Day 4: Cape Cod

 

Day 4: Cape Cod

On Tuesday, we woke up in Provincetown, the beach town at the tip of the Cape Cod peninsula. Our hotel was the Sunset Inn, one of the oldest inns in town. After sleeping in a bit, we had breakfast on their back patio.


The Sunset Inn


Josh was impressed with their collection of vintage toy cars!



The lobby


Breakfast on the back patio


An eclectic assortment of breakfast items!

After breakfast, we walked around Provincetown for about an hour. It's an amazing little beach town! The main street is so dense with shops and restaurants, and it's right on the beach. It's exactly how you'd picture the ideal Cape Cod town. You can also see a lot of the Italian and Portuguese heritage around. As Josh said, "Every beach town we go to is better than the last!" The culture in Provincetown is sort of funny, similar to Portland.


Our first stop in Provincetown was Tim's Used Books


Used bookstores in beach towns are always so intense


The town beach. You access it by walking down a little alleyway off the main street. 


View of Provincetown from the beach. The tall tower is a pilgrim monument because the pilgrims originally landed near Provincetown before continuing on to Plymouth. There's a beach nearby called "First Landing Beach."


Provincetown City Hall. We got to go inside.


A cute candy shop


We bought a small bag of saltwater taffy for 85 cents.


Interesting alley in town






The public library in Provincetown



A ship on the second floor of the library!


View of Provincetown from the top floor of the library

We left Provincetown in a bit of a hurry to catch a ferry to our next stop, Martha's Vineyard. Unfortunately, it started pouring rain with thunder and lightning on our drive. By the time we got to the ferry town, the rain didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon, so we decided not to go to Martha's Vineyard.


We pivoted and drove to Sandwich, another small beach town, and got lobster rolls for lunch at Seafood Sam's. They were good, and I like that they come with a pickle! 


Seafood Sam's




More rain...

We then drove to Plymouth and walked in a big loop to see all sorts of Pilgrim things. The rain slowed down to a drizzle and eventually stopped. Plymouth is a pretty town with a lot of history, and kitschy tourist gift shops. On the way out of town, we saw the National Monument to the Forefathers, a giant monument to the Pilgrims. 


Plymouth Rock. They've built a columned portico around it.



Mayflower II, a full-scale replica of the original Mayflower. We were all surprised by how small it is!




Burial Hill, where a lot of the pilgrims are buried, including William Bradford, governor of the Plymouth Colony.


Site of the first pilgrim church and meeting house. The building has changed, but the church has kept continuous records since 1620 


Site of the first house built by the pilgrims. At that house in 1621, the pilgrims exercised popular suffrage for the first time in the new world and elected Miles Standish captain 


National Monument to the Forefathers, which honors the pilgrims. It's 81 feet tall and took three decades to build in the late 19th century. The smaller statues on the side (you can see two of them in this picture) represent morality, law, education, and liberty.


We left Plymouth in the late afternoon and finished our drive up to Boston. On the way, we stopped to see the Old Ship Church and Meeting House, a church built in 1681 and the only surviving Puritan meeting house. We ate dinner at the Liberty Tavern in Quincy, then made a quick stop at the world's first Dunkin Donuts. I think all Dunkin Donuts should look like this one!




The first Dunkin Donuts (located in Quincy, MA and surrounded by car dealerships)



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