PROVINCETOWN

The humpbacks came to play today! Some thirty were feasting off the Cape Cod National Seashore and the Dolphin II whale watching boat I joined circled at least 15 during our three-hour voyage. Awaiting castoff on the top deck I met Loc, our darling blond videographer. Knowing he was on board put me at ease when the sun was so bright and the whales so fast I had no idea what my camera was shooting. (I ordered Loc’s DVD so let me know if you want to see these whales in motion.)





Our first sighting included no less than eight humpbacks frolicking together bowing and blowing. At one point the boat raced forward as another humpback had been spotted flippering. We weren’t sure she’d still be at it when we arrived but she did not disappoint. We followed a mother and calf as they sputtered along and learned that a calf gains 100 lbs. each day solely from mother’s milk. Take a look at the gaping mouth of the whale below and imagine her scarfing down thousands of fish each day.

Speaking of scarfing down fish, Provincetown was lobster-tasting part two for us. Benedicta skipped the whale watching in favor of sunning herself at Herring Cove and by the time I returned she’d scouted out Pepe’s as our lobstering spot. Now, if I hadn’t had the lobster in Halifax I would have rated today’s as excellent. But the Nova Scotia lobster has raised the bar. My first draft description of it was “sensually sweet.” My editor insisted you don’t describe a lobster as sensual so after mulling other descriptives I settled on succulent (cliché but true). After a bit of comparison though, I’m sticking with sensual and planning a return trip to Nova Scotia to re-experience the luscious lobster.



Some friends have a house in Provincetown so we’d visited for a week in October a few years ago and decided then we didn’t need to return. On that trip we went whale watching and ended up following one mink whale around for about an hour. The beaches and dunes (great for bicycling) are vast and beautiful and the downtown has loads of galleries and stores with decent stuff, but shopping’s just not my thing. The whales however, now that’s a thrill!