Yesterday, Vern and I decided to take a day away...we both really needed a break and since we work from home, we have to leave or we end up getting immersed in work. We decided to take a day trip to Globe, a mining town about 75 miles east of us. We have driven through Globe countless times on our way to the White Mountains but other than a Saturday a long time ago, we never took the time to stop and explore the area.
Globe is an enigma...and the definition of enigma that fits this town is "a person or place of puzzling or contradictory character". And, contradictory it most certainly is. Because Globe depends upon mining for its well being, and because mining is so often touch and go, it's usually a boom or bust kind of environment. While signs of prosperity are there, it's the prosperity of a past era. For example, there's a hair and nail place that is housed in the most amazing building that looks like old Europe...high ceilings, grand architectural details, tall windows...and there are only a few stations and a couple of people inside. There are huge homes on one hill and tiny cottages on another hill just a few streets over. There are amazing buildings...empty and for sale...that would be perfect for funky restaurants, yet there are lots of empty tables in existing restaurants. We had a great day exploring, observing and taking pictures of things that captured our attention. One of the things that we wanted to do was to check out various antique stores. I've live in Arizona for a long time without knowing that antique stores were one of Globe's calling cards...how'd I miss that?
Anyway, one of our first serendipitous finds came after climbing to the top of a hill looking for a place to turn the truck around. We had been looking for a restaurant where we'd eaten many years ago and after scanning both sides of the street decided we needed to turn around and check it out again...just in case we missed it. Well, we didn't, but instead we found this awesome place:
It's funny how sometimes there are a series of unrelated things that happen that, down the road, end up being totally related to each other. Finding this building was one of those things. It started with me reading this post on Sally Jean's blog about old schoolhouses...then, a couple of weeks later, Vern sends me a link to an old schoolhouse converted to a B&B (in Globe)...ahhhh, can you see where I'm headed with this? Yep, right at the top of the hill was the old schoolhouse converted to a B&B, the Noftsger Hill Inn. It's an amazing place...check out the bedrooms on their site. We had thought about spending the night there this weekend but there's no air conditioning...and a B&B without A/C in August in Arizona is not an option for us...not at all! We were tickled to find this place and plan to stay there in the fall when things cool down. Can't wait!
After breakfast, we walked over to a couple of antique stores...this one, called "Past Times Antiques" was really cool. If we were in the market for a funky desk, we would have brought home an uber old (late 1800's) walnut desk...it was in great condition, funky and totally usable. But, alas, (sigh inserted here) we are totally out of room for any more furniture...woe is us! Here's another enigma...many of the antiques in these stores are of very fine quality...I'm more accustomed to looking for vintage pieces and collectables such as bags or jars of buttons, old lace, tablecloths, etc. Instead, much of the inventory was furniture, fine glassware or crystal, good quality rhinestone jewelry (translate: too nice and too expensive) to pull apart and reuse in another way. I did end up with 3 pairs of women's white gloves, all in their original packaging and never used. Two of the pairs were $2.00 each and the third pair (gorgeous white leather) was $3.00. That's my kind of buy!
We are always tickled when we find an excellent "mom and pop" coffee shop and this one fit the bill. Love its name- "vida e caffe"...translated from Italian means "life and coffee". We had great iced lattes and biscotti...yum!
On our way home, we stopped in Miami, another mining community that is most certainly an enigma. Check out this amazing building with the rusted iron window gates and awning. Love it!
Here's my favorite guy outside that building...going to places like this with him is so much fun...he enjoys the details, the history and the contrasts as much as I do. Plus, he doesn't mind when I go treasure hunting...and I try not to take advantage of that and keep the hunting to stores that look like they might be promising.
Love the signage on this funky shop. In fact, I love fun signs and here are a few for you.
The last pic is the entry to the Miami Rose Vintage Shoppe (from which I could have filled the back of the truck with amazing finds). I ended up with a fabulous 8 pound flat iron...can you even imagine ironing with an 8 pound piece of metal? No wonder those women didn't need to go to the gym...just pull out the old ironing board and iron and you've got yourself a workout! If you're looking for enamelware from Europe, they just got in some gorgeous tubs and containers. You know that gray color that's so popular right now? They had lots of them...and, of course, I could have taken home quite a few!
Hope you enjoyed the little tour and the enigma that is Globe (and Miami)! Happy Sunday!
