Provincetown, MA

As usual, Jonny brought Archie for a walk on the spoil island near Onset first thing on Tuesday, July 23. Our planned destination was Provincetown. Surprisingly, this was the first time we’ve gone to Provincetown by boat so we were looking forward to it. It was a very foggy morning when we took off at 8:15 and we had to keep the radar on for most of the four hour crossing. Fortunately the seas were calm and there wasn’t a lot of boat traffic.  I had one of my Zoom Spanish lessons that morning but the connection on the open water was interrupted so much that we had to end it midway through. 

We arrived by 12:30 and decided to anchor rather than take a mooring because the moorings were so expensive, even more than in Nantucket.  The harbor was quite busy and the skyline is noteworthy for the famous Pilgrim Monument commemorating the Mayflower’s first landing in the New World in 1620.

After eating lunch we took off to explore Provincetown tying up the dinghy by the main town dock with its array of colorful shacks selling all kinds of touristy items. 

Walking into the bustling town center, we could turn either right or left on Commercial St.  

Spotting the Visitor’s Center, we turned right and received some good advice from the guide there. He strongly recommended that we check out the nearby historic library and walk up to the second floor where the Rose Dorothea, a half scale replica of the great 1905 fishing schooner, was suspended above the entire second floor space. They had to adapt the room to allow the bowsprit to extend beyond the window. It was quite an extraordinary sight!

From there we walked up Commercial Streeet past a number of galleries, shops and lovely colorful homes and cottages. We stopped for coffee and later headed back to Zendo.

We decided to stay in PTown another day so we could do more exploring. That night we had kielbasa for dinner with the leftover cabbage from the night before. A traditional combination!

The next day we headed into town for more exploring and this time walked up Commercial Street in the opposite direction. It was quite different on  this end - more touristy and tacky but still very entertaining. I think everyone knows that PTown is known for its large gay population and that was apparent everywhere one looked. Rainbow flags were flying by storefronts and homes and there was advertising for the scores of drag shows all over town. Jonny really wanted to go to one but I was not as enthusiastic, so we skipped it. Maybe next time!

We had lunch at a very popular restaurant called Canteen. Most of the seating was outside but there was occasional drizzle so we were able to get a spot under cover. The food was good especially the roasted Brussels sprouts.  You can imagine that this town has great people watching. Surprisingly there were a lot of families with kids along with hundreds of gay men and some women. 

As we strolled beyond the most touristy part of town we came upon an attractive collection of homes that were more modest than yesterday’s walk.  They seemed to be homes for more everyday people, perhaps originally owned by the fisherman’s families that made up the predominant industry in town. Most of them were smaller but very pretty and well-kept.

We continued to walk a bit further to get to the nearby Stop & Shop market to pick up a few things. As Jonny was waiting to get a courtesy card, a neighbor from our condo in Miami walked up to me with his little dog Ziggy. We were so surprised to run into each other - such a small world! It turns out that Michael’s partner has a home here where they are spending part of the summer. It was so random to see each other and totally out of context.

Afterwards, we walked back through town and on to Zendo. As we frequently do when we have had a big lunch, we skipped dinner and just had some nibbles while we caught up on the news. The next day we planned to cross Massachusetts Bay heading to Gloucester, MA.