Car window frost
Now comes the moment to share with you about our trip to Marquette on Friday and Saturday. My friend, Bertha, and I arranged to meet at an Irish Pub on Washington Street at 4:30 p.m. It’s called the Wild Rover.
I have never been there before. She promised good food and great atmosphere. We were so so so looking forward to an overnight stay in the “big city”.
Ladies, I recommend you find yourself a good friend and book a motel in your nearest big city next weekend. (OK, if you live in a big city…turn it around…book your motel out in the woods and bring your snowshoes or skis or walking boots.)
It’s time for a Ladies Winter Weekend Away. You guys can do this, as well. But for now I’m advocating for the ladies. Call your buddy on the phone and make arrangements. You will not regret it.
Motel keyhole art. Who's out there?
I am not a Shopper. You know, one of those women who loves to paw through the sales racks, finding bargains. Oh how I sometimes wish I liked to shop! But no. I am a Terrible Shopper. One of those shoppers who walks in the stores, looks around in dismay, and slinks back out the front door after about five minutes of confusion and dismay.
This trip I visited Goodwill, just to see if anything charming popped off the racks and into my waiting arms. Nothing did. So I cheerfully headed off to do the Big City adventures I adore.
1) Sipping java in a coffee shop while writing poems, prose, blogs or emails. YES!! You’d think I had died and gone to heaven. (Maybe it’s the caffeine…)
2) Walking along Lake Superior or city sidewalk streets, admiring the new sights. Admiring that it’s a different place, a new place, an exciting place. Feeling the rush of freedom. Grinning.
3) Reading at the library. How many people go to the Big City to find a stuffed chair at the local library? Cruise the bookshelves and discover the Most Amazing Novel about, say–Mozart’s Sister–and settle down to read in a cozy corner of the Peter White Library. It’s heaven.
4) Eating out. Oh yes, eating out. The #1 joy of visiting the city. This time Bertha picked our evening restaurant. Since I had never visited the Wild Rover, it was a treat to experience some place new.
The Wild & Crazy Rover
I arrived at 4:30 pm. Well, maybe 4:35 p.m. Where was Bertha? Nowhere in sight. My eyes skimmed the restaurant. Hmmm…what to do? I walked toward the bar, attempting to decide whether to secure a table. Suddenly I recognized a fellow at the bar. It was a friend I knew through Bertha named Ed.
“Hi, Ed!” I said, “Amazing to see you! I’m waiting for Bertha.”
“I’m waiting for Bertha, too,” said Ed.
Turned out he was joining us for drinks and dinner. We found a table and ordered a glass of Chardonnay (me) and beer (him) while we waited for our buddy.
Wild Rover dinner. You know what the Irish call "mashed potatoes"?
Bertha arrived within five minutes and soon we scanned the menu, searching for the Best Dinner. I chose salmon & champ. How many of you know what champ is? I suppose you all do, having carefully examined the photo. Apparently champ = Irish Potatoes with green onions. Yum. Very good. Do order some next time you’re visiting an Irish Pub.
Next stop: the motel. Do you like the keyhole photo?
We walked across the road in the biting wind and watched the movie “Dear John”. You needed a Kleenex. It was a tear-jerker. Definitely a “chick flick” as they call ’em.
Later, after 10 p.m., we discovered the pool and whirlpool completely empty. All the dozens of eight year old hockey players were in bed! (The pool was completely wall-to-wall with hockey babes earlier in the afternoon.) We settled into the whirlpool and allowed the spa to soak away all our mid-winter blues. Gone. Gone.
Hi, Bertha. My friend at the Sweetwater Cafe.
Next morning, while Bertha slept in a little, I tiptoed out of the motel room and settled into Starbucks with Ms. Ellie, my trust laptop. I wrote an Ode to Java on the baby blog. Click here for caffeinated words.
Then Bertha and I checked out of the motel and dined on the arame spud plate (to die for, I tell you!) at Sweetwater Cafe. We said our goodbyes. We promised to do this again some time.
Doesn’t this sound like fun, ladies?
