USA : Day 13 : Boats, and Trains, and Planes...

We were up at the crack of dawn today (yesterday?) as we had a long journey ahead of us. 

First was an 90 minute fast ferry service across Boston Harbour from Ptown to Boston. 

Then a four hour train journey from Boston down the coast to New York's Penn Station. 

Then riding the E train subway to Jamaica station. 

Then the skytrain to JFK Terminal 7.

Then (after a very pleasant hour or three in the Concorde lounge) an 8 hour First Class overnight flight on BA116 back to Heathrow. 

As dawn in the UK broke, we completed the final leg of our return journey - the fun of joining the rush hour commute!

A long journey, true, but we pretty much laughed all the way. 

USA : Day 12 : Ptown Bikes, Dressing Up, and the Red Inn...

Today was our last day in Ptown. So we were determined to make the most of it. 

To kick the day off, we hired push-bikes from the excellent Ptown Bikes and cycled out to Race Head across the dunes. Then we dressed up and sashayed through town (we were getting the hang of this sashaying) before heading out for a posh dinner at the Red Inn.

The dunes were great - there was a 6 mile cycling trail to follow through the woods, up and down the hills, and past the saline ponds until we reached the Atlantic Ocean. Beautiful, serene, and bleached by the weather it was a beautiful sun-soaked journey across the end of the Cape. 

We returned to town for lunch and bit of light shopping beefier heading home to pack.  

As it was our last night we decided to dress up a bit and walk through the town. Stuart and I had bought colourful shirts earlier on this trip and Jo had, in typical fashion, dressed typically fashionably anyway. 

Our destination was the Red Inn - a hard to get in place whose food was legendary. When we arrived, we were treated like film stars - which was ironic as there was actually a bone fide film star on the premises   - Kathleen Turner.  Ms Turner was in town hosting a charity event. But it wasn't all about you tonight Kathy. It was our last night. So we ate like kings and queens and downed enough booze to sink the titanic. 

A fitting end to a lovely stay on Cape Cod. Tomorrow we head home. 

USA : Day 11 : Provincetown Pride...

Provincetowners are very proud of their city. Demonstrated most dramatically perhaps by the previously mentioned massive granite Pilgrim Monument tower they built to commemorate that landing of the Mayflower back in 1620. 

In the morning Jo, Stuart, and I visited the tower's nearby Provincetown Museum to  learn about pilgrims and also about the town's whaling past. We then climbed up the 252 feet to the top, which afforded us lovely views of the town, the cape, and the sea. 

After our climb and a bit of shopping in town we swung by Pepe's again for some early lunch. They remembered us!

The other aspect that Provincetowners are very proud of is their LGBT community and to that end, the rest of our day was spent helping them celebrate that pride. Or to give it it's more official spelling - Pride. Today was Pride Day. 

Things started off with a gathering at the LGBTQ Center - mainly drag queens and onlookers - before a procession through town. Or to give it it's formal title - a sashay. 

This year's Pride event was only Ptown's second so was fairly modest. The much bigger LGBTQ carnival held in August has been running for yonks - but from little acorns, mighty oaks do grow. 

We joined in the fun by dressing up a bit and followed the sashay as it snaked its colourful way towards the tea dance at the Boatslip.

Along the way were information stations with signs displaying the history of the Stonewall riots 50 years ago. 

Once at the Boatslip the partying really began. We laughed, we had a few drinks, we chatted, we danced, we laughed some more.

The place was packed and we saw some sights I can tell you!

As it was  just a tea dance things came to a close by 7pm so we popped home to change again - our third outfit of the day - before heading back into town for more drinks and to catch a drag show at the Crown & Anchor pub. Well, I say drag. Drag was the least outrageous thing about it. 

Dina Martina’s shows are a mash-up of live singing, outrageous costumes, and hilarious video montages. It’s a high camp drag show and very funny. 

This show was called Forgotten But Not Gone! and featured a lot of British songs - not least West End Girls and Life in a Northern Town.

I'm sure the Pet Shop Boys and The Dream Academy would both laugh at their songs being lovingly murdered by a overweight drag queen with a quick wit and sparkle in her eye. My sides were literally aching from laughing. 

The show ended with a mass singalong to Fleetwood Mac's Go Your Own Way. Yes, more Brits!

After the show we stopped off for some pizza slices (we'd somehow managed to skip supper) before heading home still giggling from the drag show. 

A great day in Ptown. Proud to be here.

USA : Day 10 : Goodbye Martha's Vineyard, Hello Ptown...

We got up early on our last day on The Vineyard to try out a new breakfast place (it was lovely) and do a bit of shopping (marginally less lovely). In both places we experienced that American cliche - the "over-cheery server."  Everything was big grin, 'amazing', and 'super'. Now, don't get me wrong, I like cheerful peeps, but it's as easy to detect a forced smile as it is to tell the difference between a ray of sunshine and a drunk Glaswegian with a grievance. 

We'll miss The Vineyard though. Despite its, at times, forced smiliness, the people were really nice to us. And the place did look gorgeous. 

But our dashing, white catamaran awaited us at the dock to zoom us across the water back to the Cape. And zoom it did. 

Once landed in Hyannis we scuttled up the hill to the bus terminal to pick up our next mode of transport for the day, our old friend a Peter Pan coach that was to drive us as far along Cape Cod as it could, to Provincetown. 

Provincetown, or Ptown to its friends, is nestled right at the northern tip of Cape Cod. 

For historians, the seaside town is on the site of the Mayflower’s landing in 1620, commemorated by the towering Pilgrim Monument and neighbouring Provincetown Museum. 

For everyone else, Ptown is known as a longtime haven for artists, lesbians and gay men. 

There are numerous galleries, restaurants, nightclubs, cabarets, and specialty shops clustered on and around lively Commercial Street. And loads of gay bars too. 

And guess what? We'd arrived, quite coincidentally on the weekend of Pride. Gay on gay plus an extra serving of gay. 

For the next three night we were staying at the Salt House Inn - run by the devilishly handsome Teddy. Once installed in our charming rooms, we ventured out to Commercial Street to admire the quaint artists, and even quainter lesbians and gay men. 

Ptown is infact lovely, the views across the harbour delightful, and little shops and houses chocolate-box perfect. 

We walked around for an hour or two just soaking it all in. Then we enjoyed a sundowner at Pepe's overlooking the harbour and people-watching as couples walked hand in hand along the shore. 

After our own stroll and our cocktails we had started to feel hungry so we headed back to the Salt House Inn to change for dinner. We had found a hidden gem of an Italian called Ciro & Sal's earlier which we returned to for nosh. They served us beautiful food, a fruity red, but happily with no side orders of the over-cheeriness we'd been gradually getting used to. 

After dinner we dropped into a local bar for a quick night cap - well, another bottle of red. But you would, wouldn't you? We are on holiday after all. 

And it was a very nice, warming way to end our first day in Ptown.