Fourth of July weekend: Saturday (beach and Ptown)

A little late, but part 2 of our Fourth of July weekend recap. We got up bright and early Saturday morning - around 6:30 AM I think. We had wanted to be on the road for 7 AM, as we were heading to the outer Cape to Nauset Beach, rather than hang around where we were (can never remember if it's upper, mid, or lower Cape).

Here's the view looking out of Chris's parents' kitchen - so beautiful! From their kitchen, you can see all the way to the beach. It must be so nice to see this every morning. We've been here when the weather was less than ideal, and it's still such a great view.

We ate breakfast and watched the animals outside on the patio - birds, squirrels, and bunnies! These two bunnies were hopping around, oblivious to us, just munching on some plants. It was a nice way to start off the morning.

At some point between getting up and getting to the beach, we started talking about whaleships from the 1800s (or whenever it was). So then on the way to the beach, Chris took us on a detour past this old whaling captain's house (the Penniman House). Here's a picture of the house, which apparently had a scandalous indoor bathroom. The arch you see was made out of the jaw bones of a whale. I thought Chris said that these are replicas, and that the real jaw bones (which I also thought he said were bigger, but I could be making all of that up) were in a museum somewhere. Either way, it's pretty impressive - the arch is huge.

We got to Nauset Beach shortly after 8. Aside from the fact that the beach was largely empty so we got our pick of spots, we didn't have to pay for parking that morning! Small victories. :) It was a really gorgeous day, and there were a bunch of people there surfing in the morning. The beach filled up quickly though. Coincidentally, Marek ran into two people he knew - one guy he used to work with at S&S (in Northampton though!) who was a ranger at the beach, and another guy he works with now. So random.

The waves were pretty decent that day for such a nice, calm day. There was a slight breeze, but not much. Waves are a benefit of going to the ocean side over the bay side.

After the beach started filling up, we were so lucky to have a bunch of college kids sit behind us. Although I will admit, we were kind of jealous of their sandwiches later, because they sounded and smelled delicious. Anyway, Chris overheard one of the douchier kids say, "Sun's out, guns out", so this became our catchphrase for the rest of our lives the day. Here's Chris and Marek in the water, embodying our new favorite phrase.

Chris brought a coconut to the beach (because duh, isn't that what everyone brings to the beach!?), and luckily some guy near us had a hammer, so he borrowed that to crack open the coconut.

We got a decent amount of (gross) coconut water out of the coconut, and we all got to nibble on some pieces of fresh coconut. I've never had fresh coconut, so that was an interesting experience. Clearly we were wholly unprepared for the coconut incident though, as we had to borrow a hammer, and then had to try to use plastic forks to get the coconut out of the shell.

I took this picture for Chris, to encapsulate our beach experience. You'll note the low SPF sunblock (I think it's SPF 8), tanning oil, lemons for our hair, a cup of beer, the coconut, and a frisbee. Last year at the beach, Chris introduced me to tanning oil, and holy cow, I'm addicted to that stuff now. Luckily, I go to the beach about once or twice a year, but still. It smells amazing, and I'm lucky enough that I hardly burn (and I do put sunscreen on underneath).

We spent 10 hours at the beach - we saw low and high tide! It was a really great day, and afterwards, we headed up to Provincetown to walk around and get dinner. I've been to Provincetown before, just once, but it's an experience, let's just say that. It was even more of an experience because it was Fourth of July weekend, so it was more packed than usual.

Marek and I hadn't packed clothes for post-beach, so we headed to Ptown in our beach clothes, and stopped by a couple stores to see if there were any good options for a change of clothes. Here's a sign I saw in one of the shops as we headed into the main part of town.

We grabbed dinner at John Dough's (a pizza/sushi place), and then headed home. Ptown was really busy, and we mostly stayed on the main street, but there were some really nice views if you ventured onto the side streets closer to the beaches.