Days 8 and 9

I was first introduced to Cape Cod thirty years ago--by Linda and Steve Kot.  Once you get the "sand in your shoes," Linda told me at the start, you always want to return to this beautiful place, these curvy roads, beaches and small towns.

The last time I was here was two years ago with Mike, and we stayed at Linda and Steve's house in Brewster and enjoyed their Cape Cod hospitality as I have so many times.

This trip, Betty got us a perfect-for-us house in Falmouth,  weathered gray and white with a porch and Adirondack chairs.  I have the upstairs, Betty the downstairs.

We haven't seen the Kots yet--as they had plans each day this week, but we will.  We'd planned to leave yesterday for a few days in Vermont, then come back to our Falmouth house, but decided to postpone leaving until we see what the weather is going to do.  Rain is predicted today.

On Tuesday, we meandered around the Falmouth area and Betty got her first lobster. (I had scallops as I've always found eating lobster more an inscrutable task than a meal, the kind of dining experience that must be what prompted waiters to start asking, "Are you still working on that?")

Yesterday, we drove to Provincetown at the opposite end of the Cape--about two hours away--stopping along the way to visit the National Seashore and lighthouses.

When people see my Beto bumper sticker, or if we see travelers wearing Beto buttons or T-Shirts way up here in Massachusetts, it's an instant conversation starter.  Politically speaking, we're definitely not in Kansas anymore, Toto!

There's not a lot of natural color on the roadsides on the Cape, but houses and businesses in P-Town sport pumpkins and flower boxes and rainbow flags.  While the outdoor restaurant we found for lunch served unremarkable food, we enjoyed sitting outside, people-watching and eavesdropping on the lively talk of the table of young Jamaican men next to ours.