Three cures for the summertime blues

Provincetown, Mass - Heat got you down? In my opinion, when the thermometer hits 90 degrees, there is really only one place to be, and that's in the water. In anticipation of the summer's first really hot days, we headed to Provincetown on Sunday. That was a good move.

Cape Cod has a reputation for bad traffic and crowded beaches, but there are a few ways to avoid both of these negatives:

Number one, drive to Cape Cod on a Sunday morning. Sure there will be a lot of cars, but they will all be headed in the opposite direction.

Number two, drive all the way to the Cape Cod National Seashore. This is an endless strip of pristine beach backed by gorgeous dunes and salt marshes. Okay, it's not endless, but it is 40 miles long, so it is seemingly endless. The beach will be crowded near the entrance, but you can just keep walking until the humans dwindle out. Walk for 10 minutes and you will have as much sand as you could possibly want - all to yourself.

The sign at the ranger station claimed the water was 63 degrees, but I didn't believe it. It was supposed to be 62 degrees at Crane's Beach last week, and that water was frigid. The Cape catches the edge of the Gulf Stream, which means the water was delightfully refreshing - but warm enough to stay in and float around for as long as we wanted. No waves, though. No boogie board action.

The National Seashore also has about 12 miles of bike trails that wind through the dunes. I had my heart set on vegging on the beach on this particular outing, so we decided not to bring the bikes, but this is a beautiful place for a leisurely ride. Highly recommended for not-too-serious bikers.

We packed a picnic, played Scrabble, read books and flew kites - perfect beach day. In the evening, Provincetown was hopping. We spent an hour or two browsing in the art galleries on Commercial Street. We often end up bringing something home - this time it was a coal-mining dwarf, who is now taking a break in the garden behind the pink house. We have quite a collection of creatures back there.

Afterwards, we decided to forego the gay cabaret, which is P-town's best form of entertainment. Instead we sat at the bar, watching the Sox and sucking down cold beers and Wellfleet oysters.

In case you needed additional reasons to go to Cape Cod, I just gave you a dozen more. Slurpy, salty, succulent goodness, times twelve.

Monday morning was cloudy, so we lost some of our valuable beach time. But we were back out there as soon as the sun broke through. Beach blanket heaven. Sadly, we had to cut the day short to drive back to Boston on Monday afternoon. Still, I was glad we had made the trip, especially on the way home when I saw that the thermometer at Cambridge Savings Bank read 92 degrees. Ooh ma-ma!

In case you are wondering why we had to get back to Boston (seeing that I am a lady of leisure these days), it's because we had to pick up our two newly-adopted family members. The pink house is a cat house once again!

So there you have it:

Get in the water
Eat oysters
Adopt a cat
If that doesn't cure your summertime blues, nothing will!