Remember what I told you. Call your friend now. Reserve your motel room. You will beat those Cabin Fever blues. I swear it.
Lake Superior Spirit 
Kathy – I feel like was with you and Bertha on your adventure. I love the key hole photograph! And now I know I’m not alone in naming my laptop — Maggie May.
Great blog!
Oh Laurie, how lovely that you have named your laptop as well. Hello, Maggie May. Does Maggie May get to go to the Bahamas to help celebrate your 30th wedding anniversary? Hope you and Len have a wonderful time!! We’ll be sending you well wishes as you fly south into warmth and palm trees.
I’ve gone to the city and snuggled up in a chair at the library…makes perfect sense to me! 🙂
Sounded like a fun get-together with a friend. And a very good idea!
Dawn, glad to know someone else loves snuggling up at the library–hey, wait a minute! You’re a librarian!! It was a fun time.
I loved reading about your getaway in the big city, with coffee house, library, chick flick, and meeting in the bar for drinks and dinner, ending with the long soak! All of it sounds superb to me.
Wow, am I inspired! I’m looking over my calendar, trying to figure out when I can follow your example. Thank for the great idea.
Hi Amber! Glad you enjoyed the getaway blog and am so glad you’re inspired to figure out a time when you can do the same thing. Don’t you love it? We are so lucky! (and be sure & blog about all your fun.)
Maggie May, my camera and my Kindle are the three pieces of “equipment” that get to tag along to Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas. We leave Wednesday morning at the butt-crack of dawn (3am).
Laurie, I just about spit out my tea all over Ms. Ellie! Butt-crack of dawn! Butt-crack of dawn! That really truly describes that 3 a.m. hour. Love it. Got any room in your suitcase for us to tag along?
You’ve never heard “butt-crack” of dawn?! Oh dear, I guess it comes from being married to a man who retired from 20 years in the military.
Wait, wait – I liked the frost on the windshield! I mean, Bertha looks like a lot of fun to hang out with, but look at that frost! OK, it may be that I am in need of a midwinter break.
Didn’t that frost look cool? It was on the car’s window before scraping, before heading to Marquette. There was another pic of frost you might have liked, but this one looked so artsy. You ARE in need of a midwinter break, Gerry. How ’bout Traverse City next weekend??
Kathy, we are heading into the little city (Victoria) for “an over-nighter” as cabin fever seems to know no season when you live on an island – though winters are definitely in need of more purposeful blues breakers. New and used Bookstores are always on our list. And antique/old furniture stores. The Specialty Tea Store. And Bubba’s Bakery. A nice dinner at a favourite haunt and we are ready to go home the next day… usually quietly reading in exhausted satisfaction more than a hour before the ferry leaves.
This year we did something different and went to Saturna Island (with its beautiful East Point Park http://creativepotager.wordpress.com/2010/02/19/simplicity ) for two days.
Going away with a girlfriend isn’t an option just yet Kathy but it was real fun reading about your adventure.
Terrill, (whispering) I think it’s wonderful that you and your husband can enjoy your time together in the city. Sounds like you enjoy the same kind of activities. One of the reasons I like going alone or with independent company is that Barry doesn’t really enjoy coffee shops and libraries and long long walks. He does love eating out and going to the co-op and some of our other errand-going, though. So we have a rhythm where we do that kind of stuff together, and then he so supports my independent traveling streak. Your tea shop, antique store, bookstores, bakery and restaurant sounds wonderful. Loved reading about your time on Saturna Island and looking at your photos. Thank you.
Hey Kathy,
Great first pic. on the blog…I love photography that can translate easily into art inspiration. Sounded like a fun trip!…I’m with you on the walking around the streets and taking in the sights, but gotta say that shopping, especially at thrift stores, is a great fun for me!
btw, I am currently living in Wakefield, near Ironwood/Bessemer. Where is this in relation to you?
