Father's Day Fun

This year we were lucky enough to have Shana's father here for Father's Day. In celebration we drove down Cape to Provincetown, visiting some of my favorite Atlantic beaches on the way.

After breakfast at Ann & Fran's Kitchen in West Yarmouth we drove through Chatham to admire the beautiful houses and the stunning beach. Chatham Lighthouse Beach is not only wide but deep, and although parking is somewhat limited there is no charge to park. The beach rose, Rosa Rugosa is in blom now, and the fragrance is intoxicating. It's an invasive invader, but so pretty! The Chatham lighthouse is lovely. It is a working lighthouse, so access is limited; we were not there on a day when it was open, but since John is having some knee problems it was not too disappointing to miss the climb.

We drove on down route 28, stopping on the way  to do a little shopping at  Monomoy Salvage, where not only is the available merchandise irresistible but the owner (Carol Sherman) turns out to be on the Board of Selectman for Mashpee Massachusetts. An interesting conversation about Mashpee doings and political issues quickly ensued. What a nice surprise! We picked up a few lobster floats to decorate the front of our shed and a couple of iron hooks and away we went.

On the way we stopped briefly at Nauset Beach, my personal favorite, and one I sometimes always have a hard time finding. I always look for it  farther down Cape and it is actually in Eastham.

We continued on to Race Point Beach, part of the Cape Cod National Seashore, where Shana wanted to show John the Old Harbor Life Saving Station. The station was not open when we first arrived, but be came back on the way back from Provincetown to visit it properly. Race Point is a good choice for beach goers because the dunes are not steep there. You can come and go with without too much effort going up and down the dunes. The only down side is that it is all the way down Cape, and I don't always want to go that far.

In Province town we took a little stroll, did a tiny bit of shopping at WA visited a few galleries, fell in love with an unaffordable painting by a local artist, and had a cold drink (iced coffee, in my case!) Off to Mac's Seafood for our dinner fixin's, a stop back at Race Point, and home again.

For Father's Day we had decided to indulge in a seafood feast, featuring steamed lobster and Wellfleet Oysters. We had never prepared either one of these items at home before but true to our usual cooking theories we plunged right in and invited guests to enjoy them with us. There was much discussion at various tones of voice about how to cook the lobster. We had our pot, and I had prevailed with my insistence that the beasts be cooked and eaten outside so my house would not smell of crustacean until the end of time. The point of contention was the means of cooking. I favored the turkey frying apparatus; Shana was sure the Coleman camp stove would serve, but John and I thought it lacked BTU output. It turned out we had left our propane tank in Falmouth at Thanksgiving when we last fried a turkey. I was sure we would end up cooking the lobsters on the kitchen stove; John stirred the pot by suggesting that he saw  propane tank next door. Needn't have worried, the lobsters came out perfect. We could refine our post-pot preparation techniques, but they were just delicious. Personally I do not eat raw oysters, but I assumed that since John does he would be able to shuck them. Nope. You Tube to the rescue with a good video showing how to do it, and I was able to get them all prepared in short order with no injuries to myself or the oyster.

Today we will swing around to the other extreme and get out in the yard for some serious digging and moving plants around.