florence

Day/Date: SATURDAY -4/20/24
Town visited: Northampton (City)
Had we ever been to this town before? Yes, several times
Drive to town: 98 miles Time spent in town: 10 hours

What did we do in the town/area?
Ahhhh, Northhampton—“Where the coffee is strong and so are the women.” We love that motto, and we always enjoy visiting this sweet city. Located in Hampshire County, Northampton is part of the Connecticut River Valley and the Pioneer Valley. With a population of about 30,000 residents, Northampton has been ranked the most politically liberal medium-size city (population 25,000–99,000) in the United States! It has a large LGBTQIA+ population as well.

This visit, we were so psyched to get to hang with our friends Peter & Jen (and their super sweet son), who live there. Peter led us on bikes to some great places. We started the day biking to the Sojourner Truth Memorial Statue on Pine St. in Florence (Florence and Leeds are villages of Northampton). Sojourner Truth was born an enslaved person who became a nationally known advocate for justice and equality between races and sexes during the 19th century after being freed. She lived in Northampton (Florence) between 1843 and 1857.

Then we headed over to the Florence Pie Bar, where there are some seriously delicious baked goods. Wow. Jenny, Peter, and the little one gobbled up some goodies, while Jo abstained due to the lack of non-dairy items!

Afterwards, we took the toddler back for his “nippy nap” and headed out along the bike path into downtown Northampton. We enjoyed some drinks (coffee, kombucha) at Iconica, a fascinatingly decorated cafe with a steampunk-like vibe. Jo enjoyed a yummy sandwich called the Berbere Grilled Chicken Wrap, which was excellent. _{(Berbere is an Ethiopian spice mix made up of red chili peppers, fenugreek, and ginger, with the addition of warm spices like coriander, cardamom, allspice, cumin, peppercorns, cloves, and cinnamon)}

We walked around downtown, taking pictures and noting many cool shops and restaurants. We also checked out all the music posters for the upcoming acts at the soon-to-reopen Iron Horse Music Hall. Peter is an awesome singer-songwriter (petermulvey.com), and we were reminiscing about seeing him play at the Iron Horse many moons ago. In fact, Jo introduced Jenny to Peter for the first time after his show at the Iron Horse in 1997.
While we didn’t get the chance to go, a friend of ours told us about an amazing yarn store in Northampton called Webs- America’s Yarn Store. Word is that it is vast and amazing and it’s been family owned for many years! (I’m sure we’ll be back for that adventure.)

On our bike ride back to Peter’s house, we were awed when we noticed a black bear eating skunk cabagge down the hill from the path. That was interesting! 🐻

When we parted with Peter and Jen, we decided to explore the beautiful Smith College campus. But first, we stopped at the State Street Fruit Store- a market, deli, and wine store, where we bought some YUP coffee (which is a local Northampton coffee roaster). We parked our car there and then, biked to the campus and walked peacefully along the perimeter of the beautiful Paradise Pond and the Mill River. There was a Japanese garden, an island with stunning trees and flowers, and a sweet vibe, as many students were out relaxing, enjoying the beautiful day.

On our way back to the car on our bikes, we bought some amazing fresh khorasan bread from the nearby Hungry Ghost Bread. We learned that khorasan is similar to wheat, but produces larger grains that are somewhat nutty. We ate this over the next few days and it was really delicious!

Next, we headed back to Florence near the Mill River. We stopped by YUP coffee roaster, located next to an old mill, right on the river. They used to have a cafe in this location, and the building has a nice porch and a free library outside. But, the cafe is no longer open and the building is now just used as a roaster and place to pick up beans that you order.

We then stopped by our friend, Dey’s house. She bought a home in Florence a few years ago and has been fixing it up ever since. The standout feature of the house is the wood – the wood flooring, wood trim, wooden tables, wooden shelves. She sourced most of the wood from a very large tree that needed to come down behind her house! It is really beautiful and we are glad that we stopped in to see her progress.

To nourish ourselves for the ride home, we had a relaxing and yummy dinner at Bela Vegetarian Restaurant, which really hit the spot after walking, biking, and exploring all day!

On our way out of town, we had to stop at the River Valley Co-op. This was like no co-op we had ever seen! Opened in 2008, the co-op was almost 20,000 square feet and carried almost everything you would need. It is located on Rte. 5 in the North part of town and is on the site of an old rock quarry. We loved their black bear mascot, as we had just seen one in town!

As we were leaving town, Jenny realized she couldn’t find her phone. So, we were trying to retrace out steps, when a woman called Jo’s phone from the Hungry Ghost Bakery and said that a few Smith students found her phone on the ground near the store and brought it in. Wow, how nice of them! This act of kindness put a smile on our faces as we left Northampton. We knew we really liked this town, but now we liked it even more!