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Bucks County - Part 2
Antique-Land
Written by: Dominick A. Miserandino
Photography by: Margherita Miserandino
Antique shops, flea markets, more antique shops and a few covered bridges and restaurants thrown into the mix.
Saturday
"Drip, drip," Margherita said.
I rolled over.
"Chirp, Chirp," she then said, but I was not in the mood for this unique and exotic form of a mating call. Besides, I found it rather confusing. I went to push her off the bed, but discovered she was not there.
In waking up, I realized the fountains in the backyard were full of live animals running around outside. My wife was in the bathroom, and the birds were singing. It felt a bit like being in Disney's "Zip-a-dee-doo-dah" but without the animated characters. The garden room really lived up to its name and had a spectacular view of the garden. I attempted to talk to the birds, but Margherita walked in and was quite perplexed at the scene.
Anyway, we went downstairs and had the breakfast (which is why they call it a bed and breakfast) and also met Carol's husband Bill, who acts as the cook, groundskeeper and opposite side of Carol's personality. At times, watching them interact is like witnessing the ying and yang of a relationship.
Carol is extremely refined with an extremely artistic side, while Bill will scream from the kitchen after dropping the pan, "You didn't hear that!" Carol has a collection of mirrors ranging over a few hundred years in age, while Bill has a collection of hats "he just liked." I could easily picture Carol watching an Opera as Bill watched the Three Stooges, but they had this unique dynamic making the entire breakfast, well, hysterical!
Margherita says I should mention the breakfast, so I'll tell you it was made up of a first course of peaches, apple, maple sugar, and orange rind in a cup. Next was this massive ham steak, which was so big, it was intimidating. Bill screamed from the kitchen, "Eat as much as you want, but don't worry about eating leftovers," while we discussed Jackie Kennedy with Carol. As you can see, I think the more fun about the breakfast was the dynamics rather than the food, but Margherita insists I also mention there was more food than you could ever physically eat.
Anyway, we started on our way to do the three covered bridges tour. In a time, a long time ago, they used to make covered bridges so the bridge wouldn't get weathered, but also so the horses wouldn't get scared crossing the bridges (seeing over the sides). After the times changed and technology changed, they all went the way of the scrap yard, but a number remain in Bucks County, of which we saw three.
I'd say the story on each one, but I admit, after seeing them in succession, you feel the old saying about covered bridges is true, "You've seen one, you've seen them all." We started with the Pine Valley Covered Bridge, headed over to the Mood's Covered Bridge, and ended up at South Perkasie Covered Bridge.
It was only in hindsight I realized there's a right way and a wrong way to do the covered bridges tour. We did it the wrong way. Seeing each one in succession like we did the conversation changes to:
"There's a bridge."
"It's covered."
Twenty minutes later.
"There's another bridge."
"It's covered, too."
As you can see, it feels a bit monotonous. The trick, however, to seeing the bridges is to choose one for a picnic. Any one that goes over a river though, as the South Perkasie Covered Bridge did, kind of tricks you as it might be the oldest, but it no longer goes over the river. The river makes it much prettier.
After you find your bridge, find a spot next to it with the official picnic table and have lunch there. It will probably feel priceless and like you're going back in time. The Pine Valley had a picnic table off to the woods on the side where you can hear the babbling of the brook and would make for a very nice picnic.
Well, after the bridges we started heading back on the directions towards the big antique section, and then New Hope, but we got distracted. It wasn't my fault.
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Flea Market located near New Britain | |
It seems between New Britain and Dublin (I only remember the United Kingdom sounding names), there was a massive flea market. It was so large I started losing my patience after an hour, and we were still only almost half way through. Margherita bought a wreath-looking thing for the front door she says was, "Fabulous," and cost her only a dollar. "A dollar!" she screamed, running in circles around me a la "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," and this being her gold discovery.
She is even now running around me insisting I mention her tissue box, her frame and some silver bowl that's a Goram silver for only $5. "5 dollars is a bargain!" she screams.
Anyway, Bucks County has antique shops and flea markets on what seems to be every corner. With so much history around it, it does seem to be an antiquing paradise. Well, we were running late, so I convinced her to skip the next 3 flea markets we passed and the next hundred-odd antique shops, and we went straight to lunch at Havana in New Hope.
