Wedding Gazpacho...er--Gestapo...at your service!

Two weeks ago I went to Chicago to celebrate Tyler and Debbie's nuptials.  When I saw them over Mother's Day weekend Debbie asked me if I would be her official "Wedding Gestapo," meaning I was to make sure that people were in the right places at the right times and that she didn't walk down the aisle without her shoes.  (As it turned out I kept her from walking down the aisle to the wrong song!  "Debbie!  Where do you think you're going?  Is this your jam?  No.  Wait for your jam!")  What I didn't realize until I arrived Friday evening to help set up the reception venue was that she would have a page-long To Do List for me!  (Debbie is one of the most organized people I've ever met.  I'd like to make her an honorary Virgo!)  Among other things, my duties as Wedding Gestapo included setting up favors, putting together centerpieces, lighting candles, DJ'ing the ceremony and reception via her iPod, lacing her into her corset-back dress, and bustling/re-bustling/re-re-bustling the dress.  Jan & Ron were wonderful and helped me check lots of items off my list and everything went very smoothly (if I do say so myself!)!  The ceremony was beautiful and the reception was tons o' fun!


And now for a few photos from the big event...

With my mom and the Travelocity gnome at dinner before setting up at the reception venue.

Tyler, Ron, & Jim

(Ron & his two boys!)

Tyler with the Flower Girls

Jan & Tyler

Tyler & Trish

Champagne as far as the eye can see!

Jan, Ron, & Trish

Cake!

First Dance

I didn't take nearly as many photos as I normally would (I was a little busy), and I especially hate that I didn't get many photos of Debbie or even a photo with her!  I suppose it's a good sign that I was having too much fun to take photos though, right?

Oh, I suppose I should explain the title of this post.  As I was driving to Chicago I was talking with my good friend Missy and we were discussing the fact that I was the official Wedding Gestapo.  Now I'm not sure if she mis-spoke, or if I was just losing it after so many hours alone in the car, but I could have sworn she referred to me as the "Wedding Gazpacho" which, if you don't know, is a cold tomato soup often served in the hot summer months in Spain.  I couldn't stop giggling about her alleged slip-up, so when I arrived that evening I told Debbie about it and she thought it was pretty cute too.  The next morning when I texted the bride to wish her a happy wedding day and to tell her to let me know if she needed anything before I was scheduled to see her she responded with a cheery, "Good Morning, Gazpacho!"  It kept us giggling all day long, so thanks for the laughs, Missers!

It was an honor to be a part of Tyler and Debbie's big day, and I'm so glad that I was able to take a few things off Debbie's plate so she could relax and enjoy the day.  Now Tyler and Debbie are off galavanting around Europe for a couple of weeks enjoying their honeymoon.  Congratulations, you two!  Can't wait to hear all about your latest travel adventures!


(Vickie, I see you lurking in the shadows!  I'm still waiting for you to officially follow me!)  ;)

Hi. Remember me?

I know, I know...it's been forever since I blogged.  Like an embarrassingly long time.  A big thank you to those who missed my blogs enough to ask me to come back and blog some more!

To say that this summer has been busy would be an understatement.  Yet somehow I have no idea where it went, and I can barely remember what I've done.  I almost wonder if I should just figure out how to link out to my Google calendar so you could see the insanity that has been my summer.  Now don't get me wrong--I'm certainly not complaining!  My summer has been pretty great.  It's just flown by without any new blogs posted.  So let's see if I can catch you up, eh?

The craziness began mid-June.  Because I serve as the VP Programming for the Minneapolis/St. Paul alumnae chapter of my sorority and our President was unable to attend the biennial fraternity convention in Denver, I was sent as the chapter delegate.  Thank you, Delta Gamma!  It was all business all the time, but I made a fantastic new friend in my roommate (the VP Communication for the Lincoln, NE alumnae chapter), and I got to see my roommates from my very first semester living in the chapter house--Brooke and Jen.

Room 300 love!

With Brooke at the Panhellenic luncheon.

With a couple of DePauw DG's.

