Portland, Texas is a small town next to Corpus Christi, and is also where Lone Star Pa works. On Thursday, we had some free time and decided to drive over the bridge and take a look around. I wanted to check out a bookstore I had heard about there and find some place unique to have lunch, a mini-adventure.
Books Ink is a small, used, half-priced bookstore of the crammed-up and crowded type, with meandering stacks in which one could find almost anything...in a word, heavenly. Obviously a place with excellent priorities, it squeezes in a small children's play area and coffee shop in the front and a tiny regional newspaper office in a back corner. Every available space is spilling over with books, including nooks that are stacked and covered with books that still need to be sorted. It was a great place. I chose three cool-looking finds after looking around while the Lone Star Baby played contentedly with toys and when I went to pay for them, the bookseller nodded in the Lone Star Baby's direction (the Lone Star Girl looks to be around 14, although she's just 11) and told me that kids get one free book every week. Wow! As the Lone Star Baby chose a picture book, the bookseller told me that they give kids 12 and under a free book every week and that kids who are older can bring in their report cards every grading period and get a free book if they showed imprvement since the last grading period. Wow! What cool folks! Books Ink was a wonderful find.
We didn't have much luck finding any cool cafes for lunch, but we found a unique place called Expresso.Com, which was pretty cool in other ways and had lunch there. It was an internet cafe with pretty bland fare but it was neat watching the gamers enjoy all its little gaming rooms and we got to eat on some comfortable couches in a relaxing atmosphere. It was a neat place.
Portland was a fun place for a mini-adventure. We'll have to go again.
1 comment:
What a dreamy bookstore!
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