Every May, Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha's Vineyard wake up after a winter slumber. Thousands of padlocked restaurants and shops are opened and aired out for a busy summer season. Visitors come for the beaches, lighthouses, lobster, shopping, and arts. Two main routes run along Cape Cod. 6A. One called Old King's Highway runs parallel to the northern coastline and is packed with gift and artist shops and traditional New England-style bed & breakfasts and inns. Route 28, further south, connects to the beach areas overlooking Nantucket Sound. The waves tend to be bigger along the southern coast, and the Hyannis area is where many of the Cape's nightclubs are located. The Cape Cod National Seashore, a 90-mile federally protected stretch of coastal land, trails, and beaches, runs from Chatham to Provincetown.
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