Climbing things is fun. Also, seals!

Pilgrim monument in the background.

This houseboat anchored here in Provincetown is really cool. It doesn't look to have a motor so it might need to be towed places but it has a very modern, sleek look, including the way the solar panels are mounted.

 

We climbed Pilgrim Monument, which commemorates the Pilgrims' arrival in the New World. It is billed as the tallest all-granite structure in the United States (of course, I'm not certain how many all-granite structures there really are). The views at the top are the best in Cape Cod and the museum was small but educational. Fully half of the museum features stuffed arctic animals (polar bear, walruses, wolves). This had us scratching our heads until we saw that the most famous Provincetown resident is apparently some early 1900s arctic explorer that you've never heard of.  One exhibit showed what the Pilgrims did during their five week stay here. First thing to do once off the boat? Laundry. I have to imagine they were a bit ripe after a two month cruise. Next, they "borrowed" some corn (nice euphemism for steal) and then a few days later got arrows shot at them by natives (understandable, I'd be pissed too if my corn had just been "borrowed"). Eventually they decided it wasn't the place for them and they packed up and continued on to Plymouth.  Although we enjoyed our visit, we may need to expand our recently created "no paying to climb lighthouses" rule to include paying to climb other random towers as well.

 

Matt and Conrad caught a bunch more squid the other morning. Matt made Buffalo squid with the tentacles, which turned out really well. Of course frying anything tends to make it yummy. Mark loved the ones without the hot sauce. Conrad, however, was not too keen on eating the tentacles. I get the feeling that he was concerned about getting suctioned. Even though it's good stuff, we may be squidded out for a bit.  Also, we have learned during the last couple of days that squid squirt ink even when out of the water and that it's a real pain to clean up the very tenacious black stuff off a white boat.

 

 

 

 

We took a ride over to the beach on the other side of the harbor. The boys saw their first seals. The seals were swimming around in the water, fishing. We walked along the beach as low tide approached and saw a ton of hermit crabs, squid eggs, and crab shells of all varieties.  Unfortunately, the tides are large here (10 feet!) and we didn't leave the dingy anchored far enough offshore and had to drag it a good ways to get it back in the water.

 

This anchorage is nice but it can get pretty roll-y when the high-speed ferry passes by. We think we'll be leaving Friday when north winds are forecasted to return.