They're chasing decades-old vacation memories. Sometimes they tell us we're the first place they come on their first trip to the Cape in years. Warren goes out of his way to employ the high school-aged kids of his former young scoopers. They work hard, too, dishing up as many as 2,000 cones a day. But people still come here for the same reasons.
Many families settle in at the beach for the summer.
Some, like Marian Oost-Lievense, are lucky enough to spend the summer with her children, just as she did when she was a child. More come for a week or two, renting a cottage or motel efficiency unit, more than doubling the population to 500,000, often renting the same place. No wonder savvy Cape-goers sew up their rentals by February. The kids never get bored. You can rent bikes and bike trailers, and there are bike trails everywhere, including the famous Cape Cod Rail Trail that stretches 40 miles from Dennis to Wellfleet through marshes and cranberry bogs.