When the Husband and I realized that all three children were going to Taiwan camp, we thought it would be a good chance to getaway ourselves. In our 14 years of being parents, we have never gone away, just the two of us. I know there are couples who often take trips without their kids. We are not one of those couples.
Thinking about where were to go, I was inspired by Stephany and told my Husband I wanted to have a reading retreat. So we decided that we wanted to go somewhere that was a short (no more than two hours) drive from Taiwan camp. We wanted to go somewhere quiet with bookstores and where we could get a nice dinner. Well Harrisburg and Philadelphia were the biggest cities close to Taiwan camp. We’ve been to Philadelphia and love it, but with it being the 4th of July weekend – especially being teh 250th – we thought that Philly might be a bit of a madhouse and too exciting for us to want to just stay inside and read. We just wanted to go somewhere quiet and comfortable. We’d never been to Harrisburg and AirBnBs were a little more affordable there. Looking on the internet, I saw there were a few bookstore there. So Harrisburg it was. We dropped the 14 year old at Taiwan camp and headed off the road, checking into our AirBnB around 9:30pm – just enough time to make sure the place was okay and collapse into bed.
Friday, July 3rd: Even though the primary goal of our time away was to read, I figured we should do a little bit of sight seeing, so, inspired by Birchie, I booked us on the 9:00am tour of the Pennsylvania State Capitol. I was surprised that it was open for tours on a holiday weekend, but there were at about 10 people gathered by the tour desk bright and early on a Friday morning. The Pennsylvania Capitol is a jaw droppingly ornate building, all mahogany and marble and gold leaf. It was very impressive to see:
Having checked the box to do one toursity thing in Harrisburg, we went on to find other things we loved – namely coffee, farmers markets and books.
After our tour, we stopped across the street at Denim Coffee for a beverage and a snack. The Husband loves coffee so visiting an independent coffee shop is always on our travel agenda. In addition to being near the Capitol Building, I chose Denim Coffee because they make their own chai. The Husband had a pour over, I had a chai, and we split an apple crumble bar.
Next was the Farmer’s Market where we picked up some vegetables – green beans, corn (just picked that morning), sugar snap peas, lettuce, and blueberries. I have to admit, at first I thought $10 a quart was pricy for blueberries. But then I thought, that $10 is also about the price of two bags of chips and I would really rather have a quart of fresh picked blueberries than two bags of chips.
Our next stop was Cuboard Makers Bookstore, in the nearby town of Enola. Cupboard Makers Bookstore is named thus because the owner’s husband was a cabinet maker. This store had a wonderfully colourful exterior:
We were greeted at the door with so many signs:
“Especially Odin” the sign says. Well we carefully walked in and, there on the front counter was Odin:
Odin was fluffy and chill and very amenable to being petted. The owners said that he keeps trying to escape, however.
This bookstore was mostly used books with a few shelves of the new buzzy titles. To be honest, this bookstore had so many books I found it a little hard to navigate. For example, there were three different romance sections, each devoted to different types of romance novels. The big find here, though, were the comic section where I found two Pearls Before Swine Treasuries, one Get Fuzzy Treasury and two For Better or For Worse books. These are some of my favorite cartoon strips, but I never think to buy the books. I snatched these up – the 9 year old also loves reading comics so I was eager to share them with him.
Here’s a strip that made me laugh so hard (This one is for all you planner junkies out there….):
After we left Cupboard Maker Books, we went to West Shore Farmer’s Market in Lemoyne, about 10 minutes away. We were a little hungry and wanted to get a snack. West Shore Farmer’s Market did not disappoint. There were produce stalls, butchers, bakeries, fishmongers. The Husband and I split a delicious Ham and cheese pretzel from Zook’s. We picked up some carrots, onions, and garlic for dinner as well as two pork chops, sauerkraut, and three hand pies. Then we got smoothies from the Juice Place. I had a smoothie called The Fountain of Youth, which was grapes, strawberry, apple, lemon, and ginger. It was zingy and refreshing, more like a juice than smoothie. The Husband had a Blueberry Chill – Blueberry, pineapple, banana, and coconut – which was very good too.
