So this is the post where I am actually supposed to say what happened. What a fun time we had. How it was
freezing in my wool sweater after we got soaked by sea water on the whale watch and I was worried I'd
never see a whale (and die cold, wet and salty).
A week away from the experience, I remember how we fought for this vacation. How with work pounding us week after week, we were tired and stressed and hadn't had an adventure in such a while. How we are so fortunate to do work that challenges us, and even more so to have time away from that challenge to just be.
And we choose the right place at the right time to enjoy. Our time at the inn was an absolute blast. We've always been fans of taking short vacations that we can luxriate in for a short time rather than longer ones that stretch our dollars, and this was no exception. We stayed for a night in the most fabulous place. We jumped on the bed, hung out in fluffly robes, and played Candy Land on the velour couch. We came as close to being grown up kids as it gets, sneaking in after curfew without the secret house code and breaking into the mini-fridge to grab some complementary sodas. All though in a perfect world, vacations would never end, be free, and you'd still get all your work done back home somehow, our mini-breaks strike such a good balance for us as young, thirfty, and eager to make the most of each moment.
Provincetown is a beautiful place. There is something about being by an unpretentious piece of coastline that makes me feel so at peace. Okay, so maybe there is some pretention there, but I mean that there is no boardwalk, just sandy cobblestone and sidewalk, that there are dogs and a rouge cat everywhere, and little houses inside of Holiday Inns right next to the water. I feel like we're going to need to visit so many more times to discover everything in this tiny little gem of culture, art, fun and fantasy. We'll definitely need to get back in the summertime, haha, when the social life of the place is in full swing and the true colors of the area are even brighter.
This time around after enjoying the hotel and our fellow guest there, we walked from the west to the east end of Commericial Street and decided that, it being Cinco de Mayo, we headed to the new American restaurant Lorraine's to celebrate. S had lemon chicken with spinach and I had a firey vegetable dish. The next day, before the infamous whale watch, we dined out for lunch at the Squealing Pig, where S grabbed the surf and turf and I got a veggie burger with tabasco and vinegar fries. Luckily after all this food and full tummies, where weren't ill on the whale watch.
The first day at Ptown it was sprinkling on and off, and overcast. The sunset was quite striking with solid colors, if not brilliant. The second day, the day of the whale watch, thankfully, it was sunny and warmer. I was excited to see sea lions out in the wild, just lounging on the tip of the Cape, their fat bellies precluding them from keeping their fins on the sand. I got thrilled too to see beautiful dolphins swimming alongside the watch boat. They were marroon, cream, and navy, with their coloring horizontal, and they were always peeping through the water at us if not leaping in the air before us.
Of course the whales (when we finally saw them) were so cool. To see big creatures like that who previously I had held in memory as replicas, the model in the natural history museum that I'd gazed up at on the ceiling, in front of me, and in behind me, as a little girl who could not imagine a creature that very large.
I get very tickled by how free and beautiful animals are, or appear to me, even these animals who are being tracked, photographed and otherwise studied and followed by naturalists on a constnat basis. They flopped and flaunted while enjoying their meal in front of us. My favorite sight, while it was not the most dignified performance by the whales, was when they would come up out of the water face first and glump for their snacks, their bayleen mouths gaping in what looked like huge moom smiles of glee. I get a huge kick out of there apparent joy, and they fact that the largest creatures on our planet eat so many plants.
I think S had a great time too. He comes alive at surprising moments, like after we'd been soaked by the waves on this crazy watch and he still wanted to stand on the outer decks, getting pelted with water and be at one with the sea. Or when he one at Candy Land the first time around - beginner's luck! It's always a gift to see my hard working man take a break and laugh, smile, and do something new. It was a wonderful trip to enjoy with him, and we are lucky to have had it.
In closing - how formal for a blog! - I wanted to leave you with a quote by Abraham Lincoln that hangs in the inn where we stayed, and I have been loving ever since I saw it.
It reads, "I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man lives so that his place will be proud of him."
This world and our spot in it right now is a beautiful place to respect and revere, wherever that place is for us at this moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment