The Red Chair has been receiving, and deservedly so, increasing press exposure on its Cape Cod Vacation and the travels and adventures it has encountered. The Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism became intrigued and posted a special guest-blog from Simon on the Red Chair Travels.

Learn what more The Platinum Pebble had to say about the Red Chair by checking out the MOTT guest blog

Red Chair Looks Out Across Nantucket Sound

This month The Platinum Pebble played host to an honored guest from Wood’s Hole, Cape Cod – The Red Chair.

The Red Chair has left its home at The Wood’s Hole Inn (escaping the commotion of the incredible renovation work that’s going on there) and set about traveling the length and breadth of Cape Cod and its islands staying at some of the wonderful inns and indulging in the Better Way To Stay of a  Cape Cod Bed and Breakfast whilst enjoying the beautiful Cape Spring weather.

Find out what the Red Chair had to stay about its eventful stop in Harwich at the Cape’s new boutique inn, The Platinum Pebble. Quite an adventure was had!

Click here for the story -  Red Chair Travels

Being foreign “washashores” opening a unique, contemporary inn on Cape Cod, life was always likely to be easier if we could avoid making the locals restless. We needn’t have worried…
The neighbors within whose midst we have dropped have been our greatest champions and support system. In much the same way that you can’t choose your family, with neighbors you get what you get. You simply breath in and hope that the bloke next door doesn’t a) believe he’s a reincarnated Keith Moon, b) wear a hockey mask and answer to the name Jason or c) start all his sentences with “you don’t want to do that..”
We have been incredibly fortunate with the group of characters who make up our immediate neighbors. On one side, taking care of our spiritual needs, we have a local Baptist minister who, naturally, is called John.  John the Baptist greets us warmly each morning with his lovely family and frankly doesn’t appear to be a man who would ever lose his head.
On the other side we have Cape Cod royalty! The family Chase has been on the Cape since the 1600’s when ”Great Uncle Billy” arrived off the boat from the UK. He was a little surprised at the time as he had thought he’d got on the cross-channel ferry so that he could do some duty free wine shopping in France.  Many generations later we arrive at our neighbor Phil, whose generosity and enthusiasm are without bounds. We talk over the fence like Tim & Wilson from TV’s “Tool Time” peering at times through the cracks in the fence. A fence upon which, in the summer months, he places home-grown vegetables for us and across which he passes bottles of the latest micro-brewery beer he’s discovered to help me in times of guest overload!
Further down the road is the local antique shop, “Back in Tyme”. This is where Barb & Rich hold court. I’m not sure on exactly how old Rich might be, but I have the feeling that he’s older than most of the antiques he sells. That said I wasn’t going to say no when he offered to help dig the holes for the trees I planted last spring. It doesn’t matter how old you are, a little bit of exercise and fresh air is always good for you and I’m sure the hernia he suffered that day was a pre-existing condition. Rich has run a multitude of businesses across the state and he remains adamant in his advice that we could have doubled our business if we’d only thought to put microwaves in all the rooms! Forget the free WiFi and the iPod stations apparently what a discerning guests craves is a microwave in the bedroom.
Behind us, at the back of our woods, are Melissa and her Reaching Heart Studio, where she gives dance, ballet, pilates and yoga classes. An open-mind is always handy when asking an artistic type for ideas.  After a seemingly innocent question to Melissa on what I could do to bring our businesses closer together, I found myself hacking my way through the woods building a “fairy” path to her studio.  This was a task that I had to improvise as all Google searches for “How To Build A Fairy Path” brought zero results.
Directly opposite are Penny & Joe. Joe provides regular tennis sparring during the summer as I beat out any frustrations. We zip around the court like Gerulaitis against Borg in the classic 1977 Wimbledon semi-final. Although those who’ve witnessed our athletic dueling have suggested that geriatric might be a more fitting description than Gerulaitis. Penny & Annabelle walk each morning to the beach discussing the twists and turns of “Revenge” and coming up with grand landscaping schemes, which I’m now convinced is simply a strategy to keep Joe and me in hard labor ad infinitum…
A final very warm mention goes to Mairead & Bob who were the first to welcome us and have shown us the most wonderfully kind hospitality. A Guiness is always available at their house along with the latest news on life on the Cape and the happenings at Harwich Junior Theatre. Just don’t ask Bob about Whitey!
We’re very happy to be able to call them all friends and thank them all for making our move to Harwich, Cape Cod so smooth.

