Things To Do in Barnstable and Hyannis

Exploring Hyannis

Hectic Hyannis is the commercial center of the cape, its roads lined with chain stores and mired with maddening traffic. Along routes 132 and 28, you could be visiting Anywhere, USA. And yet this overrun town still has plenty of pockets of charm, especially the waterfront area and Main Street, with a diverse selection of restaurants, shops, and entertainment of all stripes.

For a fun and informative introduction to the harbor, take a leisurely narrated tour aboard one of Hy-Line Cruises’ 1911 steamer replicas, MV Patience or MV Prudence. There are five 1-hour family cruises a day in season, but for a real treat, take the Sunday 3pm “Ice Cream Float,” which includes a design-your-own Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream sundae. Hy-Line Cruises depart from the Ocean Street Dock (tel. 508/790-0696); call for a reservation and schedule. Tickets are $17 for adults and free to $8 for children 12 and under. (The ice-cream cruises are $1 more.) There are 16 departures daily from late June to September; it’s closed November to mid-April. Parking is $5 per car.

Two local favorite products offer fun factory tours in Hyannis. Kids in particular will love the free 15-minute factory tours at Cape Cod Potato Chips, 100 Breed’s Hill Rd. (at Independence Way, off Route 132) (tel. 508/775-7253), which really are the world’s best—they’re chunkier than the norm. Tours run Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm in July and August. Call for off-season hours. Adults will appreciate the free brewery tours at Cape Cod Beer, 1336 Phinney’s Lane (tel. 508/790-4200), Monday through Saturday at 11am.

Exploring Barnstable & Barnstable Village

Just a couple of miles from Hyannis, the bucolic village of Barnstable houses the county courthouse, a line-up of well-kept Colonial houses, and some of the Cape’s most charming B&Bs. Barnstable’s beaches face onto Nantucket Sound, which means that they are fairly protected and thus not big in terms of surf.

One lovely way to explore the Sound-side coast is to visit the Long Pasture Wildlife Sanctuary at 345 Bone Hill Rd. in Barnstable Village (tel. 508/362-7475). On this 110-acre Audubon sanctuary, easy-to-walk trails lead out to a meadow with a view of Barnstable Harbor. Wildlife spottings are likely to include numerous butterflies, dragonflies, and red-tailed hawks. Admission is $4 for adults, $3 for children.

Barnstable’s maritime history is celebrated at the Coast Guard Heritage Museum, set in a former U.S. Customs House in the north side of Barnstable Village (3353 Main St.; tel. 508/362-8521). This engaging little museum houses displays of pre–Coast Guard groups, such as the lighthouse service, the lightship service, and the lifesaving service. The village blacksmith shop gives demonstrations daily. Also on the property is the oldest wooden jail in the country, built in the 1600s. Admission is $5; the museum is open from May through October, Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10am to 3pm.

Although Provincetown is closer to the whales’ preferred feeding grounds, if you don’t have time to drive all the way out there, from Barnstable Harbor you hop aboard Hyannis Whale Watcher Cruises (tel. 800/287-0374 or 508/362-6088), for a 4-hour voyage on a 100-foot high-speed cruiser. Naturalists provide the narration, and if you fail to spot a whale, your next trek is free. Tickets cost $53 for adults, $45 for seniors (62 and older), and $33 for children 4 to 12 from April through mid-October.

Two Maritime Museums

The Cape Cod Maritime Museum, at 135 South St., in Hyannis, on the eastern end of Aselton Park (tel. 508/775-1723), is small but interesting. The museum displays artifacts from ships that wrecked off the shore of Cape Cod and exhibits a collection of items from the United States Lifesaving Service, the precursor to the Coast Guard. The museum is open mid-March to mid-December Tuesday through Saturday 10am to 4pm, Sunday noon to 4pm. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for students and seniors, and free for children 6 and under. On the north side of town, the Coast Guard Heritage Museum (tel. 508/362-8521) is located at a former U.S. Custom House, which is also the former Trayser Museum building (3353 Main St./Rte. 6A, Barnstable Village). The main museum building houses displays of pre-Coast Guard groups, such as the lighthouse service, the lightship service, and the lifesaving service. The village blacksmith shop gives demonstrations daily. Also on the property is the oldest wooden jail in the country, built in the 1600s. The museum is open May through October, Tuesday through Saturday 10am to 3pm. Admission is $5.

