Field Trip - Princeton

I took my brand new rental car for a spin to Princeton today. It's a one and a half hour trip south from where I live. I started out after 3 pm which meant that it was going to be too late to see the two known yarn stores there, so I decided to see what I could.

It was the most gorgeous day to take a road trip. As you approach Princeton's city limits and before you arrive at the campus proper, you have to drive over a stone bridge -

It was too beautiful not to stop so I parked on the side of the road, just over the bridge and took some more pictures.

The lake was filled with Princeton's crew teams and a few recreational boaters. I wanted to be young again, just for that moment there on the bridge...

I got back in the car and drove onward toward the campus but it was dusk now and I had lost the day's light. I'll have to come back another time for campus shots and of course, the yarn shops.

I continued driving toward town. There were book stores, pizzerias and ice cream parlors to sample. Everyone knows that college towns have the best book stores, ice cream and pizza. Immediately I saw a book store, Micawber Books.



I stood out side for a while looking over this rack of books and dreamed of a skill where I could somehow absorb the knowledge stacked before me.

Inside there were more beautiful books - delicate antique books from a time when words were as important as their meaning.

A nice woman asked,
"Is there something in particular you are interested in?"
It must have been my camera that gave my tourist self away.
"No, thank you, I'm just... Actually, there would be something but I doubt..."
I don't know why I hesitated to ask, but whenever I do ask about craft books in such places I get a sort of confused dog stare, you know the look. I don't get those stares somehow when I'm wearing one of my shawls.
I asked,
"Do you have any knitting books?"
She gave me the stare but immediately recovered and said,
"Perhaps over here in this corner."
And with that she walked toward a quiet little alcove where there are just a half dozen books on crafts. She pulled this one down, and asked me if it would do.

Yeah, I know, you're jealous!