Gandalf Murphy, Dar Williams, John Gorka @ Falcon Ridge 2007 - Peace Train

We missed Falcon Ridge this year, and we were so close....Hopefully we'll be there next year.

What we did in Ptown

We did a lot of reading and relaxing, I read The Other Boleyn Girl, Mark read the new Harry Potter, then Mark read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and I read the new Harry Potter. But we did other stuff too. Shopped...and
rambled through the artsy and fun town on a daily basis.





We had no other means of transportation (but thanks to Val and Tony for shuttling us to the beach and to their house at the very way east end of town) and that turned out to be great because we became better acquainted with this town we keep returning to. And it was really fun having the poodle boys with us, they were welcomed pretty much everywhere. Well, not the library. But we did get to watch the cupola being returned to the top of the library after being restored.Of course, we spent plenty of time on the beach which is so peaceful, though the water was freezing. When we went to the beach right by Val and Tony's house the tide was way out and it was fun walking way out there with the pups. Mark even got to fly a kite, and get ogled by a guy in a thong, all at the same time!

It was great to get to celebrate Val's birthday while we were there. We had an afternoon party with fabulous cake and good friends on Val & Tony's deck. Later we went to see a seldom performed (with good reason it turns out) Tennessee William play set in Ptown, Parade. But it was followed but a truly fabulous dinner at one of the many excellent restaurants in town.

It was a very happy and relaxing vacation. We shall return.

Walking through the west end of Provincetown.

It was a short and pretty walk from our cottage into town. This was the first time we had stayed on the west end of Ptown, and there was a lot of road work going on -- they are putting in new sewer lines. So we took different streets into town each day and explored the neighborhood, which is peaceful and charming.

After 5 or 10 minutes we are at the very west tip of Ptown and this end of town has an atmosphere of its own. The coast guard base is there but hardly noticeable. Small shops begin, homey restaurants, and the streets wind right on down to the beach.

Four Gables, many dogs, and art all over

Four Gables was wonderful, a little group of cottages & apartments way off in the west end of town (more on this very cool neighborhood later), which was quiet, lush, and so very dog friendly. This is our cottage, the Daisy Mae.

Here's the view from the front porch of the cottage, a pond, a fenced in yard, benches, and wonderful artsy surprises, and dog toys, everywhere you look. Two apartments on the ground floor of the main house also open to this yard. Everyone had dogs, and the dogs all got along, but it was too interesting watching the dogs interact to remember to take pictures.

There is a private little patio out the side door of our cottage, a couple of chairs and a table, more interesting art, very peaceful and quiet.

We spent most of our time on the front porch though, shady and comfortable, the perfect place to read and relax, listen to the fountain in the pond, have a cold drink and cuddle dogs.



Until the morning some workers broke a water main on the corner and our little stone path turned into a rushing river that flowed right under our cottage!

Traveling to Ptown

Sat. July 21st, after a long and very peaceful plane trip, we arrived in Boston with dogs in cases, took the airport shuttle to the airport pier and took a water taxi to the ferry. As we discovered on our last visit to Ptown, Dylan loves boats! Marley watched and learned.

We had hours to wait until it was time for the ferry, so we walked around Boston, dogs did so well on crowded streets like Faneuil Hall, and on quiet ones downtown like Oliver Street.

Back at the ferry, got a good spot on line as people anxiously awaited the beginnings of vacations. Dylan was a social guy on line, so when the ramp was put out, no one minded when he pulled to be first to step on board! Bye, Boston.

And hello Provincetown, so glad to be back.

Peace in Provincetown

After a long day's journey to the tip of the Cape (car, plane, bus, water taxi, ferry) during which our perfect little poos uttered nary a complaint (aren't drugs grand) even during the two hours we wandered downtown Boston between taxi and ferry, we arrived at the place we have fallen in love with again and again. This time we are staying on the quaint and quiet west end of town, a few blocks from the main drag, in an amazingly dog friendly compound of cottages, houses, apartments, called Four Gables. Our cottage is Daisy Mae, an homage I chose to the big dog left behind.




It has a front porch looking out on a small shaded yard with a
pond where dogs can congregate; our dogs also visit
our neighbors on their porches. The porch is also
a great place to read and Mark's been making his way through
Harry Potter while I have been continuing my study of 16th century English history after the first season of The Tudors by reading The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. Our place is also well equipped with a flat screen hdtv and a nice stereo system we have used for our yoga and meditation dvd/cds.

The cottage also has a private little side patio where we can have some breakfast or whatever and there is all kinds of interesting artsy stuff scattered throughout the property and in our cottage. It's the best place we have found to stay here in Ptown and I can definitely see coming back to this one. The guys next door are here for the summer and when we are retired I'd like to do the same, a month at least. Everyone has dogs and everyone is friendly (even though we are the only "mixed sex couple" here). We even stopped in to a wedding party for a couple of guys who had recently gotten married.



It's just a short walk into town for a cup of Joe, though we have
stocked our tiny kitchen with stuff for breakfast and snacks.
Dogs are welcome almost everywhere in town and ours get lots of
attention; they are incredibly cute after all. There is good shopping (Marc by Marc Jacobs has opened since our last visit!) and lots of galleries to oogle art. And is this the only place in
the country that has no sign of HP7 in the bookstores or the
library? (At least Mark is not the only one; one of the guys next
door is reading it too.)




Today is Val's birthday and so we will go over to their place this afternoon to hang out on the beach near them, have a birthday party, and, well, relax some more. Tonight we are going to the theater to see a short and little performed Tennessee Williams play that he wrote here in Ptown about Ptown, Parade. Then to a nice dinner at one of the many fabulous restaurants here.
That's what Ptown is all about, beach, reading, relaxing, shopping, eating. That's what I call a good vacation.

Even librarians are cool in NYC!

The new generation of librarians are socially active and know how to find each other. They are Hipper Shushers.