P-Town: Where do I Start?

I've been dying to head up to Provincetown, aka PTown, this summer, but I was holding out for a day when Russell could come with.  But he's home for a very short period of time and I truly hated to ask him to spend one of his precious days off shopping with me in PTown, instead of relaxing in the a/c, watching TV and napping.  Being the amazing, kind hearted, wants-to-make-me-happy man that he is, I know he would have gone along if I really pushed the issue, but I could tell he was more than relieved when I said, 'Well....would you mind if I went during the week by myself or with one of my friends?'  As it turns out, my stepdaughter was on vacation and when I asked her if she wanted to take any road trips, she said, 'I'd love to go to Provincetown'.  Serendipity?  Oh I think so.   The day we went was frickin hot and humid, which appears to be the common theme this summer.  It's been brutal.  At least it was a little cooler up there with a nice breeze.

Here's a map of the Cape.  I live in Bourne, and it's about 65-70 miles to PTown.

PTown is very small with lots of tiny, old houses crowded onto tiny, narrow streets.  The Pilgrims made landfall in this area first, before they settled at Plymouth, and stopped here because they were out of beer and needed to brew some before continuing their journey.  Sailing, fishing and lobstering are, and always have been, a way of life here.  PTown has also been an artists' colony for years and years, and the epicenter of the Cape Cod GLBT community.  It's colourful, liberal, entertaining and has first rate people watching.  

I remember back in the day whenever I went anywhere, although my camera came with me, a roll of 36 exposure film was more than enough for a day trip. I used to go to up to PTown a few times a year in the 80s, usually with friends, and I hardly shot any pictures.  Now I have to choose from nearly 80 pictures to use here, and there would have been more but it was really just too damn hot to venture off the main drag, Commercial Street.  This will have to be broken up into a couple-three posts.  

This is Pilgrim Monument.  You can climb to the top but there was no way in freaking hell we were doing it. I did it in the 80s a couple of times and it damn near killed me, and I was 30 years younger and in way better shape.  You can see this from the Bay side beaches in Sandwich on crystal clear days, through binoculars or a telescope. It only looks like a teensy dark line on the horizon of water.  I remember the first time I saw it from the beach when I was little.  I was looking through the binoculars at my dad's cottage at Spring Hill and I exclaimed, 'Daddy! I can see ENGLAND!  Look!!!!' All the grown ups busted out laughing and explained that it was the monument and also, I was facing north and England was east.  

So totally would love to do this tour sometime!  I mean how often can a person say they rode in a hearse while still alive?

Beautiful, colourful Commercial Street.  The building on the far left is the Post Office Cafe and we ate there for lunch.  Our waiter was sooo awesome and nice.  And the door guy was a riot.  

Our first stop was at Shop Therapy, which is next door to this corner building, because a request had been made by Russell for a rainbow tie dye shirt.  If I thought I was floored, his daughter was completely gob smacked.  So we went into Shop Therapy and she found 2 designs in his size, right off.  One had a peace sign tie dyed into it and one was the classic swirl.  We decided on the classic.  

I loved this lamppost and was unable to get a better pic of it because despite it being a Monday morning, the place was pretty crowded.

We were really grossed out by this.  It's the classic lobstah meal, which was placed outside a restaurant as a prop to entice people to stop and eat there.  Only thing is, it's real food.  And it stank. See the fly on the lobster?  And how the butter is all rancid and congealed?  Nothing says 'fine dining' like rotting seafood in the mid day summer sun.  

PTown has some wicked cool shops.....glass shops...ones that sell paperweights and marbles and fused glass and dichroic glass and I had to walk out before I whipped out my credit card.

This says 'Best Store Ever' but we didn't go in.....I was trying so hard to be good.

hThis Masonic Lodge was chartered in 1795 by Paul Revere.  So yeah, there's a lot of history in this region and I never appreciated it the first time I lived here.

She may be 22 and you can call me a prude, but I really don't feel comfortable going in a store like this with my stepdaughter....lol  Nor did we venture to the bawdy second floor of Shop Therapy.....

It was Bear Week in PTown that week.

To be continued....

July Randomness

The humidity has been almost nonstop, with only one day of cool and comfortable temperatures.  So I've been hiding in the house for the most part.  

Oh I thought this was kind of an amusing anecdote.  One of the craft-themed FB pages I follow asked a question over the weekend, 'Who would play you in the movie of your life?'.  I read it out loud and pondered it for a second before deciding to type 'Tatum O'Neal' into the comments.  Without missing a beat, Russell says, 'Cyndi Lauper.'  OK, first of all, he gets major props for being aware of who Cyndi Lauper is, because he is not a music fan at all. Second, I took it as a huge compliment because I admire Cyndi's colourful individuality and wackiness.

We had some real steamy, rainy afternoons.  It's not uncommon for a late afternoon/early evening thunderstorm to crop up in this kind of weather. 

I hope I can get to these before the birds do.

That's a teensy snail on a branch, inside a water droplet that's reflecting my house.  We have a lot of snails in our yard of varying sizes.  I know they are a pest but I do like them.  I always think of the lyrics to the Donovan song, 'There is a mountain':  "The lock upon my garden gate's a snail, that's what it is".  

And another droplet pic showing that leaf in the background.

Droplets on the CD windspinner.

Driftwood & foreign coin hanging.

Found inside one of the many fortune cookies we got over 4th of July.  Hmmmmm

I started a new colouring book called 'Out of This World Designs', using my new set of gel pens.  Also used were Prismacolour pencils and rhinestones.  

Liz had to go and mention that she made blueberry crisp, and I marched into the kitchen to make one too.  It was yummy. Soooo very yummy.

We haven't had many decent sunsets so far but one night revealed a lovely half moon and sunset.

Wordless Wednesday

The Psychedelic Cupcake Factory Is At It Again

My stepdaughter & I got together one night to hang out and make cupcakes!  

Because we can't just use plain white batter anymore.

Oooooo trippy!

The one on the left looked like earth and the pink one on the right looked like a weird frog face to me.  See it?  The two eyes on top of the head, blue speck nose and smiling mouth at the bottom?

The bottom of the 'earth' cupcake looks like a ying yang!

Jack Skellington's face?

 So pretty!  So neon!

We decided the tops looked too cool to cover with icing, so we sliced them all in half instead.

She piped the icing on the flat part of the bottoms and then we mixed up the tops so that they don't match the bottoms.  Next, she rolled the edges in coloured sugar.  

Voila!  Cupcake whoopie pies!!!!

Butterflies of Cape Cod

As mentioned in a prior post, I made another visit to Butterflies of Cape Cod to drop off more jewelry and visit the habitat!  

The lunar moth caterpillars are huge now!  Should be fully formed moths in a couple of weeks.

No idea what this is but it sure is pretty!

More monarchs are hatching.

Don't know what this is but it's pretty! I love the blue butterflies best.

The sugarbush swallowtail photobombed me.

This is a very unusual flower.  Never seen one before.

I love these flowers

Pink, orange & yellow is one of my fave combos.

I followed the sugarbush around for quite awhile because I really wanted a pic of it's open wings.  It was so cute just fluttering around but then finally landed.

This one is cool too!

When I left, this big and unusual dragonfly landed on the wooden bench.  I've never seen one like it before. I looked it up and it's some kind of Broad Bellied Chaser, but all the pics I googled didn't show striped wings like this one has.

Stoked for the lunar moths! Stay tuned!