Cape Cod Is So Pretty That I'm About To Choke You With Pictures

So I went to Cape Cod last week for a nice relaxing vacation from my stressful job. You know, I had to get away from all that constant work travel. Right. That's a picture of me and a hermit crab during low tide in Provincetown. Anyway, my family on my Dad's side is from the Cape. My Grandfather owned a grocery store in Osterville until it burned down and then afterwards moved to Cedarville, which is right by the Cape Canal. I have many hazy and fond memories of visiting Cedarville as a kid, including Christmas Eves with my cousin Karen gleefully listening for Santa on the roof and lazy Summer days at the lake down the road. At the time, we lived in New England ourselves, in Connecticut in the really early days, and in Brockton, Massachusetts for several of the later years. In fact, until we moved to PA, I sported that thick Massachusetts accent in which 'R's are ignored if not dropped entirely, and Pee Wee's Big Adventure was a wicked awesome movie. Sadly, I lost it pretty quick after moving to Ligonier, PA, where I had to learn to wrap my tongue around such western PA oddities as 'Y'uns' and pierogies... ah, the lost treasures of our youth.

So anyway, it was really nice to drive up the cape... Eastern Massachusetts has that incredible mix of smells of cedar pine and sea salty air blown in from the ocean. There is some truly invigorating air there. I stopped at Plymouth and saw the Mayflower! Well, the Mayflower II, actually. It's a replica, but a really good one.

Right around the corner from the Mayflower II was Plymouth Rock, but I didn't get to see it because they were renovating it. Yes, you read correctly; they're renovating a ROCK. Sheesh. I did see the rock as a child at least, but it's as hazy as all my other memories. Probably because it's just a rock and not actually particularly interesting. But I did get a picture of a nice Asian family who had come all the way to see it and were similarly disappointed yet determined to come away with something:

The worst part is, the Pilgrims didn't actually even land here first. They first arrived in Provincetown, and got into some skirmishes with Indians. So they upped anchor and made for Plymouth instead.

Apropos of not much, I snapped this shot of a screaming hawk not far outside of Plymouth:

I also took a drive through Cedarville and tripped out when I found the street my Grandparents used to live on... thanks to a call to Dad to help me out with directions. Everything is exactly as I remember it, only it's gotten smaller. The lake beach that I used to play on, which was enormous when I was six, seemed rather cramped this time around. I also took a drive through Osterville after crossing over onto the Cape; and although I never really was there much, it was nice to see where we came from, and where I'd probably be living had Williams' Grocery Store never burned down. Ah, the lost alternate realities of our youths.

Here's a sea snail, trolling about under water during low tide.

At any rate, I spent the majority of my time on the Cape in Provincetown... turns out, it's somewhat of a Gay Haven up there. Didn't know that when I booked my hotel... ah well. I figured it out when I got up my first morning there to go get some food at a nearby bakery, which turned out to be a Gaykery. They had teddy bear cookies decorated with icing leather chaps and candy button nipple clamps. Of course, I didn't notice that right off, I was just feeling like Provincetown was a very nice place, and everybody was so friendly and the large bearded man that seemed to run the shop gave me a free container of cherries to go with my food and I was thinking, "Wicked awesome! What a friendly place! Everybody here seems happy and genuinely nice! Is that supposed to be two guy teddy bear cookies?! Holding hands...? Oh..."

Well, suffice it to say that during my two day stay there, I received more attention than I generally feel comfortable with from men, but about the same amount as usual from women, which is to say, very little. But it's a thoroughly enjoyable town nonetheless. It's an odd mash-up of things: An old fishing and whaling village on the most venerable area of land in the US, which also has quite a history of participation in the Arts. Here's a harbor picture of the town:

I got this picture on the way in from going out on a Whale Watch. I had gone on a Whale Watch with my family many years ago when I was really young, but this is one of those times where it was even better than my childhood memory of it. I'm going to show you too many pictures of whales now.

Totally sweet. It was like we hit the motherload of whale towns.They were jumping and bouncing around all over the place. In fact, for those of you not too sick of whales by now, I took a video. I apologize in advance for it though; There was so much going on, and I kept trying to move the camera to catch stuff and the boat was rocking quite a bit, so that in essence I wound up missing a lot. Sorry. But there are still one or two good things to see here:

It was the 'Sunset Whale Watch', which meant that we came back in to town in the evening, allowing for a few gratuitous Cape Cod shots. This is the actual very tippiest tip of the Cape itself.

And here's another shot I like of Provincetown. The tall thing there is the Pilgrim monument. I believe that the residents like it so much because of the Phallusy of the thing.

