Provincetown Sand Dunes...the Outer, "Outer" Cape

Last summer we were able to take a tour with Art's Dune Tours in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Their peace-sign painted Suburbans in crazy colors pick up tours right off the main drag on Commercial Street and take them to the other side of the tourist mecca...

After a few minutes we are in what looks like a desert somewhere out West instead of the East coast...

There are little dune shacks spread amongst the windswept sand bluffs, where artists and lifeguards once lived, and where until recently we were told an elderly woman lived by herself, off the land...

The dunes abut the beach on one side (see the sliver of blue, above) and on the other, you can see back toward downtown and there is a clear view of the Pilgrim Monument (a tower we climbed to the top for breathtaking views of Cape Cod!)

There is the Pilgrim Monument in the distance, on the left, above.

Couldn't you just lie down here and soak up the sun all day? sigh!

And just five minutes away you will find the busiest harbor in the summer in this part of Massachusetts. But that is another post, entirely...downtown P-town is a colorful and wonderfully fun place to go shopping, dog and people watching, and to be inspired.

If you visit Cape Cod, check out Art's and be sure to see more photos in their gallery that tourists have added, showing the beauty of this remote area in various seasons.

Spring Sneak Peek.

This isn't the time of year yet that I can post brilliantly colored flowers and blooming trees. It's that in-between time of seasons, like early winter where the leaves are gone but it hasn't snowed yet. But this time, we get to have summer to look forward to!
The last week in New England has been "driving with the top down" weather...not that I have a convertible, but, I would if I did. So I do the next best thing and open my sunroof.

Even with temps in the high 60's, the flowers are still not blooming this early in the season...just peeks of little daffodil leaves here and there, no yellow yet. So we're left with the simple beauty of sunlight and nature..and feet in the sand at the beach...

Aaaand the birds are out. I'm hearing the babies are already being hatched, too. There is a nest of sparrows right next to where I park my car but I can't get a photo without really disturbing the babies.

Robins...always easy to spot, cheerfully chirping, and seem to like posing for photos, too.

At dawn the sunlight hits the budding branches just perfectly. My house is four floors high so this is my view every morning. Well, presuming I wake up at dawn.

House sparrow, above, on the right. These are the birds that are nesting near my house and next to my car. They are very cute but their loud chirping does remind me that I am NOT a morning person.

Hope you are all enjoying the rising temps in the U.S.... and I do have some friends who are now enjoying the colors of Autumn, so it's always great to see those photos filling my reader and facebook, too.  :)
Mary

Scenes from the Cape

I really haven't been to Cape Cod as much this year as I have in years past, mostly because I am back in school and don't have as much time to travel. Recently I've been looking through my photos from early 2011 to try and remember what early Spring scenes I might find if I decide to head up there next week during Spring Break.

This is the view looking south toward Long Island Sound, from Dennisport, Massachusetts. This is the portion of Cape Cod that makes up the "bicep" of the arm shape.  A few more miles East, the Cape bends upward and the coast is the Atlantic Ocean instead of the Sound.

The scene above is from Falmouth, near Nobska Lighthouse. A few minutes after I snapped this a group (gaggle?) of Cormorants landed on these rocks and began drying their wings off.

A little baby sky rainbow.

I love this sign for obvious reasons.

White blossoms along the shore in Eastham.  The water here is actually quite a bit below the dunes. In fact there are signs everywhere with scary looking stick figures that appear to be falling to their deaths. Here is the stairway you climb down to get to the water in Eastham..

The dunes of Wellfleet are even higher. The water here is several hundred feet down. I didn't bother climbing down there, because the trip back up would have been difficult and there wasn't anyone around to save me if something should happen. Photography has its risks, you know!

Jimmy's pizza and ice cream was open for business. Good old-fashioned Cape road trip food...a must- have for photographic day-trips. :)