This weekend we ventured to Northampton, MA. What an awesome town! It is only about 30 minutes drive from our home in Enfield. It is a wonderful town filled with unique shops and eateries with a bohemian, New England feel. It is also home to Smith College. Elizabeth said she found it ironic that this very earthy crunchy town is one of the most affluent and highly priced towns in the area! That's New England for ya. So please allow us to take you through our day in Northampton. As always the pictures are clickable, so click on them and they will come up full screen.
Our first stop was this great vintage clothing store. I mean this place was like walking into the prop closet in a theater department. Three floors filled from floor to ceiling with EVERYTHING...wigs, clothes from every era, costumes, shoes...any and everything you could imagine. Just like all the people we met on this day the store owner was so nice and told us about the store and let us have the run of the place trying on all kind of crazy things. We decided we would need to have a 70's party so we could wear some of the to die for clothes they had of the era.
Here is Elizabeth trying on a very cool Mardi Gras mask she found!
Yea, that glitter Fedora was calling to me! Note all the stuff in the shot...the large costume heads etc.
Next we went to a cute little french store. Loads of scented drawer papers, stationary, children books and these cute little unique guys...homemade stuffed teddy bears made from french fabrics. Awwwww!
As we left the french store an elderly woman came up to us and told us about a peace protest going on across the street. For more than nine years the northhampton community has been holding a vigil for peace and justice against the war and occupation and the innocent people caught in the middle. Elizabeth and I had just been talking on the drive about the alarming new numbers being published of members of the armed services committing suicide on a daily basis. God how sad. So we grabbed a sign and joined in. Just an interesting side note to this too, most of the protesters were in there 70's and 80's. I first found this kinda unusual...most times when you go to protests it's more a younger crowd. After talking to one older gentleman I understood more as he told me how his generation had seen war up-close and knew how futile it was and of his concern for his grandchildren having to pay the debt of bad decisions. "Bush can apply that stimulus package to my granddaughters credit cards!" he remarked. LOL I found seeing our older generation out there working for peace so inspirational. As one grandmother remarked "it is NEVER right to kill another" Amen to that and may peace be our ultimate destiny.
After the peace protest was over we walked through the lovely fresh market. There were flowers and fresh vegetables by local growers, honey and home-made canned goods also.
Okay this is my new favorite dog store....We needed to get new holster leads for our two boys (because they pull on the lease so hard they almost choke themselves!) so we stopped in here. The young girl inside helped us and was just so friendly...much to our surprise this 20 something was the store owner! I really liked that every shop we went into the owners were there...right at the cash register. I love purchasing from people I can get to know and feel like I know where my money is going. Buy local!
Then we stopped for lunch. You are not going to believe this....this is Lhasa Cafe...a TIBETAN RESTAURANT. I so love living in the east... I mean where else could you go for tibetan food!
Here is the yummy and healthy food we ate. We had dumplings with some sort of hot sauce that was very tasty.
And a dish that was tofu and vegatables in a sauce that had something like gram masala in it. It was really good. I noticed on the menu that they served Yak meat. So I asked our waiter (Tashi)..."where do you get Yak meat from in the states?" his reply.... "some where in NEBRASKA!" LOL
After lunch we continued looking/shopping and we purchased this great watch for Elizabeth from a shop called Harlow. The owner was an English women and we spent some time talking about life in New England.
Then on to a store called Glimpse of Tibet. All the product are from Tibet. I met the sweetest older gentleman who was visiting his niece who owned the store there. He had just come from Tibet and was such a jolly fellow and he and I (kristi) enjoyed a really nice chat. Below are a few of the purchases we made there.
