August 1: I’m back in the land of onshore flow!

For those who don’t live on the rainy side of the Cascades, that means I’m getting an ocean breeze, aka natural AC, and I am so expletive-deleted happy about it I could spit. It only got to 75dF where I am today, which, admittedly, is on Cape Cod, which means I’m surrounded by ocean, so that may have something to do with it [g].

I got kind of a late start this morning, trying to decide which direction to go, and wound up heading down to the Cape, as they say locally. Distances are so short in this part of the world that looking at a map makes me feel like things are much farther than they should be. I’m used to looking at a map of, say, Washington, all on one page, but putting something 400 miles across on one page is way different than putting something only about 150 miles across on one page.

The Cape Cod Canal, from a viewpoint on the Cape side of the Sagamore Bridge.

Anyway, so I arrived at the Sagamore Bridge about eleven in the morning, and crossed the Cape Cod Canal (which technically makes the Cape an island, but whatever). First I took what was marked on the map as a scenic route along the edge of the bay, but I never did get a glimpse of the water from it (I mean, why else would it be marked scenic? – mostly what I saw was a lot of trees and little shops and stuff), so after lunch in Hyannis, I got onto the main highway and made time to the “real” Cape, which to me is Cape Cod National Seashore.

I stopped at the visitor center at Salt Pond and got myself oriented, as well as asking where to camp. Turns out the National Seashore does not have campgrounds of its own, and the private campgrounds on the Cape are expensive. I’m paying considerably more for a campsite here than I paid for my motel in Williamsburg. Which is just Wrong. It is a nice campground, though, with showers and laundry facilities, among other things.

The ocean side of the Cape, from where Marconi sent the first wireless transmission between the U.S. and the U.K.

I’d never seen white wild roses before, but they were all over the place at the Marconi walk.

This is knapweed, which is lovely and all over the place on the Cape. Too bad it’s considered a noxious weed.

One of the beaches on the ocean side of the Cape, with lots of sunbathers.

Cape Cod Lighthouse. There are over half a dozen lighthouses on the Cape, but this was the first one — or, rather, this is the one they rebuilt in the 1850s after the one from the 1790s burned down or something.

This small Fresnel lens was inside the keeper’s quarters of the Cape Cod Lighthouse. The original — first order! — lens was destroyed!!! when the lighthouse was automated, which was a horrible crime, IMHO.

This afternoon I drove all the way to Provincetown, stopping at a couple of places along the way (although I intend to do some more exploring in that direction tomorrow), including a lighthouse and another visitor center, as well as several beaches and the place where Marconi sent the first wireless signal from the U.S. to the U.K. (yes, I know he sent a signal from Canada to the U.K. before that, but still [g]). I really love this place, in spite of the summer crowds, and in spite of the fact that swimming in the ocean is not my thing (it seems really weird to me, AAMOF, but then I’ve been living for 23 years in a place where swimming in the ocean without a wetsuit, no matter what time of year it is, will give you hypothermia).

It’s so beautiful here. The dunes are a surreal landscape, the lighthouses are charming, and even the busy little tourist towns are cute. I’m glad I decided to stay two nights here, and I’m looking forward to doing some more exploring tomorrow.

The sky from the Province Lands visitor center near Provincetown. The skies are amazing here.

The Race Point Lighthouse at the very tip of the Cape, taken with all the zoom my little camera could muster.

Mirrored from M.M. Justus -- adventures in the supernatural Old West.

August 2: More lighthouses, more beach, more plants, more everything seashore

This morning I got a fairly early start, and, after a quick stop at a grocery store, I headed back north along U.S. 6 (the Cape’s backbone highway). The advantage of getting up and out before eight in the morning is that the roads aren’t crowded.

My first stop was at Nauset beach and lighthouse, the parking lot of which was full by the time I got to it yesterday. The sky was gorgeous this morning, and while the lighthouse itself wasn’t open to visitors, it was still pretty, perched up on its cliff where it had been moved back not once, but twice in its 150 years of existence.

A whale’s jawbone gate and a weird-looking house near Nauset Light.

Salt marsh and water at Nauset.

More cool skies over the Cape.

Nauset Lighthouse.

I then went for a hike at Great Island, on the bay side of the cape, which looks very different from the ocean side. The trail was about four miles long, but I don’t think I went more than a mile and a half or so one way. Part of the trail crossed a huge dune, and it’s really hard to walk on all that loose sand. On the other hand, the sand is this lovely golden color and the views were pretty amazing.

Salt marsh and water at Great Island.

The next thing I knew I was back up in Provincetown, where I ate a picnic lunch. It started to rain just as I finished up, which was good timing, and I thought I’d like to go and see the Pilgrim monument and its associated museum. I didn’t count on everyone else thinking that would be a good idea on a rainy day, too, and it was impossible to find a parking place within a reasonable walking distance, so I had to bag that. I did manage to get a picture of the monument, which is by far the tallest thing in Provincetown. This is where the Pilgrims landed before they decided it probably wasn’t the best place to start a colony and went on to Plymouth.

The Pilgrim Monument at Provincetown.

Provincetown is also the gay mecca of New England, and is famous for its drag queens and nightlife and so forth. All I can really tell you about that is that there are rainbow flags everywhere there. I liked that. The Pilgrims are probably spinning in their graves ululating at high pitch, to quote Lois Bujold (she was talking about Beta Colony and John Knox, IIRC), which amuses me vastly.

My last little hike for the day was at Pilgrim Heights, a few miles south of Provincetown, which, in good national park tradition, was a nature trail with plant labels. I saw bayberries and Virginia creeper and oaks and pines – and a little red berry with no label! I’m going to have to look that one up. The berries look like currants, but the foliage looks like plums. I’m wondering if it’s beach plum, but if it is, people make jam out of it, and, wow, it would take a gazillion of those tiny things to make just one pint.

Whatever this is, it doesn’t look like Googled photos of beach plum.

Bayberries, the stuff they make candles from.

The trail at Pilgrim Heights.

After that, I was chilled (yes! really!) and damp, so I came on back to my campsite and read for a while.

Tomorrow I will say good-bye to the Cape, after stopping in Hyannis to visit the John F. Kennedy museum, and drive up and around Boston to Lowell, Massachusetts, which has some history I want to explore, and to meet up with Ann from the Bujold list at an eggroll restaurant for dinner.

Mirrored from M.M. Justus -- adventures in the supernatural Old West.