Tag: shopping

Vance’s Tropical Fish and Exotics – Bucksport Maine

WE DID IT! I’ve officially gone to over 500 destinations for Catching Marbles and I decided to make Vance’s Tropical Fish the 500th entry because it epitomizes so much of what I am looking for when I am out exploring – independent businesses, weird places and things, and lovely people. This one also had the added benefit of some very beautiful and lively fish!

I had gone to Maine for a week with my travel companion and we went all sorts of places but I wanted to make sure I went to Vance’s because I’d heard from locals I needed to check for YEARS and I just never made it. Plus, I may have been in the market for a good betta. This place was a trip! As with any fish store I didn’t know what I was getting into. Perhaps naively I thought this was an actual streetside shop in town because Bucksport is very touristy but no… this place was up a long dirt driveway that clearly ended at someone’s house. Only after getting that far did we see the big sign. This was clearly a project of passion.

We drove up a few minutes before it opened and had to wait for someone to come out and unlock the place. When I walked in I found it was small but full of charm and character. I was also surprised to see that this wasn’t just a tropical fish store – that it also had an assortment of marine fish and corals. All the tanks were crystal clear with fully colored healthy looking fish swimming around real plants and corals. In fact when I asked about the bettas he said he’d gotten six in that morning but he forgot where he put them – they were all scattered among the community tanks. I had fun playing Find the Bettas for a few minutes while my travel companion stared into the mudskipper enclosure. Neither one of us had ever seen mudskippers before! They were surprisingly big! And active! And for some reason gave me the impression they looked like they should be barking (they weren’t and probably can’t. This is just my weird mind acting up.)

I managed to locate most of the bettas and they were pretty standard fair and mostly blue. But the first one I found had HUGE yellow fins and I ended up taking him home. He was so lively even with those outrageous fins. I bought him for a crazy reasonable price of $12.99 and named him Uncle Henry. If you’re from Maine you’ll get the joke. He colored up BEAUTIFULLY when I finally got him home almost a week later – having spent the interim in a Mason jar. I do apologize for my poor planning, but he eats like a bear and is doing great so this short stint in a tiny glass prison didn’t seem to harm him.

The rest of the tropical fish were pretty standard but man were they bright and active. Real quality and health here! The cherry barbs were the reddest I have ever seen and I’ve been to quite a few of these stores. And of course, I was enthralled by the mudskippers and a few marine fish I’d never seen before either. The shop had a corner that was decorated in Hawiian motif and had some instruments out. Another room read “arcade closed” and had a number of quite decent arcade machines. These were just the cherry on top of the cake, the things that made this place so delightfully weird and the shop keep was wonderfully friendly and helpful. All and all it was a great visit and I’m definitely coming back. Last photo is of Henry at home in my tank – which yes, has snails (they’re just a happy bonus for me – not sure why people get so upset about their existence.)

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Lucky’s Aquarium – Worcester Massachusetts

I’ve been meaning to check out Lucky’s for quite a while now as so many people seem to love this place. I knew however, that going to a well loved fish store might be a bit detrimental to my wallet. *sigh*

ANYWAY, as I drove up I discovered it’s in a warehouse dock. Certainly not what I was expecting but I’ve been to a lot of super sketchy aquariums and pet stores in the past so why not? There was a sign saying Lucky’s Aquarium, clearly handmade though almost hidden. I was alone today so I sent a quick text just to make sure if I ended up toppling into a serial killers lair someone would know…

As I walked in there was some aquariums and equipment in a hallway, still not giving me the best vibes until I saw one display tank with some very fat and happy looking newts. And beyond them there was an actual fish store! It was small but well maintained.

There was a counter full of probably 30 or 40 bettas of all kinds and sexes. And they all seemed healthy, a few of the females were even a bit on the chonky side. I found a GORGEOUS male, almost all orange, but for $45 he had the wrong tail type for my little breeding colony. To be fair the prices were anywhere between $7.50 and $65 per betta. It was the best selection I’ve seen at a petstore so far.

By now I was looking around and seeing a number of exotic large fish including two tanks of stingrays, some dinosaur fish, a selection of large fresh water puffers, a lung fish, and a fairly sizable arrowana.

I knew this place was popular and they seemed pretty sold out of most things on this day but they did have a nice selection of live plants and the small fish they did have were all super decently priced which is how I came home with a $4 plant and two almost adult hillstream loaches for $19 each!