Safe travels,
Simon

When guests at our Cape Cod Bed and Breakfast, The Platinum Pebble, ask us for exciting ideas on activities to pursue during their vacation on Cape Cod we frequently get questioning looks when we tell them to “take a hike”. But our apparent bluntness is, in most cases, actually a friendly call to action to pull on the walking shoes, grab the trail map and head out to explore the many different landscapes and trails that can be found on Cape Cod. This is a year round activity that offers different perspectives of the landscape with the changing seasons and different flora, fauna and bird-watching for each time of year. In Harwich there are trails at Bell’s Neck Conservation Area and Hawksnest State Park. The trail at Bell’s Neck is a very short walk from the inn so is perfect for our guests.

Here is some information on our ten favourite hikes on Cape Cod:

Fort Hill & Red Maple Swamp Trail, Eastham
The trail can be accessed at Fort Hill opposite the Captain Penniman House. The 1.5 mile loop offers spectacular views of Nauset Marsh and out toward the Atlantic surf rolling into Coastguard Beach. The tail winds through a red maple swamp, which sits in an old kettle pond. Great for plant and bird watching.

Nauset Marsh Trail, Eastham
This popular 4 mile hike starts at the National Seashore Visitors Centre at Salt Pond. The trail meanders alongside Salt Pond (look out for Ospreys in Summer!) and Nauset Marsh and takes you right down to spectacular Coastguard Beach.
Nauset Marsh is a prime feeding area for migrating birds so different times of year will bring a variety of birds to the area. It’s also one of the top kayaking areas for Cape Cod so gets busy during the peak season in the summer months.
The trail is fairly flat and takes about 3-4 hours to complete.

Great Island Trail, Wellfleet
This is a more demanding but extremely rewarding hike. It takes 4-5 hours to complete the 7.2 miles. The trail covers salt marshes, dunes and upland forests as you walk across Griffin Island, Great Island and Great Beach Hill. The trail area is on a sand spit that runs between Wellfleet harbor and Cape Cod Bay. On clear days you can see across the bay to Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown.

Atlantic White Cedar Swamp, Wellfleet
A short (1.2 miles), shaded trail in the National Seashore area that is ideal for a summer hike as it is mostly wooded. Keep an eye out for the many woodpeckers and chickadees in the forest. The far end of this loop is close to the Marconi station site, which is definitely worth a visit.

Bell’s Neck/Herring River, Harwich
This trail is just round the corner from The Platinum Pebble and is a gentle 1.8 mile walk. The trail is shaded and runs alongside the Herring River, a large reservoir and some of the famous Harwich cranberry bogs. Great for bird watching with Ospreys sometimes on view in the Summer.

Hawksnest State Park, Harwich
The trail runs through a state park and covers a large forest and a number of beautiful kettle ponds. The forest contains swamp azalea, white oak, black oak, beech, maple, pine, oak, sassafras, laurel, pepperbush and shadbush.This is 2.4 mile moderate hike that takes under 2 hours to complete.

Pilgrim’s Spring Trail, Truro
This is a short, 0.7 mile, and easy walk. It covers dune, forest and marsh and takes you to a site where the Pilgrims took their first sip of fresh New England water.

Morris Island Trail, Chatham
This trail is part of Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge and offers some of the best bird watching on Cape Cod. The Monomoy Refuge is a designated World Bird Conservation Area. You’ll see plovers, ruddy turnstones, yellowlegs, terns, dowitchers, sanderlings, sandpipers and many more seabirds and wading birds. Much of the trail is on boardwalks and the landscape is ever-changing as wind and storms move the sand and dunes.

Nickerson State Park, Brewster
The Silas Road loop is a 4 mile hike through the forest of Nickerson State Park. A variety of trees, shrubs and birds will keep you occupied. This is a busy trail so is best done in the off-season.

Beech Forest Trail, Provincetown
This easy walk loops 1.2 miles around a freshwater wetland and through a secluded beech forest. This is a great location for spotting warblers, catbirds, chickadees and kingbirds. The beech forest is one of the only wooded areas on the Cape’s sandy tip near P-Town and is therefore a big birding area. The boardwalk section takes you alongside the vast system of sand dunes that this area is most famous for.

So if someone you love has told you to “take a hike” then look no further than Cape Cod and a visit to a Cape Cod Inn like The Platinum Pebble, and get hiking!

