Cute Little Paper Blog

Tag: St. Albans

  • Vermont Bookstores

    Vermont Bookstores

    It doesn’t matter where I am, I absolutely love bookstores.

    It all started when I was little. My mom would let me have my pick of anything at Border’s. As I got older, I loved going to Half Price Books in Austin. I knew that the downtown location had gems in different languages, and the one by my house always had a good sale in the CD section. I spent hours in high school at a comic bookstore a little more south than where I grew up, and felt adult buying graphic novels and hanging out with people outside of my Northwest Austin suburb.

    I got acquainted with my city more after I got to know other bookstores in college. The beautiful Chicano art book store on the East side, and the weirdo basement bookstore on the drag with the conspiracy books, and the bookstore where all the cool people went on first dates downtown called Book People.

    Since I’ve moved to New England, I’ve also discovered the local bookstore scene as well. The dusty ones with stacks of yellowed pages are my favorite. I’ve been to book festivals and I’ve taken part in local book fairs. I’ll always have a home in local bookstores.

    Learn more about:

    1. Phoenix Books in Essex
    2. The Eloquent Page in St. Albans
    3. Yankee Books in Woodstock
  • St. Albans

    St. Albans

    Before we even decided to look for a house in Vermont, we came to visit. Casey was working from home so I just took the car and drove around the entire northern portion of the state to see what’s up. I drove all the way up to Swanton, which is the northern most city before the Canadian border, then went West to North and South Hero islands, which are located on Lake Champlain, then back down to Burlington.

    It was a great time to just explore and get lost. Plus, my phone didn’t have service so I was relying on a tourist map I had found in the Airbnb. The first city I encountered and really liked was St. Albans. It had suburbs and what I call “typical Vermont roads” which are houses, pretty sparsely sprinkled over fields and mountains. But the best part is definitely downtown St. Albans for it’s cute historic district.

    St. Albans, also pronounced Snalbins by the locals, has a cute little square with a downtown of five or so shops and cafes. It was a cute place to drive around. The best part about many Western-most towns in Vermont is that you’re just minutes away from the water.

    St. Albans Bay was beautiful and I was about to break our unspoken rule of not buying a lakehouse.

    There is no St. Albans vs. Burlington rivalry, because almost every job is in Burlington and people can have commutes of up to an hour everyday. However, in this beautiful landscape, it isn’t so bad.