Today was a great day. Except that we should have gotten an earlier start. We started off leisurely, thinking it was going to be an easy day, I think we left around 9:45. We got home at 9:30 p.m. But, in between, we went to Plymouth Rock, toured the Mayflower, took a tour with the park ranger. Then, we headed to Cape Cod, thinking that was a short drive. Huh!!! After we got to the town of Sandwich, which I think is the "elbow" of Cape Cod, we still had 60 miles to go. But go we did, and we had a lovely two hours on this glorious beach.
In Plymouth, we first drove out to the harbor, missed to the turn for the Rock. But there was a really cool piece of driftwood here. Joe said, "call Eric, tell him to bring the trailer."
At Plymouth Rock, first we took a look at the rock, which is now protected both overhead and around all sides. It is much smaller than it was originally because visitors used to get to chip away souvenir chunks. Interestingly, the Goodyear Blimp was overhead, and it kept stalking us when we were on tour with the Park Ranger.
The Park Ranger made this history very interesting. Here is a memorial honoring the immigrants who landed here.
Next, we entered the Mayflower. It seems to be a pretty small ship to carry the 102 passengers, crew and livestock for 2+ months.
There were two "period-costume" ladies and several other guides on board to answer questions.
We left Plymouth, not getting to see all there was to see, but it was time to move on (we had 3 minutes left on the parking meter). We stopped at a visitor center on Cape Cod and got some more brochures, had a bite to eat, then headed all the way to the end to Race Point Beach. Very luckily, we got to use our America the Beautiful Pass for free parking (otherwise it was either $15 or $20). So that started us out on a high note. We carried our lawn chairs over the sand dune, along with the camera, and the binoculars. Although we had swimsuits in the car, we didn't change (thinking we wouldn't get wet). Wrong. I just got the bottom of my shorts wet, but Joe got wet up to his waist, so he changed into his swimming trunks when we left to head home. Go figure.
This part of Cape Cod is a National Seashore, with great sand dunes, and lovely beaches.
Joe went right out into the water, and I followed shortly after. It was a bit brisk, but refreshing.
The guy beside us was gathering up his stuff, and he had this really cute puppy float -- I'm pretty sure Andrew needs one of these. It looks just like Ace.
No seaglass, but I have another bag of rocks. Then Joe spotted a real treasure down the beach a ways. He saw it through his binoculars! So off he went to retrieve it.
It can either be his new bobber to fish with in Florida, or a shoe hanger if he finds another one to make a pair.
There were tons of minnows swimming just off the edge of the water,
millions. We watched them for a long time, and it seemed they were
never-ending. Then, as we began to think about leaving, some seals
showed up to feed on these little bait fish.
Reluctantly, we finally loaded up our stuff (heavier now with my rocks) and headed to the car. Joe stopped one more time to get a photo of the sand dunes, and framed through a break in the dunes was this picture-perfect sailboat! He didn't even know it was there when he stopped.
We rounded the tip and drove through Provincetown, where there is another monument which can be seen all the way from Plymouth.
By now it was 6:30 and we had about 120 miles to go, so we headed back. We did stop at one gift shop -- well, the one in the picture was closing, so we stopped at the next one. Cute stuff. Wish we had more time and more money.
We stopped for a bite to eat, then Joe drove us home, in the dark again. A long day, but a very fun one. We loved the beach here. If we had made this trip yesterday instead of driving into Boston, we probably would have just skipped Harvard and the JFK Library and came back here a second day. They had RVs parked right on the beach, so Joe kept trying to figure out how we could drive back here tomorrow, but our agenda says we need to move on, so that's it for Cape Cod.
Weatherwise, we had another beautiful day. Perfect, in fact. We are probably pushing our luck, but I hope the good weather holds through our next few days in the Big Apple! We are meeting up with my friend Barbara Flaxman from my Oryx Press days, who now lives in Connecticut, and she is going to be our tour guide -- that is, if we can figure out how to get on the train to meet up with her. Should be another Excellent Adventure!
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