Winter Walks on Cape Cod

Paula & Tim Miller
The Carriage House Inn

Most everyone knows that there are plenty of fabulous things to do on the Cape in the Summer time. Number one is relaxing on its magnificent stretches of beaches. Winter provides a time for more soul searching and quiet introspection. The beaches are still a wonderful place to walk in the winter but here and in subsequent blogs I will focus on some other great walks around the Cape that are easy and also provide some fresh air to keep cabin fever at bay.

The Salt Pond Visitors center at the Cape Cod National Seashore, is just a short 20 minute drive from the Inn, and is a great place to start. The Nauset Marsh trail head begins right at the visitor’s center. At the trail head there is a detailed map with descriptions of highlights of each portion of the trail. At only 1.3 miles it is easy for everyone even the most novice trekker. The trail circles a portion of a salt pond where I saw black ducks cautiously negotiating the thin ice that covered the pond scattering as I approached. The salt or kettle pond was formed when glaciers retreated and left huge chunks of ice behind and formed large depressions in the earth when they melted. Ponds were formed when the water table rose. These are common all over the cape. Red tail hawks, herons and wild turkeys are also around at this time of year. About halfway up the trail, you come upon a glorious overlook with views across the marsh out to Nauset Beach and the Ocean. This is one spot where Samuel de Champlain moored during his 1605 voyage. Apparently it was a huge bay at that time and has slowly filled in with marsh grasses over the centuries. The trail then curves back to the Visitors center through red cedars, black oak, white oak and the winterized skeletons of bayberry and rosehip bushes.

Back at the Visitors center, there are some excellent exhibits and several different 12 minute movies to watch. In the winter the movies are shown on demand so no waiting. I watched sands of time which illustrated the geologic history of the Cape. This is a great way to start or end a walk to get some insightful meaning to this lovely stroll.

Lobster Rolls, Chatham Cape Cod

Paula & Tim Miller
The Carriage House Inn
Chatham Fish & Lobster – The Winter Lobster Roll Fix



Being mid-January, most of our favorite seasonal spots for lobster rolls are closed. We needed our fix though. The answer came in Chatham Fish & Lobster, the combo fish market and small restaurant located in the Cornfield Plaza on Rt 28 in Chatham.
Upon entering the clean space you are met by a big display case of prepared entrees and sides. That was not what we were after. We wanted fresh seafood. Three booths are to the side surrounded by displays of food items for sale, a small but pleasing casual atmosphere. Their menu is on a blackboard as well as a special board.

We honed right into the Lobster roll which they describe as fresh, steamed daily, lightly tossed in mayo for $17.99. It was hard to choose another item because there were several different interesting grilled sandwiches such as Blackened Tuna Caesar wrap or grilled salmon or swordfish sandwich. They also had the usual suspects under fried seafood along with now ubiquitous fish tacos, the west coast invention that every place on the east coast now have on their menus. We finally chose the Fried Scallop Caesar $8.99 from the special board and for good measure a cup of their lobster corn chowder $5.99.

The lobster corn chowder was creamy and great depth of flavor. Our only complaint is that we would have liked bigger lobster chunks in the chowder rather than the more shredded pieces that were in it.

The lobster roll did not disappoint. It came on the traditional New England style grilled roll overflowing with big sweet chunks of lobster meat only lightly dressed with mayo. Absolutely delicious. We give it 4 ½ starfish. We would order the potato chips next time as the side of cole slaw was not up to the caliber of lobster roll. The fried scallop Caesar was gigantic. They served 11 big fat fresh sea scallops nicely fried on a large Caesar salad. We admit that we were really only after the scallops but tricked ourselves into thinking we were being healthy by having the salad with it.

Overall this place works because you have the restaurant side getting the freshest seafood due to market adjoining it. Because Chatham Fish and Lobster is open year round and 7 days a week we can get our Lobster roll fix anytime. Winter hours are 9:30am – 5:00pm.

