For the last few years we’ve gotten up early on New Year’s Day and headed down Cape just for the fun of it. We walk a few beaches, take a lot of pictures, find a new place to get lunch and just give the year a nice mellow start out in nature together.

Yesterday we began our day at Fort Hill. A car had been driving along behind me all the way up the highway and on Rt. 6 and then followed us right up into the Fort Hill parking lot. It ended up being a birder I know who was out beginning his new list of birds seen in the new year. Sort of funny we ended up at the same place at exactly the same time, right?

After that stop we went to Coast Guard Beach where it was very, very cold and windy….but beautiful!

You can see the clouds coming in over the water, ahead of the storm predicted for today and tomorrow.

We backtracked to First Encounter Beach where the tide was so high the marsh was totally flooded and there was little beach left on the front. Check out the waves–that is ice in the water!

Race Point was beautiful as well…

In Provincetown center the lobster pot holiday tree still stands…

And on the way home we stopped off at Pilgrim Heights in Truro where the view was stunning, as usual.

It was good to get out yesterday because today it looks like this at the beach…

We are supposed to get quite a lot of snow and wind over the next two days so after my little jaunt out to the beach this morning I’m ready to snuggle in with my honey and the pets, my sketchbook and a good book or two….