Back in "The Box"...
~sigh~
Our adventures always amazing and always over too soon.
Mornings of Real Hugs and Coffee and Biscotti.
Plundering Greencastle (and surrounding areas)...starting with the Nature Park.
Including an impromptu tutorial on "grass whistling". And a trip to the local county fair...and a ride on the Ferris Wheel together...did I mention that we were both afraid of heights...
We were FAR too busy "hanging on".
The Fast Diet...abdicated for two weeks in favor of this
and treats like it! I have gained back two of the 7 pounds I lost...and it was so totally worth it!
We had a quick tour of the local library...Lisa and Peggy referred her to "my office" (the periodical room)...picked up Stephen King's newest offering "Joyland" and over the two week holiday both finished it...discussed it...and found it very very good!
"Joyland" is a wonderful combination of a "coming of age" story...a murder mystery...and a minor ghost story. Told in that completely enfolding Stephen King "...let me tell you a story..." voice. A feel good ending and one I would love to see made into a movie.
An excerpt from Joyland...and one of the best summaries of "coming of age" I have ever seen distilled into a single paragraph.
" When you are twenty-one, life is a roadmap. At twenty-five or so you begin to suspect you have been looking at the map upside down, and not until you are forty are you entirely sure. By the time you are sixty, take it from me, you're fucking lost."
We enjoyed al fresco dining at Almost Home Tearoom
and their specialty dessert for afters
Strawberry Pizza
Which...being the "foodies" we are...we later set forth to re-create the concoction at home...only with Raspberries!!!!
Which was even better :)
Raspberry Pizza
We fudged a lot on the crust by buying a bag of Sandies ( shortbread cookies) with pecans....crushing 10 or so and adding two tablespoons powdered sugar and a tablespoon of butter. Pressing it into a large shallow pan. Our's was square and our slices were a bit more modest. We did manage to finish it before the week was up, though...
The filling was a mixture of 2 bars of cream cheese mixed smooth with 1/4 cup of powdered sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla.
And our topping was a bit of a cheat, as well...as we used Comstock's prepared Raspberry Filling.
Refrigerate overnight.
Serve on a dessert plate sprinkled lightly with powdered sugar and drizzled with raspberry sauce.
Our results: TAH DAH!
Try it yourself :)
"Way to go, Mom! You've skinned a sofa."
After slipping it on and enduring all the "Honey...where's my dinner" and other Pleasantville references...I have to admit...I felt the overwhelming urge to make Rice Krispie Treats.
"Try one...they're SWELL!"
On a semi-related note, after exploring the town she grew up in on an earlier trip ( Russellville Kentucky)...we set out for the town of my childhood for that trip down memory lane (Jamestown, Indiana) and even got a photo of my old house. I can't believe it is still that B.S.G colour.
And on the way back managed to find an amazing abandoned house to explore as well! Engaging in some geological and horticultural larceny, too...our M.O.
Maybe it has its own ghost story...
And ended that week with an adventure in paints :) And a photo-portrait I am STILL working on. And yes...although it was wonderful watching YOU paint...it was indefinitely better painting YOU...!!!!!
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When i get it where I want it I am going to have it transferred to canvas and do a few hand-highlights in acrylic.
The second week we left for Warren Dunes State Park in Sawyer Michigan.
The nice part about Warren (as opposed to the Indiana Dunes) is how clean the miles long beach stays. And so far away from Chicago when you sit on the shore it appears a great ocean instead of (freshwater) Lake Michigan. Of course getting up the small dune from the shoreline was a feat all its own. Thought several times we were going to have to make base-camp and finish the ascent in the morning...lol! We built a sand village on the beach together...unfortunately the building inspector (in the form of a large grey and white seagull) found it not up-to-code and built in a flood plain. With no remaining potato chips to bribe him...it was subsequently razed by the tide.
A trip to the fruit stand...and "Smokin' Woody's" BBQ...which is a story all its own...a sprawling Antique shop and Galleria for the local artists. And, as always, the trip up and back was a "mobile car show"...the strangest of which I sadly did not get a shot as it rumbled by...a full-blown engine on a restored El Camino...leaving both of us to say
"What The Hell?"
"WHY?"
Wine and bubblebaths...candles and chocolate and possibly the BEST authentic Tiramisu I have ever had...DELIVERED with the Italian meal to our room!
Back home we took a pair of Chinese Sky Lanterns to launch over the pond together. Wishing lanterns. As our coach slowly turned back into that pumpkin. And real life returned with laundry and schedules...weeds in the garden and Che's classes...and Chris (who is now down with tonsillitis...and enjoying clear broths and popsicles and anything he doesn't have to chew) and I am helping nurse him back to health.
It was an Amazing Adventure...as always :)
But now the Gazing Balls are back...all 398 of them...and for a while we are back in the box.
CRAP!
See you in the morning for Coffee and Biscotti.
And yes...I miss you already, too!