I also really enjoyed watching the woman at the donut stall fry apple fritters:
Their donuts looked SO good, but we opted to spend our calories on other things that day.
On the second floor of the West Shore Farmer’s Market was Bookworm Books. It was a small, very well curated used bookstore, which, honestly, was a more manageable than the sprawling Cupboard Maker’s Books. Here, the books were more recent – they have a special section devoted to Pennsylvania history and a custom frame store in the back. At Bookworm books, I picked up a copy of Star-Shipped by Cat Sebastian and The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell.
Our next stop after West Shore Farmer’s Market was just around the corner – literally. We originally thought we’d just walk there, but it was over 100 degrees outside and walking across a parking lot was not appealing. So we drove the three blocks to The Paperback Exchange.
The Paperback Exchange was stocked with a shelves and shelves of used books, mostly mass market paperbacks. I think of the three bookstores we visited that day, this was my favorite. It had more popular selections than Bookworm Books, but was more focused than Cupboard Maker Books. Also, since it was mostly fiction, it didn’t feel daunting to try to find something I wanted to read. Here I picked up two vintage romance books – one by Judith Ivory and one by Pamela Morisi. I’ve always wanted to read something by Pamela Morisi, but her books are pretty rare.
The Paperback Exchange made me think about how mass market paperbacks are being phased out and what that means to no longer have these affordable, compact books available to throw in one’s bag and carry around. I wonder if the waning popularity of mass market paperback is reader driven or supplier driven? Are readers who used to reach for popular fiction (vs. literary fiction) now reading other things? Or via e-readers? Anyhow, I do wonder about the fate of stores like Paperback Exchange as mass market paperbacks are phased out- I mean their shelves are built to fit those size books. Soon Paperback Exchange will be a vintage bookstore….
Here’s the day’s book haul from all three bookstores:
-The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell – I wanted to read another Maggie O’Farrell book, after having read Hamnet and The Secret Life of Esme Lenox.
-Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys – maybe it will give me insight into my son.
-Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed – Have always wanted to read this book and I needed a new non-fiction read for the mornings.
-The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston – I loved her Seven Year Slip, so have been looking to read more by this author.
-Star Shipped by Cat Sebastian – This book has been getting lots of good reviews and I can’t believe I found a copy at the used bookstore. When I was checking it out, the guy at checkout said he had just read it and loved it.
-Angel in a Red Dress by Judith Ivory – I loved reading Judith Ivory when I was in my 30s and honestly can’t remember if I’ve read this one before. But I don’t have it on my shelf at home so I figured I’d add it.
-Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya – Picked this 1954 novella up for my Classics reading challenge.
-Courting Miss. Hattie by Pamela Morisi – I’ve never read any Pamela Morisi, but a lot of romance writers that I’ve heard interview name her as a writer they really admire.
-Then on the right side is the stack of Comic strip treasuries – Pearls before Swine, Get Fuzzy, and For Better or For Worse.
After Paperback Exchange, we headed home where we relaxed on the couches and read until it was time to make dinner. I was super excited to make dinner from all the ingredients we got at the market that day.
For dinner, we had pork chops with fried sage leaves, boiled corn, steamed green beans, sauerkraut (home made, but we bought it), and salad of greens, cucumbers and tomatoes.
After dinner, we read some more before going to bed – I started and finished Pamela Morisi’s Courting Miss Hattie (I liked the story, but the prose didn’t sing for me), and one of the For Better or For Worse collections.
Saturday, July 4th.
After sleeping in, I woke up, had some tea and leftovers for breakfast and then – of course! – read some more. The weather was looking to be no cooler than the day before, but with potential rain coming, I hoped it would cool off. Around 11:30am, we headed out for our lunch reservation at The Millworks, a converted factory that now houses a restaurant/ brewpub and artists galleries. For lunch the Husband and I shared: salmon onigiri with beet rice, pork tacos, and a Greek grain bowl. The Greek grain bowl featured pickled grapes, which were mouth puckeringly tasty.
