With its impressive engineering, its succession of bridges, the concentration of traffic, even the streetlights lining its banks, the Canal possesses a quirky industrial charm.

Plymouth has a working waterfront in the modern sense: whale watching, charter fishing, restaurants, motels and shops all cater to the town’s visitors.

After Thoreau visited in 1850, he declared Provincetown “the most completely maritime town that we were ever in.”

Sandwich is two distinct places: the Boat Basin at the east end of the Cape Cod Canal, and the town itself, a mile or so away along the coast towards Provincetown.

Its central location in Cape Cod Bay – an easy day from Plymouth or the Canal, from Provincetown, or from Boston Harbor – makes Scituate a nearly automatic stop on any regional itinerary.