Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Shopping in Historic Fairhaven

Today I met my good friend Betty for a day of shopping (mostly window style) and camaraderie. Betty and I met through my blog. In fact, she is my most faithful reader! We discovered we lived in the same town, so decided to get together in real life. It has been great fun. If you want to meet Betty too, she is known as Mud Creek Mama here on Blogger.

One of our favourite places to meet is Historic Fairhaven. In 1889, the railroad was coming, and Fairhaven grew rapidly, hoping to become the west coast terminus. The railroad connection never worked out, so the new town turned to the sea and fishing for its economic base. In its heyday, Fairhaven was a bustling town of hotels, shops, saloons and brothels. Today, the brothels are gone, but the rich heritage of hotels, shops, restaurants and nightlife remains. And Fairhaven has achieved its original goal of becoming a tranportation center with its Alaska Ferry, Amtrak and bus terminal.

One stop in Fairhaven that we love to make is the Eclipse Bookstore at 1104 11th Street. The Eclipse Bookstore is amazing with its vast variety of books covering the two floors of the establishment. Because it's a used book store, the prices are also amazingly low. Today, I got three books by R.D. Lawrence, a renowned Canadian author.

To fortify ourselves before wandering the shelves, we stopped in at Avenue Bread at 1135 11th Street. Avenue Bread is across the street and within easy walking distance. In addition to their wonderful fresh breads (I chose the sourdough with rosemary - YUM), they have a small cafe. We could have chosen soup, salad or sandwiches to go with our coffee, but opted for some of the fresh baked treats. Betty had the ham and cheese croissant and I got the cinnamon twist (double YUM).

A trip to Fairhaven wouldn't be complete without a visit to Village Books at 1200 11th Street. They have mostly new books, but you will also find good used books among the collection. They even handle books on consignment. If you are looking for a place to purchase books from Wayne's Coastal BC Stories series you can find them at Village Books. They currently carry Up the Lake, Up the Strait, Up the Airway and Up the Winter Trail. Stop by and check them out while you are shopping in Historic Fairhaven. -- Margy

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