I made gluten-free pancakes for breakfast, since one of our guests requires gluten-free. After describing the special activities in Wellfleet today, I trudged up Long Pond Road to photograph the bikers in the PAN MASS Challenge.
We had the Green Room and the cottage changeovers to do, so once the guests had left, Sven curled up with the New York Times while I stripped beds, did laundry, and accomplished all the preliminary work: trash, soap, amenities, preparation of sheets and towels - boring, perhaps but the real nitty-gritty of innkeeping. We cleaned the Green Room first, since it's smaller. At 11:30, after ironing the pillowcases, I grabbed a sandwich and continued on to Seagull Cottage, which is actually three rooms, a porch, a bathroom and a kitchen, and takes longer. Fortunately our last guests were tidy and environmentally-aware. They used my composter and had all the recycling lined up in a row. In an hour, the cottage sparkled. Dust had collected on the Venitian blinds, so I spent some extra time on them. The guests had done a good job of leaving the cottage in the state they found it, and a once-over was sufficient. Then, at 12:30, I got Sven to watch
Blue Gold: World Water Wars on DVD, an important documentary borrowed from Netflix, while eating his lunch in front of the cottage television. The new guests pulled up an hour later. Since they had estimated their approximate arrival time as 3 and our earliest allowed check-in is 2, I told them the cottage would not be ready until 2, ie. when the film was over. I wrote a letter for the beach parking sticker and off they went downtown to buy one. Upon their return, I began my Welcome-to-Wellfleet speech at 2:15. Sven came to fetch me at 2:25, saying the Green Room guests had also arrived. These guests did not want to pay for a sticker. Once they had been welcomed, it was time to put the feet up with the New York Times before watering. I would have preferred attending the
auction to benefit Alzheimer's research at Sweet Seasons, but by now, my knee was beginning to hurt again from standing all day. Sven and I journeyed out onto Route 6 for bread at PB Boulangerie, since it is closed Monday and Tuesday, and a bottle of wine for dinner. We watered the gardens together, two hoses, and Sven dug potatoes. He sat outside chatting with our Liberty Coin guests, so I served them kirs. Meanwhile, I was laboring in the kitchen: bass with garlic sauce, yum! As the Green Room guests were leaving for dinner, they mentioned calling the restaurant in Provincetown, where I had obtained a reservation for Tuesday, to confirm, as I had suggested, and were told there was no reservation. Now, one thing I really cannot abide is a lack of efficiency. I felt especially irked the guests seemed to believe the hostess, that no reservation had been made. So, I hit the phone and gave the poor woman a piece of my mind. I obtained the owner's table for the Green Room guests on Tuesday. No beach and no walking for this innkeeper again today. No time to smell the daisies, but I did get to admire my purple phlox, above. It was a day of cleaning and making beds, dealing with the heat and over-heated guests. This, too, is the life of a Wellfleet innkeeper in summer ....
I made gluten-free pancakes for breakfast, since one of our guests requires gluten-free. After describing the special activities in Wellfleet today, I trudged up Long Pond Road to photograph the bikers in the PAN MASS Challenge. 
We had the Green Room and the cottage changeovers to do, so once the guests had left, Sven curled up with the New York Times while I stripped beds, did laundry, and accomplished all the preliminary work: trash, soap, amenities, preparation of sheets and towels - boring, perhaps but the real nitty-gritty of innkeeping. We cleaned the Green Room first, since it's smaller. At 11:30, after ironing the pillowcases, I grabbed a sandwich and continued on to Seagull Cottage, which is actually three rooms, a porch, a bathroom and a kitchen, and takes longer. Fortunately our last guests were tidy and environmentally-aware. They used my composter and had all the recycling lined up in a row. In an hour, the cottage sparkled. Dust had collected on the Venitian blinds, so I spent some extra time on them. The guests had done a good job of leaving the cottage in the state they found it, and a once-over was sufficient. Then, at 12:30, I got Sven to watch Blue Gold: World Water Wars on DVD, an important documentary borrowed from Netflix, while eating his lunch in front of the cottage television. The new guests pulled up an hour later. Since they had estimated their approximate arrival time as 3 and our earliest allowed check-in is 2, I told them the cottage would not be ready until 2, ie. when the film was over. I wrote a letter for the beach parking sticker and off they went downtown to buy one. Upon their return, I began my Welcome-to-Wellfleet speech at 2:15. Sven came to fetch me at 2:25, saying the Green Room guests had also arrived. These guests did not want to pay for a sticker. Once they had been welcomed, it was time to put the feet up with the New York Times before watering. I would have preferred attending the auction to benefit Alzheimer's research at Sweet Seasons, but by now, my knee was beginning to hurt again from standing all day. Sven and I journeyed out onto Route 6 for bread at PB Boulangerie, since it is closed Monday and Tuesday, and a bottle of wine for dinner. We watered the gardens together, two hoses, and Sven dug potatoes. He sat outside chatting with our Liberty Coin guests, so I served them kirs. Meanwhile, I was laboring in the kitchen: bass with garlic sauce, yum! As the Green Room guests were leaving for dinner, they mentioned calling the restaurant in Provincetown, where I had obtained a reservation for Tuesday, to confirm, as I had suggested, and were told there was no reservation. Now, one thing I really cannot abide is a lack of efficiency. I felt especially irked the guests seemed to believe the hostess, that no reservation had been made. So, I hit the phone and gave the poor woman a piece of my mind. I obtained the owner's table for the Green Room guests on Tuesday. No beach and no walking for this innkeeper again today. No time to smell the daisies, but I did get to admire my purple phlox, above. It was a day of cleaning and making beds, dealing with the heat and over-heated guests. This, too, is the life of a Wellfleet innkeeper in summer ....