New Hope seems to be the unofficial capital of the area. All signs point to New Hope, all the cars are facing that direction, and it's the Mecca of shopping in Bucks County. For lunch, we stopped at Havana (as I mentioned before), which is right on Main Street in New Hope. Havana has that Spanish flair food, as the name implies, but it wins out with its Onion Rings. They are covered with sesame seeds and are one of the most popular dishes there... with good reason.
After the onion rings, I had the cheddar/jalapeņo quesadilla, which was more of a massive burrito and extremely filling (I couldn't finish it). Margherita had the crab cakes, as a possible vengeance for me liking my crab cakes so much last night.
Now, the streets of New Hope are normally jam-packed during the spring into fall, and today was the infamous Shad Festival, so it was even more packed. New Hope has a sister city right across the river in New Jersey called Lambertville. What is a Shad? It's not a dirty word, but it's actually a fish, an average looking fish, but Lambertville seems to love them enough to have a festival for them. Just a short walk across on the footbridge across the Delaware River, and you're in Lambertville.
There are some differences between New Hope and Lambertville, but the feeling between the two towns, on the surface at least, is very similar. They are both beautiful and quaint. Lambertville has more bargains and shops; New Hope seems a bit more commercial, but has more unique shops. Other than that, when you visit one, you should visit the other. They'd make Eli Whitney proud, as they're pretty interchangeable in that sense.
For the next few hours, we walked, talked, shopped, ate, walked, talked and watched. New Hope certainly is a good place for people watching with thousands of people walking the streets. In fact, the population of the town must double simply from all of the visitors.
Anyway, we stopped at Country Fair Chocolates for some chocolates; Gerenser's Exotic Ice Cream for Ice Cream; and then checked out all of the shops on this side of the river and the other side.
After four hours, we were getting a bit tired and decided to head over to our next destination for dinner, "and shopping," Margherita chimed in.
Anyway, we headed over to the town of Lahaska to go to Peddler's Village. Now, we really regretted not leaving New Hope earlier then we did. Peddler's Village is made up of 75 little antique and specialty shops in a big circle. Looking back on our day as it was made up so far, it was a pretty natural progression. First, we saw shops spread across the countryside, and then we saw shops in a town, and finally a town made up of shops.
To me, though, this was beautiful. A quaint little town with beautiful gardens, I could rest in the gardens while Margherita shopped. If I had an interest in shopping, all the shops surround these main gardens, so everything was within reach.
We shopped for about 2 hours and finally went to the Cock and Bull restaurant for Peddler's Village Murder Mystery Theatre. The show is basically an improvised singing, comedy, and interactive murder/mystery -- long on the comedy and puns and short on the mystery. The premise of the show is a murder at the "Rubbish Round-Up," a fictional venue to sell things instead of your flea market, quite apropos given our day.
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Cock and Bull Dinner Theater | |
Between "scenes," the actors kept in character and interacted with the audience -- kept in character so much so, when there was a confusion on my seating arrangements, I interacted with the actors in complete character.
Anyway, while this is going on, dinner is being served. Normally, I cringe at the thought as its either one or the other -- show or the dinner, and usually the dinner is lacking. However, the initial cheese and vegetable dips on the table were great. The salad was great. The prime rib we had was good. It was the same quality of food served in the main part of the restaurant, and we were pleasantly surprised by the contradiction to my assumptions.
Well, to give you an idea how interactive the show is, halfway through the show one of the actresses made everybody do the bunny hop, and then a line dance. Everybody seemed to love getting involved and had a great time. Margherita was right in the heat of it, while I stood back for moralistic reasons. I've always hated group participation dances. I'll never know where they came from, but I think the mere existence of line dances is proof of the devil's influence in the world. Only the dark overlord could create a dance so torturous as this.
Well, we danced, ate, sang, ate, and Margherita even solved the mystery and won a t-shirt. She was quite giddy about her t-shirt.
We drove home and pulled up to Ravenhead where Bill happened to be straightening out.
"Congratulations, you won the shirt!"
Even at midnight he cheered for us. We told him the story and went up to bed.
Read part 1
Read part 3
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