Down Cape

In summers past, Daniel and I have always ended up staying in Orleans when we've visited Cape Cod. This year, after my oh-so-pleasant experience last month in Wellfleet, we drove a little further along Route 6 and stayed there instead. I think the siren call of the National Seashore is part of what lured me.

The path to Marconi Beach.


Surfers paddling together like seals, hoping to catch a rogue wave in the placid sea.


Steep cliffs behind us, and the sun about to slip behind them.


Downtown Wellfleet was awfully cute, too, rife with little galleries, but not overly artsy-touristy feeling. We were most impressed by the Wellfleet Marketplace, a small grocery/bakery/general store/post office. It seemed like everyone in town was stopping by for something.


In our case, it was the fantastic self-serve coffee bar and exquisite selection of buttery muffins, with a $2 coffee + muffin special.


They also stock some shelves of puzzles and games to remedy the rainy-day vacation blues, as illustrated here in a painted window display.


Our motel had a tomato patch out back. This little chipmunk was snacking on a cherry tomato on the back steps until I scared him away with the click of my camera.


Low tide, folks foraging for shellfish at Mayo Beach.


My seafood tally over two days consisted of one lobster roll, six oysters on the half shell, one cup of clam chowder, lobster and shrimp on garlic linguine, and lobster and scallops in lobster cream sauce, again on linguine. For once, I had more than my fill of shellfish on a Cape Cod vacation - for this week at least, I am sticking solely to foodstuffs from above sea level.