Provincetown, the "Outer Cape," and Wellfleet Too

[dans]

On 4/4/2021 at 12:42 PM, liamsaunt said:

 

Wine pairing, a nice one to celebrate my sister's birthday.

 

 

My favorite Champagne. I like it better than a lot of the Tete de Cuvee

[liamsaunt]

On 4/6/2021 at 10:16 PM, Smithy said:

Beautiful photos, as always, and you really make me miss my times, a lifetime ago, on the New England Coast. But...what I really want is...

 

 

 

...Those Plates. Gorgeous! Do they come with the rental, or do you pack your own?

 

The plates belong to the rental house.  

 

We did end up going in to town but did not stay long as there was a bunch of construction going on and none of the workers were wearing masks.  So that's it for town until we are vaccinated.

 

Last night we got sushi takeout again More yellowtail jalapeño sashimi (this is my favorite)

 

 

Rolls.  Back to front stoplight, gon jah mon, rainbow, and Panama red

 

 

More rolls.  Left to right, wave, crab rangoon, and hand grenades

 

[liamsaunt]

Last post for this trip, we are headed home this afternoon.  Oysters

 

 

Swordfish curry

 

 

Prosciutto wrapped cod with lobster mashed potatoes and lobster sauce

 

 

Fish tacos

 

 

See you in June.  One last sunset for the road

 

[blue_dolphin]

Thanks for taking us along once again.  Love the combination of take-out and home...er...rental-cooked meals and as always, your photographs are amazing!

 

[rotuts]

Ive always appreciated and looked forward to your trips.

 

I used to spend summers in Arizona , dessert areas

 

so appreciated the evening views

 

and am continually surprised that Marco Polo

 

enjoys the great outdoors , and returns for a comfortable 

 

and safe nap.

 

thank you again.

[curls]

Thank you so must for taking us along! What a gorgeous sunset! Wishing you safe travels.

[Smithy]

I too love these trips and the seafood and seascapes you show us. Many thanks!

[liamsaunt]

Hello from Wellfleet.  I am back at the beach for the next two weeks.  This time we are staying directly on the ocean side.  Here's the view

 

 

 

 

Winter storms erode the dunes on this section of the Cape quite badly.  A few years back, a single storm took 30 feet off this dune further down the road.  This house is currently set about 25 feet back from the dune edge.  I'm estimating it will be lost to the ocean in 10 years or so.  There is no room to move it back further from the dune edge as some owners do when erosion happens--the front of the house basically butts against the road.  

 

Last night we decided to go to a restaurant for dinner, our first time dining out (not including takeout) since Covid started.  We are all fully vaccinated, and sat at an outside table.  I am not sure that we will venture to inside dining this trip, but you never know, I guess.  The restaurant is called C Shore, and we have tried it a couple of times in prior years with mixed results.  Last night everyone but me enjoyed their meals.  My niece started with pork dumplings with a peanut dipping sauce

 

 

My husband, brother in law and I tried the clam fritters

 

 

and my nephew got the strawberry, goat cheese, strawberry and arugula salad.  I almost got this for dinner and ended up wishing that I had.

 

 

My niece and nephew both got macaroni and cheese for dinner (hey, it is vacation, right?).  Niece opted for plain

 

 

Nephew got his topped with linguica sausage

 

 

My husband and brother in law got fish tacos.  They said they were tasty. They came with rice and beans that my husband really enjoyed.

 

 

 

I got a vegetable poke bowl.  It came filled with pineapple which was not noted on the menu, and was far too sweet.  There was no sriracha etc on the table due to covid (understandable) so I could not doctor it up.  I picked out the veggies and left the rest behind.  I'm adding condiments to my purse for the rest of the trip 🙂

 

 

Everyone was too full for dessert except my niece.  She ordered cannolis, and ended up sharing with anyone who wanted some.  I don't really like sweets so cannot comment on the taste.

