Gathering Dust Outbound: Provincetown, Cape Cod (Part I)

When I knew I was going to Boston this year for a conference, I already had in mind to visit Cape Cod when the work part of the trip is over. Cape Cod is a land mass that stretches out towards the Atlantic Ocean. It's a bit way south of Boston city. There are many towns on Cape Cod itself, and the one at the far east tip is Provincetown.

I was hoping to visit Cape Cod with HVP but she had to work that day. I wasn't sure to go or not. The weather had been iffy -- there had been forecasts of possible thunderstorms and the skies had been full of low clouds the past week I was there. HVP told me there was a train that could take me there and I also found out one could get there by ferry. I decided to take the ferry as I think I would like that over sitting in a train.

The round trip ticket for the fast ferry to Provincetown is $88 USD.

It was a pretty chilly morning when the ferry left Boston Harbor for Provincetown. I came out and looked around. Boy, was the sea winds cold. I went to the top deck and could hardly take it.

The ferry left Boston at about 9 am and arrived at Provincetown at 10.30am. It turned out to be a really beautiful blue sky day and the sun was out. It was still nice and cool. There was quite a lot of people but everyone was just strolling and enjoying themselves looking at the stores or just hanging out and chatting outside the stores and houses.

I walked about the main street where all the stores and eateries are. There are tourist stores carrying all sort of souvenirs and T shirts, and a lot of stores selling artware of all sorts -- paintings, clayworks, weaves etc etc. After walking for about half an hour to 45 minutes, I took a simple lunch at a hamburger stand.

After that I decided to make my way to the Pilgrim Monument.

The Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum is situated on top of a small hill. The monument stands at 252feet (76.8 meters). The granite structure was completed in 1910 to commemorate the pilgrims' first landing on Cape Cod in 1602.

When I reached the entrance of the monument grounds, I was glad to learn that one can climb to the top. It's a series of steps (116) and ramps (60) gently spiral all the way to the top. Along the way, there were plaques with names of cities and their founding dates. These are also cities and towns which have contributed to the building of this monument.

I was glad to find that the way up was quite easy. And it wasn't very narrow which made it easy to pass by other people when going up or down. Along the way up, there are a few barred windows to look out of.