Shepherdstown, WV--put it on your bucket list!

My spunky, petite, curly haired, red headed cousin graduated from Shepherd University, (formerly Shepherd College), last Saturday.  I was thrilled for her.  Especially since she was bound for a 2 week trek through Europe a few days later.  Graduation day is just so exciting. 

And, Shepherdstown, WV is a special place.  My family fell in love with it almost 20 years ago when my sister also attended Shepherd.  I've watched it change over the years...it has always been an artsy town but even more so now.  There are new restaurants and sprinkles of swanky stores.  But still has the same historic charm through and through.  The Yellow Brick Bank, which was once the big restaurant has some competition now with The Press Room,  The Blue Moon Cafe  (which is where we ate on graduation day...very good!) but Betty's still remains and I hope always will.  Who doesn't love an 800 square foot good ole' diner with tin roof and fixed bar stools?  Oh, and The Mecklenburg Inn, otherwise known as The Meck!   There has to be 1 day each Summer you take an afternoon, sit on their huge benches and enjoy a beer in their quaint back garden.  After all, it was voted one of the 100 Best Bars in America by Esquire Magazine.

The Shepherdstown Public Library is a must see!  It is a historic landmark and it is so small you would hardly know it is a library just walking by.  And just behind the library is the local farmer's market which is open on Sundays beginning in April from 9-1 all the way through December.

A few years ago my spunky cousin rented a house in town with a few friends for the school year.  The funny thing is the house was once a church in the 1800's.  A HUGE church!  It was the weirdest, coolest, spookiest most fun place ever you could imagine for a bunch of college kids to live in.  She had to move her Senior year once she realized how expensive the heating bills were.  Regardless, when she gets back from Europe she plans on staying in this fabulous place she has begun to know as home.  I can't blame her,  it is simply a wonderful town.

And I plan on visiting her often. 

photo credit:   http://www.shepherdstownvisitorscenter.com