Last weekend my husband and I took a two-night trip to Cape Cod. Visiting the Edward Gorey House has been on my to-do list for years! It's embarrassingly close, but if you live anywhere within driving distance of the Cape you know that during the summer the traffic is unbearable and during the winter not much is open. We decided to go in the middle of the week and take advantage of the beautiful spring weather and make an exploratory mission out of it.
Of course, I can't go anywhere with out bumping into (and searching out) the spookier parts of a place. Allow me to share what I found.
Our first stop was the Sandwich Glass Museum. We have a thing for glass museums. I love the art and color, my husband likes the technology, and we both find the history interesting. What could be spooky in a glass museum you're probably asking yourself right now.
Well, the special exhibit by glass artist Wayne Strattman was a Steampunk dream come true! There were all sorts of fantastic looking machines that looked like you could use them for time travel, talking to spirits, or destroying the world. It was very fun and if you're in the area before June 30th it's worth a visit for that alone. But there was more!
I also saw some moulds for making glass Frozen Charlottes. I'm sure you've seen the tiny figures of little ladies in Halloween art pieces (usually porcelain.) The figures are based on a story of a young woman who wanted to go to a ball but wouldn't wear her coat because it would cover her dress and then she catches sick and dies. (rather dramatic and condescending to women, but let's just focus on the death part.) There were also some really cool glasses with a Frozen Charlotte embedded in the stem. Why didn't they sell reproductions of those in the gift shop?!
I felt myself pulled to the right, and what did I see but a small collection of glass Witch Balls! The legend is that if you hang one in your house, evil spirits will be attracted to it and get trapped inside. The museum panel added that the spirits will then help protect you. This is similar to the bottle trees that I wrote about a few years ago (read it here.)
And I can't leave the Sandwich Glass Museum without mentioning the very un-spooky thing I learned and found to be quite whimsical- the glass celery containers. Did you know that in Victorian times, celery was considered quite a delicacy and needed its own serving dish? But serving dish doesn't begin to describe the lovey tulip-shaped vases I saw to hold the celery upright in water. I decided immediately that I need to start serving celery at our parties in a beautiful vase too.
From the Sandwich Glass Museum we headed to The Devil's Purse Brewing Company. Did you know that a Devil's Purse is an egg case for some marine animals like sharks and skates? I didn't, but you know I couldn't miss a brewery that involves the devil. We each had a few small pours of the beers on tap which were quite good and I purchased a brewery sticker for our car. I was fascinated by the devil's purse paintings for sale on the wall of the brewery and regret not purchasing one. I'm sure I'll be back.
I'll post the second day of our Cape Cod adventure- including a visit to the Edward Gorey House in a few days. Please come back.
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