First Night Celebration Cape Cod

Paula & Tim Miller
The Carriage House Inn


2009 has come and gone. To set the stage for a wonderful new year, Chatham put on its 19th annual First Night event. This is the only First Night on the whole Cape. Chatham and all the volunteers put on a jolly good show. The day starts out with the annual Chatham Town picture where citizens from Chatham pose at the Lighthouse for a big group picture. I wouldn’t want to be the one getting hoisted up in the crane to shoot the photo. The afternoon is filled with fun events for young and old alike. You could see opera, rock, bluegrass at many venues located in local churches and the new community center.

Fortunately the drizzly weather did not deter the throngs of people to attend this year. Going up and down Main Street you see as many people strolling the sidewalks as you would in the peak of summer. You could view an ice sculpture of a shark, food vendors at various locations, horse & carriage rides. A quick peek into the Squire and you saw folks still in their outlandish costumes from the Carnival Caper Road race, a run that took place earlier from the Squire to the Lighthouse and back. One of the most intriguing was the gloombox, a box that people could stuff with symbols of their woes and problems from 2009 such as broken promises, bad report cards, bounced checks etc. The box was then paraded down in the noise parade with people tooting horns and banging pots down to the bonfire at Oyster Pond. The box was set ablaze sending all past problems up in a wisp of smoke!

Music and festivities continued until the fireworks at midnight and the dropping of the illuminated “Countdown Cod” with the traditional countdown to the stroke of midnight and the New Year. Our cod is much more interesting than a plain old ball in NYC.

Restaurant Review: Impudent Oyster Chatham

Paula & Tim Miller
The Carriage House Inn
The Impudent Oyster restaurant has been and is a Chatham institution for 37 years, initially the Oyster was a fisherman’s bar and local hangout serving just a bit of food and mainly a local watering hole. Then in the mid 1980’s the owner Peter changed the restaurant to a fine dining establishment open for both lunch and dinner and they have been extremely busy and successful ever since.

A few weeks ago they put out their new winter menu and we just had to try it. The Impudent Oyster is known for its large portions so we were glad to see several half orders available on items such as Pesca Fra Diablo, Sole and Crab Francais and Linguine with Clams. Some notable new items that piqued our interest were the Lobster Mac and Cheese and The Kobe Beef Burger. Without a doubt the Lobster Mac and Cheese is our new favorite menu item at the Oyster. At $14.00 it is an excellent value as well. It is served in a shallow gratin dish with loads of lobster blended with elbow macaroni and a creamy béchamel sauce. We counted no less than 8 claws plus lots of other nice sized morsels of lobster. We also loved the crunchy panko bread crumb topping. The Kobe Beef Burger ($16.00) was pretty good. It is served on a brioche bun which tended to fall apart. This burger is best to eaten with a fork and knife rather than out of hand. While it is a good burger I can’t say that the Kobe beef made it any better. The truffle fries that are served along side are out of this world, salty, earthy and flavorful. They of course still have a large special sheet in addition to the regular menu each night with other fabulous offerings.

With a nice variety of excellent food and good service it is no wonder that the Impudent Oyster is busy even in the off season. We have been back several times just for the Lobster Mac and Cheese! The Impudent Oyster is open for both lunch and dinner 7 days a week!

Carriage House Inn Awarded Chatham Garden Club's 2009 Beautification Award

Paula & Tim Miller
The Carriage House Inn

The Carriage House Inn was recently honored at the Chatham Chamber of Commerce’s annual dinner meeting with the Chatham Garden Club’s 2009 Beautification Award for small scale landscaping. The garden club of Chatham was founded in 1968 by 29 women who met to form the club. From the start the Club helped to make the town bloom. They are responsible for beautification of many places in our town. The club came by several times this summer and took pictures that are now displayed in the nicely framed award.
Truth be told, we were really excited and proud to receive this award as we do all our own landscaping with the exception of mowing the lawn. Tim has gotten to be quite an expert with the electric hedge trimmers and I have really grown found of pink and white impatiens and hydrangeas, as both flowers do extremely well in this climate. We both feel like the garden could be even better if we just had a few more hours in each day to devote to one of our favorite past times, but then breakfast would never get made and the laundry would pile up, so we sneak out to the garden whenever we can.