The day I returned from Denver, Quinn (and the baby in her belly, who she has chosen to lovingly refer to as Nerdlet) flew up to Minneapolis from Fort Wayne, IN.  Our time here went quickly and somehow we failed to take any photos, but we did manage to get to the outlets in Albertville so she could replace the Coach sunglasses that she bought there when she visited last summer (which someone's dog was apparently also smitten with and thus chewed them apart) and to the movies to see Toy Story 3.

After just two short days in Minneapolis we hopped in the car and drove to Chicago so she and Nerdlet could see Mom*Star and Ron and their new house.  After a quick overnight with them we powered on to Fort Wayne, where the Quinn Compound had prepared a BBQ feast for our arrival.  We spent the afternoon in the pool with the kiddos and the evening around the fire with the grown-ups.  It was a great day!

The following day we headed up to our friend Kathryn's lake house where we laid in the sun until our friend Sara arrived and then we all headed to our favorite local Mexican restaurant for dinner.  Those of us not growing babies did our best to pick up the slack on the margarita front and the three of us successfully polished off two pitchers before the night was over.  Then we went back to the house and crashed.  The next day Quinn and Kat & I met our friends Marisa and Pete (and their baby, Nicky) for a quick lunch, and then I headed north to Chicago, where I spent the night with my good friend Teresa.  (What?  You need a map and a calendar to follow all of this?  Join the club!)  After a quick overnight with T, I hit the road again and powered through back to Minnesota.  Home, sweet home!

I was here for all of one day before my mom's friend Susan and her two kids arrived from Chicago.  They were coming to Minneapolis for the Foreigner/Styx/Kansas concert and I'd offered them a place to stay.  They kindly purchased me a ticket as well, so we went to Joe's Garage for dinner, then walked around the outside of the Twins' new stadium, Target Field, before heading over to Target Center for a fantastic show.

With Kate at the Foreigner/Styx/Kansas concert.

The same day that they left, Jan and Ron flew up from Chicago to spend the 4th of July weekend in beautiful Minnesota.  Needless to say, I spent the majority of that afternoon washing sheets and towels and remaking beds for the next round of company!  The weekend went much too quickly, and now looking back it seems like a blur, but we had a great time!  We went to lunch with one of my mom's former colleagues on Lake Minnetonka, we saw Footloose at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre, and we watched "the best fireworks Ron has ever seen" in St. Paul with Julia, Jon, and Kristin, among other things.  I couldn't believe it when it was time to take them back to the airport--it seemed like they'd just gotten here!

After my flurry of houseguests I had a few days to do more laundry, catch up on my "real" life, and pack for my next big adventure--a trip to Arizona for my good friend Libby's wedding!  I flew in and out of Phoenix, but the wedding was in Tucson.  I spent a couple of days running around town getting my bridesmaid dress steamed, dropping the check and cake topper off at the bakery, getting a dress hemmed for Lib's honeymoon, picking up gifts, and other such fun tasks before the festivities officially began.  The night before the wedding we had a rehearsal at the venue, then a delicious dinner at Blanco.  Lib had asked me to slumber party with her at the resort that night, so we grabbed her sister Kristen and went for a late night swim, then sat around in our PJ's and drank champagne before bed.  It was the perfect ending to the night!

The next morning I had the pleasure of taking Libby out for breakfast (after giving her the super-cute t-shirt you see below) before things got started.  It was extremely hot out (Yes, the wedding was outdoors!), but the ceremony was beautiful, Lib looked gorgeous, and the reception was an absolute blast.  Oh--and I pretty much had the best wedding date ever!  Overall I'd say the wedding was a huge success.  A big thank you to Lib and her family for making my trip so easy and fun!  (And here's a link to the wedding photographer's blog.  There are no photos from Lib & Tim's wedding posted as of the publishing of this blog, but I'm just obsessed with Kelly's work.  You will be too.)

Libby at breakfast, rockin' the awesome t-shirt the best bridesmaid ever made for her (in navy, her official wedding color!).

Probably my favorite pre-wedding photo of the bride.  Doesn't it look like Kristen is lecturing her and Bonnie has just given up?  I love it.

A quick pic before we sent her down the aisle!

With The Best Wedding Date Ever.  (Hands down.)

Mr. and Mrs.!