A Celebration of African-American History

Displaying artwork and memorabilia reflecting the region's African-American and Cape Verdean heritage, the Zion Union Heritage Museum at 276 North St., Hyannis (tel. 508/790-9466), is located in the former Zion Union Church, a historic African-American church. People of color were the backbone of the whaling and cranberry industries on Cape Cod, and the museum contains a range of historic documents about well-known community leaders. There are revolving art shows and other exhibits that have in common a cultural significance to the African-American community. The hours from mid-April through October are Tuesday through Saturday 10am to 4pm, Sunday noon to 4pm; November, December, and February through mid-April, hours are Thursday through Saturday 10am to 4pm and Sunday noon to 4pm. Admission is $5 adults, $2 for ages 10 to 17.

Folk Art in Cotuit

Some 9 miles west of Hyannis in the town of Cotuit, the Cahoon Museum of American Art at 4676 Falmouth Rd./Rte. 28 (just east of the intersection of Rte. 28 and Rte. 130), Cotuit (tel. 508/428-7581), has long been a popular site for art lovers. Located in an 18th-century red clapboard house, the museum is in the former home of Ralph and Martha Cahoon, whose whimsical folk-art paintings featuring mermaids remain popular years after the death of the artists (Ralph in 1982 and Martha in 1999). The museum sponsors frequent gallery talks and other special events. It is open Tuesday through Saturday 10am to 4pm and Sunday 1 to 4pm. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and students.

Camelot on Cape Cod: The Kennedys in Hyannis Port

It's been nearly 50 years since those days of Camelot, when JFK was in the White House and America seemed rejuvenated by the Kennedy style, but the Kennedy sites on Cape Cod still attract record numbers of visitors every summer.

Images of Jack Kennedy sailing his jaunty Wianno Senior on Nantucket Sound, off Hyannis Port, form part of this nation's collective memory. The vacationing JFK was all tousled hair, toothy grin, earthy charisma, and attractive joie de vivre. Remember Jackie sitting beside him, wearing a patterned silk scarf around her head and looking like she'd rather be in Newport, where no one had ever heard of touch football?

The Kennedys always knew how to have fun, and they had it in Hyannis Port. And ever since Hyannis Port became JFK's summer White House, Cape Cod has been inextricably linked to the Kennedy clan. Although the Kennedys spend time elsewhere -- working in Washington or wintering in Palm Beach -- when they go home, they go to Cape Cod.

Meanwhile, much has changed since the early 1960s on Cape Cod, especially in the Mid Cape area. In those 40-plus years, the mall was built in Hyannis, and urban sprawl infested routes 132 and 28. Yet much, thankfully, remains the same. The Kennedy compound, with its large, gabled Dutch Colonial houses, still commands the end of Scudder Avenue in Hyannis Port.

It’s been more than half a century since those days of Camelot, when JFK was in the White House and America seemed rejuvenated by the Kennedy style, but the Kennedy sites on Cape Cod still attract record numbers of visitors every summer.

The Kennedys always knew how to have fun, and they had it in Hyannis Port. And ever since Hyannis Port became JFK’s summer White House, Cape Cod has been inextricably linked to the Kennedy clan. Although the current Kennedys spend time elsewhere—working in Washington or wintering in Palm Beach—when they go home, they go to the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, with its large, gabled Dutch Colonial houses still commanding the end of Scudder Avenue.

