Trip Report
November 2003 - "Minnesota Once More!"
What a
great trip.
The goal
was to be in Aitkin, Minnesota, for Larry's dad's 81st birthday. We
were.
Drove up to Greenville, Ohio, and
stayed with Night For Night member Vicky
Root at Wayman's Corner. We had the Porch Room -
and if you go, be sure to check out Vicky's eNORmous wreaths - they are
just beautiful! Greenville boasts a number of things, but OUR
favorite was the KitchenAid Experience. WOW did we have fun!
We played with appliances, shopped all over the place, and left with a
burr coffee grinder/mill. Looks so much like a gumball machine that
Larry's now looking for multi-colored coffee beans! (Hey, HE picked
out the red machine, ok?) What do you suppose coffee would look like
if you started out with colored beans.... Anyway, we also found the
Maid-Rite in Greenville, so we did the drive-thru thing and took our
"regulars" and chocolate shakes down to the Annie Oakley
monument for lunch. It was a lot of fun in that little town.
Vicky: when you decide to offer a
wreath-making class, I'm signing up. They are truly spectacular.
After
a stop near Chicago to see friends, we arrived: Aitkin,
Minnesota! Stayed with Larry's sister and her husband,
the Zilverbergs. We
call it Camp Zilverberg because their basement
includes a big music room and an even bigger craft room. Color
me happy! Great visit and Larry's dad is wunnerful.
Off to
see Night For Nighters Bob
& Pat Fischbeck at the Speckled Hen Inn in Madison,
Wisconsin. It's always good to see them! What fun. Larry
got wind that their computer wasn't happy.... Which means that's about
the last we heard of Larry... But we did manage to go to the Whole
Foods store (that Bob calls Whole Wallet) for Wisconsin cheese, and to the
spice store, and to the birdwatcher store.... We didn't get enough
time with Bob & Pat and are just tickled pink that they're coming to the
cooking school at Meander
Plantation* (see below) in
January!!! Hope we see
you there!
Sandee
*
Cooking School at The Inn at Meander Plantation: This is not
a Night For Night event, but will be a BLAST, and a number of the folks
attending are also N4N members. I have been to the cooking school
twice (Larry went the second time because he discovered what the MENUS
looked like, promptly dubbed it Eating School and signed right up).
Both times ("Cooking
with Herbs" and "Baking 101") were jam-packed full
of great information, lots of hands-on skills, more Great Food than anybody
can eat, and my face hurt from so much smiling and laughing. I came
home with arm-loads of information and recipes and *stuff*. The field
trips are informative and interesting and entertaining. The lodging is
spacious and comfortable and serene in this historic plantation smack in the
middle of our nation's beginnings. Plenty to see and do (we went to
Thomas Jefferson's Monticello on our last trip) and besides, there are
INNKEEPERS going to this one! So far, we have innkeepers coming from North
Carolina, Virginia, Wisconsin,
and Pennsylvania. Sure hope to
see lots of you folks there, old faces and new.
Soups &
Stews, January 19 & 20 at The
Inn at Meander Plantation (Make
reservations here!)
Be there.
Governing