Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Last weekend Mark and I took a 2-hour drive westward to the city of Bethlehem, PA. The reasons for our pilgrimage had an interesting beginning: I received an email from a girl named Kristi who invited us for a visit to her old-timey college town. How could I resist a chance to frolic around this a whimsical place with a promise of good vintage shopping?
We were filled in on the town’s history right away. Founded on Christmas Eve in 1741 by a group of Moravians, Bethlehem gets its name from the town in Judea, where Christ was born. Today, it’s a popular tourist destination with a seemingly never-ending holiday season – it quiets down probably only around this time of the year. Still, the atmosphere of cheer and celebration never seems to leave the place – we saw an ongoing festival, a girl hula-hooping on Main Street, and numerous store fronts decorated with colorful balloons!
Mark loved this sign. I defaced it in Photoshop, haha.
Bethlehem is known for the oldest bookstore in the US, as well as antique and vintage shopping (I made two purchases which I will reveal later). I especially like ‘witchy’-type places that sell talismans, incense and mysterious bottles filled with unknown potions. One such place had five large glass jars sitting out front, each stuffed with dried foliage and labeled: Energy, Love, Power, Money, Health. They were running low of Power that day.
I wonder if this typewriter types on it own, by magic?
Concocting a potion. If successful, it will make my dress less see-through.
No such luck! I guess it was ok to walk around half-naked in the 70s. (Actually, I’m wearing a slip and the hat makes me feel slightly less naked. :))
Ladybug truffles! Ahh!!!
You know how sometimes you fall in love with someone, and you don’t even know their name? It happened to me when I had a sudden encounter with a glorious pink antique. Everything just went sort of hazy and dreamy… This incredible piece of machinery brags to take nickels, dimes & quarters, but other than I know absolutely nothing about it! Help out a girl in love??
The pink apparatus
Isabella, the dove sits in a cage & comes with instructions “not to feed Isabella”.
Kristi & I
Thank you for inviting us out and showing us around, Kristi! We had a fabulous time. xo
Deerlings: any quirky towns you know and adore?
You look lovely! I’d love to go to that pagan shop. I love that your hair is getting long again, I just love long hair..
Boy someone got up early. :D I live in Austin Tx where.. let’s put it this way, when you live in a city where the slogan is “keep Austin weird” you know it’s bound to be interesting. We’re a very liberal city smack in the heart of conservative-ville (aka Texas). You can see a lot of people with neon dyed hair (we like to ignore magazines where they tell us it’s a big fashion nono), and a lot of unique fashions. There’s so much art to see. There’s also the famous South by Southwest Music Festival where you can find any type of music you can possibly want to hear.
wait… I realized it’s not really early.. haha… You look gorgeous in the photo as usual… the dress doesn’t look THAT see through in the photo… Beautiful contrast with the red hair and the blue dress. Striking. >_<
You look really pretty (as usual). I LOVE witchy shops..we used to have one in our mall awhile ago..it sold all sorts of weird and neat stuff. Sadly it’s gone :(
I don’t live super far away from there, my friend always wanted to open a store there called Cheeses of Nazereth in Bethlehem.
There’s a cute little tiny tiny town near me thats mainly Amish, with an adorable general store there with penny candy, amish goods and such =]. I love it
Hey Doe, if you like “witchy” stores you should head to Salem, Ma. I love Salem and go there a few times a year. I also have a tradition where I go there for my birthday each year (bday is in October) because Salem around Halloween time is especially fun. Salem is a beautiful New England town full of awesome non chain stores, Wiccan type of stores, record shops, art (Peabody Essex museaum is great) and of course Salem & Halloween attractions. And most of the attractions are open year round. However, during October there are more attractions and everything stay opens a bit later at night. Plus you have a ton of people walking around in full halloween costumes. It’s awesome. I’m always free to show you around if you ever want to check it out. :)
Another favorite of mine is Portsmouth, NH. It’s a cute town full of awesome shops, vintage stores and great food. My favorite place to eat is The Friendly Toast (http://www.hollyeats.com/FriendlyToast.htm). It’s an awesome kitchy 1950s diner and the food is great. You would love it. They just opened one in Boston too which excites me to no end since it’s a lot closer to me then Portsmouth.
And of course Boston is a fun town with lots of charm.
♣ Shayne
Yay for Salem, MA! I totally must go, thanks for the suggestion! :D
Those ladybug truffles are darling! Did you indulge?
Doe, just a warning about Salem during peak season. If you plan to stay over night (Salem is about 1.5 hours from me in Providence, RI so it would be about 5 hour drive for you in NYC) you need to book an area hotel well in advance. Like book it during the summer for October. Salem gets thousands of tourists in October so hotels book up very quickly. And keep you eye on this site (http://www.hauntedhappenings.org/) for october happenings in Salem. Each year they have a ton of candle lit ghost tours, pet costume contests and psychic fairs etc…
I am in LOVE with Little Five Points, near Atlanta. It’s an eclectic town full of vintage shops, specialty stores, and plain old artistic expression. It’s fabulous.
