Weekend Getaway Treasures Are the Best

(Oh, and I found my camera!)

This fall, BF and I took a weekend trip to Liverpool, NS to get away from the city for a couple days.  We'd been through the pretty little town before on our way home from another trip and it had captured our interest, so when we were deciding where to go this time around, Liverpool made the short list.  We stayed at the beautiful Lane's Privateer Inn:

http://www.lanesprivateerinn.com/

Here's the view from our room:

And the view from the backyard:

And:

So pretty and quiet and peaceful. Downstairs is a culinary shop, bookstore, cafe, pub and restaurant.  The food and service is really nice - for breakfast we had the most delicious maple sausage, made locally.  The book selection, though small and primarily cooking or food related is great; in fact, I got one of my favorite cookbooks of life there:

http://books.google.ca/books/about/Eat_Drink_Live.html?id=IxKuAAAACAAJ&redir_esc=y

The rest of the town itself is lovely as well, though not much was going on, at least the weekend we were there.  

While we wandered around we wondered if there might be any live music in town that night, and so when we happened past a shop in which a guy was sitting playing the ukulele, in we went.  The shop turned out to be ADJA Studio and Gallery, owned by husband and wife artists and NSCAD graduates, Julie Anne and Andrew Danylewich.  The gallery itself was lovely, full of local art as well as some from away; paintings, photography, jewelry, woodwork and so on.   

As we chatted with the uke player, owner and artist Andrew, I spotted a ring that I immediately fell in love with and had to take home.  

It was made by his wife, Julie Anne.  It's sterling silver and the coloured bits are enamel.  Andrew does some amazing work also, including the use of a technique called Mokume Gane (http://www.adjastudioandgallery.com/question2.html) that looks really beautiful:

Check out their site, and browse the other unique and interesting pieces they create and sell.  (http://www.adjastudioandgallery.com/index.html).

Don't you love when you're exploring a new town or city and you come across a little treasure?  A dusty old second hand bookstore filled with piles of rare art books, a wonderful cafe with the best made-from-scratch soup, a shop full of handmade trinkets and frocks, or, in this case, a lovely little gallery/studio.  It's my favorite thing about traveling around and the tiny town of Liverpool was no exception.  I can't wait for the next adventure!

What's your favorite random treasure discovery?