This place is deffinately well worth a looksey if you’re in the area and wanting some healthy fish. Although they did have some tanks and supplies this place was mostly just live fish – catering to a crowd who already is in the aquarium game.

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Rusty Relic Country Store – Mystic Connecticut

Good news! I managed to post one entry of Catching Marbles for every day of October!!! Granted to reach this goal I did cheat a bit, did a few underwhelming entries and some backlogged stuff, but when you have a crazy migraine for days straight, I don’t think anyone’s going to complain. I pushed HARD to complete this goal and since my body hates me for it, I probably won’t be doing it again, but I have decided the boost in traffic was worth at least trying to post more when I could. (My new goal is to hit 500 destinations before the end of the year!)

Because of the aforementioned migraine I was unable to go out and do something spooky for Halloween. I was barely able to pass out candy to the 12 kids who showed up. So tonight, will be another backlogged entry about a cool new shop at the Olde Mystic Village – The Rustic Relic Country Store. It’s a small and pretty typical country store but very cute, very country chic, very warm. I think it provided a nice compliment to the rest of the village and fit right in. I think this would be a great place to do some Christmas shopping for the people in your life who love this rural aesthetic.

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J P Doyles Pub – Tarrytown New York

After a long day of walking through the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery we decided it was probably a good idea to find something to eat before heading the 3+ hours home. At first we had a hard time figuring out where to go as it seemed most eateries in this area were swank and out of our price range but then we came across this little pub in town and we were not disappointed!

It was as small place, dimly lit as a pub should be, and the staff were exceptionally sweet. The menu was very small and simple (which is GREAT if you’re one of those people who have a hard time making decisions!) We decided to try their spinach dip first and it was sooo good I ate way too much! I had ordered the grilled chicken sandwich and my partner in crime was intrigued by the Horseman Burger which read, “As seen on Man v. Food!”

That had to have been the best grilled chicken sandwich I’ve ever had at an establishment like this. It melted in my mouth and popped with the flavor of red peppers and soft brioche bread. Sadly, I ate literally three bites before I couldn’t eat anymore. The waitress came by and asked if something was wrong with it and I emphatically said no, that I’d just filled up on the spinach dip before giving her a big smile. She started to laugh, patted me on the shoulder and brought out of a box. Little was I to know that in that big smile was a piece of spinach the size of Kentucky. She knows I wasn’t lying!! Meanwhile the burger was indeed big (10 oz) but was pretty standard fare for a pub – which isn’t bad but that grilled chicken sandwich was way better!

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Endless Treasures – Jaffrey New Hampshire

Its funny when you finally notice the things you have passed by dozens of times. Endless Treasures was deffinately that but to be fair I dont think its been there for that long.

This place was an absolute trip. The sign out front reads, “Group Shop – Consignment – Vintage – Collectibles – Antiques – Thrift Items.” And it didn’t lie! Never have I seen a shop so uncertain of what it actually was. Was it an antique store? An artist friendly market? A thrift store? ALL OF THE ABOVE!

And because it was having such an intense identity crisis it was an adventure walking through the isles. I must say there was a surprising amount of nice furniture for exceptionally decent prices. Mixed in with these were genuine antiques like a series of old wooden canary cages whose labels read bafflingly, “European bird house.” And then there was an assortment of bizarre DIY folk art and retro Halloween decorations dotting several of the vendor booths.

And then I found the weirdest thing to take home. It was so funny I took a video.

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1810 House B&B and Antiques – Wolfboro New Hampshire

Main street antique stores with well-arranged display cases are fun but as for myself I prefer the quirkier establishments – basement antiques, mill antiques, and of course barn antiques. Much to my delight this store was in a barn out back of a cute little B&B. It was so quintessentially White Mountain-y.

And for being a barn it was WELL ventilated and cool. We saw all sorts of antiques, most of which were clearly linked to the local area. Ancient toys, old farming tools, a couple accordions, even a wooden opium pillow. What wasn’t to love? It was halfway like shopping and halfway like visiting a roadside country museum. I loved every bit of this place from its rustic inventory, to the chickens out back, to the cute little inn next door. It was the perfect way to end our journey into the white mountains and if you’re in the area go check it out! It’s a lot of fun!

