Okay, so I promised some pictures of my trip to my cousin’s wedding in Bryn Athyn, PA. It was my first visit to the United States.

To my total lack of surprise, Western New York and Pennsylvania turned out to be just like Southern Ontario, except that the people have funny accents and cars can’t turn right on red. And the Mountain Dew has caffeine in it. Despite the many cautionary tales I’ve heard about hassles at the border, in about thirty seconds the guard had asked us about our trip, checked our ID, and waved us through (the Canadian guards are even more absurdly lax—they didn’t even want to see any ID.)

Bryn Athyn is simply gorgeous. We stayed in a big 18th-century house on the grounds of the Lord’s New Church, where the wedding took place.

The church grounds are beautiful, with lots of huge trees, and even a creek running by.

The Lord’s New Church’s administrative offices and social hall are houses in old stone buildings clustered around a cobblestone courtyard.

The wedding ceremony took place on the lawn outside the chapel, with the receiving line on another part of the lawn afterwards.

The real reception was in the afternoon, a kind of tea party which took place, thankfully, under a tent (Pennsylvania is really hot, and it was very sunny that afternoon.)

The bride and groom were sent off in a shower of rose petals.

All in all, a very moving and lovely wedding.

In between the ceremony and the reception, we had some time to kill, so we visited the Glencairn Museum. It’s quite an interesting place. Glencairn is a huge mansion (a castle, really) built by local millionaire Raymond Pitcairn for himself, his wife Mildred, and their nine children, between 1928 and 1939.

It’s as magnificent on the inside as it is on the outside, with mosaics and beautifully-carved wood everywhere.

The tower is especially interesting. It gives a glorious view of the surrounding countryside, including Bryn Athyn Cathedral, which was started by John Pitcairn and finished by his son Raymond after he died.

When Raymond was alive, he could use the iron staircase on the tower to mount to a personal elevator, which would take him up into the very top of the tower roof.

That part of the roof could then be raised on hydraulic lifts, as shown in a very old photograph displayed in the tower.

You can actually see the seam in the tower roof from the outside, right up near the top.

Raymond Pitcairn was a devout member of the New Church, and so his home included a private family chapel. (He also built the family bedrooms so that they all had windows facing the Cathedral, so that his children would see it every morning and every night.)

The house became a museum when the Pitcairn children gave it to the Academy of the New Church after their mother’s death in 1979. Since I didn’t know much about the place before we visited, I was surprised at the professional quality of the museum areas.

The most spectacular room was, without a doubt, the Great Hall, which looks more like the inside of a cathedral than the living space of a private home.

I fully recommend taking a tour of the place if you’re ever near Philadelphia.

On Friday, the day after the wedding, we went to the Bryn Athyn thrift store, housed in an old barn.

I bought an interesting teapot and five books:

• Slayer of Gods » Lynda S. Robinson: Sixth in a series of mysteries set in Ancient Egypt; I own the first five.)
• Memoirs of a Geisha » Arthur Golden: which I love; I have another copy but it’s really beat up, and this one was like new.)
• Smilla’s Sense of Snow » Peter Hoeg: I have this in paperback but haven’t read it, but just in case I end up loving it, I couldn’t pass up a cheap hardcover copy.
• Confessions of a Parish Priest » Andrew M. Greeley: I really enjoy his Bishop Blackie mysteries, and I liked The Priestly Sins. I’m quite interested to read his autobiography.
• ?

Smilla’s Sense of Snow and Memoirs of a Geisha were $0.50. The other three were all $1.

Before we drove down to Pennsylvania, I stayed at my aunt’s house overnight, and she gave me a belated birthday present of two cookbooks:

• Seafood » Williams-Sonoma Collection: This is my favourite line of cookbooks. The books have lots of gorgeous pictures and delicious, easy-to-follow recipes.
• Most Loved Cookies » Company’s Coming: I wanted a cookie cookbook, and this one looks really good.

I had also ordered some books online from BookCloseouts.com and had them shipped to the store because it’s cheaper than having them shipped to my house:

• Wintersmith » Terry Pratchett: Read it and enjoyed it.
• The Lies of Locke Lamora » Scott Lynch: Superfast Reader recommended this. So far it looks good!
• Silverlock » John Myers Myers: I forget whose blog it was where I read about this.
• War for the Oaks » Emma Bull: Read it and loved it.
• The Good Women of China » Xinran: I’ve been coveting my roommate’s hardcover copy, since the trade paperback is quite hideous. Now I have one of my own! I love this book so much.
• Airborn » Kenneth Oppel: I don’t remember where I first heard about this, but it sounds really good.
• Cordelia Underwood » Van Reid: I loved this book, so I was glad to get an attractive hardcover copy at a good price.
• Mollie Peer » Van Reid: The sequel to Cordelia Underwood, and on my list for the 2nds Challenge, if I can wait until October to start it.
• Mrs. Roberto » Van Reid: Third in the Moosepath League series, which began with Cordelia Underwood.
• Little, Big » John Crowley: I’ve heard it’s excellent and a fantasy classic, although I don’t remember where. Gorgeous cover, though!

There were also quite a lot of BookMooches waiting for me when I got back:

• Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled » Dorothy Gilman
• Mrs. Pollifax on Safari » Dorothy Gilman
• The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax » Dorothy Gilman
• I Saw Ramallah » Mourid Barghouti
• Shadow of the Moon » M.M. Kaye
• The Namesake » Jhumpa Lahiri
• Darkly Dreaming Dexter » Jeff Lindsay

So it’s been a very good week, filled with family, books, and other good things.