I noticed that you spelled “Pennsylvania” wrong. (Sorry, I’m a spelling stickler!)
Anyway, my two favorite quirky little towns have to be Ashland, Oregon and Oberlin, Ohio.
Ashland’s claim to fame is mostly its Shakespeare Festival, but it is just an amazing town in general. Witchy stores, hippie stores, lovely nature (to the max!), lots of art, lots of music, GREAT food, interesting people…so much!
Oberlin is the home to Oberlin College, which I attend. :) SO much random fabulous stuff goes on around campus. There are also some wonderful hippie stores, and an awesome antique/vintage shop. It’s lovely in spring and summer. There is such a wonderfully weird student body (liberal arts & a music conservatory) that there is always something to see or do.
You look amazing!!! :) thanks for sharing!
you look so gorgeous. The blue dress and your hair color is so amazing. I haven’t been to Bethlehem but we live in Illinois and we travel to CT. every summer and we drive thru Pennsylvania and we also see the sign for Bethlehem. Maybe that means we should stop and visit sometime. It looks very fascinating. Nothing fascinating to visit around here. We do have a lot of antique store all over Illinois. Huge flea market every month the 1st Sunday of every month at the Kane County fair grounds in St. Charles. Naperville, Geneva, St. Charles all little towns have some unique things to see…
Ohh, I used to have the same lovable antique in blue, instead of pink! It’s a coin bank for children. Every time you save up $5 in coins that you deposit by pulling the lever, the little drawer at the bottom unlocks. :)
What a cute little hat! :D I wants!
great outfit! cute hat.
You are so beautiful !:) interesting town…
have to read the text now I realize, before I start asking questions like “Why did you go there?” etc. xD
lots of love!
from sweden.
I love Ann Arbor! Especially downtown Ann Arbor around State Street. Its not quirky or anything, its just a normal college town (home to the University of Michigan). I went to Eastern Michigan University for college, so I was always in Downtown Ann Arbor for anything and everything fun (even a live play version of Rocky Horror Picture Show, though it’s has long since retired). But Ann Arbor is just a true town, true to its name, and has late nights and early afternoons.
great pictures :D
Where did you get magnificent dress! I must have it! Please don’t tell me you thrifted it somewhere. I WANT ONE!
Oooh those potions looks awesome! The bottle itself is fantastic!
As for cool towns: If you’re up for a drive across the continent, there’s a place called Barkerville. It’s in central British Columba. It’s an old cowboy-gold-rush-saloon kind of place and it’s AWESOME! All the buildings are historic and feature authentic displays from an era gone by. I reccommend it highly.
I had a little bank just like that pink one as a child. Mine however was not pink but red. It would only open when it reached 10$. After that I would usually make my my take me to buy a new Barbie, awww yeah, good times. I love your hat, it’s gorgeous.
My favorite quirky town in Michigan is definitely Royal Oak. It’s quite historical in Oakland County and it’s one of the best places to shop in the Metro-Detroit area. It also houses part of the Detroit Zoo. Although Metro-Detroit is all an urban mass, every little city and township has its little quirks.
Nice post :)
I’m glad you had a fabulous time. I always like introducing people to new and unique things, and Bethlehem is just a small national treasure
Let me know if you ever want to come up and visit again. I’m actually going to see if I can try and work at the Ostara Magick shop I don’t know how they hire people but it’s worth a try
And for those who are reading the comments, the cobblestone building in the left picture up top is the Music Department of Moravian College which is situated right in the city and where I go to school. :)
I don’t know if you’ve ever answered this question, but what shampoo/conditioner do you use for your hair? It looks very healthy. I’ve been trying to research good shampoos and have concluded that the best types for your hair are shampoos without sulfates (like sodium lauryl sulfate). Are there any shampoos or conditioners that you would recommend to other people?
Also, I’ve read things about people who don’t shampoo their hair and instead wash their hair with baking soda and then with apple cider vinegar after the baking soda is rinsed out. Have you ever tried that?
So that’s a bunch of different questions in one, hahaha.
And by the way, you really do look great with longer hair.
Ladybug truffles??? ME WANTS! XDDD Hahahaha
If you ever come to Brazil, you MUST visit Gramado, on the south part of the country!
If you want, I can send you some pictures by e-mail!
Bethlehem sounds lovely! I hope I’ll able to visit it too, someday! *-*
York, England is amazing if you ever get to go.
Also, you are seriously gorgeous. I can’t get over it.
Oh,I just love that hat! You look great!
Little quirky pagan shops and vintage stores are sweet, I mean, you almost always find something you want in there.
I went to this town in *nowhereland* in Victoria, Australia called Bendigo. It’s famous for the gold rushes, or something. Anyway, I found this totally fantastic gallery/shop there, they had lots of cool handmade jewellery and bags, expensive tshirts etc.
Really not what I was expecting to find there!
They also had a fashion exhibit about the “New Look” so there was tons of Vintage Dior and the like on display! It was just heaven!
