Friends, Food and Fiber

After we decided we'd rather drive back roads than freeways we've driven the same route to the Chicago area at least 4 times. By now our route is determined  by special places we like to return to each visit.

Our first stop is for lunch in Decorah, Iowa. On a visit to the Vesterheim Museum ( a must see ) we discovered this restaurant and this menu. So we stop there every time and I get the same thing. 

Decorah is a Norwegian oriented town, so of course, they have Norwegian meatballs and real mashed potatoes. These are the best!

This is a Norwegian dessert which my family never served but I tasted for the first time on my trip to Norway. This is roomugrut (or some similar spelling) made from heavy cream and is like a custard or flan. The black on the top is cinnamon, not something burned.

In Decorah we met a nursing classmate of mine and had lunch together.

Our trip from Decorah to Schaumberg was plagued with road construction and in one place the traffic was completely stopped and there was no oncoming traffic. We waited for awhile and my husband got out the map and figured out a way we could get around the blockage. Good idea? No! Illinois is terrible about numbering their roads. The map had numbers, but the roads just had one name no matter which way we turned. We finally found a decent looking road which should have gotten us around the blockage and back on the road we wanted. 70 miles later we arrived back at Galena, the town BEFORE the blockage, so we back tracked and went another way. It was a long day,

My husband grew up in Chicago so we visit with some of his high school friends. This is the restaurant we went to with one friend. It is called Mill Rose a vision of William R. Rose, owner of Rose Packing Company, a meat processing firm located in Chicago Barrington, Illinois.

Six 125 year old large barns have been moved to create the restaurant, banquet rooms and Millrose Country Store.

The brick in the patio is from the original meat processing plant.

The Midwest is having a severe drought and heat. We expected to see damaged fields but surprisingly we saw only a few cornfields with wilted, stunted corn. We could see some of the trees were showing damage.

The next day while my husband visited another friend I went to XRX, publisher of Knitters' magazine Midwest conference market. It is huge, filled with anything you might want in the knitting world. It is overwhelming! This is showing the number of isles, plus two behind me.

This is a picture of the length of each isle, but it really doesn't show clearly.

And this is what I bought. From top to bottom: 1) 75% tencel/25% linen 2) Rayon. Both of these are from a company called Newton's Yarn Company in Anaheim, CA. I had lunch with a woman from the company who was wearing a shawl out of the rayon which was beautiful and she said after the first blocking didn't need to be blocked again. 3) Miss Babs fingering yarn, 70% merino, 30% silk.

4) Serenity Silk +, 75% merino/ 15% cashmere/ 10% silk. 5) Serenity Lace, 90% merino/ 10% cashmere. Both numbers 4 and 5 are Zen Garden and because I bought 2 skeins, I got the pattern in the background as a gift. 6) The light blue is sweet georgia, 45% cashmere, 55% silk, lace weight. 6 & 8) are both Madelinetosh fingering weight. The gold is a limited edition colorway, Stephen Loves Tosh and it just fell off the shelf as I was waiting in line to pay for the needles I started out to buy. The needles are Knitters Pride Cubix which I have tried and liked. I also got a fixed circular Knitters Pride-not cubix- because the circular needle I was knitting socks on had a barb at the join and was splitting the yarn as I had to force it over the join. A good shopping trip. I actually left before the time my husband was picking me up because I knew I'd just buy more and I didn't need this, let alone more.

On the way home we get orders from our children to stop at the Brewery in New Glarus, WI to get them beer. We like their beer and you cannot buy it outside the state of Wisconsin. I was introduced to it by a friend from Texas who came to knitting camp in Door County every year and brought the beer back to her family.

This is what we went home with. A case for each child and the 6 pack is mine.

Also in New Glarus is the Swiss hotel which has a good restaurant featuring Swiss food we usually eat at, but neither one of us was hungry so we just took a picture.

Across the street from the hotel is this gift shop where I drop a lot of money every time I go inside.

Because this is part if the Polish pottery I just love. Every time I go I buy a few pieces.

This is my purchase this time.

We're nearing home, and this is another routine stop. Again, the Norwegian influence. There is not anything on the menu we get every time, but we plan our meal to leave room for their wonderful pies. We like their cookies and usually bring some home. This year we did, but not for us. We gave them to the staff at the MN Oncology Office where my husband receives his chemo.

Have to close with this sign which we say MANY times. I didn't get the one that says, "Detour". One of those gave us another extra 20 miles on the way home.

Christmas Exchange

Christine (Mapleweave of Too Much Yarn) and I were discussing Sock Clubs and somehow that led to the idea of a Christmas Sock Club exchange, but with shawls of sock yarn. The week of Christmas we met at Caribou and exchanged our packages.

Christine opening hers.

This is mine. Love the box-perfect for carrying a shawl project. Also the cookies have become my favorite of the season. The results of the yarn and pattern will be posted in the next post.

Nursing Class Retreat

Last weekend my nursing class had its weekend retreat. We started this in 1990 and have done it every 5 years since then. Twenty five of us graduated, but several who did not finish with us have come, too, so we had 23 women this time. Words can't begin to express the special friendship we have. In our school days we lived together 24 hours a day for 2 years. The other 2 years at St Olaf we were together, but were intermingled with the rest of the college class. As nurses, we were drawn close together by the stress of long hours on duty and class, and caring for ill and dying patients, but we had lots of fun, too.
We started talking even before we got in the door.

Later we enjoyed the perfect weather.

We visited in the conference room.

We visited in the dining room over coffee and meals.

We visited in the hallway outside our rooms. We talked all weekend!

We get together at Mt Olivet Retreat Center in Farmington, MN which is a beautiful place in the country on wooded grounds with beautiful flower beds. We even had a campfire and made smores!

Maureen and I planned this get together, so after it was over, we celebrated a successful weekend.

Saturday Sky May 24, 2008

The day was beautiful! Not only weather-wise, but emotionally. This weekend was my 50th college reunion of my St Olaf Graduation. (At least they insist it is-it surely doesn't feel that way.) The day was partly cloudy with temperatures probably in the 60's and of course, being on "the hill" it was windy. The picture is of the new chime tower. There is a wind chime in the tower for each student who has died during their student days. Very solemn and meaningful! In the background is the Chapel which has so many wonderful memories.

These are special people! We are some of the nurses from the class of 1958. We went through a lot together and have such memories and friendships. The other students envy us the closeness we have. (Do we look like we graduated from college 50 years ago? We don't think so!)