Before I headed back to Minnesota I spent about 24 hours with my good friend Eva (one of my Spain/roadtrip girls) in Phoenix.  She took me to all sorts of fun parties, introduced me to her new boyfriend, and took me out for an incredible breakfast at Matt's Big Breakfast (as seen on The Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives) before taking me to the airport on Sunday.  Eva--gracias por todo!  Un beso muy fuerte!

With Eva, outside of Matt's Big Breakfast.

I think I was home for three whole days before I hopped in the car and drove back to Kat's lake house for the weekend.  I know it's crazy, but I just couldn't resist a weekend of fun at the lake with my DG's!  Bonus: I got to spend a night with Quinn and Nerdlet before heading home again!  (A big thank you to Ben for giving up his bed for me!)

August has been quite a bit more "normal," as I've actually been home most of the month, but it's still been busy.  I've gotten to see friends who were in town for a few days (Nielsen and Ben, SaraKing, my cousin Josh, to name a few...), I've been busy programming events for Delta Gamma, I've hosted friends for dinner, I've lounged by the pool, and I've dated, among other things.  It's hard to believe that it's already the last week of August.  Where did the summer go?!  This week I'm Zoey-sitting, and on Friday I'm headed to Chicago to fulfill my official duties as Wedding Gestapo for Tyler and Debbie's much-anticipated nuptials.  Then it's back to Minnesota for awhile and summer is over.  It's hard to believe, isn't it?  And I hardly did anything this summer!

When Following Directions Is the Wrong Thing To Do

We've all baked something delicious only to take it out of the oven and discover that our precious dinner is stuck to the pan like the bill on a platypus, right?  (I know.  I just wanted to reference the duck-billed platypus.)  So what do we do the next time?  We follow the directions on the recipe card and spray the pan with cooking spray like our dinner depends on it because, well, it does.  Five days later when we've eaten that meal so many times we never want to see it again (or three days later, when we've given up, frozen half, and will undoubtedly shove it to the back of the freezer where we'll forget about it until it's so freezer-burned it's unrecognizable and we throw it out) we carefully hand-wash the baking dish, only to discover upon drying that our favorite pan is now covered with a yellow, sticky cooking-spray goo that has forever ruined the pan.*  And the meal was SO not worth it.  Well guess what?  Today I discovered the solution to all my cooking spray woes!  Are you ready for it?  Here it is:

Yep--baking soda.  I made a hot dish (or casserole, for you non-Minnesotans) last week, ate off it for awhile, froze some, and had washed the pan by hand three times with no luck getting the cooking spray off.  I finally Googled it (What did we ever do before Google?  I mean, besides just call our Moms.  And don't worry, my mom still gets the questions Google can't answer for me.  For example, two weeks ago I texted her, "How many breasts does a chicken have?"  I couldn't get a clear answer from Google, but Mom*Star knew.  And because you're probably wondering, the answer is one.  A chicken has one breast.  However, it's split down the middle with some cartilage, therefor giving us two chicken breast halves.  This is how chicken breasts are usually sold, but we tend to refer to a chicken breast half as a chicken breast, so what to do when a recipe calls for 2 chicken breasts I don't know.  I mean, technically that would be four halves, but I have a feeling the recipe really just requires two halves.  So you see why I had to text Mom*Star?  But I digress...) and found out that my best options were to use either oven cleaner or baking soda.  Since I'm way too cheap to go out and buy oven cleaner I decided to go the baking soda route, and guess what?  It worked!  Five minutes with a little baking soda and a standard scrubby dish sponge and my pan is sparkling like new!  Totally worth the time, so I thought I'd share this little tidbit.  You're welcome.


*I read that the stuff that makes the spray, well, spray, is what coats the pan with sticky goo, so I'll be heading right out to buy a Mr. Misto so I can throw out my cooking spray and protect my precious pans from now on.  I also like the idea of knowing that I'm being environmentally-conscious and only spraying fresh olive oil onto my pans and into my food!

A Confession

An actual email I sent to a sorority sister this afternoon...


Hey Sister Jen!

