Since I'm trying to get back into the whole blogging habit, I thought it only fair to comment a bit about the adventure that Hope and I had in Provincetown during her visit out here a few weeks ago.
First of all, I had absolutely no idea what to expect from Provincetown. We really didn't know what was there, and hadn't bothered to do much in the way of homework about the place. It was something that we had decided to do sort of on a whim when we were brainstorming ideas of what to do for Hope's Boston trip. I had brought it up because in all of the eight years I'd lived in Massachusetts, I hadn't really explored much beyond where the subway would take me, and that pretty much limited me to the city. The idea rolled out of my mouth, and before I knew it we had purchased tickets online to take the Fast Ferry from downtown Boston to Provincetown which is at the outer point of Cape Cod. After buying the tickets, I got so busy that I didn't really do much in the way of research except to figure out where we needed to go to get on the boat.
We managed to get to the ferry terminal on time, got our tickets, and still had time to grab some Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast. It's a good thing too, since I think it was about four in the afternoon before we managed to find a place we could eat. More on that later. The ferry ride was only about an hour and a half, and a cold hour and a half at that. Even though it was the first week of July, we had to wear our polar fleeces for the trip. At around 9:30 in the morning we finally made it. We had arrived in P-Town.
As we stepped off the ferry I immediately felt like we were in a friendly place. One of the first people we met upon arrival was a very nice man who handed us a flyer and said, "Guys, get out of those jackets and head on up to the pool." We had no idea what he was talking about, but one can only assume that there was going to be one hell of a party up at "the pool" later. We were not brave enough to take him up on the invitation. Maybe next time.
We wandered down the pier and into what must be the central tourist district for Provincetown. There were lots of cute shops, but mostly I was stunned by the abundance of really great mens clothing stores. It was like a department store in reverse! I found a really great shirt at one of them that I came back for later.
After wandering the tourist traps for a while we found ourselves headed into a residential neighborhood which then dead ended at a beach. After getting loaded with sunscreen, we decided to venture across the breakwater to the far side of the arm that swings out at the end of Cape Cod. I'm not sure really how to describe the breakwater other than to say that it's basically a wall made of rocks that stretches out for about a mile into the bay and out to the beach on the other side of the bay from where we were. After a long and brutally sunny walk, we finally made it to the other side, and to the sand dunes which lie between the interior and exterior beaches of the peninsula.
The sand dunes at Provincetown are beautiful, but we weren't exactly sure how to get through them and over to the exterior beach. We finally found the remnants of a path and made our way through to the beach. It was absolutely breathtaking. I'd been to the ocean in Boston many times before, but it never seems to have the same effect. Maybe it's because when you're in Boston you're not really looking at the open ocean. You're looking at the harbor, and the airport, and the islands. It's just not the same.
It was at this point in our adventure that things took a turn for the worse. The author was walking along the coast when he noticed a nifty sand bar coming out of the water about 20 feet from shore. Not really thinking about how deep the water would get between the beach and the sand bar, I took off my shoes and waded across. I held my shoes and other personal items above my head so they wouldn't get wet. The water was up to my chest when I noticed that my digital camera was around my neck and sort of floating in the water. Not good. I made it to the sand bar and sure enough, my camera was hosed. I dried it off and shook the water out the best I could, but it was having problems turning on, the viewfinder was acting funny, and the buttons on the back didn't work right. Luckily, it still managed to take pictures, and was able to document the rest of the day and the rest of the time Hope was in Boston. It has since died completely and been sent in for repair. Thank goodness I bought the extended warranty!
On with the story though.
We had a great time relaxing on the beach for a few hours, and got thoroughly wiped out by the sun. We decided to pack it in and head back to the breakwater and Provincetown so that we could grab some lunch since the only thing we had eaten since breakfast was a few Goldfish crackers we brought along.
Getting back to the breakwater proved to be a near impossible task. Somehow in the process of beachcombing we got completely off course and could not find the path we had taken earlier. However, being the sturdy adventurers that we are, we decided we didn't need a path. We just pointed ourselves in the direction we thought was correct, and went off-roading through the sand dunes. Eventually, it started to dawn on us that we were completely lost and turned around. Our first sign of civilization was a couple angry looking guys with their kids that warned us that we had probably just walked through a huge patch of poison ivy while traipsing through what they referred to as the "beach forest". We suspect that they were natives, angry at our decision to go off the beaten path. Now, we're both Minnesotans, well versed in things like poison ivy. Neither of us had ever heard of poison ivy growing on an ocean beach, but we heeded the man's warning and stuck to paths from now on. We eventually found the coast again, the wrong coast. We could see the breakwater way off in the distance, much further away than we started. We decided that we should probably just be safe and follow the coast all the way back around the backside of the peninsula rather than look for a shortcut.
I'd like to say that we were home free, and we almost were, but there was one minor hitch. Somehow we ended up on the other side of another inlet from bay. It wasn't very wide, but enough that we thought we'd have to go around it or delay our lunch even more, to say nothing of the sunburn we were accumulating. It was at this moment that I felt I had no other choice but to give the inlet the middle finger and soldier on across it, completely soaking my feet and getting buckets of sand in my shoes. Hope followed my lead, and we headed for the breakwater. About two hours after we intended, we made it back across the breakwater to the mainland. We were both pretty dizzy with heat exhaustion and dehydration, but managed to stumble our way back to town and found a place to eat.
We walked into the first place that looked halfway decent, and that place was one "Bayside Betsy's". It was here that we had our first encounter with New England's famous "lobster rolls". They were much more bland than we expected, but at that point anything would have tasted incredible. We also wanted to order a couple of oysters on the half-shell, but were told that if we only wanted two that we'd have to get them from the bar. So, after finishing the lobster rolls we went up the bar and ordered a couple of Wellfleet oysters, and at the urging of the bartender, got a couple of littleneck clams to go with them. The littlenecks left a lot to be desired, but the oysters were delicious. We can now say that we've eaten Cape Cod oysters at Cape Cod; quite the accomplishment.
After the lunch and oysters we wandered around town the best we could, but the sun had really taken a toll on us. We were dizzy and tired. Going into buildings made us feel like the world was spinning. We picked up the shirt I had found earlier and also stopped for some fudge, hoping to recharge our batteries. Even the fudge couldn't save us. We found the nearest park bench and just sat and rested until it was time for us to go back to the pier to catch the ferry home.
At 7:30PM the ferry picked us up to return us back to Boston Harbor. I think that for only having been in Provincetown for the day that we really took it for all she was worth. I'd definitely go back, but who knows when that will be. We got a great seat in the front of the boat, and as we rode back to Boston we were able to see the sun go down over the Atlantic with the Boston skyline in the distance. Gorgeous.
No, we never got poison ivy.