The Cape

After our month in Maine, we were excited for a change of scenery and the chance to live near Cape Cod.  We had an image in our minds of what the area was like, and it turned out to be completely accurate!  The photo above is a good representation of Cape Cod, though there is a lot more to it than the beaches.  There is incredible food to be eaten, cranberry bogs all over, and historic homes and landmarks seem to be on every corner.  There is famous ice cream, glass, and the houses are shingled to the hilt.  Shingles here, there, and everywhere!  Jeff really likes the look of the weathered shingle houses.  Me, not so much.  I kind of think it looks dirty and in need of repair.  Gasp, I know!  But the gray slats do blend beautifully into the coastal landscape.  It's like the houses are made of driftwood.

It's a gorgeous part of the country.  So here are some photos of our time in Cape Cod!

I need to start taking photos of the buildings we are visiting!  I keep forgetting to snap a pic before we go in.  Anyway, the kids and I drove up to Sandwich, Mass. one day to check out the Sandwich Glass Museum.  This was a great stop!  One that was well worth the price of admission.  We learned so much about the production of glass, glassware, and the kinds of glass that have come in and out of fashion in our country's history.

We also enjoyed a glassblowing demonstration from one of the museum's apprentices.  He gave an animated talk as he worked, which we enjoyed.  It was like a snarky, sarcastic Boston comedy talk.  The kids' eyes got big every time he said something was "wicked hot" or "wicked" anything.  We already knew that people from Boston often say "wicked" instead of "really" but this was our first time hearing it.  For some reason, seeing a cliche in action is amusing.  Although, I couldn't help but think of the Bible verse, "Woe to those who call evil good..." every time I heard something like "It was wicked cool."  I know that isn't what they mean when they say it, though!

This was so cool!  He is self-taught and told us that in the past, one would have had to do a twelve year apprenticeship before being considered a master glass maker.

After the demonstration, we toured the museum.  I know it probably doesn't seem like looking at cases of glass would be very interesting, but it was!  All four of us enjoyed this immensely.  We saw the most intricate, creative, amazing glass creations!

I wanted to buy all the paperweights!!!

You can see the reason I left paperweight-less in the above photo.  I wouldn't have believed that glass paperweights could be so expensive if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes!  The glassblower joked that pieces break during the process of making them so often that he charges triple for the pieces that turn out.  After seeing the prices on things, I think maybe he wasn't joking after all!

This lantern was carried throughout the Lincoln campaign, during his tour of the country.

They had this room with hologram characters that popped up and told stories.  The kids were creeped out by it, but we had a good laugh later when we walked past the employee who had played this character above.  The kids were like, "MOM!  It's the guy!"  Lol.

My favorite.  Seriously, why can't I have all the paperweights?

We also visited the beach and pier while we were in Sandwich.  Jackson was so excited and raced up the path to the beach.

On the pier, we came upon a girl who was using cut up hot dogs to fish for crabs.  We thought it was cool to watch them all clamor to grab the bait.

I mentioned in the last post that I had sinus pressure headaches during our stay here, and unfortunately things didn't improve during the last week.  I'm all done guessing why I'm so allergic to some places and completely fine in others.  Added to the fact that I felt so terrible was the realization that Cape Cod is a stinkin' expensive place to visit!  Admission to most attractions would have been over $100 for each stop!

We took Plimoth Plantation off our list when we learned how expensive it was, but then our sweet neighbor told us that they were having a Free Friday that week!  We knew that meant we'd have to battle larger than normal crowds, but decided we wanted to check it out anyway. 

This is how you have to see things if you visit during summer, and especially on Free Friday.  Every place is like Disneyland!

Jackson has a thing for bugs and asks me to take pictures.  This was kinda neat because it was a post that had 3 different bugs on 3 different sides of one post.

Poor fella was beheaded and carried off.  Aaah, nature.

The first stop at the plantation was the Wampanoag village.  There were Native American actors doing demonstrations.  Not many pictures of this because it was mostly a sea of people with a few actors dispersed in between.  Here, the ladies are roasting quail and making rope.

Another area had experts teaching about pottery, headdresses, yarn making, beekeeping, baking, and other topics.  I loved how they had it divided up so that each person could talk about the thing that they are passionate about.

Colonial beekeeper suit.

Look, it's the MOO-flower!  Get it?  Mayflower/Mooflower?  No?  I don't get it, either.

Inside another building were examples of tools used in various aspects of colonial life.

Then we headed into the settlers village.  This would have been easy to look over quickly and leave because it isn't commercialized.  There are no bright lights or shiny things.  It's just a plain colonial village, as it would have been lived in during the 1600's.  But even the simplest things are interesting here because we don't utilize many of their methods today.  And that made everything feel worth stopping to investigate.

We were told by a historian that many of the homes here were built in Maine and featured on a PBS show about colonial life.  They were then transported here.

Cape Cod trivia:  Did you know that people in Cape Cod use their arm to give directions, since the cape is shaped like someone flexing?

Well, on Jeff's day off, we drove out to the "forearm" of Cape Cod.  We made the mistake of heading out that way on a Sunday afternoon.  Keep in mind that seemingly everyone from New England within a 3-hour radius spends their summer weekends in Cape Cod.  And there's only one road in and out.  So, yeah.  It didn't matter so much going in, but coming out was a longer ordeal.

We had lunch at the Kung Fu Dumplings food truck and checked out the beach and lighthouse.  Jeff said dumplings are his new favorite Chinese food and we've since tried another dumpling restaurant.  I'm glad we finally got him on board so we can have Chinese food more often!  It's my favorite--Jackson and Megan's, too.  Jordan, on the other hand, will still need some convincing.

The other restaurant we tried during our stay was Matt's Blackboard Restaurant, in Rochester.  They have a little bit of everything, which worried me.  My experience is that when a restaurant makes everything, they don't really make anything very well.  But we had a spectacular meal!  Favorites included the pulled pork & mac n cheese egg rolls and the garlic chicken pizza w/ garlic butter sauce.

After we left Cape Cod, we had a one-night layover in Connecticut because of the holiday.  I made our reservation back in May and they still couldn't get us in until Monday!  So we stayed at another Harvest Host, this one called Rose's Berry Farm.  It was beautiful, though we did have to do a loop to get into our spot.  Tight corners are not a giant RV's friend!

The kids said that scenery and peacefulness of this farm reminded them of how much they don't like cities.  We have spent a lot of the summer in crowded locations, so I guess that's to be expected.  The next leg of our trip will be more rural and less touristy.  We are all craving some quiet.

After we got settled, we drove into town to visit the Rose's farm stand.  There were so many goodies to choose from!  We loaded up on yummy treats and had a nice visit with the girls running the stand.  They looked to be high schoolers and were eager with questions about Oregon and our trip, and we learned about their community and school.

Guys, these dry-stack walls are everywhere here!  We are in love with the Connecticut farm houses and fields, enclosed by amazing dry-stack stone fences.  Jeff said it's like all the Irish immigrants came to this place and started building walls.  Though this one isn't like what you'd find in Ireland, it's still part of the quaint coziness of this area.  All of Connecticut is just gorgeous.  The state gets a bad rap because it's not the most exciting of places, nor the most history-rich, but it is definitely not lacking in beauty!

 So now we're here for a few weeks, enjoying the quiet.  And that's all I've got for now!
Love and miss you all so much!  💜