 

 

I'm heading to the fish market in a bit to see if they have anything I feel like cooking for dinner.  If it is not too crowded I will get some pictures.  

[Shelby]

The ocean looks so peaceful.  I could stare at that picture for hours.

[weinoo]

1 hour ago, Shelby said:

The ocean looks so peaceful.  I could stare at that picture for hours.

 

I can vouch for how lovely it is out on the cape. Our niece's husband's dad is a fisherman. He has a lovely boat, and enjoys going out (far) for bluefin.

 

Every year, new charts have to be drawn up for all the new cuts and to show old cuts which are no longer usable due to winter storms. Constantly shifting sand and dunes are part of life on the cape, and in other places I'm sure.

[liamsaunt]

On 6/13/2021 at 10:52 AM, weinoo said:

 

I can vouch for how lovely it is out on the cape. Our niece's husband's dad is a fisherman. He has a lovely boat, and enjoys going out (far) for bluefin.

 

Did you see the story about the lobster fisherman that got swallowed by a whale out here the other day?  Crazy!  He is the guy who gets the lobster for our favorite restaurant out here, Ceraldi.  (For anyone who did not see it the whale spit him out and he is bruised up but OK).

 

Yesterday my niece and I took the stairs down to the beach.  They are...challenging.

 

 

There are 95 of them and some of them are angled backwards.  Yikes.  Here is the house on the dune.

 

 

I am expecting great muscle definition in my calves at the end of this trip 🙂

 

I stopped by the bakery down the street to get some desserts for the teens to enjoy over the next few days.  You can place an online order with them and pick up the next day in a designated spot to skip the line, which is nice because the line is always long and slow.  Starting bottom left, we have a chocolate tart, an opera cake with white chocolate, almond sponge cake and raspberry, a chocolate bombe, a coup de soleil with blueberries and vanilla marscapone, a hazelnut stuffed coronet, a blueberry tart, a strawberry tart, and a brownie with caramel mousse.  The bakery is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays so I had to get a couple of days worth.

 

 

We tried to go for sushi last night but all of the outside dining was booked with reservations until 9PM despite their website saying they are not taking reservations.  The hostess told us last night was the final night for reservations and they are going walk in only as of today, so we decided to come back another night instead of eating inside.  

 

Instead, we went to the patio at one of our favorites, Winslow's Tavern.  Drinks. A Peeper beer on the left and a summer in a glass on the right (basically vodka, lemonade, and sparkling water).  My drink is in the center.  I am not drinking alcohol at the moment, so chose a shrub with raspberry, rhubarb, and hibiscus.  It was kind of weird tasing (everyone tried it and thought it tasted like celery).  I swapped it for sparkling water.  I do not like most flavored drinks so should have known better 🙂

 

 

 

Appetizers.  Foccacia and ricotta

 

 

My husband and brother in law shared some lobster croquetas with saffron aioli.  They really liked these.

 

 

Niece ordered a burrata with prosciutto, roasted tomatoes, and olive tapenade.  I ate her tomatoes and olives since she does not like those

 

 

Niece had a bacon cacio pepe for her entree

 

 

Nephew chose gorgonzola pasta with carmelized onions

 

 

Brother in law had squid and corn pasta.  The rings are the pasta.  I thought it was a cute presentation.

 

 

I had seared scallops with corn risotto

 

 

Husband had swordfish au poivre with roasted cauliflower, roasted wood ear mushrooms, and romanesco and au poivre sauces

 

 

Nobody wanted dessert as we were all too full, plus there were the pastries back at the house.  

[Duvel]

17 minutes ago, liamsaunt said:

 I thought it was a cute presentation.

Indeed a nice idea !

[heidih]

The stairs look like they have some railing? so you can pull up though I'd run down the dune which is probably "not done". I want the hazelnut coronet and all the seafood dishes. I am taking inspiration for Father's Day.

