A day on Cape Cod

August 20 – Today was a VERY long day.  We left at 8:30 for Cape Cod.  We had debated on whether to take Molly and spend a night or ask someone to feed her and decided to just go for the day and do what we could in the time we had.  The drive with normal traffic should have taken about 3 hours to get to the very tip.  We had planned not to make any stops but go to the end then make whatever stops on the way back to gage our time. 

Highland Lighthouse

We ended up stopping at the Cape Cod National Seashore Salt Pond visitor center to get maps, passport stamps and info about the lighthouses that are open or that we could get to.  Highland Light is on park property but is maintained by a historical society who charge a fee for a tour and they set the hours for the lighthouse.  We decided to go there first as it was in the direction we were going.  Bill doesn’t do lighthouses so he took some photos from the ground.  This lighthouse has been moved 3 times further away from the eroding shore.   The guy who gave the tour at the top said he watched whales off the coast from the window yesterday.  It’s 69 steps to the top. 

It was lunchtime and traffic was horrendous to say the least.  There are no side roads so everyone has to drive pretty much right up the middle of the island.  As soon as we saw a place on our side of the road that didn’t look swamped we stopped.  I had my first lobster quesadillas and they were fabulous!  I licked my platter clean.  Lunch was a bit pricier than we normally spend but we were part of that captive audience.

Race Point Lighthouse

We made it to the end of the cape to the Province Lands Visitor Center for the park.  They have a nice upstairs observation level and I watched for whales but didn’t see any.  I got another passport stamp and more lighthouse info on the ones at the tip of the cape.  I’d been watching for a nice windbreaker type jacket to put patches on from places we’ve volunteered and lighthouses and they had some there marked down from $40 to $29.95.  They were men’s sizing so I got a small and it’s long enough to keep my butt dry too!

I walked out on a sandy beach (which I hate the beach and I hate sand) and got as close as I could to Race Point Lighthouse and took my photo.  It was a nice beach but the sand there is much coarser than the beaches in Florida.  They do provide nice mats to walk on from the parking lot to where the sand starts to really slope down, but then you are on your own.

Wood Lighthouse

At the edge of Provincetown, which is the big tourist trap town at the end of the cape, Bill pulled along the edge of the road by the harbor so I could get a photo of Wood Lighthouse.  We skipped trying for the next one because the roads are small and there are so many people on bikes and pushing strollers we just wanted to get out of the area.  It was time to turn around and head back the way we came.  It was snack time and traffic had died down so we stopped for a soft serve at the combo drive in movie, theatre movie, restaurant and putt putt golf complex.  Very unusual!

Nauset Lighthouse

Down almost to the elbow of the arm were 2 lighthouses.  Nauset Lighthouse is another one that is on park property but is maintained and tours are given by a historical society group.  Bill could not get a parking place so he dropped me off and I got a tour for free and my lighthouse stamp.  This lighthouse is very well known as it’s the one on the Cape Cod potato chip bag.  It has 46 steps up.

One of the 3 Sisters

Just behind Nauset is Three Sisters Lighthouses.  They were along the shore spread out but not really far and they also suffered the issue of eroding beach.  In 1911 2 were sold as cottages and in 1923 the third was closed.  Eventually they were all moved safely from the shore and first 2 to retire have no light on top.  They are all in a small picnic area and look awfully small to be a cottage.

Way down at the tip of the elbow is the Chatham Lighthouse.  It is on

Chatham Lighthouse

the property of the Coast Guard and tours are sporadic during the summer.  It’s right out on a point and below there were lots of people coming in from a day on the beach.  There are natural sand breakers in the area so it would be a nice beach spot, but there is very little parking, for that matter there is very little parking anywhere on the cape.

We stopped in Yarmouth Port where I thought the first Christmas Tree Shops was opened but that location is no longer open but we did go to a shop in West Yarmouth and got a few things.  Bill wondered if we should go ahead and have dinner at a little seafood place across the street that seemed to have a good crowd.  We just left the car in the parking lot and walked over.  It was not a fancy place and I wasn’t super hungry.  I had the lobster bisque and a side salad and Bill had lobster cakes.  He said they were good and my bisque was excellent.  I considered having a second bowl but didn’t. 

Then it was time for the long drive home in the dark.  We made one stop to fill up with the less expensive RI gas and got a beverage for the road.  We didn’t get home until 10:30 and although we were pooped, we weren’t ready for bed for quite a while.  We both read to unwind and begin to chill.