August 5, 2014

Canal Centennial, Continued

The Centennial celebration continued through the end of July.  I hadn't planned on taking a walk on one of the days because it was just so humid outside, but I went out anyway.  My feet took me back to the MMA campus.  As I turned around to return home, I was surprised to see this headed my way! I knew another tall ship was going to be at MMA for tours but had no idea it would be on the move the exact day and hour I was down there!

Total happy accident!

I assume this was one of the ships that was down in Sandwich over the weekend for their SeaFest event.


What a difference a day makes!  We woke up to a gorgeous, clear, dry day!  I was down in Provincetown in the morning and early afternoon but made it home in time to walk into town for the tug boat parade and events in the park.

My friend Sheila was down on the MMA campus with her son & grandson so I walked down to hook up with them and take pics of the tugs.  Saw this old car waiting in traffic.  And traffic was completely gridlocked in town too.  I am so lucky to live within walking distance.


This was the first tug.





Lookit the wee tug! SQUEEE!

We were somewhat surprised that only 7 tugs participated.  So I'm not sure that 7 constitutes a 'parade', but oh well.

Sheila, the boys & I walked back over to the park to check out the tents and old cars and stuff.



Mobile Mermaid Boutique





The park was mobbed.  Bridge was down for the trash train which was quite..erm...'fragrant'...as it passed by (there are no more landfills on Cape Cod...all the trash is removed by train).


Pretty ladies with pretty parasols.

The town had the big fireworks display on the night of the 29th, at the train bridge. I didn't return to town for it, although I could probably have seen it from my street, because my poor dogs really hate fireworks!  It lasted for about a half hour and the grand finale had me wondering if the bridge was still standing.  The pics I saw online were pretty and I wish I could have seen it, but Pepper and Sagan needed their mama at home.

So overall, the tall ships and the park stuff was really good.  I was pleased to see how many people were in the local businesses.  I thought the celebration fell very short on what they could have done with the 'boat parades'.  But I guess they are only as good as the people who commit to participate and actually show up at parade time.
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13 comments:

  1. Jo7:47 AM

    Looks a lot of fun though JoJo. Pity there weren't too many tugs. You know that's a very big canal. I always think of a canal as being much smaller.

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    1. JoJo8:56 AM

      It's the world's widest sea level canal! It doesn't need locks either. It was much narrower when it first opened in 1914 but it's a major shipping lane with huge container ships and barges and such. It saves over 100 miles of travel around the Cape on treacherous shoals. It was built b/c of the hundreds of shipwrecks on the Atlantic side.

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  2. T. Powell Coltrin10:03 AM

    So much fun stuff. I've always wanted a ship in my yard. Is that so wrong? I would settle for one of those cute Tugs.

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    1. JoJo6:07 PM

      This area is so quaint sometimes you could just die. lol And a lot of people do have boats in their yards as decoration, usually used as a flower planter. I have always loved that look, and the buoys you see on fences and shed walls, the lobster trap or two in the yard....

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  3. D.G. Hudson10:54 AM

    I love shot #4 of the two ships and the rocks. Excellent! As for the tugs, aren't the wee ones called Sidewinders? Cats and birds don't like fireworks either.

    A great collection of images, JoJo! Very nice that you can walk to the festivities.

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    1. JoJo6:08 PM

      Thanks! It's hard to see, but way in the distance in that pic is the tall ship that had sailed away. If you were to click on that pic to make it bigger, you can see the rigging of it way out in Buzzards Bay. Walking around here never gets old.

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  4. Anonymous11:39 AM

    I guess anything more than one can constitute a 'parade' ;0)

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    1. JoJo6:10 PM

      I guess so! lol It's just that once the 'parade' gets going in the canal, it looks so dinky. 7 tugs in tandem in that big body of water doesn't really look like much. I mean it's not like you don't see that kind of boat traffic, parade-like, on a daily basis. lol

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  5. Maureen12:01 PM

    LOVE the tall ships photos... so cool.

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    1. JoJo1:10 PM

      I wish there had been more of them. They came in 1976 for the Bicentennial and another time after that. I didn't see them in 76 b/c it was a mob scene and my parents went the 2nd time but I was either working or on the west coast.

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  6. Suzanne4:05 AM

    Looks like a fun day - but for me the highlight would have been the fireworks, I've loved them for as long as I can remember :) xx

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    1. JoJo6:55 AM

      I saw pics of the fireworks the next day and it looks like i missed a great show. But my dogs needed me more so....

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  7. Jo3:28 PM

    Haven't read this yet, but wanted to tell you to read Tina's Blog Page right now.

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