[weinoo]

1 hour ago, liamsaunt said:

Did you see the story about the lobster fisherman that got swallowed by a whale out here the other day?  Crazy!  He is the guy who gets the lobster for our favorite restaurant out here, Ceraldi.

 

I did!

 

And we love (d) Ceraldi. 

 

Most of your stays appear to be in Wellfleet, and you probably have a few favorite houses; are they via Airbnb or the like? Do you ever stay farther out - Truro or Ptown?  Our first trip this year isn't until October - Ptown at our favorite Red Inn.

[liamsaunt]

5 hours ago, heidih said:

The stairs look like they have some railing? so you can pull up though I'd run down the dune which is probably "not done". I want the hazelnut coronet and all the seafood dishes. I am taking inspiration for Father's Day.

There is a rope to hold on to. Walking down the dunes is illegal except on designated paths because of erosion.  
 

4 hours ago, weinoo said:

 

I did!

 

And we love (d) Ceraldi. 

 

Most of your stays appear to be in Wellfleet, and you probably have a few favorite houses; are they via Airbnb or the like? Do you ever stay farther out - Truro or Ptown?  Our first trip this year isn't until October - Ptown at our favorite Red Inn.

Ceraldi is still in business! He opened for the season last week.  This year he is serving coffee, pastries and pizza in the mornings as carry out in addition to the usual dinner service.  We are heading over to check that out at the end of the week.

 

Yes, we usually stay in Wellfleet. Our repeat rentals are direct from the owner. We do not ever use AirBnB for various reasons. Sometimes we use the agency weneedavacation.com or local real estate firms to find new to us rentals.

 

We have never rented in Truro, but we have stayed at the same house in Provincetown a few times, including this past April, and will be back there again in August.  The Red Inn looks great, but we usually bring family along so it is not practical for us to stay there. 

[liamsaunt]

We skipped dinner out last night in favor of scrounging in the fridge, so no pictures.  This morning I made a four-serving frittata using up some of the stuff that I brought out from home.  My farm share is delivering to Cape Cod this summer for seasonal residents, and one of the drop-off spots is a fish market in an adjacent town, so we will have even more fresh veggies when I pick that up tomorrow.  This frittata has mixed greens, chive flowers, spring onions, and asparagus from my farm share box, plus grape tomatoes, swiss cheese, and a little bacon that was cooked and already in the fridge.    Eaten with local strawberries that were also in the farm box.  The weather is iffy today so we may or may not be going out to dinner this evening.

 

 

 

[weinoo]

20 hours ago, liamsaunt said:

There is a rope to hold on to. Walking down the dunes is illegal except on designated paths because of erosion.  

 

In addition to being illegal, I suppose it could potentially be deadly!

 

We once took a long, legal walk thru and around the dunes to end up on a beach somewhere around Truro - Provincetown.

 

 

At times, it was like being on another planet...

 

 

I thought I was gonna die by the time we got to the beach. And it was so crowded...

 

 

[Margaret Pilgrim]

On 6/14/2021 at 8:28 AM, liamsaunt said:

 

Did you see the story about the lobster fisherman that got swallowed by a whale out here the other day?  Crazy!  He is the guy who gets the lobster for our favorite restaurant out here, Ceraldi.  (For anyone who did not see it the whale spit him out and he is bruised up but OK).

 

Yesterday my niece and I took the stairs down to the beach.  They are...challenging.

 

 

There are 95 of them and some of them are angled backwards.  Yikes.  Here is the house on the dune.

 

 

I am expecting great muscle definition in my calves at the end of this trip 🙂

 

I stopped by the bakery down the street to get some desserts for the teens to enjoy over the next few days.  You can place an online order with them and pick up the next day in a designated spot to skip the line, which is nice because the line is always long and slow.  Starting bottom left, we have a chocolate tart, an opera cake with white chocolate, almond sponge cake and raspberry, a chocolate bombe, a coup de soleil with blueberries and vanilla marscapone, a hazelnut stuffed coronet, a blueberry tart, a strawberry tart, and a brownie with caramel mousse.  The bakery is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays so I had to get a couple of days worth.

