There was a party we had to attend. A very important party! It was my grandson’s second birthday.
As is usually the case, Ann Marie and I opted to take rt.22 across the state rather than the turnpike. The day was great for a ride; the windows were open with our arms resting on them. We showed up at their doorstep around 3:30 ready to party!
The party was fun; there were lots of family members there, many we hadn’t seen in years. Mateo had a blast! The festivities tapered off as Mateo’s bedtime neared. We returned on Sunday morning to visit some more with the family and to play with Mateo’s new toys!
On Monday AMB and I took a “short” drive to New York City. Ann Marie had never been there and we wanted to just drop in for a short visit to let her to see the how big the town really is. If we were lucky, we’d stop at a couple bookstores in our travels.
I always find it fascinating to see the skyline as I near the city. It never ceases to amaze me seeing how big it is! I remember thinking Pittsburgh was a big city. That was before I saw NYC the first time. New York just seems to keep going on and on.
After a quick jaunt through Times Square our first stop was the New York Public Library. The huge building is often thought of as the main branch, in reality it's a research library not a lending library. We stopped outside to take some pictures of the iconic lions before we entered the building.
The lions were named Patience and Fortitude by Mayor LaGuardia in the 1930’s, qualities he figured New Yorkers would need to survive the depression. Patience is to the south and Fortitude, pictured here with AMB, is to the north.
Inside, we viewed murals painted in the halls and enjoyed the beautiful architecture. It is a temple to reading! Sadly, we weren’t able to visit the Rose Reading Room. This is a huge room lined with bookcases with murals painted on the ceiling. There are tables stretching from one end to the other with brass lights on them. Chandeliers hang overhead. The room is huge, 78 feet across and 297 feet long, nearly the length of two city blocks or a football field! It has recently been renovated. It is off limits to everyone but researchers.
Here is a link to a great time lapse movie of the librarians re-shelving the books after it was renovated. It gives you an idea of how big it is!
Our next stop was a visit to the observation deck on the Empire State Building. This whole building is a monument to commercialism. Everything is very pricey! At the top we enjoyed the views, we picked out a few landmarks and were amazed by the size of this city.
Going back down to street level we were led through the HUGE Empire State Building Gift Shop. (Did I mention commercialism?)
Back on the street we looked for a place to eat our lunch. We found a nice Irish pub. Dark inside with good food and cold beer, it was just what we needed to cool down and rest a bit. We took a cab while we were in the city. (It was AMB’s first cab ride!) We only visited one bookstore and it was part of a chain, nothing to write home about!
We made it back to the hotel in time to visit with the family again, to wish Mateo a Happy Birthday and to eat dinner with them. When Mateo headed to bed, we did likewise, it had been a long day and the next day we were heading back to Pittsburgh.
Since our trip to the Big Apple didn’t include any good bookstores, we figured we would try again on the way home. We stopped in Bethlehem PA, where we planned on visiting the oldest operating bookstore in America. Opened in 1745, it has been selling books for two hundred and seventy six years!
Bethlehem was hosting a week long music festival, roads were blocked off and food carts lined the streets. We found an open parking meter and tossed an hour’s worth of coins in it. We got some coffee and freshly made bagels at a corner deli and sat outside enjoying the views.
Walking down the block we came to the “old” bookstore. It wasn’t what we had expected. It looked like any other college bookstore. It had a large gift shop where students could get textbooks, coffee mugs and other necessities with the Moravian College name imprinted on them. To get to the bookstore we walked through a Christmas shop filled with glittery ornaments and Moravian stars.
Once we got into the bookshop, it looked like a Barnes and Noble store. (B&N is now running the operations.) There were clean polished floors, a wheelchair ramp on one side, tables spread nicely with new books displayed on them. It looked very modern, nothing like the old bookshop we were expecting.
We were thinking it would be a small, dark, dusty store. Shelves would reach up to the ceiling filled with a variety of older books, some there for decades. The shelves would be placed to create passageways and little dead ends, places you could get lost in. The bookseller would be an older person, not a young girl with a computer ID tag around her neck, standing in front of a large computer screen. Walking to the front of the store I saw my image projected on a large screen from one of their security cameras. NO, it wasn’t what we had envisioned! I didn’t see one old book! We bought nothing and returned to the car.
Our last chance at getting a bookstore experience was in Harrisburg. We took a break for lunch at the near-by Fort Hunter Park, sitting under a small tree in Adirondack chairs overlooking the Susquehanna River. After we ate we drove into town to the Midtown Scholar, a huge bookstore selling new and used books. I have found many books while rummaging through their countless stacks. I had once asked where I could find some books on iron furnaces and the staff member told me that he would show me the way. “It’s easy to get lost here!”
Parking around back in their parking lot, we walked to the front of the store only to find out that it was closed. Carts filled with books that usually sit outside were gathered inside the doors. They have instituted new hours and are now only open Thursday through Sunday. Since it was Tuesday…we were out of luck.
Returning to the road, we drove through a couple extremely powerful storms. We could see the storms ahead of us, dark clouds blotting out any details behind them. When we drove into the storms, cars slowed to a crawl, everyone had their flashers on and cars and trucks were pulled over to the sides, riding out the deluge. The windshield wipers couldn't keep up, lightning and thunder added to the mayhem. Coming out the far side, we were treated to sunshine on the mountains. The wet leaves looked vibrant and healthy with small clouds of mist clinging to their tops. The trees looked like a carpet covering the steep hillsides with no buildings or roads marring their surfaces. It was truly a beautiful sight!
It was a great trip but sadly bookstores weren’t a part of it. We had fun, we enjoyed the travel and the exploring! Another good thing about it was, it was the start to my retirement!
The thing I enjoyed most though, was playing with my grandson, watching him play with his toys and better yet, listening to him read his books to me! He showed me the different pages and told me what was on them. I know he is my grandson and I may not be objective about it, but he sure is smart! His parents are raising him well. He is a very lucky boy! Seeing them and their son was definitely the best part of the whole trip!
1 comment:
What a great trip. Love the photo of the window
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