Lost Cowboy

It is clear that I could go on for days singing the praises of Wellfleet, MA and all the great things we did there on our end-of-summer vacation.  However, like summer itself, we must move on – but first one final wrap-up of some of the great things we found there.

First, no trip to Wellfleet would be complete without a pilgrimage to Jules Besch Stationers. In fact, Lynda (and sometimes Sophie) and I have been known to make special trips to this amazing shop off season.  Jules Besch Stationers has extraordinary cards, fine stationery, journals, papers, and pens and is just great fun to visit and chat with Michael the proprietor, who always entertains us with hints and teases about the store’s upcoming special events.

We also stopped in at Billingsgate Arts and Antiques to find it thriving nearly a year after we first stumbled upon it on its opening weekend.  Billingsgate Arts and Antiques describes themselves as “a new center bringing back the fine Cape Cod tradition of Antiques and Art coupled with working Artists and Craftsmen.”  We enjoyed our visit and were thrilled to see that they have definitely found their groove.

Meanwhile, we made three visits to the Wellfleet Drive in Flea Market while we were there.  The Flea Market is a hybrid of vintage goods, new goods, arts and crafts and swap meet.  We like to say “from tube socks to fine antiques.”  We love browsing this market and have made some great finds there over the years.

In fact, a bit of Lost Cowboy trivia: The original purchase of the little cowboy figurine that was the inspiration for this blog’s charter was purchased at the Wellfleet Drive in Flea Market in 2009.

This year we found some more great stuff.  However, it was the people we met this year that made our visits special.  On the first day of vacation we stopped in and met a vendor named Homer (middle name Virgil) who was a complete delight.  Homer had some lovely items for sale which we discussed with him and he also gave us some tips for what to do while we were in town.  Lynda was particularly charmed by Homer and we made sure to stop in on our way out of town to bid farewell.

On Homer’s recommendation we sought out the local artist Julia Salinger who owns the Mermaid’s Grange gallery in Wellfleet where she displays her work.  Lynda ran into Ms. Salinger a couple of time around town and she was very sweet to us.  Her work is a mix of collage and sculpture and is as unique as she is.

Ms. Salinger’s work can be found on her Mermaid’s Grange website.

We did so many fun things on the trip and made some great discoveries.  One of the best stops we made was at a church tag sale in Truro on the back road to Provincetown. Lynda posted a great story about this on her blog, Grateful Evermore. 

The church was holding a “shed sale” where they were selling stuff to raise money.  The shed was full or books and bric-a-brac and it was great fun.  Lynda ended up with the “find” of all finds – a very cool light up globe, which set her back a very sweet $3.00!  Awesome.

It was a great vacation and I thank you for indulging me in my posts about all the great things Wellfleet has to offer.  I can’t wait for next year. 

In the meantime, I have a busy fall coming up with travel to Italy and London – so stay tuned.