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Rockin’ Thru the Ages Antiques and Collectibles – East Laconia New Hampshire

We were having such a great day we weren’t ready to go home just yet so we looked up another antique store and found the Rockin’ Thru the Ages Antiques which was… an absolute riot. LOVED this place! It was the only antique store I’ve ever been to that had mini golf course out the back door. And inside? A rock wall. Clearly this place used to be something else but now it was an antique store I was loving how quirky it was.

This place was after my heart when right at the entrance there was two ventriloquist dummies sitting on the floor, slack-jawed, just gawking at people coming in. One was a Howdy Doody and the other was the same dummy I keep finding and not being able to buy. He was fully intact and only $35 and obviously almost came home with me. Only reason he didn’t was because he ended up being a pull string doll instead of a proper ventriloquist dummy. SIGH. SO CLOSE.

The main floor of this place was nice, spacious, good variety of things. My companion was a little weirded out by the display case of Nazi medals at the back. I was more freaked out by the wrought iron handcuffs that had a little label stating they were from a prison back in the day. Clearly an otherwise bright and happy store had this weird corner of human depravity. We shuffled off.

Downstairs was more fun because it was the epitome of basement antiques. SO MANY CLOWNS. And they were all hobos. Why? NO IDEA. I was already working through my own hobo related trauma after learning Candy Mountain, that sweet, adorable children’s song, actually had several lyrics that were censored from the final cut. Basically, it was narrated by a runaway boy telling a hobo pedophile to fuck off. And that’s what I was thinking about when I saw the hobo clowns. Adding clown make-up to the mix did not help.

All kidding aside this place had some weird things including a leather wine holder in the shape of a rooster. And the prices were unbeatable. I found an antique ceramic Jack-O-Lantern and brought him home for $5.

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Defiant Records and Craft Beer – Laconia New Hampshire

You find the weirdest things when you’re not looking for anything in particular. I remember reading something that was basically a whole belief system based on the power of going on daily walks. And you know what? As kooky as it sounds I’m not going to disbelieve there isn’t some whimsical hand of chaos at play here.

A great example of this was Defiant Records and Craft Beer. I am a teetotaler. I do not go to bars. But on this day we were walking down the street exploring and on the look out for a bathroom. We thought this establishment might be obliging to such a thing and they were! ‘Course there was only one stall so as I waited for my companion I was left to look around and this place… it was nice! A sweet little hipster bar in the middle of Laconia selling used records in the back for five bucks a pop. How cute is that?? Also loved the bloody Jason mannikin at the entrance.

I don’t know man, if I were into alcohol or looking to cruise for a date in the area this might be a fun little stop.

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New Hampshire Vintage Vinyl – Laconia New Hampshire

After spending a delightful afternoon in the Laconia Antique Center we decided to continue the day by taking a stroll down the street to see what Laconia had to offer. It’s always a fun way to get to know the personality of a town. So, with nothing in mind we ambled aimlessly and found a sweet little record shop.

I love going into these places. They’re usually super small, cramped, dark little dungeons full of old records in milk crates. This place… it was quite a bit more modern. It was well lit with an open-air feel. Records were scattered in various parts of the shop but the rest had musical instruments, supplies, CDs, and other media. It was like a tiny musical Woolworths. With interesting decorating style as the walls were plastered with music posters and similar imagery.

I don’t know if this place takes part in Record Store Day but it should. It’d be a nice stop!

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Innisfree Bookshop Laconia New Hampshire

The last few independent bookstores we wandered into were… underwhelming. I think they were going out of business. So, it was refreshing to find a little bookstore that actually seemed to be doing well. This was an adorable little main street bookshop. It wasn’t big but the variety was nice. They even had a small game section, some plushies, and children’s room out back but I was too distracted by the local history section. What a selection! This place knew I was coming!

I ended up with THREE local history books relating to the cemeteries, folklore, and fantastic events. I felt that they might be great inspiration for further travel adventures. And we shall see! I had to leave after finding three books because if I didn’t, I would have bought that whole shelf.

The woman at the counter was very sweet and gave me a cool extra sturdy bag because I said I was just travelling through and walking through the streets finding different shops. It was great because we weren’t anywhere near the car anymore and it held all my books with ease. I think I’ll be stopping in here again in the future to paw through the local history section again. Never have I seen such a great selection!

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