Okay, I have a confession to make. I may or may not have hijacked your black bean & corn salad recipe. Here's the thing. I think you sent it to me for Sister Beth's bridal shower recipe box and it caught my eye. But then when you sent it to me for Sister Missy's bridal shower recipe box I took it as a sign...and I promptly copied it down and added it to my own recipe book. I had to tell you because, well, it's amazing.* I'm completely obsessed with it and I make a batch about every other week. And I don't share it. With anyone. Sooo...just wanted you to know that I stole it and I'm hoarding it and that I think you're fabulous--just like your black bean and corn salad.

ITB,
Sister Trish




*And I mean seriously.  Does a girl have to get married in order to get a recipe these days?  I know that you have to present your marriage license in order to get your Kitchen-Aid mixer, but come on...

The Call of the Open Road

May 16th.  This is the time of year when I'm usually frantically trying to plan a vacation and fretting over the fact that I have no plans all summer long.  Then, two weeks from now, I would normally be stressing out that I only have two free weekends all summer long and wishing I wouldn't have made so many plans.  Things are a little different this year, and I already have some things planned.  In June I'm going to Denver for a long weekend as the Minneapolis/St. Paul Alumnae Delegate for the Delta Gamma Convention.  When I get home Beth and the nerdlet are coming to visit (She's just been given clearance to fly!  Hooray!), and then I'll be traveling back to Fort Wayne with them (with a stop to see Mom*Star and Ron, of course) to help get ready for the baby and to help with a family project at The Quinn Inn.  Over the 4th of July Jan and Ron are coming up to visit, and then in the middle of July I'm heading to Tucson to get our Libby married off (with a stop in Phoenix for some quality time with da Evabug).  When I get back Missy and Sean are going to visit from St. Louis, and then in August I'll head to Chicago for Tyler and Debbie's wedding, where I've just accepted the honor of being "the Wedding Gestapo" and where I fully intend to actually re-wear a bridesmaid dress.


I'm incredibly excited about all of these summer events.  I'm already planning excursions for my visitors, I've bought dresses and plane tickets for weddings and conventions, and of course I'm already stockpiling gifts for Baby Slater (due in October).  But.  Something is missing.  And if you know me very well, you probably know what it is: a road trip.

On February 4th I dug out a gift card and headed to Borders.  When I got there I beelined it to the Travel section and an hour later I walked out with three books.  The first book I chose was Road Trip USA: Cross-Country Adventures on America's Two-Lane Highways by Jamie Jensen.

I chose it because, of all the books there it seemed to have the most detailed information about Historic Route 66 which, since the end of East Coast Road Trip 2009 last July I have been determined to make the next road trip.  (I'm not sure how the road trip girls--Colleen/Crackleen, Eva/da Evabug, & Nancy/Pants feel about this.  I've mentioned it once or twice and Colleen was the only one who responded.)  Pages 798-880 of Road Trip USA are devoted entirely to Route 66, and I read every word the day I bought the book.  The author details the trip geographically from Chicago to Los Angeles (the traditional direction to drive it) suggesting places to stay, places to eat, and of course roadside attractions to see along the way.  Much of Route 66 has been covered over with four-lane freeways and he even tells you which exits to take in order to drive the original two-lane portions of the highway that are still open for driving.  And, in case I didn't get my road trip fill from reading about Route 66 (11) (and you know I didn't), he also details several famous north-south routes like The Pacific Coast (1), Border to Border (2), The Road to Nowhere (3), The Great River Road (4), The Appalachian Trail (5), The Atlantic Coast (6) as well as other famous cross-country routes like The Great Northern (7), The Oregon Trail (8), the Loneliest road (9), and the Southern Pacific (10).

The second book I bought was Queen of the Road by Doreen Orion.  I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, but I read it cover to cover in just a couple of days and by the end of it I wanted to buy and renovate a bus, then spend a year driving around the country.  The author and her husband do just that, and the adventures they have along the way had me laughing out loud and wondering if we could rent an RV for our next road trip.  Granted that would eliminate the fun of haggling for hotel rooms and contests to see who can a) score us the cheapest room or b) get us the AAA discount without our actually having a AAA membership, but I suspect that cruising in an RV would create its own fun new adventures!  (Dump stations, anyone??)

The third book that went home with me was The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America by Bill Bryson.  If you haven't read this or any of Bill's other books you really need to because he's just hilarious.  (A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail is brilliant!)  In The Lost Continent Bill also drives around the country, revisiting places his father took him as a child.  While he spent more time visiting "boring historic places" than I would, the way he describes the towns he drives through made me long for that kind of adventure.


