Anyway, here's the short fast last entry about our vacation, which ended more than a month ago. It's mostly pictures so if you made it through the first part of the blog, you're almost at the finish line. If this makes no sense, blame it on the varathane.
This is me at Living History Farms modelling my new Carhartt shorts - they happen to have a pocket which is exactly the right size for a teeny digital camera which I got for my birthday. This was really handy at the State Fair, too.
In the morning before we left for the Living History Farms we moved from the room with the ginormous clock to this attic room (called "The Retreat") in preparation for our joyous reunion with cousin Megan. We were all regretful that we didn't have a longer stay.
After the joyous reunion, which started with Megan popping up from behind a big bunch of ornamental grasses as we pulled into the B&B parking lot, we headed up to The Retreat, got settled, talked about our mothers, and then hopped into Megan's convertible and drove downtown to a nice fancy bistro. Here's us at the first course: Megan and I shared a cheese flight (when did they stop calling them cheese boards?) and Sara had oysters. I wish I could remember every detail of the meal, but I know it was pretty darned good. Megan had the pasta special, which involved chicken, I had salmon, and Sara had steak, of course. For some reason, Megan had lemon ice for dessert, I had a real dessert (pot de creme au chocolate), and Sara had creme caramel. Somehow we didn't explode and made it back to The Retreat for more talking before bed.
Alas. The vacation was now winding up. The next morning, we said goodbye to Megan and started east. Mid-morning, we were forced to stop at an Iowa institution: Maid-Rite.
A Maid-Rite is basically a loose-meat hamburger, kind of a sloppy joe without all the slop. It was quite delicious and tided us over until we found a Cracker Barrel for a late lunch.
There is no photographic record for our vacation past this point. We stayed overnight in Kalamazoo and the next morning headed home, stopping in Ann Arbor for lunch at Zingerman's Deli. "How will we pay for this?" Sara wondered. "No problem," I replied. "I have $20 here - that should be enough for a couple of sandwiches." Ha ha. Zingerman's sandwich menu, for which people line up around the block (a bevy of "older women" who got in line just ahead of us told us that they would have used force if we had attempted to get there first), comprises approximately 500 different variations of corned beef on rye and has nothing on it for less than $12. This after spending time in a part of the country where you can get a meal big enough to feed a family of 4 for several days for $10 or less. We weren't in Iowa anymore, and in fact in a few hours we were home in Toronto. ANYway, I said this would be short, didn't I?
Two last things:
Here's the windmill Sara bought at the Iowa State Fair, which became my windmill after I assembled and installed it.
Here's Sara's little iron bat, bought in Hannibal, MO.
And that's the end of that.
Please leave a comment if you would like Sara to spend less time on Facebook and more time writing blogs about birds and floors and stuff.
4 comments:
I am supporting Kelly in her quest to get Sara to return to blogging...though I confess I, too, have fallen off the blogging wagon somewhat so I'm not sure how much weight this opinion carries.
I too vote for Dr. S. returning to blogging. Mind you, she'll have some serious catching up to do. Miz Kelly is doing damned fine work on her new blog - I LOVE IT!! Love you both. Cousin #2
This is a wonderful and fun blog! So glad I found it!
I want Sara to spend equal amounts of time on Facebook and the blog. In fact, I wish for her to amuse me with updates as often as possible in both media.
We have a similar bat, made of copper.
I looove Maid-Rite. We have a tiny glass tumbler with fading red lettering on it, in which I take my 3 AM wine (it is less tippy than a real wine glass when you're drowsy). My father told me that in the original Maid Rite, the owner made a point of saying, "You can watch us lead a cow into the basement and turn her into Maid-Rites upstairs. All the cuts go into them--steaks and filets alike." Or something to that effect. I suspect that would not be a strong marketing ploy today.
Post a Comment