Safe travels,

Simon

Well it had to be said that, weather-wise, things had been going quite swimmingly on Cape Cod. We were well into January and winter temperatures had hardly dropped below freezing. There’d been no frost to speak of nor indeed any snow to scrape off the car. Perhaps global warming could result in the season for our Cape Cod Bed and Breakfast, The Platinum Pebble, stretching all year!
Then last Saturday I woke up, a reassuring way to start the day I find, and was greeted by a blinding mass of thick, white flakes parachuting out of the sky to settle on the ground. As we had guests staying at the Inn, it meant that somebody was going to have to brave the cold and shovel the paths and driveway and to be honest I wasn’t optimistic that the Missus, bless her cotton socks, was going to pull on her designer wellies and get shoveling.
So off I went and, with my innkeeper’s smile firmly in place, started clearing the paths, which, as it continued to snow for the next 12 hours, is in fact what I did for the rest of the day.  I did find it a tiny bit irksome that every time I’d cleared the snow from the mouth of our driveway not 10 minutes later a local snow-plow would shoot past and unceremoniously dump snow back in the driveway. Let me tell you, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that snow-plow drivers aren’t out to mess with you mind!
By the end of the day we’d been “blessed” with not quite a foot of snow.  It can’t be denied, even by an old cynic such as I, that there is something about snow that stirs fond childhood memories and brings a smile to one’s face. So we did indulge our childhood spirits and walked down to the beach at the end of the road to watch the waves rolling into the snow covered beach and throw snowballs into the surf.
We also threw caution to the wind and convinced the neighbors that, as we’d be denied a white Christmas, and even though we were half-way through January, that the Christmas lights should go back on in celebration of this festive white blanket. So in West Harwich the “Occupy Belmont Road” splinter party created their own rebellion and, ignoring the traditional calendar of “no Christmas decorations after Epiphany”, brought some magic and twinkling lights to the snowy landscape on Cape Cod.

If you fancy coming to Cape Cod in search of the snow that will undoubtedly return before Winter’s up, please give us a call at The Platinum Pebble, a truly rare find on Cape Cod!

Safe travels,

Simon

Running a Cape Cod Bed and Breakfast has a rather embarrassingly long list of perks, many of which formed part of our “well I‘m glad you asked me that” speech when inevitably asked “what the hell are you thinking/drinking?” by skeptical friends back home when we broke the news of our venture; the long sandy beaches, the mountainous surf rolling in from the Atlantic, the ethereal light in Autumn &Winter, celebrity spotting in Summer, short drives to Boston and New York City, more golf courses than you can shake a putter at, not waking in the middle of the night in a cold sweat over the demise of the Euro, etc. But one additional surprise has been the bounty of exceptional restaurants at which to fritter away our hard-earned cash. Clearly a top tourist destination such as Cape Cod would indeed warrant a suitable number of dining possibilities but the high standard of these establishments here on the far easterly edge of the USA is exceptional.

Flawed as any “Top Ten Restaurant” list must be by virtue of the different types of cuisine they offer and the different markets/wallets at which they aim I am throwing caution to the wind (which I failed to mention is, in Summer,  a wonderful warm south-westerly trade wind breeze – not unlike the Caribbean).

So here we go:

Chillingsworth, Brewster
To my mind the top restaurant on Cape Cod serving the highest level of gourmet cuisine that would be at home competing with the top restaurants in Boston and New York City. Pat & Nitzi Rabin consistently produce supreme French cuisine and all accompanied by an excellent wine list.

The Ocean House, Dennisport
The Ocean House is one of the few restaurants on Cape Cod that actually has a water view and the restaurant is perched right on the beach of Nantucket Sound. This is also the only restaurant on Cape Cod that has a city vibe that creates a great dining atmosphere. Janet has steered this establishment to the top of the pile on Cape Cod and the Asian influenced menu has no weak spots. The Bento box selections are always superb. To have this fine dining star at the end of the street from The Platinum Pebble is a great bonus, if a little dangerous for the waist-line!

28 Atlantic
A great restaurant with the most stunning water view. This elegant  fine dining restaurant looks out across Pleasant Bay and is located in the only 4-star resort on Cape Cod, The Wequassett, right here in Harwich. The service and food are always impeccable. Price-wise this is at the high end but you get what you pay for and the food, presentation and setting are first-class.

Bucas, Harwich
Undoubtedly the place to go if you are hankering after Italian fare. The Tuscan inspired menu transports you back to an authentic Italian Trattoria. To simply feast on the fresh anti-pasti alone is worth paying a visit to Bucas. Entrée portions can be large but can you have too much of a good thing?

The Oyster Company, Dennisport
This great more casual restaurant, less than 0.5 mile from our inn, serves up excellent seafood especially the fresh oysters farmed daily on Quivet Neck in Dennis, Cape Cod. Jim Dings, the chef, has returned to the Cape after executive chef positions in New York and Philadelphia and created an excellent and consistently strong menu.