It's been nearly a year since we kicked off East Coast Road Trip 2009, and it's been nearly a year that I've been looking forward to Road Trip 2010.  Unfortunately my road trip reading hasn't cured the travel bug.  Rather, it's exacerbated it.  So, ladies, I know it's going to be another busy summer for all of us, but if you have time for a road trip let me know--I'm in!

Empty Nest Syndrome

If I would have written this post a month ago, a week ago, or even 24 hours ago, the title would have been "Uninvited" or "If you don't pay rent here you can't live here."  It's funny how things can change in just 24 hours, isn't it?

About a month ago I went out of town for a weekend.  (I can't remember for certain if it was Girls Weekend in Wisconsin or if it was Former New Yorker Reunion Weekend in Iowa, but it was one or the other.)  When I came home I found that my balcony had been trashed.  (And I do mean trashed.)  The entire balcony was covered in grass, weeds, and dirt.  The grass was wrapped around the base of my grill and piled under my table and chairs, and I could barely step onto the balcony without wading through it all.  I have some very inconsiderate neighbors upstairs (I'm forever picking their dirty cigarette butts off my balcony, and they once dumped an entire bucket of what I can only imagine was mop water THROUGH their balcony onto mine.), so my first thought was that they must have been doing a little inconsiderate balcony gardening while I was gone.  Then I looked up and realized that I was too quick to blame.  The culprit was not my upstairs neighbor, but my new roommate in the form of a mama robin.  There is one single beam that runs length-wise above my balcony (supporting the balcony above mine), and apparently this robin took advantage of my absence and quickly assembled a nest on the beam and laid her eggs in it.

So, for the last month I've had a pair of robins squatting on my balcony.  They squawked all day and all night, they pooped on my (normally immaculate) balcony, and they dive-bombed me if I tried to step outside.  (Apparently they forget who pays the bills around here!)  They've been making me crazy, but unfortunately I have a heart and couldn't even consider moving the nest since there were eggs in it and I didn't want a) to harm the eggs, or b) the mama to abandon them.  So for a month now I've been impatiently waiting for these eggs to hatch and the birds to fly away so I can reclaim my balcony.

Early this week the eggs finally hatched.  I thought I would find blue egg shells on the balcony when the time came, but instead I looked up one day and saw several little heads in the nest.  Even my frozen heart had to admit it was sort of cute.  I expected the little guys to chirp their heads off, but they were actually pretty quiet--unlike the small child that lives above me!  Because the nest was so high up I wasn't able to tell for sure how many babies there were, but there were at least four, and possibly five.  (It looked pretty crowded up there!) All week long I watched the parents make countless trips to and from the nest with food.  As the week went on, the poop (and worm guts) piled up on my balcony, the baby birds got fatter, and it grew more and more crowded up there.

Getting crowded...

Last night I was sitting on the sofa (which faces outside) when all of a sudden one of the babies was flapping his wings like crazy and hanging from my screen door.  It took me a second to figure out why a bird was clinging to my screen, but as soon as I realized that the babies were learning to fly (and I was going to get my balcony back!) I rushed over to watch.  The little bird hopped around on the balcony for a few minutes, ducked under the railing, stood on the edge of the balcony (looking very much like a bungee-jumper trying to find his courage), then took the big leap and fluttered his way down and landed on top of a car parked in front of the building.  He stood there for a few minutes looking bewildered and relieved, then flew off.

About an hour later I found the only other remaining baby bird staring in the screen door at me.  I sat down in front of him and watched while he hopped around and tried to figure out how his wings worked.  He kept trying to fly into the screen, into the wall, into my grill...everywhere but towards the edge of the balcony.  He hopped up onto my chair, and when I asked him not to poop on my chair he hopped up onto my table and pooped on it instead.  After half an hour or so he hopped over to the edge of the balcony, but he just wasn't ready to go.  I went out onto the balcony with him and he didn't seem to mind at all, so I spent the next hour coaxing him to spread his wings and fly away.  His mama, meanwhile, was trying to convince him as well.  I've never seen a baby bird learn to fly before, and it was really neat to watch.  The mama kept flying up to him (with a worm in her beak), doing aerial tricks, landing here and there, trying to entice him to fly to her.  It was sort of like watching a mom try to coax her child with floaties on each arm and around the waist to jump into her arms in a pool.  Eventually the mama gave up and left, and I spent an hour or so on the balcony before my little friend finally took the leap, but  he finally did it and he made it safely to the ground.  I watched him hop around on the ground with his mama (who returned once he got up the courage to go for it) until it got too dark to see him any more.  (And I caught  my neighbors on the first floor watching him too.)

