Sister Coffee Date!

 It felt so good to resume our Sister Coffee Dates on Saturday. There is a new bookshop that opened near us in the fall and we had yet to be able to make it there. I did a quick search on google maps and found what looked like a delightful spot to grab some coffee right across the street. Bonus this little oasis is halfway between her house and mine.

We started at Crepe Time Cafe- we opted on only get lattes not crepes this time around.  Although they did look yummy so maybe next time!  We sat at the counter by the window and chatted about books, life and all the things. A respite and reset we very much needed.

Laura got a cinnamon roll latte and I got a sugar cookie one.
I'm a sucker for the seasonal drink menu

Then we headed across the street to Of Moose & Mind Bookshop. It was a delightful little shop! Mayhap my new favorite bookstore and only roughly 10 minutes from home! Delight!

We took our time, soaking in the atmosphere and browsing the carefully curated shelves. One of the books that caught our eye was a new one by Dick Van Dyke. I was delighted to later find the audio available through my amazon music subscription.

We then wandered down the street to Manlius Supply Co- which was cute and fun but a little out of our price range.

We still had a little time so of course we ventured to the Library. No pictures there but I came home with two books from the book sale shelf and two library books. It was a day of delight for sure.

Can't wait to see where our next adventure takes us.

Day 3- The Mount, Great Barrington and Greylock

 Ready for another day of bookish delight!

We headed to Great Barrington to visit Fuel Coffee for breakfast.  I decided to try the Chaider.  It was all right but much more cider than chai. 

We spent a bit of time reading here. 

After which we walked around Berkshire Food Co-op for a little bit.  Since most of the shops we wanted to visit didn't open until ten or later we decided to head to The Mount for a while.  

The Mount was the home of Edith Warton. I was not really familiar with her, nor had a read any of her books. But the grounds were beautiful. We didn't want to pay to go into the house for the tour. We decided maybe we'd do that on our next trip. 😉 We visited the giftshop, there were so many bookish bits and bobbles to look at.  We both ended up coming away with more book themed tea.

There was a little free library and Laura scored a pristine copy of Stuart Little.

We headed back to Great Barrington to visit some shops and have lunch.  Yellow House Books turned out to be a treasure trove of used books.

I was beyond delighted to find two favorites from middle school and a book about Louisa May Alcott, which had a book plate inside from Orchard House!

We also loved that the shop keeper wrote all the titles we purchased on a yellow legal pad, before keying the prices into the old school cash register.

Lunch at Rubi's where we had the most delicious paninis.

After lunch we headed to Greylock.  The highest point in Massachusetts. It took us 20(ish) minutes to drive up the winding 9 mile mountain road to the top.

The monument itself was quite impressive, begun after WWI has a tribute to those who died fighting in the war. The view from the top was breathtaking.  89 twisty spiral stairs to the top.

Again I couldn't help but marvel at God's creation and feel profoundly thankful for America and the men and women who have sacrificed for our freedoms.

Sometime on the trip we started talking about hiking the Appalachian Trail- so we had to take our pictures by the Appalachian Trail signs. We have now officially hiked *part* of the Appalachian Trail! 

We stopped at Guido's Marketplace to grab a salad to eat with our leftover pizza for dinner on our way home. We got back to the hotel tired but blissfully happy.  We read a little bit before dinner. I finished The Bells of Traeger Hall- still processing how I feel about the ending.

Of course, more tea and reading! I started Can't help Falling for Cousin Book Club. We snapped a picture to send to Jenn (cousin and fellow book club member).

Monday, we had a few stops before heading for home.

First was No Six Depot - delight! Loved the atmosphere and the baristas were so kind and friendly. We both had chai lattes and pastries.

We had some time to kill before our last book shop stop opened so we headed to Stockbridge Coffee and Tea to read.

Our last stop was Shaker Mill Books. We could have spent so much longer in this store! So much to look at.

Laura and I both got different editions of Edith Warton's Ethan Frome, we found it interesting that we read the back of 3 or 4 different editions and they all put a slightly different spin on the story.  We shared this insight with the shopkeeper as we were checking out and she informed us she definitely had opinions on the book too. Hmmmm, intriguing. Made us want to read it all the more.

Headed home!

My bookish haul from the weekend!

It was a great time. Filled with delight and sharing time, laughter and books with my sister. Can't wait for our next adventure.