After lunch we wandered the artist galleries, talking to the artists that were there, some of whom we got to watch work. We ended up buying a couple pieces of art, including this pigeon for the kid’s room, because they love pigeons:
Down the block from Millworks was The Broad Street Market – I had been hoping to pick up more produce for dinner, but with it being the 4th of July, all the stalls had closed up early. I was a little disappointed because the barista at Denim coffee the day before had highly recommended the pretzel bun stall. Oh well, save something for next time, as Rick Steves likes to say.
One block further down from Broadstreet Market was Midtown Scholar’s Bookstore. This vast sprawling bookstore had three floors featuring a mix of new and used books in addition to having carts and carts of books outside. They had a deal where you could fill a bag with books from just $15. We didn’t end up buying any books here, though we spent about 45 minutes browsing. The store was stiflingly hot in the upper levels where the fiction was. As we went to the lower levels, the temperature got nice a cool. I spent a lot of time in the basement gardening and psychology section of this store.
After the bookstore we headed back to our air bnb where we settled in for an afternoon of napping and reading. I finished Sing, Unburied, Sing and immediately started another book . The Air BnB had a shelf of books – mostly books by Frieda McFadden – whom I’ve never read, actually, but who seems really prolific. There was also a copy of Liane Moriarty’s latest book Here One Moment. I’ve only ever read Big Little Lies and I thought that was pretty gripping, so I thought I’d start Here One Moment and I was instantly sucked in.
Eventually, it was time for dinner, and as we hadn’t been able to buy more produce that day, we decided to go out for Indian Food. We chose Kathandu because it had a large selection of dosas. We ordered a masala dosa, a paneer dosa, a chili uppthatpam, and on other dish that was very spicy. While we were eating dinner, the storm that had been threatening finally unleashed itself with high winds. The power went out at the restaurant for a few minutes. We decided to eat slowly and wait out the storm.
After dinner, I wanted to go get ice cream, but the storm had downed a lot of trees, causing road closures. We couldn’t wrap our heads around trying to take detour upon detour just to get ice cream. We headed back to our Air BnB where we spent the rest of the evening reading, lounging, and watching comedy specials. I didn’t feel like I had the brain to watch a whole movie, but Sheng Wang’s one hour comedy special seemed just right.
That about wrapped up our reading retreat! The next day, we woke up, read some more, tidied up the Air BnB and then got on the road back to pick up the kids and my mother from Taiwan camp.
There was, however, one more delight waiting for us. We stopped at a hardward store on the way to pick up some poison ivy killer, and the store also had a store cat! It was sitting right at the front of the store on the patio furniture and was very amenable to pets and cuddles:
What a nice way to end the weekend.
All in all it was a relaxing few days and I enjoyed exploring Harrisburg. Our AirBnB was cozy, with plenty of places to lounge and read. It wasn’t the best stocked (no mixing bowls or tea kettle and the knives were crap) and it was on a busy road so there was no place to really walk. Next time I might look for a place with more within walking distance and perhaps even a pool – though maybe this latter was just my response to the weather being so record-breakingly hot. I’ve realized that when exploring new cities, the Husband and I like bookstores, coffee shops, gardens, and farmer’s markets. I would definitely love to take a reading retreat again and incorporate little side trips to those places.
My reading retreat reading tally:
Books finished: Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward; Courting Miss Hattie by Pamela Morisi; Home, Sweat, Home: A For Better or For Worse collection by Lynn Johnson
Books started/continued to read: The Eustace Diamonds by Antony Trollope: The Anti-Ableist Manifesto by Tiffany Yu; Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty (I had to leave this at the AirBnB, but I’ve put it on my holds list.)
What would make a perfect reading retreat for you? Do you have a favorite used bookstore? Thoughts on the demise of mass market paperbacks? Do you know any stores wtih resident cats?