that are in many nearby towns. I especially enjoyed Uncle Tim's in Wellfleet.  I had always wanted to go to the little island in the harbor area and this gave me an excuse.

Have fun and do something diffferent!!!

Hiking, Biking and Swimming at Nickerson State Park

On a windy or cool summer day when ocean beaches can be a bit chilly, go to Nickerson State Park in Brewster for hiking and biking as well as swimming in beautiful fresh water kettle ponds.  Or just spend some time there as an alternative to the salt water beaches of the Cape. The Park is beautiful!  Even Thoreau marveled at the beauty of this area.

Nickerson has some great hiking and wonderful “private” beaches.  When you look at the map of the Park and look at the trails around the ponds, it doesn’t appear as if the trails are all that long or scenic.  Wrong!  If you decide to take the trail around Cliff Pond, count on about 2 hours to make the loop.  It will take you about an hour to hike around Flax Pond. There are so many small coves and inlets along the way that the time required for the hike can be deceptive. Of course, you can always swim across some of these inlets as long as you don’t have any gear with you.

Plan to take your time because as you hike, you will come across the neatest little sandy beaches where you can take a swim, have lunch or just enjoy the peace and quiet.  In fact, you may just want to stay there for a while and take in nature.  The beaches all around these ponds are sandy and excellent beaches for children to swim and play. The bonus is that a lot of the time, you may be on your own “private” beach.  There are bound to be people on the larger beaches, but if you go on the trails, you will come across numerous tiny little beaches. During the summer months, the water is very warm, clear and inviting. Some of the beaches are even set in pine groves so there is shade. You don’t have to fry in the sun. This is one of those unique places in the middle of the Cape Cod that should not to be missed .

The Park is also crisscrossed with paved biking trails that run through the heart of Nickerson.  This is a quick way to travel through the Park, visit the ponds, and check out the campsites.  Nickerson is easy to access off the bike trails in Brewster. There are great reviews of the Park at Trip Advisor.  The reviews tell all about camping, hiking and even mountain biking in Nickerson State Park.  Also go to Nickerson State Park Main Page for all recreational activities available in the Park.

As a reminder, there was a lot of damage at Nickerson State Park from the December 9, 2005 freak storm.  Some of the bike trails may still be impassable because of trees still down.  Check for the latest update.