A Day at the Cape

I finally made it to Cape Cod. I've been putting it off for a year now. I just knew the drive was going to be horrible and that there wasn't going to be anything but really snooty people to contend with, I mean, we ARE talking the Cape here. Well, I have to admit that I was wrong.

I had decided that if I was going to fight the horrendous traffic, that I was going to stay the entire weekend. However, the rooms there are SO expensive--I could only find a 1 1/2 star hotel for less than $150, and I wasn't about to pay that much money for a place I'd be scared to stay in by myself, so on Friday night I decided to just go for the day.

I woke up bright and early, and headed out the door around 7 a.m., trying to get an early start on the traffic. It paid off. I stopped at the rest stop just this side of the canel that locals consider signfies the true beginning of the Cape. It was beautiful even at the canel (as you can see from the picture). I decided that if I was going to go to the Cape, I was going all the way to the furthest point--Provincetown--so that I could say I've seen the WHOLE Cape. It took me about 3 hours to get there (the Cape is much longer than I thought). I arrived around 10 a.m., and decided to take a trolley tour to get the lay of the land.

A picture of the farthest point on the cape (Long Point):

Provincetown is absolutely adorable. Very quaint. It's known as an artist colony, so there are hundreds of restaurants and shops, but also cute little homes everywhere. The trolley tour took us all over town giving the history--Provincetown is the place of the Pilgrim's REAL first landing (see picture of Pilgrim Monument)--plus drove us through the National Beaches. I did learn that the majority of the Cape is believed to have been formed by glaciers during the ice age, but Provincetown rose up out of the ocean, so it's the only place on the Cape that does not have any natural fresh water sources, so they have to pump water in from further down the Cape. Interesting, but I think you could really tell--when I ordered soda at lunch, the soda had a TERRIBLE flavor, that I theorize was because of the water they mix with the fountain drink syrup.

After that, I walked all over town, checking out all of the little shops, checking out nooks and crannies. I found this adorable little outdoor bistro and grabbed an AMAZING chicken sandwhich...even the cranberries they put in it were grown locally. There are several cranberry bogs on the cape.

One thing that I DIDN'T like about Provincetown was that there were SOOO many good looking guys, but it became quite clear almost immediately that they were all gay. Provincetown, I remembered after I got there, is known as being a huge gay community. There were signs up all over town about it being "Bear Week", which I later learned was a gay term for hairy men. Lovely, right? Luckily for all of you, I have chosen not to share pictures of THAT. :) Anyway, the nice thing about this versus the time that I accidentally wound up at Six Flags on Gay Pride Day was that there were no freaky gay people in Provincetown. Everyone was dressed & acted like normal people--no bad stereotypes...well, except for the music...they really do listen to a lot of Judy Garland and Barbara Streissand. Oh well!

After tramping around town for about 4 hours, I decided to head over to the National Beaches to hike around and see what I could see. The landscape is mostly dunes because the natural vegitation had been removed by early ship builders. It was SOO hot, so I spoke with the park rangers, and wound up doing a little over 2 miles of hiking...mostly down to the beach. I walked down to one of the historical Life Saving Stations (these were the pre-cursor to the Coast Guards). Over a 30 year period, there were over 3,000 shipwrecks over 30 miles of coast and these stations saved over 153,000 lives and had a 98% success rate due to the dedication of the men that worked the stations. It really is cool (see picture below).

Overall, I would say that my day at the Cape was a great success! I think I'll even go back so that I can take the ferry over to Martha's Vineyard sometime this summer. Just another weekend to look forward to!