My little friend, Hoppy.  The last one to fly away.

Hoppy (left) trying to get up the courage to take the big leap.  Mama (right) trying to entice him with a worm.

Now I have a balcony covered with grass and worm guts and bird poop, and I'm going to have to climb up to get the nest down (since the family will not return to it), but despite all of that, somehow I kind of miss those little guys.  Somehow in the last 24 hours they sort of endeared themselves to me.  Perhaps it was just so I wouldn't resent them while I'm cleaning off and reclaiming my balcony?

It would be...It would be so nice!

Do you watch Glee on Tuesday nights?  Two weeks ago they returned for the second half of the first season, and since they've been picked up for another season they're clearly getting the rights to a lot of songs that they couldn't get before their ratings went sky-high.  If you've been watching then you probably know that last week they did a Madonna-themed episode, and that from the costuming to the video remake, it was basically brilliant.

On a much sadder, more frustrating note, one of my closest friends had her wallet and keys stolen out of the classroom where she teaches a couple of weeks ago.  The security cameras caught the student walking in and out of the classroom after she stepped out briefly, and when she returned her things were missing.  However, because staff didn't find her wallet or keys on him he's getting off scott-free while she has had to cancel her credit cards, have her driver's license replaced, change the locks on her house, and worry about her car being stolen now that someone has both keys and her home address.  I can't imagine being in a more frustrating position than the one that she now finds herself in.


So last Wednesday I received the following email from my friend:

Date: Wed, April 21, 2010 at 7:41 AM

Subject: Sad Realization

I went to download the Madonna music from Glee last night……but I have no debit or credit card to do it. :(   DAMN YOU, STUDENT AND YOUR GLEE-RUINING WAYS!

*This rant brought to you by the brilliance of the Madonna+Glee pairing and the effects it is having on my ability to get through this Wednesday.

There was obviously only one appropriate response..


Date: April 21, 2010 at 11:16 AM
Subject: Re: Sad Realization


It was probably a conspiracy to suck the joy from your life.  Or a Crime of Passion.  One or the other for sure.  This kid saw the preview for this week's episode of Glee, pegged you as a Madonna fan (it was probably the cone bra or the penciled-in mole that tipped him off), and realized that if your wallet was Gone you'd have no way to download music.  How's a girl supposed to Get Into the Groove without her Madonna tunes?  He obviously doesn't know what it Feels Like For a Girl to have to get through a day without Madonna.  I guess you'll just have to find some other way to Express Yourself.  I think you deserve a Holiday, [Friend].

Love,

Your Lucky Star

Welcome to (the) Sin City (of the Midwest)

Shortly after I moved to New York City in 2004, my college friend & sorority sister Amanda visited.  We made plans to go to dinner and she asked if I minded if she invited a friend from high school as well.  I said I didn't mind, and as luck would have it, the friend ended up being a cute boy with whom I connected immediately.  I spent the evening working up the nerve to ask for his phone number (Being new to the city I was looking for new friends and had a strict "yes" policy when it came to opportunities to socialize.), and a week or so later I called him to see if he wanted to hang out.  He said yes, and that cute boy I met at Applebee's in Times Square turned out to be My Ryan.


Teresa and I met through work.  A couple of months after I moved to NYC she quit her job in our Boston office to move back to her New Jersey home and be closer to her family.  She quickly secured a job in our NYC office and we became fast friends.  We ate lunch together nearly every day and celebrated happy hour together every Friday (sometimes resulting in sleepovers at my place so she wouldn't have to try to catch the last train back to NJ).  Teresa and Ryan quickly became my two closest friends in New York, and although it was incredibly hard to leave them both behind when I transferred to the St. Louis office, it was almost harder to hear about all the fun they continued to have together after I moved away.


