Adventures in P-town

[Provincetown, from west end; 7:30pm, 8/16/09]

If Cape Cod is an arm in a bicep curl off the coast of Massachusetts, Provincetown is the expressively arced hand curving back in at its tip. "P-town" is a 120-mile drive from Boston, or a 50-mile ferry ride. We drove out on Sunday from Boston just before noon, an hour or so later passing the bumper-to-bumper cars coming the other way, off the Cape, which is typical at the end of any nice summer weekend. They were headed back to Boston's first heat wave of the year (3 days or more of 90+ degree weather) while we were headed out to the usually much cooler air of the Cape.

But it was hot even out in P-town. And soon after we checked into our lodgings, the power went out all across town. We stayed at the far west end, the quiet tip of the tip, only a mile walk into town, but with the heat we decided to drive to the center to walk around. While restauranteurs fretted about the approaching evening dining hour, the gelato shops all offered half-price ice cream before their inventory could melt away. Many stores closed but others stayed open, accepting cash only and writing down purchases on paper to plug into computer systems later.

[Powerless shop, P-town; 6:45pm, 8/16/09]

Most people were taking the temporary glitch in stride, literally, with crowds walking Commercial St from one end to the other, or patronizing the few establishments that had backup generators. Provincetown, in case you're not from these parts, is a major gay tourist town, and this week was the big Carnival Festival. This year's theme: Summer of Love - Peace, Love & Go-Go Boots! Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately because of the heat and crowds), we left the day before the big parade, which is supposed to be a real hoot. The scene was mostly pretty tame and restrained while we were there as people saved their energy for the big pre-parade evening and the parade day itself. Why ruin your taffeta party dress and wig with sweat before the main event?

[On Commercial St in P-town]

The power came back on after 4 hours, just after we got back to our room. So we went for a nice walk down by the moors across the street and stayed to watch the sun set. Then we were ready for dinner, so we headed back towards town on foot to find a place with good food and a view. Which we did, except that the power went out again just as we were asking to be seated. The harried hostess turned us away (we were thinking maybe a salad and a glass of wine?), so we walked back in the dark, got in the car, and drove south out of town in the dark (and it gets really dark out there) until we reached Truro and then Wellfleet, which had electricity, and a restaurant or two still open.

[Sunset over the moors, west end Provincetown; 8/16/09]

More later...

Comments

[sky]

i imagine the parade was great fun! i remember hearing so many wonderful stories about P-Town when a friend worked there one summer many years ago.

[Leslee]

Sky: I'm sure it was fun. But we'd had enough fun - and heat and sun - so we were ready to head home. There were lines of cars heading up into P-town when we left.

[marja-leena]

Power-outages in summer? Too much AC demand perhaps? Sounds like quite a popular area, a lovely seaside. Nice photos!

[Lorianne]

It sounds like you two had a great time!

When J and I went to P-town several summers ago, we stayed in the west end, too, and walked that road to & from town MANY times during the few days we were there. (We later calculated that we'd walked something like 20 miles, just from exploring the immediate area many times over.)

We're thinking of going back in December, when it's off-season and only the locals are around. It's such a different mood than the height of summertime!

[Leslee]

Marja-Leena: Yes, too much AC demand. Unusually hot. Although our B&B owner shrugged when it happened, making us think that this must happen periodically there.

Lorianne: Yes, very nice time! And that is a nice walk. December would be lovely so long as no snowstorm comes through - the roads out there look rather scary to be on in bad weather! You'd be stuck for awhile, which might not be so bad in P-town itself, but not on any of the isolated back roads.

[Natalie]

Oh Provincetown! So long ago when I was there! It was a very different place then, not touristy at all. I went to a summer painting school, my first experience of being an art student. It was wonderful, we painted a model on the beach in full sunlight. I took walks on the deserted dunes and stayed in a converted fisherman's cottage right on the seafront. Heaven.

[Leslee]

Natalie: Sounds like a wonderful place to start out as an art student! Especially before the touristy stuff. There's still plenty of unspoiled beauty there - dunes, moors and some cottages by the sea.