A big thank you from the both of us to the Chatham Garden Club!

Chatham Restaurants-Del Mar

Paula & Tim Miller
The Carriage House Inn

Restaurant Review – Great Deal and Good Food at Del Mar Restaurant, formerly Roo Bar’s of Chatham

Housed in a former Friendly’s building on Main Street in Chatham, Del Mar is the newest restaurant incarnation at this convenient location. Just a 5 minute drive from the Carriage House Inn, Del Mar offers up a wonderfully eclectic menu and contemporary atmosphere. The main part of the restaurant has a comfortable bar to eat and /or have a beverage. The front part of the space is all big comfortable half round booths. There is also table seating opposite the booths. In the summer they have a large covered area which probably doubles the size of the restaurant and is great for large parties.

We have loved the fabulous selection of appetizers and wood fired pizzas for a quick delicious meal for months. Our all time favorite appetizer is the Oysters Rockefeller-fire roasted with bacon, spinach and Sambuca cream sauce- I think it’s the Sambucca cream sauce that makes them taste so great! What brought us here this time is the remarkable prix fixe deal they have going on now. For 18.00 – 20.00 you get a 3 course meal with a choice of soup or one of the several salads, entrée and dessert. This menu features nice selections such as Pan Roasted Salmon, Seared Tuna Au Poivre and Herb Roasted Chicken, and the entrees changes nightly.

We tried the white bean and escarole soup and Caesar Salad for starters. Both were very good and a good size. For entrées we chose the Mac and Cheese with pancetta and grape tomatoes. This was made with orrechiette pasta, fresh herbs and a nice amount of toasted breadcrumbs. It was homey, comforting and delicious. Paula had the pan roasted salmon on top of a grilled vegetable Israeli cous cous salad with arugula and lemon vinaigrette. For dessert we had a chocolate torte with raspberry sauce and the chocolate chip cannoli both were delicious and rich. All in all Del Mar is wonderful food for an even better price, and it’s currently open 7 days a week for dinner.

Cape Cod's Secret Beach

Paula & Tim Miller
The Carriage House Inn

Bound Brook – Wellfleet’s Secret Beach

After reading an article in Coastal Living Magazine on secret beaches around the US, we began telling our adventurous guests about this spot. The few souls who found it would come back expounding on how beautiful the beach and dunes are. We did not have a chance to find the beach for ourselves until this week (October) and boy what an unbelievable slice of the Cape. Located down almost a mile of dirt and sand road on the Cape Cod Bay side of Wellfleet, Bound Brook beach is not as convenient as the other National Seashore beaches but so worth the trip due to the natural beauty, isolation, and it’s free!

It isn’t marked by the large brown and cream signs of the other beaches in the National Seashore so you definitely need a good map-we can supply one. The only sign is a small one pointing the way to the Atwood Higgins House. It looks as if you are going down a private road but you are not, just stay the course until you get to a small sand parking lot with room for about 5 or 6 cars.

Looming in front of you are 50 foot high dunes. You can hear the distant sound of waves. Hike up over the two hundred yard stretch of dunes, and from the top of the dunes and the view is deep blue sea, dunes and beach that stretches for what seems like miles. You get a great view of Provincetown to the North miles off in the distance with the spire of the Pilgrim Monument. We settled down in one of the hollows of the dunes, slightly protected from the breeze but still a fabulous view of beach and water and we dozed and read books for the entire afternoon. There are few footprints in the sand just the circular etchings of the dune grass and the clean smell of an ocean breeze. The entire time we were there we never spied another human being. When you get hungry you can head to Wellfleet and eat at some of the best restaurants on the Cape, the Wicked Oyster and Mac’s on the harbor! If this Secret Beach is of interest to you ask us when you arrive and we will show you just how to find beach paradise!