Adventures in Gastronomy

Instead of boring you with all of the details of my trip (as I usually do upon my return), I’ll try to summarize a bit more this time. And, like any easy-reading tabloid, I’ll include lots of pretty pictures.

After crashing at my parents house Thursday night (and losing MISERABLY at Rummy), Rich and I drove directly to the beach Friday morning.

We stayed there for about 4 hours soaking in the sounds of crashing waves and the sights of scantily clad men as far as the eye can see. The crowds weren’t as dense as I’d seen in the past, which surprised me. It wasn’t until later that evening when we found out that it was the last day of Family Week (ugh). I’m glad we missed the bulk of that event.

After soaking up as much sun as we could, we headed into town where we checked into our room at Dyers Beach House. This building couldn’t have been closer to the water without actually floating. It’s tucked behind two shops on the main drag and is literally on the beach.

This is the view looking east from our private deck. It was taken at low tide…but you can see the seaweed line where high-tide takes place. At high tide, the water is below the deck I was standing on and crashing against the concrete foundation.

Later that evening, we had a scrumptious meal at Front Street – a restaurant I’d been trying to get into for years. Whenever I’m in Ptown, I never think to make reservations (it’s such a casual place). So every year we would try to get into Front Street and get turned away. Not this time! We were also quite lucky because we apparently missed a heavy rain shower (the only rain the entire weekend, actually).

After dinner we walked around and people watched before going to see Miss Richfield 1981 (my second time this summer). We had a great time and had this fabulous picture taken after the show:

I bought a calendar and she signed it “To Karl, Thanks for the fun in Rhode Island. Love, Miss Richfield 1981” (part of Miss Richfield 1981’s joke is that she gets Provincetown confused with Providence, Rhode Island – I guess you have to be there). After the show, we looked into the windows of the Crown Bar and saw her singing along at the piano bar for the masses. Such fun.

Later that evening we popped into the Wave Bar (which was dead because of family week). Then Rich and I walked and talked and sat our asses down on the post office steps at 1AM to watch the mass exodus of gay folk heading over to Spiritus (the nocturnal ritual). The street, as usual, was mobbed.

On Saturday, we had breakfast at Bubula’s after running into my friends, Chritsopher and Robert, on the street. Then we headed on back over to Herring Cove Beach. Now that family week was over, the beach was much more pleasantly packed.

After another gorgeous sunny day, we headed back into town and checked into this charming cottage:

I use the word “charming” in the real estate agent sense of the word, where charming means small. In fact, small doesn’t do it justice. Still, it was really cute and there was a hot tub directly behind it on a lovely wood deck surround by a goldfish pond and waterfall. After going to see Varla Jean Merman’s show later that evening (which Rich absolutely loved…saying it was the best live performance of any sort he’d ever seen), we jumped into the hot tub at 11:30PM and relaxed for a bit. A half hour later we went out again – this time to Macho Bar at the A-House where we stayed until the house lights went up and they kicked everybody out. 

No surprise, we got up on Sunday morning and headed to the beach right after breakfast. This time, we ran into my friends, Peter and Duncan, in addition to the aforementioned Christopher and Robert. Once again, we had perfect beach weather and enjoyed the sights:

I don’t know who this man was, but I thought he deserved mention here.

Later that afternoon we returned to town and checked into our final room at the Clarendon House (this time in the main house of the same property where the cottage was).

The room was gorgeous, with a four-poster canopy bed. However, the bathroom was small. Very small. On the plus side, there was no risk of falling down in the shower because no matter which direction you’d fall, you’d hit the wall within 4 inches.

That evening, we had dinner at Finuzzi’s in the East End (well worth the walk). We finished off the evening by going to the night club, Purgatory (which was packed). After leaving there, we found outselves on the steps of the post office watching the masses swarm the street on their way to stand in front of Spiritus and, um, make new friends.

On Monday, we chatted up with another guest staying at the bed-and-breakfast and ended up hanging out on the beach with him all day.

HMMM – this picture makes me realize I might want to start working out. Anyway, we drove home last night where I spent most of the evening downloading all of the pictures (when all I really wanted to do was sleep). Some other photos can be found in my Provincetown Photo Gallery (use the Karl’s Photo Album link on right if you’re interested in seeing them).

As for celebrity sightings, this time all I saw was John Waters (as always) and Governor McGreevey of New Jersey…he’s the one that came out of the closet earlier this year. My goodness – he sure has come out with a bang, huh?

August 9th, 2005
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl

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