antiquing on the cape

despite the rain, we did have a great time this past weekend as we took a nice drive down route 6 to our favorite antique shop on the cape. there are actually bajillions of antique places on this particular stretch of route 6, but the Antiques Center of Cape Cod is my favorite as they have three whole barn fulls of gloriousness! makes me miss all my years of working in the antique shop while growing up in michigan.

for myself i picked up this double strand of faux pearls (which i got for next to nothing!) and Blackie's The Girl's Companion Guide. I can't find a publication date but there is a beautiful handwritten dedication in the front noting it was given as a gift to Kathleen from her grandma for Christmas in 1947.


it's quite the entertaining book that's a compendium of sorts for girls on etiquette, ballroom dancing steps, hostess duties, instructions in all sorts of household arts, as well as nature guides, and rules/technique for every sport imaginable. reminds me of something the american girl doll molly might have owned and i couldn't resist it's charm!


john also picked up a couple books but his big find was this leather bound volume of browning's poem's for just $10! the cover is in pretty rough shape but the gilding on the front is so lovely and the pages appear to be almost untouched. someday i'd love to have a whole library room full of books like this with built in shelves, massive oak desks, green reading lamps, and my own card catalogue system (yes i am that ocd). at the rate we're going, we're almost there with the number of books we own...just missing the library room...but i can dream!

it was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

(right: the weather for the duration of the weekend; left: the weather the morning we packed up)

and now my friends hear this tale of woe and wonder...
(how's that for dramatic effect?! haha)

this trip, as with most things in life, was about learning to take the good with the not so good.

we got a late start and ended up setting up the tent in the dark.
but we did it, made our supper over the campfire, enjoyed the stars overhead,
and were ready to put the rough start behind us and begin anew the next morning.

i woke up early and got everything out for the day and to make flapjacks.
(because obviously flapjacks provide great strength for such endeavors)

then it started to hail about the size of peas...
and then it started to rain and pour...
on everything i'd just taken out.

leaving us with one change of clothes and one dry towel to mop it and ourselves up.

so we secured the rain tarp and huddled in our bags and read and napped for a while
and tried to think of what to do next.

spring rains bring spring growth so we took heart and ventured out...

without rainproof hiking clothes, we decided hiking was OFF the menu.
fried food cape cod style was definitely ON.


i'm not a seafood person, so i ordered a monte cristo.
yum.


i am placated by fried food and an afternoon of antiquing.
(i'll share my finds tomorrow!)


this was the view of our campsite...directly on one of the kettle ponds!
we'll be back another time to enjoy Nickerson State Park's beauty in it's full glory.

in the meantime...
i'm wishing i could stay on the cape forever no matter what the weather
because it is such a beautiful place, especially the quiet woodsy areas
away from the yacht clubs and overblown mansions.

and i am still craving that monte cristo...

a little r&r

(image, newenglandsite.com)

this is where we will be this weekend! we are headed to the cape for a couple nights of tent camping which i could not possibly be more ready for as we really need to just get away for a breather and away from all the bleepity bleeps in life if you know what i mean. there will be lots of running around tomorrow morning getting a few last loads of laundry done, packing up the little vw to the brim, and making sure we have not forgotten important things like matches but when we get back, i promise better photos of our little adventure than the one above! we've got a private site right on the water which might mean i will try to convince the rangers to let me stay forever...lots of hiking, cooking over the fire pit, falling asleep to the cricket's song, maybe some canoeing, a whole lot of sitting on my butt in the woods reading.

see you back here monday and i hope you have a great weekend too!