Atlanta, GA has a sweet neighborhood (of which I am only 2 blocks away from) called Little 5 Points. That neighborhood is a melting pot of awesome. Punks and goths and feminists and wide-eyed people, thrown in with some great food (places like Savage Pizza, the Vortex, and Planet Bombay) some good music, and amazing shops that have held their ground against yuppification. It’s an amazing neighborhood, and I hope you get a chance to come look around. My favourite shops up there are Crystal Blue (they sell crystals and incense and so on) Junkman’s Daughter (like Spencers, only with a more focused sense of humor and they’ve got neat clothing) and Accapella Books. Every year, on the last weekend of April, there’s a big festival 2 blocks over from there in an area called Inman Park, and that’s always a blast.
How gorgeous! I love going to historic looking cities. I was in St Andrews, Scotland last week and it’s similarly beautiful, quite like the first picture.
All these towns you mencioned sound great! (yes, I read all of your comments!) But my favourite town is for sure somewhere you’ve never been on!
My favourite town is called Punta del Diablo (which would mean something like The Devil’s Bay), and it is in Maldonado, Uruguay. It is where the Rio de la Plata (River Plate) and the Atlantic Ocean join, and it is very very small and mid-century village like. You see people walking around with laundry on their heads and carrying baskets with fruit and vegetables. It has some AMAZING beaches and beautiful houses, most of them abandoned or just falling down… Though now it’s getting kind of over populated on the summer u.u
Hello! thank you for sharing your day with us! you’re looking very good, as usual! and I love that blue dress! blue is my fave colour! And love your hair! Did you buy the truffles? woahhh!!! :) I love a place 1 hour away from where I live, in the North of Spain, my parents have a second house there, it’s called Noja and it has 2 wonderful and really pretty beaches (some pics at the end of the post: http://demodaymas.blogspot.com/2009/04/ay-que-calor-mama.html), it’s not the South of Spain where it gets absolutely hot in the summer, but the North where you can see a mixture of sun and flowers and it’s not so extremely hot in summer, I absolutely love it, the sea is huge there :) If you ever come to Spain, you must visit the South and the North because they’re quite different and both great, hehe! ;) Have a nice day! greetings.
Immediately when your page loaded i saw the title of this article and thought, “no way.” Then i recognized that old stone building and burst out laughing. I am from Bethlehem, born and raised, and only last August did i move out for the first time. (I’m 18 and going to school in Philly.) I loved reading your view of it because to me everything you mentioned is a bit of the “same old, same old.” Bethlehem is potentially the most droll place to live.
You should consider visiting again in August for Musicfest, a huge celebration of music, food, drinks and good company. It’s always a good time.
You will never know how weird it was to visit your blog like I do every day and see Bethlehem, My boyfriend lives there and I’ve been going to visit since I was 12! I loved this post, it made me feel at home.
you and Mark should go back for Musikfest for a night or something, it can be really fun
:]
Oh wow, I had a dream last night that you lived up the street, and you wore that dress! Creepy.
I do believe that pink contraption is an old style cash register.
ie: http://images.google.com.au/images?hl=en&q=old+cash+register&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=8jX6SamLMuKPmAf3tNXWBA&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title
Actually, I suspect it’s probably a money-box made to look like an old-style cash register (since I don’t think they usually came in hot pink!)
I was in Bethlehem, PA a couple of times, very nice town! Great pictures, your dress is beautiful. My favorite quaint little towns are New Hope, PA (Peddler’s Village and the area just over the bridge across from Jersey) – just a beautiful magical place – and Solvang, CA is a “Dutch” town, fantastic place with an ostrich and emu farm nearby…
Doe, you look absolutely divine in that dress and hat! And the town is so cute…I wanna live there!
x
My favourite ‘quirky’ city is Prague, Czech Republic. It was so beautiful and laid-back and sunny and had a real personality that London didn’t in most places. It reminded me of a place that was collaged together, all different colours and textures, hills and the boats on the river. It was lovely.
Also, what a charming little hat!
super cute! <3
The pink apparatus looks like a piggy bank that counts the money for you. You know, it keeps track of how much is inside. :)
And I adore your hat. *want!*
I am absolutely in love with those ladybug truffles! I would go all the way over there from Oregon just for those, haha. You look lovely, as always. :)
I love your hat and dress! Blue is my favorite color, and I must say it looks lovely on you!
Are those vintage finds?
xenia
can you be my stylist?
this outfit is so perfectly
put together!
so so pretty
Is it a cash register? Change dispenser? Not sure….
And I am so in love with those ladybug truffles.
my parents grew up in vermont, and own a house up there in the town of St Johnsbury. It’s amazing!
I love the hat and the dress. you look so ethereal and lovely.
uuh pagan shops =D must-visit!
i actually live 45 minutes away from Bethelhem…it would have been so rad if i had run into you had i gone there that particular day hahaha XD
I LOVEEE Bethelhem (they have the cutest cafes). i’m planning on going to the college there Moravian College. ^^ woot
Lovely photos! You look great :)