Glad you like the frost pic, too, Amy! So you’re in Wakefield? We’ve traveled ‘way over there for football games sometimes. My husband has to take photos for the weekly newspaper where he works, so sometimes we have a “date” to Wakefield. It’s a long couple hours, though. We’re to the east and north. Halfway between Marquette and Houghton. Sounds like you are one of those people I admire who can shop! Thrift stores are the best.
I think that frost photo would make beeyoutiful wall paper. 🙂
Fun nights out with the ladies are always a good cure for the blues.
Janet, here you are commenting just when I’m replying to comments. You are so absolutely right. Black Frost Wall Paper. Perhaps I should write the wall paper companies? It could become the season’s best selling wall paper, and…. Never mind. Guess I need another night out soon!
Fun! Fun!
Hey Dawn, How did your interview @ the library go? I’m jealous…I was either going to be a teacher or a librarian. There are some days when I wished I’d have gone with the libraris?!?!?
Cindy, I think a librarian would be fun, too. Christopher contemplated studying Library Sciences (or whatever it was called at U of M) for awhile. But then he veered off toward sociology. Libraries are awesome. Thank goodness for ’em. Maybe Dawn is waiting to hear the results of the interview?
Looks like a fun adventure to me … I’m not much of a shopper either but love many of the same things you do. I dreamed of being a librarian but wound up a teacher until I retired in 2001. Many say my HOUSE is a library and they could be right. Thanks for sharing the experience with us virtually.
Hugs and blessings,
Both you and Cindy Lou dreamed of being a librarian? And both of you ended up being teachers… Glad to hear that some non-shoppers have stepped forward. Except, bookstores don’t count, do they? I am a wild bookstore-shopper. Bet you are too.
I forgot to say….I’m with you on the shopping – unless it’s a garden, antique or bookstore – somehow I missed getting that part of the XX gene. That one and the one about buying shoes and purses! 🙂
Kath – I would like to go on record as saying I DESPISE shopping.
By intent we have not had a television for 30 years — we are voracious readers. Every since I got my Kindle (at least two years; I have the original version), I carry about 90 books with me wherever I go in the space of one book. Oh yes — Kindle rocks!
Laurie, I have heard a LOT of good things about Kindles. Seems like whoever has one loves it. One of our book club members keeps raving about hers. (We haven’t had a television since last June when the government axed the signal and the black box refused to work. We haven’t missed it at all…except for the local weather.)
I didn’t mean to leave the “y” off Kathy — I just now see my typo and don’t have the ability to fix it.
Sounds like a fantastic weekend!!! I have to get on the phone now to set one up with my girlfriend!! Preferably one way up north 🙂
Annie, glad to inspire you! I hope your girlfriend said yes. And hope you make it north–and that the roads are good!
Glad you had fun. My ladies night out is coming up next weekend. I am going to a bridal show with one of my friends (them bride) and her sister (the other bridesmaid besides me). Then we are going to hit the town and spend the night at a hotel.
Jessica, so you’re going to be a bridesmaid? Congratulations! That should be a fun time. You enjoy your ladies night out at the hotel. Have oodles of fun!
This post has such great pictures. I especially like the one through the keyhole and the one of your friend.
Deana, so glad you enjoyed this. The keyhole shot intrigued me, too! (And will tell Bertha you liked her photo.)
I did sort of the same thing last weekend. What a coincidence. My friend and I and a friend of hers all went to Dallas for a conference and stayed together and fit in quite a bit of girl time in there. Def gonna do it again. You did make me feel like I was there too!
Glad you had some girl time during your conference. It’s such a special treat, to allow ourselves time to do this. We’ll do it again soon, won’t we?
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YES!! I would choose to drive to find a stuffed chair so that I can sit and peruse!! I still have ambitious travel wishes, perhaps thinking that I am missing culture and things. I was thinking though, that I could still adventure and stay allergen free if I circled out from where I live and simply learn to drive places and see the libraries, also seeing the places. I might also with to visit DC, only to see the arboretum, which, in the end is stupid!! I live almost IN the woods. Though the choice is telling about the things that I love.
This is certainly an old blog. Thinking about the gifts of travel, and the gifts of staying at home. Thanks, Elisa, and stay warm this long winter.