To bask in the Kennedys’ Cape Cod experience, visit the John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum, 397 Main St., Hyannis (tel. 508/790-3077). Admission is $12 for adults, $6 for children 8 to 17, and $10 for seniors. From June through October it’s open Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm, Sunday noon to 5pm; in November and mid-April through May, hours are Monday to Saturday 10am to 4pm, Sunday noon to 4pm. The museum shows a documentary on Kennedy, narrated by Walter Cronkite, and contains several rooms featuring photos of the Kennedys on Cape Cod. (In the basement of the museum is the Cape Cod Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum, which is free with admission to JFK Museum.)

Busloads of tourists visit the Kennedy Memorial just above Veterans Beach on Ocean Avenue; it’s a moving tribute, beautifully maintained by the town, but crowds in season can be distracting. Finally, you may want to drive by the simple white clapboard church, St. Francis Xavier, on South Street; JFK’s mother, Rose, attended Mass there daily, and Caroline Kennedy and several other cousins got married here.

As Rose once told a reporter, “Our family would rather be in Hyannis Port in the summer than anyplace else in the world.” And yours?

Hyannis

Hyannis is undoubtedly the commercial center of the Cape, and you’ll find a number of unique shops on Main Street. Sometimes, however, you just need a big indoor shopping mall, and Hyannis has got that, too: The Cape Cod Mall at 769 Iyannough Road/Route 28 (tel. 508/771-0201), full of chain stores, chain restaurants, and a multi-screen movieplex, open daily 10am to 9pm (Sun 11am–6pm).

On weekends from late May to mid-June, and daily from mid-June through September, art enthusiasts may want to visit Harbor Your Arts Artist Shanties, Ocean Street, along Hyannis Harbor. In its seven artists’ shacks, you can watch the artists at work and buy directly from them. Nearby on Pearl Street, a small arts district includes several art galleries and studios clustered together, including the Hyannis Harbor Arts Center at Guyer Art Barn (250 South St.; open noon–4pm weekends), giving a chance for the public to see artists at work. The first Thursday of the month in the summer is an Arts Stroll in Hyannis, in which galleries offer open houses and musicians serenade strollers on Main Street.

Booklovers will want to drive west of town 9 miles to Cotuit to visit Isaiah Thomas Books & Prints, 4632 Falmouth Rd./Route 28 (tel. 508/428-2752), which has a 60,000-volume collection housed in an 1850 home. Named for the Revolutionary printer who helped foment the War of Independence, the shop is full of treasures, clustered by topic. The owner, James S. Visbeck, is happy to show off his first editions, rare miniatures, and maps; you get the sense that sales are secondary to sheer bibliophilic pleasure.

Barnstable

At West Barnstable Tables, 2454 Meetinghouse Way (off Route 149), West Barnstable (tel. 508/362-2676), you’ll see the work of furniture artisans Richard Kiusalas and Steven Whittlesey, who salvage antique lumber and turn it into cupboards, tables, and chairs, among other things (old windows are turned into mirrors). Most of their stock looks freshly made, albeit with wood of unusually high quality. Pieces are priced accordingly: A dining-room set—a pine trestle table with six bow-back chairs—runs more than $4,000. When the wood still bears interesting traces of its former life, it’s turned into folk-art furniture.

Arts & Crafts

The caliber of the shows at the Cape Cod Art Association, 3480 Rte. 6A (about 1/3 mile west of Hyannis Rd.), Barnstable Village (tel. 508/362-2909), may vary -- this is, after all, a nonprofit community venture -- but it's worth visiting just to see the skylit studios, designed by CCAA member Richard Sears Gallagher in 1972. Everyone raves about "Cape light," and here you'll see it used to optimal advantage. If the setting fires up artistic yearnings, inquire about classes and workshops, which are held year-round.

Ex-Nantucketer Bob Marks fashions the only authentic Nantucket lightship baskets crafted off-island; as aficionados know, they don't come cheap (a mere handbag typically runs in the thousands). The other handmade furnishings found at Oak and Ivory, 1112 Main St. (about 1 mile south of Rte. 28), Osterville (tel. 508/428-9425), from woven throw rugs to pared-down neo-Shaker furniture, fit the country-chic mode at more approachable prices.

