Our game plan for Provincetown, always an expensive (but fun) destination is to hit it at the beginning or the end of the season, when we can still enjoy the natural beauty and the cultural scene that makes this centuries-old village one of our favorite spots.
Along with our Frommer's (of course!) we brought along another guide to Provincetown, one that's more of a historical and spiritual guide: Lands End, A Walk Through Provincetown (Crown, 2002) by one of our favorite authors, Michael Cunningham (The Hours, Home at the End of the World, Flesh and Blood). A sometime resident and frequent visitor, Cunningham's short narrative (176 pages), captures both the natural and man-made charms and delights of P-town in all the seasons.
At this time of year, little town at the tip of Cape Cod has settled down for its long winter's nap, a time when, as a year-round resident recently e-mailed us, "people tend to leave the house unwashed and in their pajamas." Since the off-season is never really completely off anymore, they'll have to get dressed for the sporadic celebrations that run through the winter, especially around New Year's Eve, which has a full slate of events that draw the locals, with concerts and parties scheduled at all the major venues from December 31-January 2. /p>
Choose the Road Yourself, Let Us Suggest the Lodging
We headed northward from New York City, a 6-8 hour drive depending on traffic and how straight a line you take, so to speak, for a conference and the beginning of Women's Week last month, with plans for both indoor fun, and weather permitting, some face time with the Atlantic Ocean, a picturesque lighthouse or two, and the solitude and bracing air of the National Seashore.
Through the Women Innkeepers of Provincetown website (www.womeninnkeepers.com), we booked a room at Heritage House, 7 Center Street (tel. 508/487-3692; www.heritageh.com) a B&B just off the main drag, Commercial St., in a beautifully restored 1856 manse originally built by merchant Timothy Prosperous Johnson for his wife and 10 children. Currently owned and run by Lynn Mogell and Sarah Peake, the eight guest rooms range in size from single to king and queen, and the nightly tariff from $75-$125, including breakfast. You should contact them for winter rates.
The B&B was just our size and style; located far enough off Commercial Street that we didn't hear the bustle of partiers determined to seize every moment of the night (and early morning), but close enough that a short walk delivered us into the thick of things. They also had room for us to leave the minivan in parking-starved P-town.
There are no phones or televisions in the cozy, sparkling clean rooms, each decorated with original artwork, which is the way we like it, though at least one of us went through e-mail withdrawal -- if you can't take this risk, there's free Internet access at the public library, and high-speed access at two or three cafes and business centers in town. The shared bathrooms are also clean and tidy, with hairdryers provided, and shampoo dispensers in the stall showers.
We rose early to the smell of fresh-baked muffins, featured in a large buffet-style breakfast. Either Lynn or Sarah presides over the morning meal, which always features some homemade bakery item, along with cereal, juice, yogurt, fruit, bread, and enough accompaniments to keep you satisfied until lunch, including plenty of coffee and regular or herbal tea. The other guests ranged from a fellow in town to try his luck fishing (none of the hostelries of Women Innkeepers of Provincetown are women-only), to women singles and couples in town for Women's Week, and a few men enjoying what might be the last mild weekend of the fall.Who's Really Who in P-town
Our hosts inquired about our plans for the day, and chimed in with suggestions for activities, and answers to our questions ranging from "where can we get a good massage?" to "where can we get a haircut without an appointment?" A town directory reveals some 15 licensed massage therapists in town; we bought a package of five hours from Deanna's Healing Hands Massage, 309 Commercial St. (tel. 978/963-5068), which included a reading of Angel cards, a foot-washing and presentation of a piece of candy as a ritual to complete the session, if you're into that sort of thing, which we are on occasion.
Deanna, who sometimes wears angel wings when riding (with her dog) on her motorcycle around town, was also performing a one-woman show at one of the local theaters, and gave us a flyer for the show, as did both the haircutter and the manager for their own shows at West End Salon, 155 Commercial St. (tel. 508/487-1872; www.westendsalon.com), where we ended up getting a fashionable bob before our erotica reading. After their day jobs, the stylist was appearing in a play at the Provincetown Theater Company, and the manager is one of the hosts of Drag Karaoke at the Governor Bradford Bar & Restaurant.
It's almost a given that everyone in Provincetown is really something else: an artist, a writer, an actor, a cabaret performer. With a long history as an artistic refuge, the town is full of people who came to visit and ended up staying. Since it takes quite an effort to pay the rent, your server is also usually your struggling artist. Even those who have made it already, stick to a work ethic: comedian/singer Lea DeLaria, in for a stint at Vixen club (of which the first one was a benefit for a local women's charity), hit Commercial Street before every one of her shows, handing out flyers, chatting with passers-by, and doing the work to put the fannies in the seats.
