Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Adventures in Strolling by the Kyle


Once again, we had a hard time coming up with something to do this week (which is why you should be emailing/commenting us suggestions to do for our adventures). There was a Christmas stroll that was being held down the street from us in the Barnstable Village, so we decided to give it a try. It was absolutely freezing outside but we decided to brave the cold and enjoy ourselves. I love the Barnstable Village. It has a very postcard feel to it. There's a ton of history there and lots of gorgeous old buildings. If I had a lot of money I would definitely move into one of the historical houses in a heartbeat. Many of the businesses were open and had cider/cookies/etc for anyone to enjoy. There was a lot of music and cotton candy and Christmas lights. It was quite nice. I got to go into a lot of the buildings that have always interested me but I've never had any reason to go into them. For some reason there was a table that had two donkeys with them. They were very cute but boy Kyle and I couldn't figure out what they were doing there. That picture is of an ass...get it? Anyways, it was quite freezing out but we definitely enjoyed ourselves. It helped us get in the mood of Christmas coming up quickly. It also allowed us to explore a lot of the village that we had never seen before.


The thing that stood out to me the most was the fact that the General Store was not open. Almost every other business on that stretch of road was open, including the realtor's office that is part of the same building as the General Store. There have been some issues with the General Store the past few years and I don't think they did themselves any favors by closing for the stroll. A lovely coffee shop opened next door and immediately the owners of the General Store were up in arms because Nirvana (the coffee shop) was taking business away from them. While Nirvana does serve sandwiches and pastries, the selection is very limited. The coffee is far better than their neighbors' but I really don't see how they can be damaging sales as much as they are said to be. That was the first part of the whole kerfuffle that made me start to slowly remove myself as a customer of the General Store. Over the past summer Nirvana donated all their profits for an entire day to the Sturgis Library. Obviously I'm a bit biased but I think even if Kyle wasn't directly involved with the library I would have been really impressed by the move. There are other small grievances I could put forth but I don't see any reason to pile on. And now to be closed for the Holiday Stroll... I think they really need to do more for the community that they're a part of. I hope they can turn it around because having a store like that in the village is a great thing and I'll be quite sad if it goes away. Also, there were donkeys in the road.