Among the earliest nationally known personalities to enjoy the Hyannis area was President Ulysses S. Grant in 1874. Some years later President Grover Cleveland visited Hyannis port. During the 1960's the eyes of the world focused on Hyannis when native son John F. Kennedy ascended to the Presidency of the United States.  In 1925 Joseph P. Kennedy of Boston and his wife, Rose, rented the Malcolm Cottage in Hyannis port, which had been built in 1902 as a rambling clapboard home with green shutters and a private beach. Three years later, the Kennedy’s purchased the house and hired the original architect, Frank Paine of Boston, to remodel it. An addition doubled the size to 14 rooms and 9 baths and included a motion picture theater in the basement, the first private theater built in New England. By 1932 the Kennedy family had grown to nine children, and the summer home saw the comings and goings of Joe Jr., John, Rosemary, Eunice, Patricia, Robert, Kathleen, Jean and Edward. Their days were filled with swimming, sailing, tennis, touch football and picnics. President Kennedy later spoke of Hyannis port as a special place "where no two summers were quite the same."

In 1956, while he was serving in the United States Senate, John F. Kennedy purchased an adjacent residence that later became the summer White House. Other family members also bought near-by houses, and the "Kennedy Compound" was formed. The homes are still summer residences for many members of the Kennedy family, and in recent years Sydney Lawford, Maria Shriver, Kara Kennedy and Caroline Kennedy chose the site for their wedding receptions.

One of our favorite places to visit in the northeast is Nantucket.  Nantucket was a port-of-call for transatlantic packets and coastal vessels from the early 1800s and, indeed, ranked third only after New York and Boston as a major port. When the whaling era ended, commercial shipping gave way to recreational boating. Daily excursions from the mainland on the graceful old steamers brought a new breed to Nantucket – the summer visitors. The first generation of "developers" on Nantucket sang the praises of pure air and saltwater bathing for health and pleasure. They built cottages and summer houses, advertising them in the Boston and New York newspapers. Island housewives took in summer boarders and great hotels were built in town, as well as on the seashore at Brant Point, Surfside, and Siasconset.   It was not until around 1880 that the American tradition of summer vacations was firmly established, and it was then that Nantucket was discovered to be just about the ideal spot for vacationing. Once entrenched, tourism became the principle source of income for island residents. It still is, and in the last two decades Nantucket’s tourist season has extended from before Memorial Day to after Columbus Day. Increasingly, visitors are also attracted by the quiet beauty of the off-season, and can be assured of finding comfortable accommodations no matter what time of year.

Another must visit spot is Martha’s Vineyard.  Great events shaped the history of Martha’s Vineyard in the second half of the 20th century and made the Island famous around the world. There was the accident at Chappaquiddick in 1969, the filming of the movie Jaws in 1974, the purchase of land by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in 1978, the visits of the late Princess of Wales and the President of the United States in the 1990s, the plane crash off Aquinnah that killed John F. Kennedy Jr. in 1999.  For a time, it felt as if the Vineyard had no more story to tell of itself than could fit into a three-minute segment on Entertainment Tonight.  But the true history of Martha’s Vineyard is a story laced with drama and contradictions. In one sense, it is a recent history, for the Vineyard is the newest piece of real estate in the geologic evolution of New England. In another it is one of the oldest histories, for the Vineyard remains the home of the some of the first settlers in the northeast, both Indian and English. It is a story rooted in the Atlantic adventure of fishing, the global adventure of whaling, the labor of farming, the booms and busts of resorthood. In his book Martha’s Vineyard – an Elegy, written by the late Everett S. Allen (once a columnist for the Vineyard Gazette), Hattie Tilton, of an ancestral Vineyard family, said: “I imagine everything that ever happened on earth has happened on the Vineyard at least once. And some things twice.”

Another spot to visit is Montauk on Long Island.  Montauk is surrounded by water on three sides and is close to the Gulf Stream which has a great and favorable influence on the local climate. Generally, the temperature is 10 degrees cooler in the summer and 10 degrees warmer in the winter than the Metropolitan area, which has the effect of extending the summer season for all who live in and visit this land's end community.