ABBA, Orleans
Although space is limited in this small restaurants it’s worth getting a table as the food on offer is a unique blend of Mediterranean, New England & Thai. This is where to come to find food combinations that may offer something new to your palate.  The steamed mussels in coconut are sublime.

L’Alouette, Harwich
This wonderful French bistro run by Alan & Gretchen continues to build its reputation. The menu is French inspired but works with only local ingredients. Service is top-notch and very knowledgeable if you’re having trouble navigating the great selection of French wines.

Cape Sea Grille, Harwich
Another restaurant that will deliver the highest quality of seafood dishes. The atmosphere is relaxed and quieter than some Cape Cod restaurants. Located in a sea captain’s home and a short stroll from both Harwichport center and from the beach this is a very popular fine dining spot in the Summer.

Delmar, Chatham
This bistro/restaurant has one of the best atmospheres of Cape Cod restaurants. The restaurant is always lively and has an open kitchen so you can watch the chefs working their magic. The thin crust pizzas here are the best on Cape Cod. The restaurant doesn’t take reservations so  you can have a long wait in the Summer.

Mac’s Shack, Wellfleet
The best seafood bar/shack/restaurant on Cape Cod. It’s reputation is well-deserved and no trip to Cape Cod can be considered complete without stopping in at Mac’s for seafood.

Safe Travels,

Simon

Cape Cod is one of the most beautiful locations and environments in the US and it’s always been vitally important that continual efforts are taken to ensure its sensitive eco-system is protected. The true beauty of Cape Cod is connected to the waters that fill its ponds, rivers and marshes and break onto its miles of sandy beaches and to the flora and fauna that call the Cape home. Cape Cod is home to kettle ponds, vernal ponds, estuaries, rivers, sphagnum bogs, marshes, dunes, grasslands, pine forests, oak forests and much more. By reducing the impact of urban development, and reducing waste, water consumption and pollution we can help to foster and protect the unique Cape Cod environment that is such a draw for our seasonal visitor (whether they be humans, birds or whales!)

A growing initiative that is helping any Cape Cod inn and other small businesses to become more eco-friendly and “green”, whilst simultaneously reducing their energy costs, is the Cape & Islands Green project.  The project is being supported by the Cape Cod Community Development Partnership, the Cape Cod Chamber and Cape Light Compact. The project dovetails well with the Cape Cod Chamber and Cape Cod tourism industry’s goal to market Cape Cod as a vacation “eco-destination”. Several Cape Cod B&Bs have now been awarded the Cape & Islands Green certification for being “green” businesses and the push is on to get more Cape Cod inns and Cape Cod Bed and Breakfasts to come onboard.  The Platinum Pebble is proud to be involved with the program and to be one of the first inns to achieve certification following behind the path blazed by Ed at the Orleans Inn and that now sees The Carriage House Inn and the Old Manse Inn among others on board and certified.

The initiative is being championed with great success and vigor by Amanda Converse, also owner of Shift Boutique in Hyannis, and her passion and energy is helping to harness the growing momentum of the scheme. For any new businesses wishing to learn about the initiative please contact Amanda or the Cape Cod Community Development Partnership or feel free to call us at The Platinum Pebble and we will happily give you feedback on the program and get you in contact with the right people.

If you’re interested in learning more about Cape Cod’s ecology you can find information on the websites for Cape Cod National Seashore and the Woods Hole Research Center.

We hope to see you here on Cape Cod in 2012 and please always give a thought to The Platinum Pebble if you’re looking for somewhere to stay!

Safe travels,

Simon

Staying at a Cape Cod Bed and Breakfast over the Christmas holidays always has a special magic. The villages and inns sparkle with fairy lights, warming fires crackle in the inns’ hearths, mulled wine is copiously flowing and unique Christmas gift ideas are to be found at every turn. This December the wondrous sounds and feel of Christmas on Cape Cod will be further amplified by the launching of the annual Brandenburg Concerts on the Lower Cape in Chatham. The Brandenburg Concerts have long been a staple of Christmas in New York with a performance every year at The Lincoln Centre by the Chamber Music Society, and that Christmas tradition is being picked up by Cape Cod.
Our good friend and fellow Cape Cod Inn owner, Jim Mellett,  has been the driving force behind getting funding, venue and musicians in place to make his vision of bringing the beautiful Brandenburg Concertos to Cape Cod a reality. Congratulations from The Platinum Pebble for a successful conclusion to all your hard work!

