Been There Now Done That

It's kinda ridiculous that we've lived here for 8 months and never made our way downtown for a leisurely stroll up Main Street. We've driven thru quite a bit and said "Oh, look at that place" and "I'd like to eat there" but have yet to stop. That was the conversation we had yesterday morning, right before we got dressed and hit that little strip of hometown goodness. Here's how it went.



We parked ourselves at the southwest end, near the Dunkin Donuts so we could start off with a hot tea. Off to a good start. We headed down the sidewalk, peering in curious windows and picking up random local literature like tourists. The first stop was at a shop called Fleur-de-Lis. Sounds a little fruity but it actually had some really great stuff. Amazingly fine throws from New Hampshire, a kingly buffet table from New Zealand that had we found a $1200 dollar bill outside on the sidewalk we would've bought immediately, and a few other knick-knacks that may or may not be exactly what we may be looking for in the coming months. Cryptic. But my favorite thing had to be Shut The Box. The shopkeeper, Martha, explained the game and it's origin, how is was originally used by sailors to pass the time and how nowadays people use it to... well... pass the time and maybe make some cash. Ha. I want one. Birthday in 2 months.



Next stop: Dunkelbergers! I just love that we have a store called Dunkelbergers in our town. It's got such a great 50's ring to it. We went in and had a look at some kayaks and some hats and decided we'd like to take up fishing.




Further along we came upon the upscale antiques within Ibis. Inside was a decent spread of estate sale antiques and a mild stodgy elderly man who within the first 60 seconds we were in his shop professed to being a parsons scholar, showed us his million dollar farmhouse he's trying to get rid of, trashed the uprising of commercial shops along Main Street and tried to sell us a odd little coat rack. But when I mentioned I liked one of the filler sketches inside an overpriced glass frame that I had no intention of buying he did his best to recreate it on the back of a Pocono Record flyer with a felt tip pen. 15 second sketch indeed.



It's actually pretty close.



Around the bend we hit another run-of-the-mill antique shop, more our speed and found lots of great little hidden treasures. We haven't been to a proper antique dealer in a long while, so it was a welcome return to form.




Heading back up the other side of the road, back towards our car we stopped at a few spots, the record store (didn't catch the name) which even for me have become overwhelming obsolete. Sad days. At least they were playing a good Air album. We got the munchies and stopped in the Café Europa for a snack. I got the Russian honey cake and Laura got the Russian hot pretzel, which looked mysteriously similar to the Super Pretzel you buy from Z's. The amount of Russian menu items served at this Café Europa... the irony was lost on no one.




A momentary diversion of course landed us in a square of sorts where Laura says they erect the town Christmas tree. Guess we'll have to catch that next year. But we did check out the canons.



After such a nice day we decided to cook a favorite meal of ours, a nice spring mix salad & chicken curry pizza, and it was scrumptious.




So scrumptious that even the cats were having their share.



Yay. Now we know our town a little better. Good for us.