That particular charm is under fire, we discovered, as the topic of conversation almost everywhere was the growing popularity of P-town, and consequent loss of affordable living space for its traditional residents -- fishermen and their families of Portuguese descent, artists looking for a perfect light, and all manner of other creative types. Our innkeepers told us that the occupancy rate in the town's hotels and inns continues to rise in a flat economy; they (and the tax base) are benefiting. There's much construction on the little land available, mostly large, modern mansions and condos, many of which are only occupied seasonally. Our waitress at dinner one night told us that the year-round population (which had hovered in the 5,000 range) had dropped significantly in the last several years. Artists can no longer afford a steady residence here and many of the service personnel in town are on work visas from the Caribbean.
While the sight of, say, a male Cher impersonator riding down Commercial street on a scooter in leather chaps encapsulates the town's uniqueness and diversity, we were aware of an unease that such sights might disappear if not somehow protected. We'd certainly miss them, because the joie de vivre is why we come to Provincetown. Since it's not likely we're going to have the means to put up our own McMansion (or even buy one of the apartments in a guesthouse-turning-condo that has e-mailed us since our return), we consider ourselves part of the solution rather than the problem.
These thoughts also crept into many of the panels and discussions while one of us was attending panels on the state and future of GLBT literature at the Provincetown Inn & Conference Center, 1 Commercial St. (tel. 1-800-WHALE VU; www.provincetowninn.com). The other took a trip to the Race Point Lighthouse (www.racepointlighthouse.net), still an active navigational aid, where you can get the best view in town, of town, and the Atlantic; from the top of a winding staircase you can glance at the outermost curve of the ocean beach in North Truro. The lighthouse, built in 1876, is in the final stages of a six-year renovation, which includes the restoration of the original lighthouse keeper's dwelling into an overnight accommodation run by the New England Lighthouse Foundation.
From Food for Thought to Food for the Body
Between the sightseeing and the literary schmoozing, we also satisfied our craving for seafood. While Provincetown boasts a startlingly diverse range of restaurants, including gourmet eateries that could hold their own in large cities, what we really wanted was fresh fish, simply prepared and served.
Among the several budget-minded places we frequent in Provincetown, we enjoyed lunch at The Mayflower, 300 Commercial St. (tel. 508/487-0121) a family-friendly diner style restaurant offering fresh local seafood and Portuguese specialties (try the linguica soup!), at lunch and dinner. We satisfied between-meal cravings at town's hangout Spiritus Pizza, 190 Commercial St. (tel. 508/487-2808 open til 2 am). We enjoyed the light, perfectly battered fish and chips at The Squealing Pig, 335 Commercial St. (tel. 508/487-5804) a bar that has a good enough cook to be considered a restaurant.
The Central House Bar & Grille at the New Crown & Anchor Inn, 247 Commercial St. (tel. 508/487-1430; www.onlyatthecrown.com), serves a more refined cuisine with an excellent wine list, and a $13.95 Early Bird special from 5-6:30pm, (try the baked cod) including salad and dessert. The Governor Bradford, 312 Commercial St. (tel. 508/487-9618) also offers excellent casual dining, and even when we don't swing by for some linguini with calamari fra diavolo, we always stop in for Drag Karaoke, which is exactly what it sounds like: visitors and locals singing along with thousands of pop tunes, aided and abetted on by one or two drag queens. Dana Denzel was the hostess the night our group stopped by for rousing renditions of I Love Rock & Roll, Great Balls of Fire, At Seventeen and Come To My Window, among others.
All That Art in Such a Little Town
In addition to devising our own entertainment, we took the advice of our innkeepers and caught a new play, Almost Home, by Meryl Cohn at the Provincetown Theater Company's Fall Playwrights Festival in its temporary home at the Schoolhouse Center for Art and Design (www.provincetowntheater.org). The PTC, a year-round company that develops new work, has joined forces with the Provincetown Repertory Company, another professional theater, and both will reside in a new permanent theater facility on Commercial Street by the summer of 2004. Both companies are presenting work throughout the winter, with the PTC currently offering David Sedaris's The Santaland Diaries through the end of December. Ticket prices average a reasonable $16-$18, and a year-round population of actors and writers makes for a high level of quality in the various productions.
Women's Week was just hitting its stride when we had to head back home, and since our return, we've received some tempting e-mail offers for winter rates at various hotels and inns that have us pondering a mid-winter trip. The only worry, though, is that one of these trips, we'll end up deciding not to come home, and then there'll be a few more starving artists handing out flyers at the restaurants and hairdressers.
For more information on Provincetown contact General Tourism Information (www.provincetown.com); The Gay & Lesbian Guide to Provincetown (www.ptown.org) or Provincetown for Women (www.provincetownforwomen.com).