Sea Shells by the Sea Shore

Cape Cod and the Islands has many sand dunes to mull over. Falmouth alone boasts over 139 beaches. Some are very sandy, like Old Silver...while others can be rocky like Stoney Beach in Woods Hole. The Shining Sea Bikeway is one way to take in the glory of soft lapping waves...slowly riding past salty sprays, seagulls screams, and quiet sail boats. From Falmouth to Province Town, the National Seashore Cape Cod, and Race Point, Chatham, Orleans, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard...all of these incredible towns have glorious Atlantic beaches that visitors travel to from all over the world to experience. Each town has its own crown jewel to boast about. One of my favorite places to visit during off season is Aquinnah or formerly known as Gay Head on Martha's Vineyard. This stretch of beach is uniquely holy to our ancestors, the Wampanoag. To them, Martha's Vineyard was Turtle Island and Aquinnah was believed to be the birth place of the world. The painted cliffs on the Aquinnah beaches are filled with fossils (there are signs everywhere begging tourists to leave the fossils where they lay). Granite rocks crushed and tumbled from the ice age fill beaches with a colorful pallet of stones and sand. These colors are unique to this area, especially the pink granite ones. Take your time strolling the beaches and visualize all of those who were amazed by them before us...the native Wampanoag, our settlers, the whalers and sea captains, pirates, and long before them...the Celts and the Norse who traveled the Atlantic to the New World before we called it "new".