great island – wellfleet, ma.

“The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last for ever. Even on the most beautiful days in the whole year—the days when summer is changing into autumn—the crickets spread the rumor of sadness and change.”
– E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web

I could make an entire blog devoted to how much I love the outer cape. Throughout most of my childhood my family would rent a house for two weeks of the summer in Eastham or Wellfleet. Now my parents own their own home in Eastham and if I could, I would spend every moment of every summer there. I spent labor day weekend determined to soak up the last essence of summer while it’s still here. On Labor Day – the unofficial last day of summer, Jared and I went to Great Island in Wellfleet. Being an island, the beach is more secluded (and much less crowded) than other Cape beaches and involves a short hike to get there. The site was formerly a whaling hub, used by the Punonakanits, and later by Pilgrims for near-shore whaling. Great Island is now protected by the National Seashore, as is much of the coast in the mid to outer cape.

It was truly a perfect day and a bittersweet goodbye to a summer of wonderful adventures. Apologies for a couple slightly blurry photos. I am by no means a photographer but had to capture this day.

stairs from the woods to the path along the marsh

ultimate real estate fantasy

this past winter’s storms pushed so much sand up onto the shore that this sign was almost completely covered

I come across little driftwood structures like this one on cape cod beaches all the time. I have never actually witnessed anyone building one but even in the winter you’ll see these while walking the beach.

“Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.”
– Henry James