Epic Summer Road Trip (Day 27): Cape Cod, Massachusetts

We woke up in the morning from the Mystic KOA we had spent the night to cloudy, overcast skies which were pretty much a first for us since starting the adventure.  Other than a few passing rain storms we had been experiencing pretty consistent weather of warm, summer days.  Other than the 110% humidity, the air temperature was pretty nice.

I decided for our next stop that we were going to head toward Cape Cod.  My parents had taken my sister and I there as kids and I remember it fondly especially walking the streets of P-Town (Provincetown) which is at the very tip of the cape.  After a stop at a Kohls for a new pair of sneakers that Olivia needed along with a new pajamas (her old ones were getting a bit tight), we drove to Nickerson State Park to set up camp.  The park is situated at the base of the cape just as the land starts bending northward so it provided a nice middle ground for exploring the cape as well as a clean getaway in the morning for heading toward Boston.  The weather hovered around 70 degrees the entire day so walking around was comfortable.

One of the first things that I wanted to do after unhitching the Aliner at Nickerson State Park was to find a place to get a lobster roll.  I think I had seen a Facebook post by Sara Curtis (old high school classmate) years ago where she was eating a lobster roll and it has stuck in my brain ever since that as soon as I make it close to New England, I was going to devour one.  I had Olivia scout out reviews for the best lobster rolls in the area and we came across The Happy Fisherman.  By this time it was already 1pm so everyone was getting hangry for food.  I gulped at the price of the lobster roll, but my stomach took over so Olivia and I both ordered one while Drew ordered a clam strip roll.  It took all of my and Olivia's will power not to eat the lobster roll in one bite, because it was so good and we were so hungry.  Poor Drew had to share his fries and fried clams as Olivia and I gawked at his meal.

After eating we drove toward Provincetown which is deceivingly far when you look at Cape Cod from a map.  I think it took about 45 minutes to travel about 30 miles due to heavy traffic and a two lane road pretty much the entire way.  The plan was to check out some museums and historical landmarks, but soon after parking at a pay lot we stumbled upon Commercial Street which is absolutely packed with tourist shops and very little pedestrian walk ways.  The fortunate thing is that most people simply walk in the street because traffic really doesn't move very fast due to the large amounts of humanity.

As we were walking from the parking lot, there were a couple of burly looking guys holding hands so I made sure to inform the kids that this was a very gay-friendly town.  Little did I know that it was Bear Week that week in Provincetown which made it pretty awesome.  For those of you who don't know, a "bear" would be considered a big, burly gay man with lots of facial and body hair who is really buffed out.  The bears were definitely out in force that day as there were a lot of tight shirts and even tighter shorts being worn.  As the day progressed, some of the costumes got more and more elaborate.  I think that Drew saw so much hand holding that he didn't at all feel uncomfortable about holding my hand.  Olivia even made an exasperated comment that, "I wish there were more gay women around!"

We had a great time wandering through shops, enjoying the scenery, eating saltwater taffy, and finding a happy hour of $1 oysters that Olivia persuaded me to partake.  $1 oysters?!  Yeah, twist my arm!  We sat out on the second story balcony of a bar an enjoyed a nice snack of oysters, beer/soda and a couple of crab legs while watching the parade of people strolling along the street below.

We decided to head out to the ocean side of Cape Cod and made our way to the National Seashore to stick our feet in the water.  The sand was much grainier than Myrtle Beach, but the water was fairly warm to dance around in.  We saw a couple of seals in the water pop their heads up occasionally, but no great white sharks much to Drew's disappointment.  We headed back toward Nickerson State Park where we enjoyed some chicken tacos complete with mango salsa that Olivia made.  Yum!  Sleep came quickly after an enjoyable day and the soft pattering of rain against the roof of the camper.  I'm so glad we weren't in a tent!