 

 

We tried to go for sushi last night but all of the outside dining was booked with reservations until 9PM despite their website saying they are not taking reservations.  The hostess told us last night was the final night for reservations and they are going walk in only as of today, so we decided to come back another night instead of eating inside.  

 

Instead, we went to the patio at one of our favorites, Winslow's Tavern.  Drinks. A Peeper beer on the left and a summer in a glass on the right (basically vodka, lemonade, and sparkling water).  My drink is in the center.  I am not drinking alcohol at the moment, so chose a shrub with raspberry, rhubarb, and hibiscus.  It was kind of weird tasing (everyone tried it and thought it tasted like celery).  I swapped it for sparkling water.  I do not like most flavored drinks so should have known better 🙂

 

 

 

Appetizers.  Foccacia and ricotta

 

 

My husband and brother in law shared some lobster croquetas with saffron aioli.  They really liked these.

 

 

Niece ordered a burrata with prosciutto, roasted tomatoes, and olive tapenade.  I ate her tomatoes and olives since she does not like those

 

 

Niece had a bacon cacio pepe for her entree

 

 

Nephew chose gorgonzola pasta with carmelized onions

 

 

Brother in law had squid and corn pasta.  The rings are the pasta.  I thought it was a cute presentation.

 

 

I had seared scallops with corn risotto

 

 

Husband had swordfish au poivre with roasted cauliflower, roasted wood ear mushrooms, and romanesco and au poivre sauces

 

 

Nobody wanted dessert as we were all too full, plus there were the pastries back at the house.  

Could I please have a small plate of each of these?    Or would that be piggy?    Forget it.   I'll risk it!  

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Thanks for these pictures and words.    Born on Monterey Bay, I am confounded by dune restrictions.    Growing up, dunes were for tumbling down, later on for hunkering down to smoke sheltered from wind and eyes.  Or...  Hardy dune grass held erosion at bay in those days.   Now, I dunno.    Cliff erosion was another thing and relentless.    Where sea bashed shore, sea always won.   

[liamsaunt]

11 hours ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Thanks for these pictures and words.    Born on Monterey Bay, I am confounded by dune restrictions.    Growing up, dunes were for tumbling down, later on for hunkering down to smoke sheltered from wind and eyes.  Or...  Hardy dune grass held erosion at bay in those days.   Now, I dunno.    Cliff erosion was another thing and relentless.    Where sea bashed shore, sea always won.   

 

The dunes on this part of the Cape are quite tall and steep.  If you tried to tumble down them you might break your neck!   At the public beaches, the towns usually help to grade a pathway down the dune, packing the sand to make it safer for people to walk on, and also preventing too much sand from tumbling down to the beach and eroding the dune.  Here is an example of a legal dune path at the public beach to the right of our rental house.  Some people just run down the dune anyway, but if the cops see you you will get a ticket.  We had to sign a waiver promising not to walk on the dune that this house is on before renting it.  There is a legal packed path from the house to the staircase I posted a picture of a few days ago.

 

 

We did end up going to dinner last night, and opted to head back to Mac's Shack for some sushi and a few other things.  We went early, and it was a good thing we did, because there was a long line to get in when we left.  I did not get pictures of everything because of the configuration of the table. My nephew's drink, a spicy mescalito.

 

 

Halibut turadito

 

 

Yellowtail jalepeno sashimi

 

 

My niece had a salmon hand roll.  This is the only thing of hers I have pictures of.  She also had a poke bowl and a roll.

 

 

They had a couple of toro specials, so my husband got those.  Toro tataki

 

 

Fatty Mac--a roll with toro 

 

 

Brother in law had a swordfish curry (no picture)

 

Here is my nephew's allergy burger.  He cannot have the fries because they are cooked in the same fryer as the fried shrimp.  They offered him a side salad but he declined haha.  I brought him some potato chips from home.

