Provincetown’s “famous” lobster trap Christmas Tree
I have a guest here who appears to have an extreme case of homophobia. Wouldn’t even consider going to Provincetown where, unlike Wellfleet at the moment, there are good restaurants (the topic of restaurant closings is a whole other post). If there is one thing I can’t tolerate, it’s intolerance – whether it be racial, sexual, social or anything else. This is going to be a long two days of tongue-biting for me in order not to get into an argument with the guest.
I’m resisting the urge to call several of my gay friends and invite them to have breakfast here on Tuesday. It would be fun, though.
I joined Facebook back in June. I did it because the owner of the Post Secret site started a page there and I wanted access to it. I put up a bare-bones profile, did a couple of searches and “friended” a couple of people. Then I pretty much left it alone on the theory that this was largely a site for the under-30 crowd. Until about five weeks ago. Then, all of a sudden I started getting messages and friend requests as a bunch of my old friends from high school and college – and I mean at least a dozen people, all over 45 – joined the site and started searching for people. I’ve reconnected with a number of them now. With some I’ve exchanged just a message or two, with others I feel like I’ve really resumed a long-dormant friendship. It couldn’t have come at a better time.
As a side benefit, Facebook is now allowing people to set up pages for their businesses. I’ve done one for the inn. I’m not sure if I’ll see a benefit from it, but at the moment it’s free and it can’t hurt. It may help me draw in a younger generation of B&B goers.
I also recently joined Linked In. That site is more for business networking. There is some overlap between the friends I’ve found there and the ones on Facebook, but I’ve found a number of people on Linked In who have probably never considered joining Facebook.
If you’ve been getting invitations to join either of these sites, take a chance and do it. You might be surprised at who you find there. Be warned, though, both can be a bit of a time-suck if you let them.
The light here is different from anywhere else I’ve lived. It’s most noticable in the winter, when the angle of the sun is so much lower, and particularly near sunset. It can make for some very dramatic scenes.
Here are two photos* that illustrate that beautifully, taken by my friend and sometime-guest, Tom Baratz.
This is Mayo Beach, on the harbor, at sunset:
And this is one of our ocean-side beaches, Newcomb Hollow, also near sunset:
*THESE PHOTOS ARE NOT TO BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION
Want to see it for yourself? We’re open through the winter, come on down!
If you’re a company wanting to do business with me, let me give you two little suggestions:
1) Hire people to make your phone calls who I can understand and who can understand me. Speaking to someone who’s English is so heavily accented that I have to ask them to repeat things several times just frustrates me, and I’m sure it frustrates them as well. And it’s equally unhelpful if I have to keep repeating myself to be understood.*
2) When I say I’m not interested, thank me and hang up. Do not keep talking. I do not enjoy hanging up on you, but I will.
*I have nothing against people who’s first language is not English, but heavy accents are much more difficult to understand on the phone than face-to-face. All I’m suggesting is that when companies hire people to do phone sales, they should conduct a test run on the phone with the candidate to see if there’s a problem with making themselves understood/understanding the other person.
End of rant. Thanks for listening.
My favorite photo, so far, from this election.
These two people have a long, difficult road ahead of them. This country is quite a mess.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he is as good as the speech he gave last night.
I thought I’d share two marvelous photos taken earlier this month. The first was taken at the Wellfleet Bay Audubon Sanctuary by a guest staying with us. 
Isn’t he pretty? The guest, who is from the UK where white tail deer are not found, was thrilled to have seen him and to have gotten this photo.
The next photo was taken by a guest who stays with us on a somewhat regular basis. Thank you, Tom*, for sharing this photo of river otters at Gull Pond.
*This photo is by Tom Baratz. Please do not use it without permission.
This weekend is the annual Wellfleet Oyster Festival. It started out tiny just eight years ago, now it attracts 20 – 30,000 people to town over the course of the weekend. That’s ten times the size of the year-round population! There will be a shucking contest*, live music, various cooking demonstrations, a tour of the oyster flats, a 5k road race and something like 100,000 Wellfleet oysters will be consumed over the course of the two days. It’s fun to see that many people in town and the organizers and volunteers do an amazing job with set-up and clean up. On Monday morning there will be no trace that anything unusual happened over the weekend.
A less fun ritual is the annual closing of the seasonal restaurants. As much as we look forward to them opening each spring, we dread them closing in the fall. We know it has to happen, the local population just can’t support that many restaurants. Also, the owners and staff are exhausted and many of the buildings that house the restaurants are unheated which makes them unsuitable for year-round use. Still, we miss having the options both for ourselves and as places to refer our guests.
Some of the restaurants closed last weekend, most of the rest that close will do so this Sunday. One or two others will hang on for another week or two, but by the beginning of November we will be down to three or four restaurants in town and that will not improve until April. On the positive side, there is the chance to socialize with some of our friends who own those restaurants and who we don’t see during the busy season unless we go out to eat.
I enjoy the rhythm of life here, it is as inevitable and predictable as the tides.
*Congratulations to Wellfleet’s own William “Chopper” Young, winner of the World Oyster Shucking Championship.
