• Snow's Home & Garden 22 Main St., Orleans, 508/255-0158, snowshomeandgarden.com
• Bird Watcher's General Store 36 Rte. 6A, Orleans, 508/255-6974, birdwatchersgeneralstore.com

Provincetown's Lobster Pot (Jack Coble) [enlarge photo]

• Wellfleet Flea Market 508/349-0541, wellfleetdrivein.com, car $1-$3

DAY 3
Mostly flat and less than a mile long, the pond loop of the Beech Forest Trail, off Race Point Road, is a refreshing way to start the day. The air is full of the sound of crickets, and around the first bend a frog jumps on a lily pad as if on cue.

Back in Orleans for an early lunch, we drop by the Old Jailhouse Tavern, a jail turned upscale restaurant where the chicken pie is in a bread bowl the size of a softball.

The weather's cooperating, and I manage to reserve last-minute spots on a boat tour with Outermost Adventures, which departs from the Cape's elbow. After 15 minutes of speeding along, with giggling fits from William each time we bounce over a wave, our group arrives at Monomoy Island. Five dozen gray seals stare at us, flexing their giant nostrils open and closed. Dozens more seals swim beneath us in the clear, shallow water. Will laughs some more whenever one groans or makes a serious splash.

As an alternative to takeout, we like going to restaurants during slow times. I'm glad the Marshside Restaurant is mostly empty when we sit down at 5 P.M., because Will won't stay still even when we try to bribe him with French fries. The porch where we're seated, which has a picturesque marshland view, soon fills up, and though I have half a burger still on my plate I'm antsy to leave. [10/2/07 editors' update: Marshside is under renovation and is scheduled to reopen for the summer 2008 season]

We try not to reward bad behavior, but after having ice cream daily--we're on vacation, after all--I don't want to break the streak. The Ice Cream Smuggler turns out to be our favorite.

With the sun fading, we head to Scargo Tower, in Dennis. It's a narrow cylinder built of large stones and mortar. The inside reeks, so I pick William up and run up the spiral staircase to the top. It's only 30 feet high, yet it has one of the Cape's best panoramas: an idyllic lake, where a lone fisherman drifts placidly in his rowboat, and, in the distance, Cape Cod Bay and the mainland.

That night, at the Kingfisher Lodging motel, our bed is the wobbliest I've ever slept on. Still, we're all relieved when the bathroom passes Jessica's inspection.

Lodging

• Kingfisher Lodging 177 Main St., Dennis, 800/341-5844, kingfisherlodging.com, from $55