The Cape trip was amazing. I cannot believe that it was my first full week of vacation in over a decade. It was well worth the wait.
We made some stops on the way up, starting our trip with a stop at the Hot Chocolate Sparrow for frozen hot chocolate (they made a vegan version that was better than the original, according to J).
We got to the cottage and were so happy to see that it was exactly what we'd hoped for - cozy, quiet, a short path to walk to the beach... perfect.
Our first full day was a bike ride to Provincetown where we walked around and explored for a few hours before taking the bikes on a path around the outer cape, across a few beaches and over what felt like a never-ending series of dunes, to Race Point Beach. Here we were greeted by the first of many signs we would see throughout the trip warning of recent shark sightings. We were only somewhat surprised to see that no one was really swimming, just a few close-to-the-shore waders. We watched the seals swim by and hung around for a bit before heading back to P-town. After some more wandering, pizza for dinner, sorbetto, and sunset, we headed back to North Truro.
The next morning we decided to check out the private beach that was only steps away from the cottage. We brought the full gamut of beach-in-style supplies - giant beach blanket, umbrella, beach chairs, towels, a cooler packed with cold brewed iced coffee and lunch, and two kindles. We planned to just spend the whole day under the umbrella enjoying the total relaxation of reading by the sound of the waves. We were so happy to find that there was no one around for at least a good half mile in either direction. We stayed until just before sun down, ran back to the cottage, made a delicious dinner on the grill, and then made it back to the beach in time to watch the sun go down, with some chilled white wine and sweatshirts.
Tuesday was an adventure day. We packed up our bikes and headed to the Cape Cod National Seashore to explore the beaches. We picked up a bike path that took us to Head of the Meadow beach which turned out to be our favorite beach of the whole trip. Nice big waves, icy cold water and some nice big patches of smooth sand. Dream beach. There was the added benefit of occasional seals swimming by, which would clear out the water and leave the swimmers standing along the shore pointing and exclaiming about how cute they are.
After a few hours a very big renegade wave cut our trip short when it traveled up the bank and over to where our gear was stashed. Our clothes, towels, beach blanket, and packs were completely soaked. This was the first time I was truly thankful that I zip-bag my phone for every beach trip. J's waterproof pack was perched on top of mine and negated the impact of the small tsunami. We cleaned up as best we could and packed up our now water-logged and insanely heavy belongings and headed back toward home on the bike trail.
A shower and trip to 141 in P-town for kitchen supplies and J whipped up a kitchen/grill masterpiece, complete with red wine.
Wednesday brought us back to P-town for a day of fun. I ran into an old friend who owns a great little shop down on Commercial. We spent some time catching up. It was a really nice surprise. Then we went whale watching where we saw so many more wales than I thought we would have! Once we got going, it seemed like never ending sightings of Minkes, Humpbacks, and even an Orca, which had the naturalist leading the tour very excited. He said it was his first Orca sighting since he started leading the tours several years ago. After the watch, we went back to town, had a tasty vegan dinner at Tiny's, delicious banana and raspberry sorbetto at the Purple Feather, and spent the whole night wandering around and taking in Commercial Street.
Thursday we returned to Head of the Meadow, via bike trail. We packed the umbrella on my bike, which was much easier to transport than I imagined it would be. We were smart and settled our stuff farther up the beach, just in case of any more of those renegade waves. We spent most of the day there, completely in love with everything about the beach. Toward the end of the day we witnessed a group several yards in front of us fall victim to the out-of-sequence monster wave. Within a half hour it had attacked close to a dozen beach blankets.
We made friends with a little girl named Alli who adopted us as her best beach buddies after a gust of wind nearly blew her beach umbrella away and J saved the day. She stood at our blanket and told us stories about all sorts of things from the little seal she rescued who kept coming back to her after she set it free in the water, to the miniature horse she kept in her pocket. She was a cute little thing who love tall tales almost as much as she loved yelling at her little brother for running too close to peoples' blankets. (very thoughtful for such a wee one)
Friday we attempted to recapture our first lazy day on our own beach. The sun was not working with us and after a few occasionally uncomfortable hours of trying to hide from the incredibly hot sun beating down on us, we realized that we should go make new fun instead of trying to re-live past funs. (sometimes we're wicked smart).
We went back to the cabin, showered and headed back to Ptown for our last night on the Cape.
We found a great little Mexican restaurant that made delicious vegetarian food, had some sangria, wandered Commercial Street, finished up our gift buying for friends and family, and just enjoyed each others' company. It was perfect.
Once we got home we were completely beat and feeling ready to return home to our home and our dogs. Just before I climbed into bed I turned on my phone's wireless, syncs and notifications (I shut them down every time we left the cabin to preserve the battery). A large influx of happenings flooded through including a few texts from my friend in Ptown. She was at a bar with her friend John Waters, they were getting ready to see a band she had told us about when we'd visited a couple days earlier. She wanted us to come meet her and she wanted to introduce us to John. I felt so bad sending the reply that we had just gotten home from the exact area where she was and we were so sleepy that we were heading to bed. She said she was bummed but we'd get together next time.
The next day we loaded up the car, said goodbye to our beautiful little cabin by the beach and hit the road. We got home fast and were greeted by J's parents who graciously took on the role of house/doggie sitters while we were gone. We visited, relayed some stories and then started looking through photos from our trip. I made a quick visit to facebook to post a photo and an update from my friend Maria caught my eye. She was also in Ptown and was excited that she'd just seen John Waters walking around Commercial Street. It wasn't until that moment that I connected my friend's friend John Waters with the director John Waters (who is known for spending time in Ptown). When I mentioned it to J he couldn't believe we went to bed instead of heading back out to say hello.
On the bright side, I got a photo of a whale jumping completely out of the water.
We jumped back into our vacation-free reality head first. After a quick nap we headed into Providence for a friend's show.
It felt like we'd never left.