There has been a lot of talk lately about “going green”. We are all being encouraged to think about our environmental footprint, change our light bulbs, reduce waste, drive less and so forth. There is also a “green” trend in the travel and hospitality industry, and while I think anything that can be done to reduce energy consumption and waste is good, I wonder how many travelers actually choose a lodging establishment based on how “green” it is.
We have been pretty green from the very beginning but I’ve never advertised it because it’s just what I do. To me it isn’t a marketing ploy, it’s how I want to live my life. And we aren’t totally green, there are no solar panels on the house and the property isn’t large enough for a windmill so we are forced to use oil and propane for heat, hot water and drying laundry. Only rarely do I hang anything to dry outside. Our electricity use could probably be reduced by putting in power strips for things like televisions and video decks. I haven’t yet changed over to a water saving front loading washing machine, although I probably will very soon; our current washer is showing definite signs of advancing age. Still, I think I do more than the average homeowner. For anyone interested, here is a list of our green practices:
- Soap/shampoo/lotion dispensers in the bathrooms save on all those little plastic bottles;
- Navy blue towels and colored bed linens so we don’t have to use bleach in the wash;
- Compost almost all fruit/vegetable waste from the kitchen (except in winter);
- Compact fluorescent light bulbs in all lights that burn many hours a day and I’m in the process of changing the bulbs in more places;
- Timers for outdoor lighting;
- Recycling, including bottles, cans, newspapers & cardboard;
- Freecycle(TM) for items we no longer use but that aren’t ready for the trash, like blankets & towels that we change out every couple of years. Pillows and linens that are too stained or worn for human use go to an animal shelter;
- Air conditioners are installed in frames that allow us to open the window above the unit. This permits a cross-breeze in all our guest rooms and minimizes the use of air conditioning;
- Ceiling fans in all guest rooms, living room, dining room, kitchen and our personal space to cool without a/c;
- Minimal use of chemical cleaning agents;
- Purchasing larger refill sizes and/or concentrates rather than small bottles where possible;
- Programmable thermostat for the heat which allows us to keep the house warmer during peak guest usage (mornings and evenings) and cooler mid-day and at night without having to remember to set it ourselves;
- Purchasing recycled office supplies as much as possible, including copy paper, our letterhead & envelopes, file folders and clasp envelopes;
- Switched from sending snail-mail confirmation letters to email;
- Switched to paperless billing for as many of my business & personal bills as possible;
- In order to save water on longer stays, sheets and towels are changed after the third night. Requests for more frequent changes are, of course, honored;
- When planting my garden each spring, I specifically look for drought-hardy annuals that don’t have to be watered every day.
Wow. Pretty exciting, right? I’m sure everyone who reads this is going to want to book rooms here now.
Let’s face it, most “green” practices are pretty mundane. I do these things because they make sense to ME. In some cases they actually make my life easier (less watering, fewer light bulb changes, two or three loads of laundry saved in a busy week), in other cases they increase my workload (rinsing & sorting recyclables, bundling newspaper & cardboard, resetting timers, mixing cleaning agents and filling spray bottles).
Okay, now I’d like to hear from my readers. I have a stat. counter, I know you’re out there. Do “green” practices weigh into your decisions about lodging when going on vacation? Do you think there is more I should be doing? And what do you do at home?
It’s hard to believe it’s Labor Day already. Another summer, gone. Not that I expect business to slow down much, but the pace of life usually does after this weekend.
This summer has both flown and dragged by. The inn, and I, are going through some transitions. My husband and partner, Adam, and I are getting divorced. He will be moving out some time in October. That means I will need to find help to do some of the things Adam has done here over the years and to that end I have hired and am training an assistant innkeeper. She will take over the two breakfast shifts per week that Adam has been doing and cover check ins some afternoons so I can get out and do the shopping, another of Adam’s jobs, and take care of any personal appointments. So that’s one piece of the puzzle. There are many others I’m still figuring out.
Although I am sad and sometimes terrified, I do see the possibilities for positive change in all this. For one thing, I have someone to whom I can delegate certain things. Adam was a partner and would not have been a good choice to delegate some of my projects to, since he considered them my projects. Already Nancy has helped me with two small things that I have been wanting to get done but have been unable to motivate myself to do, even though I had everything I needed to do them. And over the winter I’ll have her work with me to improve organization in my kitchen and office.
Adam and I have made every effort to keep this all behind the scenes. We’re much more sad than angry about the whole thing and we want our guests to have the relaxing vacation they came here for. So far, from the comments in our guest book, we seem to have been successful. I hope arriving guests who read this don’t get weirded out by it. The plan is to continue to provide the hospitality we’ve become known for.
I’m more concerned about the guests who have been here before, some of whom come every year. It will be difficult telling them, but I suppose it’ll get easier with practice. Wish me luck.
Stone Lion Inn of Cape Cod | 130 Commercial Street Wellfleet, Massachusetts 02667 | Phone: 508-349-9565 | e-mail: info@stonelioncapecod.com
Website by InsideOut Solutions / SavvyInnkeeper