Hi Everybody,
To my American and Canadian viewers, I hope you had a wonderful 4th of July and Canada Day earlier this month! Last year, my husband and I traveled to Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario, Canada for our dating anniversary. Neither of us had been to those places before, but we had a great time. And of course, we went to two book-related businesses, which I can’t wait to show you. All of the photos used were the ones I took and can be seen at the bottom of this page.
Our day trip began in Port Huron – the largest city in The Thumb area in Michigan. It’s also best known as the place where a young Thomas Edison worked for the Grand Trunk Railway Depot. We had lunch at Pompeii’s Pizzeria and Italian Eatery in the downtown area. One of my co-workers at the library I work at recommended the place. The cheesy bread and pizza were delicious!
Afterwards, we ventured further into Downtown Port Huron to go to Raven Cafe. According to its website, it’s “an Edgar Allan Poe-inspired restaurant in a Civil War-era building.”
They serve a variety of food and beverages (especially their coffee shakes), but what makes them stand out is that they allow customers to pull books of a shelf and read while they wait or consume. You can’t buy them, yet what you can do is purchase a bookmark, so if you return, you can pick up where you left off. While I was waiting for my Lavender Vanilla coffee shake, I tried finding an Edgar Allan Poe novel to no avail. However, I did come across a Doctor Who book that I looked at while I was at Raven Cafe.
In addition, I love the cafe’s atmosphere. It was quirky and inclusive with its Halloween-like decor (even though we were there in May), rustic and antique furniture, local art, and Pride flags. From what I’ve heard from regular customers, this is intentional as the owners wanted it to be a safe place for everyone, especially for the marginalized. They certainly did a great job with that. During my time, I felt cozy and relaxed, and I can’t wait to go back. Along with their website, you can check out Raven Cafe on Instagram.
After the Raven Cafe, we drove across the Blue Water Bridge to visit Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. For those who’ve read my Literary Travels as of late, this is the first place in that country that we have visited outside of Windsor. There was a local bookstore I wanted to check out called the Houde (pronounced Hood) Family Books.
Houde Family Books is Sarnia’s largest used bookshop and has been around since 2015. It’s a very cozy place where books, vinyls, and trinkets are sold at very low prices. The novels were organized neatly with chalkboard signs indicating which genres it had. Moreover, it houses a greenhouse, where customers can sit, read, and/or watch the plants grow. If you look closely enough, you can find various characters in the plants.
We also met one of its owners Robin Houde. Yes, that is his name, and he was a pretty cool guy. He was chill and able to answer the questions I had.
Some parts of the bookstore were closed off or were in disarray because at the time, they were about to remodel the place. As of now, they are temporarily closed because of construction, but I hope they open up soon. They had a great variety of titles.
Like with other bookstores I’ve been at, I bought some books. They were One Hundred Over 100 by Jim Heynen and Lady in Waiting: A Tale of Transition by Jennifer Marige Hodgetts. I also finally found the only Edgar Allan Poe novel he wrote called The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (I reviewed it back in September).
Houde Family Books is another quirky and inclusive place that I would definitely recommend visiting once they open up again. In the meantime, you can check out them out on Facebook and Instagram.
And that concludes the eleventh installment of “Literary Travel!” I hope all of you had a great time on this trip. My next ones are going to focus solely on the Mitten State.
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Book Reviews by a Chick Who Reads Everything 