We go an early start this morning knowing we had a long day with a lot of things planned. Our first stop was Newport, RI to check out Ocean Drive and all the mansions. Jimeny Crickets, I’ve never ever seen such HUGE houses before. Seriously. Of all the places we’ve traveled nothing has ever compared to these mansions. Most of them are situated on the ocean and look like the White House or even Versailles, complete with gilded gates. I’ve always heard that Newport, RI was the playground of the rich, but this was over the top. I can’t wait to get an internet connection to found out the history of this area. We then made our way over to Cape Cod starting our tour with the southern arm of the peninsula. We had a grand time driving along the roads checking out all the little towns. Our lunch stop was the little town of Centerville for a visit to the Four Seas Ice Cream shop. It was touted as being the oldest ice cream on the cape and the 3rd oldest in New England so we had to give it a try. Besides, I had read that Caroline Kennedy had this peach ice cream served at her wedding. It was delish and definitely ties with second place. We continued our drive to Hyanis Port looking for the Kennedy compound, but never did stumble upon it. We had a blast driving down all these backgrounds, sometimes coming to a dead end at the ocean, but always rewarded with gorgeous views. Our next stop was the Visitor’s Center of the Cape Cod National Seashore. The 22 mile rails to trails bike path starts here and we both vowed to come back sometime and spend several days camping and biking it. We eventually made it to the furthermost tip of the cape to Provincetown, or as the locals call it – Ptown. What an eclectic, busy, campy place it was. The center street in town has colorful flags strung across every which way and there are umpteen shops and B&B’s crammed everywhere. It’s almost like a Berkeley-Castro beach town. Deciding that this place was too interesting to just cruise through we got on our bikes and pedaled around town. Up close it felt more like Bourbon Street in New Orleans with so much going on. (See today’s pic). At some point we could barely bike with all the foot traffic, tour trolleys, and general craziness of the place. I liked it! On the way back we decided to explore the northern area backgrounds as well. This section was much less touristy. The road (6A) was predominantly covered with trees arched over the roadway and dotted with saltbox houses and tidy yards. Compared to Long Island this area is much more to our liking. The entire cape is so much less pretentious and understated. The vibe was also much more laid back and people not trying so hard to impress each other. We did visit Nickerson State Park to check out the campgrounds. I’m already planning our next trip here so we can have time to bike the rail to trails. We (sadly) left the cape, stopping off in the town of Plymouth for a bite to eat. We spotted a seafood market that looked pretty local and low key. I had a cup of lobster chowder with a lobster roll and Ned had haddock fish and chips. Yum!! Tonight we are camped just outside of Boston in a heavily wooded state park. We didn’t arrive til late, about 7ish, but did manage did get in a quick 5 mile bike ride. The young kids checking us in were all excited about the Celtics – Lakers game tonight. I assured them that we were Warrior fans, not Lakers! (So much for my California loyalty). The game starts at 9ish tonight, I guess we’ll find out what happened when we enter Boston tomorrow.
