CNY Book Crawl

Saturday Laura and I set out to visit a couple book crawl locations. But the day kind of took on a life of its own. 😂 Spoiler alert, we ended up visiting 8 different locations (not all of them on the Book Crawl).

Our first stop was the Liverpool Lit Lounge, where we both got caramel iced coffees (which sadly were underwhelming). But it was a cute little spot. Not quite what we were expecting I guess. The book rooms were smallish and there were some random people browsing and hanging out so it felt a little bit awkward.

Also there were no passports to be found. Although upon returning home and counting up our stops, I realized they were not part of the book crawl after all. :P 

So we decided to pop down the road and around the corner to Golden Bee, this has always been a fav stop in the past. But she also only had black and while copies of the passport and the store was super crowded when we were there and just felt overwhelming and not our vibe that day so sadly we didn't linger there long either. We headed back to the car feeling somewhat disappointed.

Our next stop was to be Remi Reads, a little shop that looked delightful on social media. Professed to be women owned and was named after a dog. I was very excited to check this one out.

But Laura was googling how much it would add to visit That's What She Read- a store we visited on a sister coffee date a summer or two ago- we knew it would be a sure win and a pick me up so we decided it was worth the brief detour. On our way we drove right by Divine Realm Books so we stopped there too. It's a fantasy bookshop, which Laura is not really into but I read occasionally. She also knew the proprietor- so that was a fun little stop. We each pick up a book there.

Another short detour and bathroom stop at the Marcellus Library on our way to That's What She Read, we didn't get anything there but enjoyed browsing in their little library store.

That's What She Read was just as delightful as we remembered.

We just love that they wrap the book you purchase for you, with lavender and a ribbon! I still haven't unwrapped mine yet! 

From there we headed to Remi Reads. But were getting a little hungry. We happened right by this place that has been on our Sister Coffee Date list for a couple year- Baliwick Market. So we stopped and had ice cream for lunch! 

Finally we made it to Remi Reads. Unfortunately it was a bit of a let down. It was a smallish alcove in the back of another boutique, which in and of itself was not bad. It was pretty cute. And we found a super cute dino book there for Evan. Maybe my expectations were too high from their fb posts. Maybe I was expecting to see the dog and a couple of down to earth friendly bookish ladies. Instead there was a slightly grumpy, kinda creepy old guy manning the store so... also the p*nis bookmarks really ruined the vibe for us. I did consider getting the "Just Here to Pet the Dogs" hat. 

Anyway- we left there feeling a little let down too.

We headed for home, very glad we had added the stop at That's What She Read- otherwise the day was kinda a bust.  We talked about next year taking some days off so we could hit all the bookshops on the crawl, we talked about the vibe of what our bookstore would be like someday and a part of the book crawl.

As we zipped down the highway once again entering Syracuse, Laura was like- you know... Parthenon Books is practically on the way home. So we stopped at one more store! I forgot to take any pictures here. We felt happier just walking in. The back of the store was pretty sparse, but we both found a book to purchase and then were gifted an ARC (Advance Reader Copies of the past they were most likely just disposing of) with purchase. So free book. The lady at the register was very friendly and kind.

All in all we enjoyed our day! Starting plotting our next book trip- maybe for next year and a much bigger- let's visit a bookshop in all 50 states travel project! As well as dreams of our own bookshop someday.

Here's our bookstacks!

Can't wait for our next bookish adventure. I'm already plotting one with my girlies and hopefully hitting up one of the shops kind of near Mikayla's house that we didn't make it to yet. Hannah will be home this weekend and I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday than with my girls for coffee and books! 

We have a family dinner planned on Friday as my uncle will be visiting too. I can't wait to have all my kids (and grandbaby!) together in one place- my heart is exploding with joy just thinking about it. 💖