Since I left New York behind and returned to the Midwest, Ryan and Teresa have done the same.  Ryan is finishing up his second year teaching at a small college in Kansas, and Teresa relocated to Chicago last fall.  Since we're all in the Midwest, we thought we should have a little reunion, and this past weekend we did.  Dubuque, Iowa was home of the First Annual Former New Yorker Reunion Weekend.


You're probably wondering why we decided to go to Dubuque.  (So were Teresa and I.)  Ryan suggested the location, saying that it's known as the Sin City of the Midwest, due in large part to the casinos on the Mississippi River.  It also happens to be a fairly central location for all three of us, so knowing that we would make our own fun wherever we met, Teresa and I quickly agreed.  Of course, me being me, I immediately started finding random roadside attractions to visit along the way.  This is what my weekend looked like:

View Larger Map


Since Teresa was taking the train out of Chicago and Ryan and I weren't going to be able to pick her up until late Friday evening, we decided we should meet in the afternoon to see a couple of roadside attractions together.  After a quick look at the map I determined that the obvious place for us to meet would be Ryan, Iowa.  My Ryan quickly agreed and the plans were made!


I hit the road a little early on Friday because I wanted to make a stop of my own before meeting up with Ryan.  My drive took me through some beautiful, rolling hills and gorgeous farmland (No, seriously.  It was incredible.) in northeastern Iowa.  My only complaint about that drive (aside from a couple of dropped calls) would be that there was absolutely no place to stop for gas or to onload/offload Diet Coke, but I powered through and when I found a Conoco/IGA/Subway around 2 p.m. it was like a mirage, and I quickly pulled in to use the facilities and pick up a turkey sandwich.


Just south of my oasis in the farmland I saw this sign:

Channeling my youth and my love for Rose Nylund from The Golden Girls, I quickly pulled over to take a photo, amazed at my good luck.  Then I turned around and saw this sign:

I loved the little gnome, so I took a photo of it too.  (It wasn't until I uploaded my photos that I could read that tiny sign declaring St. Olaf the Home of the World's Largest Tenderloin!)  I got back on the road, excited to tell Ryan and Teresa about my little discovery, when about two miles up the road I remembered that Rose is from St. Olaf, Minnesota.  And I was in Iowa.  So, as if I wasn't disappointed enough already, I looked up St. Olaf, Minnesota and it turns out it doesn't even exist!  You probably already knew that though, so we'll just put this one in the books as one of Trish's Classic Blonde Moments.  (I'd recommend reading up on St. Olaf, MN, though.  It was pretty entertaining!)


Half an hour south of St. Olaf I reached my first destination: Strawberry Point, Iowa.  Home to?  The World's Largest Strawberry, of course!

World's Largest Strawberry

Strawberry Point, IA

I was excited about how big and realistic-looking it was, so I snapped several photos, then got back on the road.


My Ryan was running late, but aside from being his namesake I had another reason to visit Ryan, Iowa, so I traveled the forty minutes south to check it out for myself.  Since Ryan wasn't going to make it, I took photos of all things Ryan:

Ryan City Hall (Which looks suspiciously like The Giant Museum in Blue Earth, MN.)

Ryan Fire Department

The Ryan Pub

The Ryan, IA Post Office

Ryan State Bank

Scoreboard at the Ryan Baseball Field

But the real reason I wanted to visit Ryan, Iowa was this:

Re-Purposed Happy Chef
Ryan, IA

There is a chain of restaurants in the Upper Midwest called Happy Chef.  They're sort of like Denny's or Perkins and they serve breakfast all day.  Happy Chef restaurants used to have giant chef statues out front (a la Big Boy), but several years ago all but the one in Mankato, Minnesota (the first Happy Chef restaurant) went by the wayside.  Apparently Ryan, Iowa purchased one of the chefs and turned him into an umpire for their baseball field.

