Smelling 100 Year Old Books!

I was totally going to do one of my ramblings today, I have finished several amazing books and can't wait to share my thoughts on them, but as with life, things change.  Instead I want to tell you about my weekend, one because it was AWESOME, and two I think it is important that it gets written down somewhere.  Don't worry there are books involved so it is still pretty much on topic.

My Aunt L, Cousin E, and Grandma K decided to make a last minute trip out to the East Coast to finish spreading my Aunt K's ashes in the Catskills.  They made a stop in Philadelphia and wondered if it would be possible for me and Hubbin to come up and stay for the weekend.  Life being that funny thing it is, astoundingly gave me a free weekend and adventuring we went. We arrived in the early afternoon and got to meet some family that I did not even know existed.  We went to this old rectory (it was built in the 1846) that my grandmother and her brother had lived in when her father was the rector there in the 40's-60's.  We also wandered the cemetery and the looked at the outside of the Church of St.James the Less as it is all

locked up tight. I have to say, all of this was pretty cool, all the old trees and stonework, grave stones that were hundreds of years old, the family history, all pretty neat.  We were just about ready to leave when L calls us over and this amazing young woman offers to let us into the rectory where K and her brother lived.  We of course jumped at the opportunity to actually experience this bit of personal history.  Turns out that after a 7 year vacancy the rectory and adjoining parish hall had been turned into St. James School, a middle school focused on getting under served kids the best start possible, totally and insanely wonderful.  They let us wander the rectory, peeking into every room, exploring the attic, stepping out to the balcony, and to top it all off, it turns out that this lovely woman taking the time to show us the place (who will now be referred to as A) actually sleeps in the same room K did.
So we were all pretty happy, we had gotten to see the place K and her brother had lived, learned it had been turned into a worthy school of awesomness, and gotten to poke around historically preserved buildings...but we were not done yet.  This lovely A decided she would hunt down a key to the church itself.  Enter F our other angel for this trip, he had a key and along with A let us into this amazing church.  Breath taking is the only word I can think of.  My Hubbin says every time he see's buildings that we are not allowed inside he would imagine what they would look like, and finally getting to go inside, it was exactly what he thought it would be. It was simply beautiful, full of stained glass windows, carvings, paintings, attention to detail that you don't see anymore.  It was all wonderfully preserved, clean and repaired.  Then they let us ring the big bells Quasimodo style, I felt like a happy little kid. This was all just crazy cool enough, but then E discovered a staircase, and really who can resist a staircase to somewhere new?  So up we went, where we discovered

the archives!  We spent the next 30 minutes happily breathing in the dust of books that were over 100 years old (no seriously we kept passing them back and forth saying "smell this!").  We also discovered a photo album with pictures inscribed with names and dates, and lo and behold there was a pic of my grandmother with her father, talk about instant personal connection!  Seriously A and F were so great through the whole thing, just as excited as we were, eager and willing to show us EVERYTHING!
Next day after chilling with some new found cousins we wandered around the Chestnut Hill area ogling the old stone houses (I now want an old haunted house for my birthday). We stumbled upon this great used book store that was in this little old school train station (totally sounds like something from a book right!?!)  It was jammed full of every type of book, plastic ensconced first edition Hans Christian Anderson next to a 1970's pulp detective novel, so cool!  After spending a bit of cash there (unfortunately not the first editions, boo) we wandered back to the house right before a massive rain storm hit, turning the outside into a delicious smelling, soothing sound of happiness.  We rehashed what a great trip it had been and then sadly headed home.

Thanks for letting me get this all down in writing.  It is important to me personally for several reasons, one being this may be the last trip K remembers as Alzheimer's as started to take a toll.  To have all of this come together in such a short spontaneous time really reminds me why sometimes you have to not over plan, or worry about all the craziness and just let your self have adventures, because who knows you to may be able to ring the big bells and smell 100 year old books!