Cape Cod, MA
Our first long stay (two weeks) of the trip. If we weren’t working, we’d likely never stay in the same spot more than 3-4 days, but since our weekdays are taken up with work, we really only have the evenings and weekends to explore. Because of this, we’ve planned longer stays in locations where there is more to do.
Coastal Acres Campground was only a short walk to Provincetown, so we were able to get lunch in town a few days and see many of the attractions in the evenings and weekends; giving us a great location to explore Cape Cod.
Dunes of Provincelands.
Highlights
Whale Watching
Humpback whales make an annual appearance off the northern tip of Cape Cod due to a massive sea mound that draws nutrient rich water to the surface. The whales make an annual migration between the Caribbean where they breed to these waters and feast each summer.
Dunes of Provincelands / Beaches
The northern tip of Cape Cod has miles of 100’ tall dunes that make for an epic outing.
Provincetown
An artsy beach town with great food and a large LGBTQ+ community. We spent a bunch of time shopping and enjoying the great food of P-Town.
Whale Watching
One of the highlights was our whale watching trip. For my birthday, we went whale watching with Dolphin Fleet Whale Watching. Having grown up in Virginia, I took many trips as a kid off the Va Beach coast, and knew what to expect - a fun boat ride with snacks and drinks and maybe one whale sighting in 10 trips. When we boarded the vessel and they announced a guarantee of a 99.9% chance to see whales I kind of chuckled. By the end of the trip I suggested they should increase their odds to 100%.
Unbeknownst to us, mother nature was feeling a little flashy this day. We started off by seeing a Minke whale, which is actually somewhat rare on these trips. Imagine our surprise when 10min into getting offshore we already see a whale. This was a nice appetizer.
Once we let that whale be we spotted another pod and were racing towards them. Camera dialed in and aimed, I was ready, when out of nowhere a massive shark lunges out of the ocean, quite literally about 15’ from the boat, and attacks a seal.
Note: Open the 3rd image above to see blood in the water
After participating in an episode of National Geographic, we were on our way to the pod we saw. Apparently these whales migrate to this spot annually each summer to feed. There were two pods (6 total whales) that we followed around for the next couple of hours. When they announced it was time to head back to port, we were actually ready and felt we had our fill of whales - unbelievable.
Dunes of Provincelands / Beaches
No trip to Cape Cod would be complete without some serious beach time. There are wonderful beaches all over and at the tip of Cape Cod are the famous Dunes of Provincelands.
The beaches in Cape Cod are absolutely amazing. We went to Race Point Beach and Herring Cove Beach, both are pet friendly.
We actually had a few seals visit us on both beaches.
The Dunelands were amazing too. We have dunes down in the OBX and South Carolina beaches, but these were more like hills than “dunes”. If you scroll to the top and look at the Airstream next to one you can get an idea of the size, but in the Dunelands they’re even taller.
Provincetown
P-Town was a the perfect beach town to kickoff the trip. We spent countless evenings strolling the shops and seeing some of the bizarre artwork and sites. P-town is a vibrant community with amazing art, and naturally, seafood. It has one of the oldest Portuguese Bakery’s in the U.S., and a very northeastern coastal feel to it. We were fortunate to have some fantastic weather and were able to eat on the docks a few times, as well as try out some of the more popular spots for Lobster rolls, burgers, Italian, Pizza, and more lobster rolls.
For more pictures of Cape Cod click here.
