Last weekend my family and I headed about an hour south to visit a small town called one of the most picturesque towns in the state of Pennsylvania — Lewisburg, Pa.
The week before had been a very long one for all of us so it was nice to escape for a little while and see some different scenery.
That weekend was also Free Comic Book Day, so the trip had actually been planned for a while to pick up some free comic books at a comic bookstore in town. The store also is a Warhammer shop, which is the main reason our son wanted to visit it.
He has really been enjoying painting the models. He doesn’t do the gaming with the models, but he loves figuring out how to paint them to look realistic and, well, just cool. He does play the online game, read the books, and knows all the Warhammer lore.
Lewisburg is a small town featuring colonial-style homes and buildings. Many of the buildings are something I would expect to see in some parts of colonial-era Philadelphia or Gettysburg. Of course not every house is picture-worthy, but it is close. Even the churches downtown (there are three different denominations on one corner in one section) are elegant and photo-worthy.
There was an independent bookstore near the comic shop that The Husband and The Boy found on a trip they took back in November for The Boy’s birthday, and The Husband wanted me to see it.
I have some autoimmune issues, and I often get very tired out or weak in my legs, so I was worried about having to walk a lot. I had also been on my feet a ton throughout the week as I helped my elderly parents. I prayed throughout the week and the day of, though, and ended up doing just fine. I was able to walk further than I normally can and visit stores without feeling dragged out or my legs hurting, or at least not hurting as much as they sometimes do.
The Boy was thrilled with the part of the comic store which featured the Warhammer gear. It was small but still packed solid with models, paint, merchandise, books, etc.
The shop is small overall, but The Husband said there was a room in the back where the comic books were being given out and the atmopshere was very jovial. Out front the feeling was more subdued and a bit underwhelming to me after attending free comic book day celebrations in the past at other stores where cosplays and more “celebratory” events were going on. Still, the store is nicely set up and offers a good selection for it’s small size.
The Husband and The Boy had visited a pizzeria the previous time they were in town and we headed there after leaving the comic store because Little Miss was “starving.”
It was a very quiet, small and unassuming place but the food and service were amazing.
If you are ever in Lewisburg, be sure to check out Pi Pizza on Market Street. They were the nicest people and the food was great. I recommend the chicken Caesar wrap.
After eating, we walked down the street to Mondragon Books, an independent bookstore that sells a mix of new and used books and records.
It is a cozy store with its walls covered with attractive bookshelves packed to the brim with books of all genres and varieties. There is a tree inside the store, people. A beautiful tree. Okay, the tree isn’t real (I mean..I don’t think? It really looked real.) There is also a record player up front behind the counter where the owner/staff member sets records on to play throughout the speaker system. Real records.
Here is a bit about the store from its website : “Our collection focuses largely on literary fiction and poetry, social studies of all sorts, the arts, children’s books, health & wellness, the home economy, the political economy, DIY skills, nature connection, and other books that foster knowledge and power to the people.
In 2024, Mondragon relocated to 302 Market Street, across from the post office and into what was once Lewisburg’s downtown CVS (& before that Newberry’s Department Store). Aside from books, we also sell high-quality used LPs, a selection of postcards, buttons, & stickers, japanese incense, earth flags, and small goods from a few local artists.”
There are chairs, couches and other seats for customers to relax on while they look or read. I could have sat on their plush leather couch for the rest of the afternoon, but The Husband wanted me to see the three-story Barnes & Noble down the street, so, alas I had to leave. Not before grabbing a book about horses for Little Miss and a book of recipes by artist Georgia O’Keefe.
I hope to go back there again and simply take my time looking at each and every book there.
About a block from this bookstore is the Barnes & Noble/Bucknell University campus bookstore and spirit shop, built in 2017.
The first floor is the Barnes & Noble and a snack shop. An escalator leads to the second floor where merchandise and gear representing Bucknell University is held. The third floor is a campus bookstore where textbooks and other college supplies can be found.
Bucknell is not a “ivy league” school but it is considered very close and offers what most consider “high academics”.
From what we could tell the students there really like to party.
When The Husband took The Boy in November they walked past a frat party and there was another one going on on like an entire block near the playground we stopped to visit. The music was so loud it was like we were at a live concert.
One thing I learned while visiting Lewisburg is that fat people do not live there.
Almost all of the women I saw were well-dressed, skinny or in amazing shape and were jogging, walking, or running.
I only saw one or two overweight girls. I also didn’t see very many people who “looked poor” in this part of Lewisburg. Whatever that means. Ha! I just mean they were all dressed very nice with expensive clothes and shoes.
On our way out of this part of Lewisburg, I did see an entirely different side of the town, which I guess is “the other side of the tracks” since it was literally across the railroad tracks. The homes in this part of time looked more like average day homes and the people who lived in them are probably people I would hang out with versus the more wealthy people a couple of which who watched me with a suspicious eye when I was in the Barnes & Noble and the comic store.
While the Barnes & Noble was very nice, I was not that bowled over by their book selection. That might be because I am used to the old Barnes & Noble that had rows and rows of bargain books and book genres and an entire wall of journals. Also, I didn’t explore every inch of the place so there was probably more there than I realized.
Their mystery section was not very exciting to me, and I noticed the store focused more on the romance genre than anything else. The store is operated by Bucknell University and was built in 1942. It once housed a Hardware Store and there is a small display on the lower floor of some historic items found in the building when they were demolishing the inside to renovate it. I wish I had grabbed a photo of that but I didn’t think to.
After leaving the Barnes & Noble we found a playground for Little Miss to have some fun on.
There was a lilac bush there that had clearly started blooming a few days earlier and they smelled amazing.
We also took a small tour of the Bucknell campus and visited their stadium.
That was our last stop in town before heading home and crashing in our separate corners of the house in silence for a few hours, which is something this family of introverts does every time we go somewhere we have to deal with other human beings.
How was your week last week?
Do anything interesting or exciting?
Let me know in the comments or link up below.
