Monday 21st October

Today we explored Cape Cod, planning to visit some lighthouses and beaches. First stop was the seaside town of Falmouth, a really picturesque town centre with an eclectic coffee shop called Coffee Obsession where our friend Anthony would have felt quite at home. We then checked out the main street shops - those that were open anyway, there seemed to be quite a few closed, including the French boulangerie much to Graeme's dismay !!

Places here are really starting to ramp up the Halloween decorations as can be seen in the photos.

The reason we came to Falmouth was to see the Nobaska Lighthouse, first built in 1828, the current one built in 1876! The houses associated with the lighthouse were under renovation and the outlet was a bit boring, so not as good a visit as we hoped, but offset by the quaintness of the town centre.

Tania had also noted in our Falmouth tour booklet mention of "gingerbread houses" located at Falmouth Heights.. a nice drive along the coast to see these on our way out.

A distinct style of houses labelled Gothic Carpenter, built at the turn of the 19th century. Use of those grey shingles were quite common all over Cape Cod.

Just after leaving Falmouth we came across some blue trees...but that is all we know about them !

Next stop was Chatham, another lighthouse stop and this one was a little more worth visiting and is still in operation. We couldn't get very close, but the coast there was called Chatham Bars and looked a beautiful beach to walk on a nice day. Unfortunately though it was a bit blowy and cold today.

As we continued our drive along Cape Cod there many mansions displaying the wealth of the vacationers who spend Summer here. We continued all the way to the next stop of the cape to Provincetown, which in fact was the first place the Pilgrims set foot in New Amsterdam, only to decide not to stay and push on to Plymouth. We also decided not to stay, mainly as we were running out of time and it was still a long drive to our end destination today, Plymouth. We did a quick drive through the town and pier of Provincetown wishing we had more time the explore. There is a large column monument here marking the Pilgrim landing.

Arriving at Plymouth we had to get our belongings in some sort of order as we drop the car off tomorrow morning in Boston. So a quick repack and check of items scattered throughout the car was the end of our pilgrimage day!