The event will take place on 10th December at the first United Methodist Church in Chatham and we hope that this is the first of many years of “Brandenburg By The Sea”. The Brandenburg concertos are widely recognized as some of Johann Sebastian Bach’s greatest work  although ironically it is probable that he himself never heard them performed live. The concertos were submitted as a type of job application (more impressive than any resume I ever cobbled together!) to the Margrave of Brandenburg that proved unsuccessful and they lay stored away unheard for a century.

If you can manage to make it to Chatham for the event and need a local Cape Cod Inn at which to stay please give us a call at The Platinum Pebble Boutique Inn.

Safe travels,

Simon

The day started, as all days should, with big Bertha (lovely lass) firmly in my grip and an empty fairway spreading out before me.  I was playing a round (purely a fling, nothing serious) with my good Scottish friend Angus McCoteup.  Angus had already driven off but he’d kindly left the fairway empty for me.
“Smack” – big Bertha swept an arc through the morning air and propelled my white ball out into the misty veil that hung over Cape Cod Country Club in Falmouth. There followed four hours of pure joy as we wound  our way around the eighteen holes of one of Cape Cod’s prettiest golf courses. Cape Cod is blessed with over 30 golf courses! But the Cape Cod Country Club is one of my favorites alongside Cranberry Valley GC in Harwich and Dennis Pines GC in Dennis (I’m very fickle!).

Once the golf was finished Angus and I were heading down to Wood’s Hole to meet up with the girls, Annabelle and Angus’s wife, Carrie. From there we were stepping aboard the Steamship Authority ferry and heading out for a night on Martha’s Vineyard. This was a rare chance to escape from our Cape Cod Inn, The Platinum Pebble, and treat ourselves to a mini-break with friends. The ferry pulled out of Woods Hole harbor passing a Frank Lloyd Wright-esque building that sits on the headland and then steamed out into Nantucket Sound with the local gulls trying their best to keep up. If only they’d bought a ticket they wouldn’t be in such a flap!
Once we were safely on dry land in Vineyard Haven we headed out to the old whaling port of Edgartown where we would spend our night at a wonderful local Cape Cod B&B, The Hobknob.

Edgartown has a wonderful harbor front with the Edgartown Lighthouse proudly standing on guard at its entry. As we walked along the harbor front we bumped into a couple of guests who’d stayed at The Platinum Pebble the previous night. We assured them that we weren’t stalking them but in fact as part of our unwavering commitment to stellar service we always checked up to make sure our guests were being looked after wherever they went!
You can while away hours meandering through the charming streets of Edgartown checking out the many quaint shops or looking enviously at the gorgeous houses and their gardens. It’s hard to believe that this was the film location for the fictional town of Amity in the film “Jaws”. There seem to be few horrors that can befall you here – unless you count some of the prices in the quaint shops!
One shop not to be missed is Murdick’s Fudge Shop, a very sweet way to end a day of strolling.
For dinner we checked out Atria and enjoyed some good food and several pints of the local beer from the Offshore Ale Co. brewery.

If you are visiting Cape Cod I thoroughly recommend a trip to Martha’s Vineyard and to Edgartown.  We took a taxi from Vineyard Haven to Edgartown but there are many modes  of transport for seeing the island. In the summer hiring a bike or a moped can be great fun or you can take one of the buses that regularly travel between  the towns.

Hopefully we’ll see you soon at The Platinum Pebble Boutique Inn!

Safe travels,

Relaxing at our Cape Cod Inn this weekend I was discussing with guests how the Falmouth Cranberry festival on Cape Cod must rank as one of the few events to have to announce “Event cancelled due to Lack of Flooding!”
Hoping to draw in crowds to view the annual cranberry harvest this weekend they’d overlooked the fact that farmers in Falmouth use dry-picking rather than wet-picking for harvesting their crop. Wet-picking is when farmers flood the fields to harvest their berries and thereby create the beautiful crimson lakes that are famous to all from the Ocean Spray commercials.

But all is not lost for those on Cape Cod wanting their cranberry bog fix because the best place to see the visual delight that is created by these vivid crimson fields is at the home of cranberry farming, Harwich! The cranberry industry started here and Harwich farmers still utilize both wet and dry harvesting methods. Wet harvested cranberries are the ones most likely to make into the juices that have been made so well known by Ocean Spray.

Last weekend one of our guests took the photographs that accompany this blog (thank you Marianne & Jeff!) and they provide stunning examples of why the best Cape Cod vacation spot to see cranberries is Harwich. If you do head this way and you need somewhere to stay please give our Cape Cod Bed and Breakfast, The Platinum Pebble a call!

Safe travels,

Simon