Traveling MA: Sandwich Glass and Cape Cod Beauty

As promised, I will tell you more about the town of Sandwich in Cape Cod. Here is Part 1 in case you missed it.

Sandwich is known for two wonderful museums: the Heritage Museum and Gardens, and the Sandwich Glass Museum. We didn’t see the Heritage Gardens, even though I’d heard they are wonderful. We’ll just have to go back (I keep saying that, don’t I?). We did however, visit the glass museum and really enjoyed it. Who knew glass could be so interesting?

The Sandwich Glass Museum

A Boston merchant named Deming Jarves opened the Sandwich Glass Manufactory in 1825. It operated for 62 years before finally succumbing to competition from Midwestern glass factories and a drawn-out worker’s strike.

Luckily for visitors history is not lost, because the Sandwich Historical Society runs the wonderful Sandwich Glass Museum. The museum has seventeen galleries with beautiful examples of past factory glass, as well as interactive displays, and informative signs. One of the highlights of our self-guided tour was watching a glass-blowing demonstration. Since we were there during October, you can guess what product the glass-blower made.

Here are a few other photos of their glass:

The featured video you saw at the top of the blog highlights an exhibit by glass artist Mundy Hepburn. It’s called The Electric Garden of Unearthly Delights. Mr. Hepburn found a way to fill glass with various gasses and activate them with high-powered static electricity. My video doesn’t do his exhibit justice.

The Sandwich Glass Museum closes during the month of January and will reopen February 2, 2022. Please visit their website for more information.  Now for more on Cape Cod . . .

Audubon Preserve at Wellfleet

There are many natural preserves in Cape Cod. One in Wellfleet looked interesting, so we drove up the Cape to visit the Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. They have a nice visitor center with marine-life aquariums, clean bathrooms (always a plus), and docents ready to answer questions. We walked along a boardwalk trail that extended over a salt marsh and ended at a small beach. I wish I had taken photos of the fiddler crabs we saw! But here’s a couple of view shots:

There are nearly 1000 acres at the sanctuary. It’s a great place for hiking and birding. Here is their website.

Marconi Beach

While we were in Wellfleet, we also visited the spot where Guglielmo Marconi set up the first working Wireless station. Unfortunately, the station has long since fallen into the sea, but we did see an interpretive sign on a deck with a great view of the ocean.

Walking down the trail to the beach, we were once again greeted by a shark sign. This time there was the added attraction of a Severe Bleeding First Aid kit. Sheesh!

The wind and water were too rough and cold for swimming anyway. Beautiful view though!

The White Cedar Swamp Trail

Inland from the Marconi overlook is a trail to a White Cedar Swamp. We enjoyed the mile walk. It felt like a scene from a fairy-tale–I kept expecting to come upon Baba Yaga in her chicken-leg hut!

After exploring part of the Cape (again, you could spend weeks there and not see all of it), it’s lovely to end with a delicious dinner. We decided to go back to Sandwich and eat at the Dan’l Webster Inn. Our new friends from Plymouth (see blog) joined us and we had a blast.

The Dan’l Webster Inn

Don’t let the reproduction stocks scare you, the inn is a delight. There are four dining rooms with completely different environments, plus a tavern area. And the food is delicious. I bet it’s a great place to lodge as well.

We were there during the week in the off-season, so most of the dining areas remained unused.

My next blog will be about the maritime city of New Bedford. If you’d like to start at the beginning of this series about Traveling Massachusetts, start here. Don’t forget to subscribe or share, thanks!