Sunday, June 05, 2011

In Sandwich for the Afternoon

With a few hours free on Saturday Shana and I jumped in the car for an adventure.  The first adventure involved checking out an upscale appliance store in Falmouth where Shana was hoping to get a look at one of the top of the line Weber grills.  We sold her nice electric smoker and charcoal grill when we left Oklahoma and she's checking out what's available. While she visited with the sales staff there I checked out the high end appliances, including a built in coffee station that will serve you the individual coffee drink of your choice for only $2,350.00 (plus installation, I suspect).  I'm not sure what to think of that! Shana wants a coffee maker - she's tired of the coffee press we've been using for years - and while I am willing to purchase one I don't think this unit will be on the short list of possibilities.

Then we drove up to Sandwich to have a look around.  I had already decided I wanted to tour the Sandwich Glass Museum, and Shana wanted to visit a gourmet food store.  I was hoping to visit one of the many "junk" stores, but I think that may be a pastime for me alone.Once we hopped out of the car I realized I had not brought a jacket (a Massachusetts rule) and I was freezing. We stopped into a local store and I bought a sweatshirt. We stopped at The Brown Jug for some fabulous gourmet goodies to take home,  then off to lunch.

We lunched at The Belfry Inn.  This inn is in a remodeled church, and is a beautiful restaurant.  I have not seen the rooms, but their website suggests that the conversion was as beautifully done in the rooms.  Our lunches were delicious. We ate out in the garden, as I just didn't feel that my shorts and sweatshirt went well with the white tablecloth atmosphere of the interior.  We were attended by a beautiful cat who in the tradition of cats forced his attentions on Shana because she has less than no interest in cats. He actually jumped into Shana's lap.


Then down the pretty  street we walked to the Glass Museum.  One wing of the museum is labeled "Spite Barn" - I didn't find out why, but Shana says this is what we should label our shed and anyone who does not talk nice shall be banished to the Spite Barn. The museum itself is rather small and quite nice to visit.  Shana took herself off to see a film about Sandwich history while I examined all of the exhibits.  The displays are nearly all glassware that was made at the Sandwich Glass Factory,  nicely assorted and labeled in rather small and digestible cases.  There are some interactive displays, and live glass blowing demonstrations every hour.  I saw lots of lovely things - many that I'm sure my great grandparents may have owned.  It's quite likely that they did have some Sandwich glass, because the Sandwich glass factory was one of the largest in the country until the end of the 1800's.

On the way back we stopped at The Spotted Cod to browse their beautiful selection of gifts and home accents.  It's a teeny tiny store, but jammed floor to ceiling with lovely things and objects of beauty and desire.

We'll be back to Sandwich often - it's only a few miles from our house (25 days til close) and there is a lot to see and do there.

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