At 374 Main St., in Hyannis, Red Fish, Blue Fish (tel. 508/775-8700) wins the funky gift shop award, hands down. Owner Jane Walsh makes jewelry in the front window, but inside this closetlike space, every inch is covered with something unusual.

Tao Water Art Gallery, 1989 Rte. 6A, West Barnstable (tel. 508/375-0428), is a former garage converted into a very Zen-like space. It features paintings by Chinese artists as well as reproductions of Chinese antiques and jade.

Richard Kiusalas and Steven Whittlesey salvage antique lumber and turn it into cupboards, tables, and chairs, among other things; old windows are retrofitted as mirrors. Most of their stock at West Barnstable Tables, 2454 Meetinghouse Way (off Rte. 149, near the intersection of Rte. 6A), West Barnstable (tel. 508/362-2676), looks freshly made, albeit with wood of unusually high quality. Pieces are priced accordingly: A dining-room set -- a pine trestle table with six bow-back chairs -- runs more than $4,000. When the wood still bears interesting traces of its former life, it's turned into folk-art furniture.

Books & Ephemera

Named for the Revolutionary printer who helped foment the War of Independence, Isaiah Thomas Books & Prints, 4632 Falmouth Rd./Rte. 28 (near Rte. 130), Cotuit (tel. 508/428-2752), has a 60,000-volume collection, housed in an 1850 home. The shop is full of treasures, clustered by topic. Owner/expert James S. Visbeck is happy to show off his first editions, rare miniatures, and maps; you get the sense that sales are secondary to sheer bibliophilic pleasure.

You should be able to find just about any book you're looking for at the big chain bookstore: Barnes & Noble, 769 Iyannough Rd. (at the Cape Cod Mall, on Rte. 132), Hyannis (tel. 508/862-6310).

Clothing

Catching the wave of the popularity of everything "green," there is Shift Boutique, called a "conscious" clothing company and offering wonderfully hip fashion statements made of organic cotton and other eco-friendly products. The store is located at 535 South St. (near the intersection of Main St.), Hyannis (tel. 508/775-2652). Considered one of the top second-hand clothing stores on the Cape, Plush & Plunder, 605 Main St. (on the west end of Main St.), Hyannis (tel. 508/775-4467), is great fun for browsers, especially those who enjoy the search as much as the find.

Food

Cape Cod Potato Chips, 100 Breed's Hill Rd. (at Independence Way, off Rte. 132), Hyannis (tel. 508/775-7253), really are the world's best. Long a local favorite -- they're chunkier than the norm -- they originate right here. Free 15-minute factory tours are offered Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm in July and August. Call for off-season hours. Cape Cod Beer (tel. 508/790-4200), at 1336 Phinney's Lane, in Hyannis, gives free tours of its brewery on Saturdays at 1pm and Tuesdays at 11am.

Home Decor

As a Nantucket innkeeper whiling away the winter, Claire Murray took up hooking rugs and turned her knack into an international business. At Claire Murray, 770 Rte. 6A, in West Barnstable (tel. 508/375-0331), hobbyists can find all the fixings for various needle crafts, including kits, and advice as needed. Those of us with little time on our hands can just buy the finished goods, from sweaters and quilts to the signature folk-motif rugs.

Flowery pastels are the hallmark of Joan Peters, 885 Main St. (in the center of town), Osterville (tel. 508/428-3418), favored by the Town & Country set. She designs a wide array of compatible fabrics and ceramics -- right down to the bathroom sink, if need be -- so that it's easy to achieve a pervasive, light-splashed look that doesn't appear too overtly matched and mixed.

Seafood

The best place to buy fresh seafood in the vicinity of Hyannis is Cape Fish & Lobster, at 406 W. Main St., in Centerville (tel. 508/771-1122). This is where the top restaurateurs in Hyannis get their seafood. The prices are reasonable, and the catch is the freshest in town.