Chris and Patti volunteered to take Rudy while we were gone, so on Friday we drove to their house to drop Rudy off and begin our trip. We drove about 3 hours to Norwalk, CT and stopped for the night. After driving we really wanted to stretch our legs, so we walked to some stores near out hotel and found this restaurant. They made delicious pizza on organic wheat crust. We will be finding an excuse to drive to Norwalk again some day just for this pizza!
Saturday morning we woke early and headed toward Massachusetts. As we got ready to go, we checked our phones and saw from facebook that our hometown, and surrounding areas, had been hit by a big storm with many trees down and power outages. We nervously wondered about our house - we have many trees, some old. And so as we drove, we attempted to contact family members who live locally (but power was out, so that didn't work) and worried some more about our house. We finally were able to get in touch with a friend who went to our house, sent us pictures showing everything was ok, and even went in and retrieved food from our freezer. Later that day we heard from other family members and everyone had fared well, although most were out of power. It made our trip a little stressful as we worried about what was going on back home.
Staying in Connecticut was great because we were able to make it to Cape Cod by early afternoon. Right before the Sagamore Bridge, is a scenic viewpoint for the canal. It was a good excuse to stretch our legs and get some fresh air before the last hour of our trip.
We took a short trail down to the water to find these birds sunning themselves (I think they are cormorants).
And we saw a big barge going down the canal.
The first, of many, self-timed pictures.
After checking into our hotel, Chateau Provincetown, we walked downtown and looked for lunch. We stopped here and had the first of our delicious meals in Provincetown.
This was our view from the restaurant.
After lunch e walked around a while and then went back to the hotel to swim for a while. On the way to dinner, we walked away from downtown to check out a breakwater that went across to a light house. The rocks were all flat and easy to cross, and we went more than halfway across just admiring the views.
Then we walked down to search for a place for dinner. At this point it was almost 8 so we figured we would have no problem getting a table. We were wrong. Most places still had about a 40 minute wait.
Finally, we stumbled upon this restaurant. We got the last table available and had another great meal.
It was funny when we walked into this restaurant, which was pretty small. Except for the woman that seated us, I was the only female in the place. It was an odd feeling at first, and I think we both wondered if it was okay that we were there, but another woman did come in a little while later.
Sunday morning we decided to rent bikes and take a ride. We were told there was a paved path that was about 10 miles total. We packed a lunch and headed out. Here we are taking a water break. You can see a small tunnel behind me that we had ridden through.
Another self-timer picture.
Our bikes and a gorgeous view over the dunes to the ocean.
Still smiling (maybe about halfway done at this point).
We stopped at the Visitors Center and went up to the observation deck where we could see the ocean...
... and back into town toward the Pilgrim Monument.
Our view across the bay to other parts of Cape Cod.
The view back to Provincetown across the harbor.
The beaches in Cape Cod are very different from the ones at home. The sand is small rocks, and some larger ones. It's nice because it brushes off a lot easier than the fine sand at home, but...
..the rocks go out a few feet into the water which makes it very painful to go in.
As you can see along the water there are several feet of rocks on the beach and then about he same in the water.
Paul made it into the water, I just couldn't get past the rocks, and had a relaxing time swimming and floating.
Paul relaxing on the beach.
After about 2 hours, we were ready to head back, so we caught the next shuttle. This is the view, as we left the beach, of where we had been sitting.
A houseboat in the harbor.
As our shuttle took us back, we were informed that it was low tide, and so the shuttle couldn't go all the way in. So we had to go from our shuttle onto another one. Then from that shuttle, we eventually had to walk the rest of the way in through the water. This dog had a great time walking through the water as we headed back to the dock.
This is the second shuttle we took. The driver had to then pull it back out to deeper water before turning the motor back on.
As we walked in through the shallow water, Paul spotted a crab. We were very careful where we walked for the rest of the way.
We came back at a good time, because a thunderstorm was heading in. We showered and relaxed in our room until the storm passed and then walked to dinner. After our bike ride, we didn't feel like doing much walked, so we went to a restaurant right at the corner by our hotel. When we walked in, they asked if we had a reservation. We told them no and they told us they could fit us in, but they needed the table in an hour and 15 minutes, so we had to be done by then. The waitress told us the platters were smaller than usual and we should order 3 or 4 to share. This was probably our best meal on vacation. we had Caesar salad, bread, lobster rolls and seafood cakes. None of it was bad.
We took a short walk after dinner, and Paul took more pictures of the scenery.
We bought some wine and dessert and headed back to our hotel to relax.
We could see the sunset from our balcony.
On our last morning we took a Whale Watching tour. Dolphin IX was our boat.
Another view of Long Point from the boat.
This is Woods End Lighthouse - the one we could have reached if we crossed the breakwater.
Our first whale spotting - a minke.
The best whale sighting - humpback mom and calf. Our boat followed them for about 30 minutes. The calf (jumping here) was very active and playful. It was amazing to see them just feet away from our boat.
We also saw some fin-back whales which were very long and sleek.
After the boat ride, we ate here for lunch. Good food, nothing special.
We walked around and bought some souvenirs. The Purple Feather Cafe is the only place we ate at twice. Once the day we arrived we stopped in and had sorbet, then after the whale watch we stopped in again. Paul had a sorbet and I had a frozen strawberry drink that was so refreshing.
We had heard there was a beach where seals came to during low tide. We were a little late for low tide, but o check it out anyway. It was a good walk over sand to get there.
The seals were no longer on the beach but many were still floating in the water. All we could see were their heads peaking out of the water.
We were early for our full moon dune hike, so we the Visitors Center, this time via car, and watched some sunset views.
We had signed up for a dune hike. The dunes are huge and the sunset over them was beautiful.
Most of the hike was on paths, but we did still have to walk up some of the dunes.
The full moon was rising as we walked.
At least we also walked down the dunes.
Paul found this friend as he walked. It was an odd places to see a frog, in the middle of sand.
After a great, but exhausting dune walk, we went back to our hotel. We left early the next morning to come home. Our trip home was almost exactly 8 hours from when we left Provincetown. We were afraid a lot of people would be traveling on the third, but it wasn't bad at all. It was a brief trip but a fun one. We have decided that we will never be vacationers who sit by a pool or on the beach. We will almost always come home tired from our very active vacations!
Fortunately our power had been restored, but we had to empty our fridge and freezer, and the next day empty Paul's mom's fridge and freezer, once her power came back on.