Here is a photo of the original Happy Chef statue in Mankato, which Ryan and I visited (and where we ate fried dill pickles) while he was in Minnesota last month:

Last Remaining Happy Chef Statue

Mankato, MN

As a bonus, while I enjoyed a self-guided tour of Ryan, I saw this dog standing on top of his house, barking his head off at me:

Dog That Doesn't Understand How Houses Work

From Ryan I headed to Dyersville, Iowa, home of The Field of Dreams movie site.  I got there nearly an hour before Ryan arrived, so after I wandered around a bit I sat in the bleachers and just enjoyed my surroundings.  I've always been a big baseball fan, but this is a truly special place.  It's quiet and beautiful and, quite frankly, out in the middle of nowhere.  You don't see a bunch of billboards leading tourists to it, so the few people you encounter there have planned the trip in advance.  It was so peaceful that I didn't mind spending a little quality time there.

Entrance to the Field of Dreams Movie Site

Field of Dreams Movie Site

Dyersville, IA

I waited until Ryan got there, then made him run the bases with me.  They let people play pick-up games there and I wished we would have known that ahead of time, as I would have thrown my glove in the car.  I'm sort of amazed at how few people I saw in the hour I was there, but at the same time that's part of what makes it so special.

From Dyersville Ryan and I headed to Dubuque to check into our hotel.  After taking a few minutes to settle in we hopped in Ry's car and headed south to Davenport, where we met up with Teresa and Cath (Teresa's mom) for a great dinner at Granite City.  I hadn't seen Cath in several years (She used to have me over for dinner, but she moved from New Jersey to Illinois just before I moved to St. Louis.), so it was great to catch up with her, and she was so sweet to pick up the tab for dinner.  On the way back to Dubuque, Teresa laughed until she was "crying horizontally" (She claims that tears were literally shooting straight out of her eyes.), and that pretty much set the tone for our weekend.

I won't bore you with every last detail, but there are a few details that you should probably know, and several photos that you should probably see.  For starters, Friday night Teresa played her first game of Blackjack, and on her first hand she hit 21.  Cha-ching!

On Saturday we were up early to grab a quick breakfast before our 10:30 pick-up for our wine tour.  We spent the day visiting local wineries, tasting local wines, oohing and aahing over the scenery, and trying not to vomit while the deathmobile wine bus raced through the windy, hilly, sometimes gravel roads of wine country.

Ryan Enjoying the View

Seriously, how gorgeous is this?!  That beautiful tree near the center is a pear tree.

TJ & T

At the Massbach Winery

Elizabeth, IL

Saturday night we ordered in Chinese food and watched the ridiculous Mets/Cardinals game.  (If you don't know what I'm talking about, it was a 20-inning game.)  I was bummed that the Cards lost, but seeing as we were celebrating Former New Yorker Reunion Weekend, it was only appropriate that the Mets win.  Anyways, when the game finally ended we headed to Cherry Lanes for a little bowling, where Ryan dominated, except for that one game where Teresa kicked his butt.  I was just there for comic relief.  There was much dancing, singing, and of course, there were pitchers of beer.

Beer.

I needed my photo taken with the big winner.

Oh, and at some point in the evening Ryan was texting with his friend Renee, who happened to be in town the night of my 24th birthday.  Apparently she misunderstood and thought we were celebrating my birthday again that night, and she sent Ryan this text:

Renee, you're the sweetest!  Unfortunately your memory is crap.

Sunday we slept in a bit, then checked out of our hotel and grabbed breakfast before exploring downtown Dubuque, which was actually pretty cute!

Dubuque Courthouse & Dottie's Cafe

We wandered over to the Fenelon Place Elevator Company, where we rode the shortest, steepest railroad in the world.

The Shortest, Steepest Railroad in the World

We liked that "Get In and Sit Down" is part of the instructions.  We soon found out why.

About to Ride the Shortest, Steepest Railroad in the World

Teresa & Ryan are ready to go to the top!  (They obviously follow instructions well.)

I took a little video of our trip to the top:

When we reached the top I discovered this tiny Elf Exit:

Elf Exit

And as our last stop before we headed home, we took a few photos at the Dubuque sign:

Masterpiece on the Mississippi indeed!

Iowa!

Oh, and as we headed for our cars to head home after a fabulous weekend of crying horizontally, we happened upon this tiny Statue of Liberty.  What more appropriate way to end Former New Yorker Reunion Weekend?

Former New Yorker Reunion Weekend 2010