Cape Cod

Every summer my husband and I spend a long weekend on Cape Cod, just a few hours' drive from our home in western Massachusetts. Although we enjoy browsing in the many bookshops and antiques stores there and are dazzled by the breathtaking views of the ocean, we are even more enthusiastic about the fresh seafood. My spouse, an avid fan of lobster, could have it at every meal, while I love the fried scallop rolls served in many of the restaurants. In fact, each year I insist that we travel to Orleans' Rock Harbor where a modest spot on the water serves these incredible sandwiches.

Born on Sept. 12, to parents Dawn and Jeremy Benwood, of Bel Air, were Andrew Robert, 11:47 a.m., weighing 5 pounds, 7 ounces and being 17-1/2 inches long; and Austin Charles, 11:48 a.m., weighing 6 pounds, 3 ounces and being 18-1/2 inches long. The boys were welcomed home by big sister Abigail. Also welcoming them were grandparents Connie Herd, of Bel Air, Ron Herd, of Chesapeake Beach, and Susan and Bruce Benwood, of Cape Cod, Mass.

If you're planning a New England vacation this summer and get anywhere near Cape Cod, be sure to stop at the Dancing Angel and the Ryanharrt Gallery in Sandwich, Mass.These delightful shops are new additions to the Cape, thanks to an adventuresome Baltimorean Sheryl Ryanharrt, who many of you will remember from her days of acting in dinner theaters/soap operas. This is a bold move for Ryanharrt. She was at loose ends after the death of her husband, Richard Byrd, so she packed up her life's belongings in March and headed to Cape Cod to begin a new life.

A Johns Hopkins University engineering professor was arrested early Sunday morning in Cape Cod, Mass., and charged with assaulting a 61-year-old security guard who said she was attempting to break up a party. Noah J. Cowan, 38, was charged with assault and battery on a person over 60, said Sgt. Douglas DeCosta, a spokesman for the Falmouth Police Department. DeCosta said police responded to a call at the Marine Biology Laboratory, where Cowan was a visiting researcher, about 2:40 a.m. Sunday.

From: Donald DunnEllicott CityI live approximately three minutes from the Waverly Mansion and drive on Marriottsville Road on a daily basis. The proposed development called Waverly Woods is of special interest to me.However, my interest transcends the emotion of being a resident. I am in favor of the proposed development for the following reasons:* I want my children and grandchildren to have the financial means to live here. The price of a 3-acre lot near $200,000 is not even middle-class affordability.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Bob on Cape Cod, visitors who head down the Mid-Cape Highway this fall will be struck by a dramatically altered landscape. An early fall has struck, with shriveled brown leaves beginning to drift from trees and shrubs ZTC -- the result of the fierce, salt-drenched winds.Many of the fast-growing, shallow-rooted locusts planted in groves 60 or 70 years ago have been uprooted, while the frail survivors dangle overhead; groves of oak, maple and pine have been "pruned by nature," as the professionals put it. Many Cape Codders are left with unaccustomed sunlight and a decade's worth of firewood.

THE VAST majority of rockfish on this side of the continent were spawned in the Chesapeake Bay, and on a recent visit to Massachusetts I saw some of that progeny on their summer vacation. There's no way to be certain, but scientists tell us there's a 90 percent chance that the fish I saw were from the Chesapeake. So I think I'm safe. All of which provides a premise to describe a scene:A tidal creek on Cape Cod, a serpentine stream in a wide, lush marsh. The wind has picked up at midmorning, and across the sand dunes you can see whitecaps on the ocean.

WELLFLEET, Mass. -- With help from an extremely high tide and an overcast sky, volunteers yesterday rescued 21 of 27 pilot whales that became stranded in the marshes of Chipman's Cove.Since 1986, only five of the approximately 142 other whales that have beached on Cape Cod are known to have survived, so officials were trying to avoid hasty declarations of success yesterday."The whales could still turn around and beach themselves again. We'll have to be on alert for several days," said Vicki Corliss, spokeswoman for the New England Aquarium, one of fourorganizations involved in the rescue effort.

On Cape Cod, a mecca for lovers of locally dug shellfish, the menu board at JT's Seafood Restaurant boasts an unlikely message: "All our clams come from Canada." Normally, owner Bud Noyes would be hawking only the freshest local products. But not this year. Not with the red tide. Although it is still early in the season, fewer people seem to be lining up for fried strips and bellies at Noyes' clam shack in Brewster, and those who come ask the same question: "What's going on with the red tide?"