We will be going back to Northampton all the time. Those of you coming to visit us we will for sure go there. It is such a great town with something for everyones taste. I hope you enjoyed this little day trip to Northampton. : )
This weekend we ventured to Northampton, MA. What an awesome town! It is only about 30 minutes drive from our home in Enfield. It is a wonderful town filled with unique shops and eateries with a bohemian, New England feel. It is also home to Smith College. Elizabeth said she found it ironic that this very earthy crunchy town is one of the most affluent and highly priced towns in the area! That's New England for ya. So please allow us to take you through our day in Northampton. As always the pictures are clickable, so click on them and they will come up full screen.
Our first stop was this great vintage clothing store. I mean this place was like walking into the prop closet in a theater department. Three floors filled from floor to ceiling with EVERYTHING...wigs, clothes from every era, costumes, shoes...any and everything you could imagine. Just like all the people we met on this day the store owner was so nice and told us about the store and let us have the run of the place trying on all kind of crazy things. We decided we would need to have a 70's party so we could wear some of the to die for clothes they had of the era. 
Here is Elizabeth trying on a very cool Mardi Gras mask she found!
Yea, that glitter Fedora was calling to me! Note all the stuff in the shot...the large costume heads etc.
Next we went to a cute little french store. Loads of scented drawer papers, stationary, children books and these cute little unique guys...homemade stuffed teddy bears made from french fabrics. Awwwww!
As we left the french store an elderly woman came up to us and told us about a peace protest going on across the street. For more than nine years the northhampton community has been holding a vigil for peace and justice against the war and occupation and the innocent people caught in the middle. Elizabeth and I had just been talking on the drive about the alarming new numbers being published of members of the armed services committing suicide on a daily basis. God how sad. So we grabbed a sign and joined in. Just an interesting side note to this too, most of the protesters were in there 70's and 80's. I first found this kinda unusual...most times when you go to protests it's more a younger crowd. After talking to one older gentleman I understood more as he told me how his generation had seen war up-close and knew how futile it was and of his concern for his grandchildren having to pay the debt of bad decisions. "Bush can apply that stimulus package to my granddaughters credit cards!" he remarked. LOL I found seeing our older generation out there working for peace so inspirational. As one grandmother remarked "it is NEVER right to kill another" Amen to that and may peace be our ultimate destiny.
After the peace protest was over we walked through the lovely fresh market. There were flowers and fresh vegetables by local growers, honey and home-made canned goods also.
Okay this is my new favorite dog store....We needed to get new holster leads for our two boys (because they pull on the lease so hard they almost choke themselves!) so we stopped in here. The young girl inside helped us and was just so friendly...much to our surprise this 20 something was the store owner! I really liked that every shop we went into the owners were there...right at the cash register. I love purchasing from people I can get to know and feel like I know where my money is going. Buy local!
Then we stopped for lunch. You are not going to believe this....this is Lhasa Cafe...a TIBETAN RESTAURANT. I so love living in the east... I mean where else could you go for tibetan food!
Here is the yummy and healthy food we ate. We had dumplings with some sort of hot sauce that was very tasty. 
And a dish that was tofu and vegatables in a sauce that had something like gram masala in it. It was really good. I noticed on the menu that they served Yak meat. So I asked our waiter (Tashi)..."where do you get Yak meat from in the states?" his reply.... "some where in NEBRASKA!" LOL 
After lunch we continued looking/shopping and we purchased this great watch for Elizabeth from a shop called Harlow. The owner was an English women and we spent some time talking about life in New England. 
Then on to a store called Glimpse of Tibet. All the product are from Tibet. I met the sweetest older gentleman who was visiting his niece who owned the store there. He had just come from Tibet and was such a jolly fellow and he and I (kristi) enjoyed a really nice chat. Below are a few of the purchases we made there. 
We will be going back to Northampton all the time. Those of you coming to visit us we will for sure go there. It is such a great town with something for everyones taste. I hope you enjoyed this little day trip to Northampton. : )
1 comment:
Looking at the photos makes me sad I wasn't along for this fun day discovering a new town. It looks like so much fun and a perfect day. I'll bet you are really missing Nebraska :)
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