Provincetown, Massachusetts

About thirty years ago Nancy and I, on a trip to see the New England fall leaf changes, stayed overnight in Provincetown, Massachusetts, near the tip end of the Cape Cod peninsula.  We remember a very long and lively street that paralleled the coastline, full of fun restaurants, art galleries, cabarets, and all sorts of interesting shops, and with a very strong gay presence.  It was one of those towns, like Key West, San Francisco, and New Orleans, that had the reputation of welcoming gay men with open arms.  At that time we found Provincetown full of energy, with a lot of activity options, and wanted to visit it again. 

As soon as we parked there, we saw a couple of young men carrying babies in chest harnesses and thought of that as confirmation that this was still a gay-centric town, but overall, after a comprehensive investigation, we concluded that Provincetown isn't much different from any other coastal tourist destination.  I suspect that since homosexuality is no longer such a taboo in most of the country, gay people no longer feel they need to band together to be accepted and live free of discrimination.

Provincetown still has a great feel to it, and it was fun wandering along Commercial Street.  We had a nice lunch on a patio overlooking the beach.

From our campground we also drove to nearby Hyannis, Massachusetts.  Hyannis Port, just next door, was the site of the Joseph and Rose Kennedy family compound, where Joe, John, Ted, Bobby, and their sisters grew up.  We visited the John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum.  That's a bronze Jack Kennedy striding toward you.

The more comprehensive Kennedy Presidential Library is in Boston.  This one is simply a display of a photographic record of John's and Jackie's lives, as recorded by a couple of men - the Kennedy family photographer and John's presidential photographer.  There are photos of Jack and his siblings as children and young adults, as well as images from his marriage to Jackie, his presidential campaign, and his time as president.  The photos of John and Jackie remind us of what a huge media sensation these two beautiful people were.  Interestingly, there was no coverage here of the assassination or of John's funeral.  And no photos of these museum photos were allowed.

Tomorrow we head up the coast to New Hampshire and Maine.  We're still having a great deal of fun, with little mini-adventures almost every day.  Still, some stops are more interesting than others.  This one wasn't a home run.  Truth is, we are beginning to fantasize about someday living in a house not on wheels, and of riding around in a comfortable sedan rather than a rickety old pickup truck.  Impossible dreams?  We'll see.