The Pilgrim Monument - Part 2

I'd climbed to the top of Provincetown's Pilgrim Monument. According to the pamphlet I'd been given upon admission, the granite structure had been built between 1907 and 1910. Theodore Roosevelt laid the cornerstone and William Taft led the dedication ceremony:

The monument was built to commemorate the first landing of the Mayflower Pilgrims on November 21, 1620:

The tower is more than 252 feet tall and 350 feet above sea level. The view of the Provincetown wharfs was terrific:

With many windows around the perimeter of the monument, I could snap pictures in every direction:

And the narrow tip of Cape Cod was evident:

And the Atlantic Ocean was visible in every direction:


Here's a brief video taken looking out several of the windows. There's nothing to hear but howling winds, so you won't miss anything if you turn down your speakers:


I was glad that I didn't have a fear of heights. I was also glad I'd decided to once again explore the view from the top of the Pilgrim Monument:

But it came time to leave and I descended the ramps all the way down to the base:

And finally, a video I found on YouTube while uploading mine. It shows the monument's top, interior and museum. It's a fun video, so I thought you might enjoy it. Keep your speakers on for this one, though, as the dialog is fun and witty:

The Pilgrim Monument - Part 1

I'd been in Provincetown for less than 24 hours and had already seen a lot. I'd hiked the shoreline and sand dunes at Head-Of-The-Meadow Beach, walked out onto the breakwater at the tip of the Cape, and explored the downtown of Provincetown. Now I decided that since I might never be in Provincetown again, I should go visit the Pilgrim Monument. Though I'd been inside and to the top in the past, it was so long ago that I couldn't even remember if one used stairs or an elevator:

So after eating breakfast, I headed to the monument, paid my admission (getting the first "senior discount" of my life) and entered the museum. The museum was OK, but the monument itself was the main attraction and I was anxious to get inside it. So I walked up the steps from the museum to the base of the monument, passing this little house on the way. I'd guess that once upon a time, that's where tickets were sold:

I was the first visitor to the monument that day and its caretaker was waiting at the base. He offered to take my photo before we began our ascent:

Even at the base of the monument, one could see out over Provincetown and the Atlantic ocean:

But the time soon came for the caretaker to head up into the monument and I followed shortly thereafter:

There was no elevator, but steps at the bottom:

And after a couple of flights of steps, the ascent was made on concrete ramps. This is what I saw looking up into the tower from below. The concrete walkways circled the monument, attached to the granite sides. Climbing all that was a daunting prospect:

But I began my ascent and a few others soon followed. Looking down from one of the lower tiers, I photographed people walking up the concrete ramps below me:

The winds were howling everywhere that day in Provincetown, but at the top of the Pilgrim Monument, they were especially fierce. The views, however, were astounding:

I could see out over the tip of the Cape in all directions. And the Cape was so narrow there that I could see ocean in all directions. I'll post more about the monument tomorrow:

Sunrise Over Cape Cod Bay

I was staying in Provincetown to sing in a Saturday evening concert for the benefit of the Provincetown Soup Kitchen. I woke up before dawn on Saturday morning and drove to a convenience store for coffee. Then I decided that a sunrise walk out on the breakwater on the very tip of the Cape would be nice. The last time I'd taken that walk, I'd seen lots of fish, crabs, starfish, etc. in the water. This time, the tide was out and I saw mostly sand and stranded mussels. Still, anywhere on Cape Cod at sunrise is a spectacular sight:

I was not the only person who had decided that such a sunrise walk would be pleasant. A few other daring souls were out there hopping carefully from rock to rock, enjoying the sights, sounds and smells:

And looking back toward Provincetown center, I could see the Pilgrim Monument. It's an anchoring fixture in the tip-of-the-Cape landscape:

There wasn't much sea life visible except for seagulls and other birds. I was having a mostly quiet, contemplative experience beneath the newly risen sun:

Seagulls picked up mussels and dropped them on the rocks to crack them open. Then they'd eat the animal inside the shell. I got to watch this happen many times at close range, as seagulls are notoriously unafraid of people:

I tried to get a video of seagulls dropping mussels on the rocks but never got the chance. I did, however, record a seagull picking at an apparently dead starfish. You can hear the ever present wind:


The newly risen sun was spreading its warmth over the ocean and bathing everything in silvers and golds:

It was all lovely, but I was getting hungry. So I turned back towards dry land:

I got back into my little red car and drove to the only eatery in town open at that early hour. Normally, one avoids driving in Provincetown. It's too crowded, the streets are too narrow, the parking is too scarce. But at this hour, I was sure I could find a place to park:

I had a coffee and a breakfast burrito. I sat alone in the little restaurant except for the company of a brown bird, species unknown. It hopped around the floor picking at crumbs from the night before. He or she was good enough company:

More Cape Cod Scenery

I was driving in the "forearm" of Cape Cod when I spotted a sign pointing off to the right toward the Fort Hill Historical Area. Well, I was in no hurry, and as I wrote yesterday, I thought it likely that this would be my last trip there. So I turned off the highway and onto a narrow lane which took me to a historical section with old private homes:

The biggest and most amazing of the houses also had a whalebone arch over the walkway. I walked over and looked closely but couldn't decide if these two bones were ribs or jaw bones. Well, they were one or the other. I later saw a pair just like them in the Pilgrim Monument Museum, but didn't see a sign explaining which bones they were:

The houses were beautiful and, I'm sure, expensive beyond my comprehension. But I had miles to go yet before I reached Provincetown at the very tip of the Cape, so I continued on my way:

In the town of Eastham I stopped momentarily at this windmill. It's a landmark for me as I remember it from my early trips to the Cape as a young man. Also, I later brought my two boys here and we stopped at the Eastham windmill:

The nearby houses were expensive, but even the new ones kept to the old Cape Cod style:

Traveling on, I came to the sand dunes around the town of Truro. But this time I drove up a small residential road and stopped to take a few pictures of the scenery:

The Cape here is very narrow:

There isn't much land area between the ocean on each side in this area. It's picturesque, but I imagine it's fearsome in a hurricane:

Do you see that tall tower far off on the shore? That's the Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown, also on a tiny strip of land in the middle of the ocean:

Salt marshes, sand dunes:

I was parked on a small residential road up on a sand dune. The highway toward Provincetown runs the length of that narrow strip of land. And it was time for me to get back onto that highway and get myself to Provincetown: