Cape Cod - Catching Up with Friends

One of the treats of traveling these days is that you can be really lucky and run into an old friend somewhere you’re off visiting – while we were on Cape Cod, we took the drive over to Hyannis to meet up with John and Lauren. My friendship with John dates back to Air Force language school in Monterey; they’ve settled in Falmouth, at the southwest corner of the Cape.


We met up late afternoon, so we were able to take in some sights from the Hyannis area before going to dinner. Starting with a cup of coffee in a nice bistro, we drove into town, where we took in some Kennedy memorabilia – this is where the famous compound and retreat is located, which we drove by while keeping a respectable distance.

Most of Hyannis reminds me of beach towns everywhere although there is something just a little different about it that I can’t quite put my finger on yet. We did steer clear of the areas closest to the highways, visiting Main Street, where among the highlights is the Cape Cod Baseball League’s Hall of Fame, which shares a building with the John F. Kennedy museum. Both of these were closed – they seem like they’d be worth a future visit.

We took a drive to the shore, where we strolled around a memorial park dedicated to President Kennedy. Lauren told us that the marina we could see from the park was the one Ted Kennedy often sailed from – that’s a quintessential Kennedy image for me, seeing the old main going out on his boat – so I enjoyed getting a look at this part of the country.

To cap off the sightseeing, we went to a little Hyannis joint called the Paddock. It’s a Cape Cod classic according to the web page (mind the volume if you click this - http://www.paddockcapecod.com/) .

We all enjoyed the “local special” which was a prix fixe style entrée, salad and dessert combination. I could rave on about my salmon, and Mary enjoyed the scallops…and everyone had the chowdah.

A blog note to say thanks to John and Lauren for showing us around – it was a great time. And it gives me pause to consider how lucky I was to serve with such a great bunch of people in the Air Force…the friendships seem to just get richer and richer as time passes on.