Sandwich, MA

The goat from the Loof Carousel at Heritage Museum & Gardens in Sandwich, MA.

We were up at 3 am yesterday in order to make it to Heritage Museum and Gardens before the carousel closed at 5 PM last night!

Here is me howling at the almost-super-moon at the Metro Transit Lightrail station in MPLS around 3am at the start of our trip. I am a morning person but this was ridiculous.

We made it!
The Heritage Museum & Gardens are located in the town of Sandwich, MA- founded in 1637!
1637!!!
It is a GORGEOUS little town that apparently likes ice cream- a lot.
The garden grounds were filled with art, a giant treehouse, all kinds of gorgeous plants (giant Rhododendrons!), a windmill...

"Flume Fountain: Inspiration and Creation" (from above and below) by landscape architect Stephen Stimson.

Big, Fancy garden treehouse.

Windmill on the grounds.

Croquet- so New England-y!

THE CAROUSEL was spectacular! BIG THANK YOUS to my sweet and knowledgeable tour guide Martha for making me feel so welcome. I had a great time and hardly felt silly at all riding the carousel by all by myself and acting like a big goofy kid! This is a Loof carousel built in 1911/1912. All hand carved wooden figures. I took a ton of photos- here are just a few:

The black horse, "Thunder", is the lead horse- as signified by the armor on his head. The "lead horse" was used to count rotations of the carousel before there was electricity to power the carousel. His companion is "Lightning."

Real hair is used for all of the tails. Do not touch, kids (and Jennifer)!

Lion.

A hand carved/painted chariot sideboard on display in the museum- from 1914-1920 by Stein and Goldstein.

 The folk art museum next to the carousel was out of this world!

"Old Glory" by Nicolas Noblili- made from trash that washed up on the beach around Cape Cod. Powerful stuff.

"Unfortunately, almost nothing is known about the maker of this fascinating bicycle. It is thought that the carver was Chinese and living in San Francisco in the late 1800s when this bicycle and about nine others like it were made."

Carved figure of American Clown/Actor George L. Fox by an Unknown Artist.

And- we're off to the next carousels! Thank you for visiting. -jd