In 2001, Mike and Mary Landavere were renting an apartment in an old Victorian home in Catonsville when, after five years, they decided to search for a home of their own. "House prices were climbing every month," Mary Landavere, a freelance decorative painter, remembered. "We had to [make our] move." For the 40-year-old artist, the area and style of house seemed a clear choice. She had grown up in Catonsville and always appreciated older houses, especially their interiors. "The house had to be old," she continued, "but Mike wasn't sure, because [he]

Right now, we are being urged to complete and return our census forms. The government's lighthearted ads illustrate some of the benefits of participation in the decennial count for us, our families and our communities: appropriate representation in Congress, equitable funding for schools and adequate public health care. As someone engaged in historical research, however, the census — along with past censuses — provides another benefit for me: the ability to reconstruct the lives of Americans who lived in past decades — in some cases, more than 200 years ago. As a preservationist, I use the population schedules of earlier censuses to learn more about the owners, architects and builders of houses, schools, churches, factories, farms, bridges, cemeteries and gardens — all of the physical remnants that represent the social and cultural development of the United States.

ANNE ARUNDEL 20711 $36,000, 210 5th St, 3, 2/0, Rancher, 9/29 20724 $195,000, 3107 River Bend Ct #E104, 2, 1/0, Contemporary, 9/29 $199,900, 3345 Crumpton S, 3, 2/0, Rambler, 9/29 $259,900, 3410 Londonleaf Ln E, 3, 2/1, Traditional, 9/29 20776 $540,000, 127 Three Rivers Rd, 3, 2/1, Contemporary, 9/29 21012 $290,000, 584 Melissa Ct, 4, 3/1, Colonial, 9/28 $295,000, 1282 Masters Dr...

For a different sort of summer reading list, we asked readers for favorite books that capture the feel of sand and sea. Our own favorites include Dune by Frank Herbert, In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson and Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Satchel, Larry Tye's new biography of Negro League legend Leroy "Satchel" Paige, also promises the gritty feel of a hot, dusty infield. Here are more reader choices to transport you: * Before the Wind, edited by David Gowdey. This compilation of 25 true sailing stories covers everything from Joshua Slocum setting out to sail around the world to Ted Turner on racing strategy.

Nancy Short considers herself a blessed person and calls her little brick Cape Cod in Catonsville - the first house she has ever owned - a divine gift. "The house was on the market for $365,000, the only one I looked at," the 44-year-old physical education teacher recalled. "I was approved for a $300,000 loan and then apologized to the [former owners] for wasting their time." The owners, whom she refers to as "an angelic couple," understood how hard it was to buy a first home and sold it to her for that amount.

In 2001, Mike and Mary Landavere were renting an apartment in an old Victorian home in Catonsville when, after five years, they decided to search for a home of their own. "House prices were climbing every month," Mary Landavere, a freelance decorative painter, remembered. "We had to [make our] move." For the 40-year-old artist, the area and style of house seemed a clear choice. She had grown up in Catonsville and always appreciated older houses, especially their interiors. "The house had to be old," she continued, "but Mike wasn't sure, because [he]

BOSTON -- The cranberry, a Thanksgiving holiday icon in the New World, is bouncing back from a market slump, thanks to the Old World. Four centuries after the bitter berry was embraced by hungry immigrants who left Europe seeking a better life, the cranberry is getting a boost from new markets in Germany, France and, yes, Great Britain, where those first expatriates set sail. "It's been phenomenal," said David Farrimond, general manager of the Cranberry Marketing Committee, a quasi-public agency in Wareham, Mass.

Nancy Short considers herself a blessed person and calls her little brick Cape Cod in Catonsville - the first house she has ever owned - a divine gift. "The house was on the market for $365,000, the only one I looked at," the 44-year-old physical education teacher recalled. "I was approved for a $300,000 loan and then apologized to the [former owners] for wasting their time." The owners, whom she refers to as "an angelic couple," understood how hard it was to buy a first home and sold it to her for that amount.

The water is chilly. The parking prices are steep, at $10 a day, and so is the climb up the 30-foot dunes to get something to drink. When the weekend sun shines and the wind dies down, the sand is packed virtually blanket-to-blanket with people.And White Crest Beach in Wellfleet, on the outer reach of Cape Cod, may be the best beach you'll ever set foot on.It's not a beach that coddles you like the warm bath of the Caribbean, or spoils you like your favorite resort. It takes a sort of dizzy determination to even get your head wet.But arrive at low tide on a clear, warm day, when its sandbars and tidal pools nestle each other in a curving yin and yang of beige and blue.