Main Street. Hyannis MA

Main streets in tourist destinations tend to be places where people kill time between meals, and Hyannis, Massachusetts is no exception.

Tourists flip flop their way past shops selling nautical knickknacks while cars break suddenly for coveted two hour on- street parking. It’s a hot Thursday afternoon in late August. Another summer is coming to a close in this village on Cape Cod.

A part truck / part boat amphibious vehicle called a Duck Tour rumbles by. It’s half filled with wide-eyed tourists hungry for stories of yore. The guide gurgles out points of interests over a mid-twentieth century intercom causing passengers to squint and cock their heads in an effort to decipher what was said.

Nowhere is safe from tacky trinkets novelties

Main Street in Hyannis is considered the downtown of Cape Cod. It’s a mile long, two-lane, one-way road a few blocks up from the haw-bor. Most of the activity; the shops, restaurants and the people is concentrated in a four block area between School Road and Sea Street. While there, I took the opportunity to pop into Mrs. Mitchells on Main. As expected, it’s filled with annoying beach accessories: signs that say “”This is my happy place;” “At the beach we do beer o’clock and wine thirty;” a myriad of fashion options with the words “Cape Cod” emblazoned on them: and wooden bins of Clorox-white seashells and starfish that were likely harvested off the coast of Belize rather than nearby Nantucket Sound. At the register, a clerk assists a grandparentish couple with bagging their purchased trinkets that will make a momentary detour to their home before lending up on trash bin a few months later. The inevitable fate of most souvenir purchases.

Hyannis is kind of named after lyannough who was a sachem or chief of the Cummaquid Indians during Pilgrim times.

I leave with a handful of memories and walk a block west where there is a bronze statue of an Indian atop a rock. It looks like he’s just watching the traffic ease by. In his left hand is a pipe with a carved bear clutching the chamber. His right hand rests on his right thigh, two fingers showing as if he’s signaling a pitcher to throw curve ball. A carved stone near the statue’s base identifies him as lyannough, (no cap “L” by the way.) It turns out that the village of Hyannis is named after him. He was a sachem or chief of the Cummaquid Indians during Pilgrim times. Lyannough + Sachem + Cummaquid = Hyannis. It doesn’t seem like a logical way to arrive at the name Hyannis.

Historic records say that lyannough helped locate the son of Mayflower passenger John Billington who wandered away from Plymouth in January of 1621. The pilgrims thought lyannough was personable, gentle and courteous. Two years later, their opinion of him changed evidently because they decided to attack his tribe and chased him into nearby swamps where he died of exposure. As a result, he kind of has a village named after him that still gets invaded by white people.

Hyannis, Mass is better known as the vacation spot for America’s royal family: the Kennedys. Their summer home or compound as it’s called is located three miles from Main Street. A block up from lyannough is the JFK museum that’s located in a stately red brick building. I made it as far as the vestibule where there is painting of JFK in all of his casual, beach-going, JCrew splendor: polo shirt with upturned collar, Khakis, windswept hair and sunglasses.

I chose not to fork over the $10 admission price and thought to myself it would’ve been more appropriate for the museum to charge a Kennedy half dollar. Unfortunately, I didn’t see a suggestion box for my brilliant idea. An existing museum goer squeezes by and comments to his wife was just a lot of pictures and movies that he already saw on the History Channel.

Ten dollars saved means ten dollars extra for dinner. Food options run the gamut on Main Street. Asian, Peruvian, Italian, Mexican, and of course good ol’ American Seafood. Broiled, fried, grilled, or raw, you can get it here. One interesting item that makes its way to the seafood menus here is item called a Quahog. Think minced clam, mixed with bread crumbs and spices and cooked to a lava-like temperature where it’s served in a clam shell. The dish is about as tasty as its name.

I merge with the other throngs on sidewalk and walk past businesses called Naked Oyster, Common Ground Coffee, Seaside Selection, British Beer, Puritan Cape Cod and Fresh Ketch. At Torino’s Italian restaurant, with its bright red umbrellas and trendy outdoor bar, a guitarist in need of a few cough drops strums through his rendition of Margaritaville. I chose to call it a night and pay my respects lyannough one more time with a pat on the shoulder. In the distance, the ferryboats moan their horns after a long day of transporting visitors to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.