Wordless Wednesday…Frosty

Thursday Doors…Naperville doors

We live in Naperville, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago.  Joseph Naper, with family and friends, arrived in July 1832, giving us a fairly long (for the US) history as well as a great place to live in the here and now.  Here are a few non-historic doors from my wanderings.

 

Finally!!

Family and chocolate

What are two of the best things in the world?  Family and chocolate!  Recently, our whole family got together, something we don’t get to do often due to distances and work schedules.  To gild the lily, we went to Le Chocolat du Bouchard, http://lechocolatdubouchard.com/, bastion of all things chocolate in Naperville.  What ensued was a chocolatey delicious time!

Edging closer to perfection, one bookstore at a time

Naperville, Illinois has edged one step closer to being the perfect place to live…it now has a Half Price Books store!!

I discovered it yesterday while zooming down I-59, a main-drag highway that sometimes masquerades as a parking lot, headed for veggie heaven at Caputo’s Fresh Market, where I sometimes wish I had a smart phone just to look up what some of those vegetables are and what they’re used for. I glanced to the left, then did the classic double-take. There it was. A Half Price Books sign. A joyous smile plastered itself to my face and on the way back, even though I didn’t have time to look, I made a quick stop, just for the joy of walking through the door, taking a page of coupons from a welcoming book-ista and skimming through the cookbook section. Another visit is on my list for this week.

It’s not that Naperville doesn’t have a bookstore; they have a wonderful, independent one, Anderson’s Bookshop, http://www.andersonsbookshop.com/, a beautiful bookstore offering all sorts of book-related activities and bringing an astounding number of authors to town. There’s also Frugal Muse, http://www.frugalmuse.com/, in Darien as well as two places in Madison, Wisconsin, although it’s a bit of a drive. Oh, yes, there’s also a two-story Barnes and Noble downtown, although the Borders is now gone. So there are bookstores; bookstores I patronize, even though I’m trying not to buy so many books. But I’m a bibliophile and despite Kindle’s storage and portability advantages, I still love books and buy them at least occasionally.

Naperville also has a vibrant downtown, a beautiful river walk, an excellent library system, name-brand stores in old, lovely buildings downtown, every store you can think of along I-59, a publishing company, Sourcebooks, Inc., http://www.sourcebooks.com/, (who wonderfully reprinted Georgette Heyers books–bless them!), Binny’s for all the beer/wine/alcohol you’d like at discount prices, some wonderful thrift stores and, as they say, a whole lot more. And now it has a Half Price Books. Just when you think life can’t get any better!

Now what about an artisan bakery? And maybe a vegan/vegetarian restaurant? And my last request (at least for now)….a non-frou-frou teashop. Hats off to TeaLula in Park Ridge,http://www.tealula.com/, for perfecting that concept! Oh, that you were here, too!!