Today we headed to Mayo Beach. It is on the Cape Cod Bay side. The parking at this beach is free. Other than the National Park beaches, there are Town of Wellfleet managed beaches. Some of them have limited free parking, other have “sticker” parking, meaning you have to be a resident or pay $50 for a 3 day sticker. We opted to go early and get the free parking. Of course we were early and the only people on the beach were shellfish farmers.

It was another beautiful morning, and going early was better as the afternoon started to cloud over.

The tide was still going out.

We headed up to Main Street and had breakfast at The Lighthouse Restaurant.

Once we got back down to the beach, there were more shellfish farmers.

They have areas marked off by buoys that are off-limits to digging.

Looking back up to the beach.

This guy came over to Claudia to tell her not to dig beyond the buoys. I asked if we could come and watch him.

He explained the oyster harvesting process with the cages.

He said a lot of these oysters were close to being ready for market.

He found a cage and brought it back to his table and opened it up for us.

He sizes the oysters, the ones that are big enough and have a deep shell are kept, the others go back in the cage or bag for more growing.

This guy had been doing this since he was 10 years old and was born in Wellfleet, just up the street from the beach.

Here are the oysters cages that are cable-tied to the racks.

Next to those he had littleneck clam beds.

The girls found this crab.

A dead horseshoe crab shell.

It was pretty interesting talking to this guy. He is out there almost everyday. He asked if I had ever been to Newfoundland, he had been for a vacation a few years ago and was looking forward to going back some time.

Claudia finding a place to dig.

A large Horseshoe crab shell.

With the tide coming in, the girls let their crabs and hermit crabs go free.

We walked around some of the shops along Main Street.

Back at the motel it was time for a swim in the outdoor salt water pool.

There is also an indoor pool, but not nearly as nice as the outdoor one.

For dinner tonight we went to Moby Dick’s Restaurant.

You line up and then order from the menu. They seat you and then bring you your food when it is ready. I had the Lobster Clambake (1.5 lb lobster with 1 lb of steamers) and a mug of Clam Chowdah, Susan had the grilled Atlantic salmon, and the girls shared a fish & chips and shrimp & chips dinner. It was very good. You can also bring your own booze, they’ll put it in a can on ice while you wait.

We took the scenic drive back to the motel. We stopped at Calhoun Hollow Beach for a walk along the beach.

There were seven fires that I counted. People can get a permit and they just dig a hole and build a fire. Pretty cool.