Playing Hooky In Exeter

There's nothing more enjoyable than taking a Ferris Bueller Day off from work and spending it in a cool New England town. Actually, I did not have to feign sickness. I had a scheduled vacation day.

My sister was on vacation from school and my friend Karen also took a vacation day. We met at Karen's new condominium which is absolutely gorgeous and we headed to Downtown Exeter.

I, of course, needed coffee right away. I didn't have any coffee or breakfast before I left the house so we stopped at Ollie's for refreshment. They sell coffees and teas and breakfast and lunch items. They had toast on the menu. 2 slices of nice thick buttery hot cinnamon toast! I was in heaven, I split an order with my sister. It was as good as I had hoped it would be.

With full bellies, we walked around the downtown area. We stopped at Reminisce, one of my favorite shops on Water Street.  A bit of silliness ensued as we tried on hats. The shop owner demonstrated how this hat should be worn.

My sister preferred the red velvet with the black tuelle which resembled a veil.

Isn't this a cool way to display your jewelry? Just use suction cups to hang necklaces.

The storefront at Reminsce featured vintage dresses. The shop owner had lots of stories about her vintage clothes.

Don't you love wreaths made from sheet music? I'll take this mirror too.

Reminisce is a must see on your tour of downtown Exeter. We enjoyed our visit.

No trip to Exeter is complete without a stop at Art'NTiques and a visit with Charlie. Charlie is the owner of the shop's adorable rescue dog. I think he remembered me from my last visit. I called out, "Charlie".

And he came right to me. He must be saying to himself this is the crazy cat lady who also likes dogs.

If you enjoy rummaging this is the place for you. Luckily, I do enjoy picking.

We walked around to a few more shops and then it was 2:00 and we hadn't eaten lunch yet. We chose Sugar & Ice because they had sweet and savory crepes.

The shop was adorable and there was a wonderful selection of coffees and ice creams.

We were deciding on dessert when Karen saw frozen hot chocolate on the menu. She quickly proclaimed that she needed it.

I opted for the German Iced Coffee. The shop owner explained what it was to me. 2 scoops of ice cream and coffee. I had a scoop of belgian chocolate and one scoop of coffee ice cream. This was absolutely delicious and I am so trying this at home!.

My sister didn't want anything fancy and she decided on strawberry fields ice cream.

Exeter is participating in the Communitree Project for charity. So many of the trees were artfully wrapped with knitted items. This one was my favorite.

We were so fortunate to have a sunny day with moderate temperatures for our "fun day". We vowed that this will not be our last fun day of the year.  Both Karen and my sister have birthdays ending in a zero this year so I think there should be many more fun days scheduled in the near future.