A bookish vacation

Brandon and I wanted to get away for a few days to celebrate our 15th anniversary last month, but since he was teaching summer term, we had to postpone it a few weeks.  Happily, our timing coincided with the end of the vacation season in the Traverse City, MI area, saving us some money and thinning out the crowds.  We’ve just returned, and it was a lovely time.  The weather was perfect—sunny but not too hot—and we had a lot of fun eating locally-grown produce at the sidewalk cafes, tasting wines at the gorgeous wineries on Old Mission Peninsula, and watching the sun set over Grand Traverse Bay with our toes in the surf.  Aaaahhh.

Of course, this being a Withrow vacation, we also spent a good part of the time getting to know the local bookstores, including Horizon Books (friendly staff, good selection, nice café) and The Bookie Joint (used, including extensive collection of first editions) in Traverse City, Brilliant Books (fabulous indie shop that apparently stocks only what I have on my TBR list!) in Suttons Bay, and McLean & Eakin Booksellers (great local history section, plus bookish gifts) in Petoskey.   Also in Petoskey, we toured the Little Traverse History Museum’s exhibit on Hemingway (who spent many summers in the area growing up, inspiring his Nick Adams stories and others) and had a delicious lunch at the City Park Grill, where a young Papa is said to have played billiards and frequently fallen off the barstools.

I got only one book read on the drive, and now have several new purchases to add to the pile.  And I had a book order waiting for me when I got home!  So you know what I’ll be doing once I finish unpacking, laundry, and re-organizing my calendar…

Anyway, how have you spent your summer?  Do you visit literary sites while on vacation?  Have you done more or less reading than you normally do the rest of the year?  Have you decided which was your favorite summer read?  Do tell!

26. August 2009 by Mindy
Categories: News, Your turn | 8 comments

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