 

 

I was hungry and wanted something hot, so ordered the blackened salmon yakisoba bowl.  I asked for the salmon medium rare and they nailed the temperature.  It was perfectly cooked and tender.  I know salmon is not local but it was what I was in the mood for and we are here for two weeks so why not? (I did have sriracha in my purse this time and added some to my noodles haha)

 

 

[liamsaunt]

Good morning.  I thought I would update this thread while waiting for someone else to wake up and come on a beach walk with me.  I have been awake since 6:30, sigh.  Yesterday's breakfast on the deck of scrambled eggs and kale with local strawberries on the side

 

 

We went in to Provincetown yesterday afternoon because my niece has been on a quest to find a copy of Stephen King's Salem's Lot. Yesterday marked the 11th bookstore we tried without success.  Luckily my sister is joining us tomorrow for the rest of the trip, and she is going to bring out my copy from home.  Provincetown was a lot more crowded than I was expecting!  The film festival is this week, so maybe that is why.  

 

I had planned to cook at home, but my nephew insisted that he was 'STARVING' and could not wait to go home and have me cook and he needed to eat 'NOW' so at his insistence we went to Mac's Fish House.  Oysters

 

 

Fried calamari

 

 

Tuna poke

 

 

My blackened swordfish sandwich

 

 

Niece's sushi roll

 

 

 

Husband's lobster roll

 

 

Brother in law had salmon but I forgot to take a picture.

 

The shocker of the meal, my nephew actually ordered fish!  He got a coconut swordfish curry and completely devoured it.  I guess he really was starving, haha

 

 

 

Edited June 17, 2021 by liamsaunt
typo (log)

[Anna N]

46 minutes ago, liamsaunt said:

Luckily my sister is joining us tomorrow for the rest of the trip,

I was wondering where your sister was but didn’t think it appropriate to ask!  Thanks for answering that question. 

[liamsaunt]

1 hour ago, Anna N said:

I was wondering where your sister was but didn’t think it appropriate to ask!  Thanks for answering that question. 

 She had to work this week because and cannot work remotely due to the nature of her job.  My husband is working remote this week (he is 100% remote right now because of Covid and will only be going to the office a couple of days a month once they reopen).  He has vacation time next week so we thought that would be the better week for her to join us 😀

 

Mentioning remote work (and still waiting for someone to go on a beach walk with me, sigh) leads to an interesting observation I have had this trip. Remote work opportunities have set the real estate market on fire out here on Cape Cod, and there is definitely some resentment from full time residents about this fact. People are paying double-triple the value for homes that would not normally be on the vacation rental market and either renting them out at a premium or moving in permanently to work remotely.
 

I have noticed signs around that were not here in previous years. Someone put stickers on all the STOP signs so they now say “stop moving here.” Someone else added trash truck stickers yesterday (not sure what that means).  Another example: “go home” is scrawled on the fence at the public beach near our rental. The tourist season starts this weekend so my guess is that everything will be removed/painted over soon. 
 

On a brighter note, here is a picture of my farm share box, picked up yesterday at a local fish market

 

[blue_dolphin]

2 hours ago, liamsaunt said:

Remote work opportunities have set the real estate market on fire out here on Cape Cod, and there is definitely some resentment from full time residents about this fact. People are paying double-triple the value for homes that would not normally be on the vacation rental market and either renting them out at a premium or moving in permanently to work remotely.

I think that's putting a strain on workers in vacation/resort areas across the country.  I recently read this article about the Lake Tahoe/Truckee area: No housing, no employees.

[Eatmywords]

Love the pics esp the eggs against the beach!  The resto food too looks better than one might expect for a seasonal tourist area.  Enjoy!

 

And how bout the lobster farmer who wasn't tasty enough for the humpback?  I happened to come across this:  https://nypost.com/2021/06/17/cape-cod-divers-believe-lobsterman-was-swallowed-by-whale/