And that's pretty much it. I mean, I spent some time on the beach, but even in June the Cape Cod water is BRRRRRR Cold! I braved it for a little while, and you do get acclimated to the frigid temperature after a bit, but even so. I did see a seal having lunch from a school of fish right off of the shore... that was pretty cool. You don't see that too often off of other beach towns. The big dark spot is the school of fish, and that's a seal head poking up there.

And here's my parting shot; the wake of the Whale Watch.

**I've uploaded the rest of the pictures from this trip over on my smugmug site in two new galleries; Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA, and Provincetown, Massachusetts, USA. Also, I uploaded a bunch of Frank Lloyd Wright pictures in my Chicago, Illinois, USA gallery which I'd inexplicably forgotten to add before.

Comments

[Miss Luongo]

In the alternate reality where there are Williams' Grocery Stores all up and down the Cape, can Al Gore be finishing his 8-year run as president and my book (on the bestseller list since 2006) be coming to theaters near you this summer?

[Keith]

I have similar memories of the Cape, though mine are probably fuzzier than yours. I vaguely remember the Mayflower and Plymouth rock, both of which underwhelmed me after seeing them. Perhaps I would have greater appreciation for them now.

I also remember that whale watching trip of old, though my memory focuses more on how much the boat was a-rockin' than the whales.

I also recall seeing Return of the Jedi in the theater with Granddad one weekend, and a Red Sox game with him and my dad. And I have a fuzzy Christmas memory of you having some cool flying toy that I was insanely jealous of. Good times.

Thanks for the pics to jog those few memories I have of my visits with family on the cape.

[messiestobjects]

@ Miss Luongo: Oh, your book will be coming to a theater near you in this reality. As far as Al Gore goes, he is definitely finishing up his 2nd term in the reality where I inherited a chain of grocery stores. And gas is only $1.50 a gallon and Baghdad is NYTimes' top pick tourist destination for the coming Winter.

@ Cousin Keith: I wasn't sure if you guys were old enough to remember those halcyon days... Return of the Jedi, huh? Crazy. I was in 6th grade when that came out I think? That was '83, so damn, 25 years ago. I'm old. How long since Grandpa and Grandma moved to Cincinnati?

[messiestobjects]

Oh, I don't remember the flying toy. I bet it was wicked awesome, though.

[Karen]

I also remember the whale watching trip - I think I got sick. But I would so love to go again now! I'll have to do that one of these years... I wish I was able to travel as much as you are.

I also have memories of that nice old lady across the street from our grandparents, what was her name? She always gave us these cheap toys that we loved (windmills I remember). And I remember playing croquet in the yard, and your Mom throwing me in the ocean (which totally freaked me out) to help me learn to swim.

[messiestobjects]

Ha! Yeah, Mom was scary like that.

Mrs. Higgins! Many a fond memory of going over there hoping to get windmills. Ah, so easy for the old to make the young love them. I would have gotten a picture of her house to send you, except that there were two houses right next to each other that looked pretty much exactly the same, and I couldn't remember which one was hers.

The croquet with Grandpa was awesome, one of my favorite things to do there. He sure was fun.

[Sarah]

Hey Mike! Yeah, my memories are pretty much nonexistent of times spent on the Cape, but I definitely remember the lake beach. The cape is one of those places that I would LOVE to travel back to...maybe one of these years. :) LOVED the whale video, BTW. It's been soooo long since I was on a whale watch. It must be great to be able to do so much traveling...are you going to Grandmother's 90th b-day party? It's been forever since I've seen you!

[Keith]

IIRC, they moved to Cincy in 1984. I would have been only 5 when I went to the movies with Granddad, and that was probably my last trip to the Cape.

I've got a business trip to Boston this fall--I should probably try to get over to the Cape then. Probably too cold for the beach in the middle of November, though.

[Gary]

nice shirt.

[messiestobjects]

Hey Sarah, nice to see you! I don't know about Grandmother's yet... I find out about two weeks ahead of time when and where I'm getting sent for work. I'd like to go though... sounds like it's gonna be a bash for the ages... ;)

Keith, you should definitely hit the Cape. The Cape rules. Go to Provincetown... they have the best Teddy Bear cookies there. :) But seriously though, as far as Roots go, it's the best we're going to do as Williams'. We're descendants of Portuguese Pirates and Horsetheives who changed their names in order to obscure their sordid past, leaving us in the dark about our true legacy, after all.

Dankeschone, Gary! Mein T-Shirt ist hohe Art und moden!