Friday, November 20, 2015

Our Trip to IL....Part 3 The Musical, History and Booze Weekend

 Despite the drinking binge of Friday evening and a night spent on the bed dubbed, "The Crippler", I was up early and feeling good.

Den was up early too and hard at work in the kitchen making a yummy breakfast with which to spoil us guests.
An egg, bacon and roasted red pepper with basil croissant sandwich?


Yes please!


Then it was off to explore Sonya's town.
We went up to the town's Historical Society Museum housed in an old town school building.


Hubs contemplating how much worse his current eye condition treatment might have been 100 years ago on this medieval-looking torture device.

A vintage dentist's set-up.  Open wide for that drill........

And yes I am a smart ass if you haven't noticed yet.
They had a display of hand painted porcelain china as a large national deluxe china factory is near this area and still in operation.

These vintage hand painted plates were on display with antique photos of the women who painted them.  I thought the plate on the left in this photo was amazingly life like.....that bug painted onto the plate was so realistic and I told everyone within earshot about this.

A second, closer look and I saw that the dead bug was in fact a dead bug laying on the plate.
I guess someone needs to tidy up the displays a bit sooner than later.  ;-)


After a leisurely poke around this small but jam packed museum(bonus points it was FREE!)Den took us up to Woodman's over the border in Wisconsin.
I kept telling Hubs about this Liquor Valhalla and he was eagerly anticipating this excursion.

And Woodman's did NOT disappoint!
Hubs took a good hour to make a decision about what to buy.

And this time I came prepared and had money put onto my debit card(Woodman's only takes debit or cash, no credit.)just for this visit.

Another great thing about Woodman's(besides the prices and the variety of beverages)is that sometimes if you buy stuff you get free stuff with it.

Eldest son wanted some MN made beers and Woodman's had a Deal on them-Buy 2 packs and get a free block of cheese........


Good beer and local cheese.  What's not to love?!?
I ended up with 2 blocks of free cheap for 4 packs of beer and I got to tick Eldest Son off my Christmas shopping list.

After coming home to Sonya's we sat and chatted the rest of the afternoon and Den worked his culinary magic and made us a feast for dinner.
Pot Roast with mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Corn and Butternut Squash.
Mmmmmm....


More talking and imbibing followed well into the evening.

Another night on the "Crippler" and I was still doing fine.
Sunday morning Den again cooked up another great hot breakfast.  I was feeling rather spoiled and loving it!

Sonya Ann and I went up to CVS later that morning since Den was not feeling great(a sore throat and maybe the beginnings of a cold or flu)so we went to get him some cough drops, throat spray and soothing drinks.
I had an old CVS cash card with about $11 on it so it was as good a time to finally use that.

I could really get use to drug stores like this in Illinois........


My view down the liquor aisle at CVS.

I even found some bottles of liquor on clearance.
What is not to love about a sale on alcohol and using an old CVS money card to get it for free?!? lolz


Back home to Sonya's to get Den his sick supplies so he could rest comfortably for the rest of the day and recover before he had to return to work on Monday morning.

About 1 pm Hubs headed off to have an adventure at the local library.
Sonya had found that her library was hosting a Drumming Circle on the Sunday we were visiting so Hubs put this on his agenda.
Hubs drums.

Sonya and I went for the experience too, just to sit in the back of the room and spectate.
Well only 3 people including Hubs showed up for the activity so the leader of the group(behind Sonya in the photo below)coaxed us into service to participate.  She had brought extra drums and other noise making instruments, I don't have a clue what they are called, so Sonya Ann dragged me into the circle and soon we were joining in and whacking on musical instruments along with the rest.

Who knew we were so musical, right?
We may have totally embarrassed ourselves but with only 5 people there(and no recording devices in use)we are ok with it.  I think Sonya Ann found a new side of herself she didn't realize she had.
Not the ballsy "let's crash this party" side but the artistic "I can hit a ribbed gourd with a stick" musical side.  We practically fought over that ribbed gourd and stick thing and who got to beat on it......


Before we broke off and left there was time for a group selfie to commemorate the experience.

On the way out of the building Hubs noticed advertising in the lobby for other activities/group meetings, including one called "Chess and Cookies".
Hubs is a long time chess playuh and who doesn't like cookies?

The next week or so I kept hearing Hubs talking about maybe it wouldn't be so bad an idea to retire to Illinois near this library.
Sorry honey but that ain't happening.....

Us three "Artistes" did some shopping afterwards.
I had Kohl's Cash to use so we hit Kohl's.
I didn't buy these Chicago Bears growlers but found a couple of other things for Christmas presents there.........


We also hit a nearby Dollar Tree.
You can pretty much find the same stuff in all these stores nationwide but I did find a pair of readers in purple they don't have at my local DT.


How do you like my big purchase?



We saw this barn-like building on the way home from shopping.
I thought it was very odd to find advertising for Rock City in Northern Illinois......


Turn out that Rock City is also a village in North Central IL so this could have been advertising their love of Rock City IL rather than the tourist attraction in Chattanooga TN.

Den feeling as bad as he did still insisted on cooking dinner Sunday night.  I feel bad because I didn't get a photo of what he made but I was too busy stuffing my FACE full of the Barbecue Pork Sandwiches he made.
The poor man was standing outside in the cold with his charcoal grill smoking a pork butt to make this meal.

But it was so good I had seconds!

I had thoughts of asking Hubs if we could adopt Den but then decided not to, because that would mean since Sonya Ann and are are cousins that she'd be married to her adopted cousin.....or something like that.

Yeah, I am nice like that......


Sluggy



4 comments:

  1. Is it actually possible to go to a drum circle and NOT be roped into drumming? Interesting post.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey I am the product of two first cousins, you have met me you should know. Dang wish I had been there to laugh my A$$ or I could have done my Martha gram impression.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I miss you and so does the crippler.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Enjoyed the post. Now I am off to name the various mattresses in my house. The only furniture we have named is the "drug couch" so named because everyone who has sat on it winds up asleep

    ReplyDelete

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