Monday, March 14, 2016

Early St. Patrick's Day Celebrations


I hope my readers had a good weekend. Travalon and I started ours off with a fish fry on Friday. We went to Bridges Restaurant on a nearby golf course, and it was okay but nothing too special. However, maybe I should try something else on the menu – they had quite a variety of fish available on Fridays, and possibly something else would be tastier than what I ordered, which was the “healthy” choice.

Saturday morning there was “Breakfast with the Bunny” at Benvenuto’s, which was heavily advertised in our neighborhood. It is a fundraiser for local food pantries and aimed at kids, with balloon animals and Easter baskets, but they do allow adults in, although we didn’t get any of the fun stuff. I did get a hug from the Easter bunny, or at least someone dressed like it. The coffee at this breakfast was not too good, so we got some good stuff from the Coffee Gallery and then hit the road with Rodney, driving to Mineral Point. Travalon loves the little Celtic store there, and we bought English tea and homemade soaps, then we went on a hike along the trail that goes to Monroe. It was a beautiful day, and lots of ATVs and other walkers were out on the trail. I have never seen a bicycle on it, however. We had a late lunch at Brewery Creek and then checked out a little town called Linden that is supposed to be even more Cornish than Mineral Point. It just looked like a typical little town, but it did have a very old Methodist church. In the evening the guys had “Steak Night” at a vegetarian restaurant because it is Lent, and also to accommodate Prairie Man, who always has to get the one vegetarian dish at the steak houses they usually frequent. OK Cap and I went to an early St. Patrick’s Day party at the Nau-Ti-Gal, with green beer and “shamrock shake” shots and a very loud, sort of Irish band. After Travalon went to the Chocolaterian and One Barrel Brewing, he joined us as well. We did call it a night kind of early because of Daylight Saving Time. I wish they would quit with the time changes. Either go with Standard Time or Daylight Saving Time, but don’t keep changing it on us!

Yesterday it rained all day, so we didn’t get to go on another hike. Instead, Travalon and I went to the Celtic Cultural Center’s annual St. Patrick’s Day party at the Brink Lounge, with much more traditional music than the party the night before. They also had a couple of Irish dancing schools perform, and I thought how much I would have loved wearing those cute dresses as a little girl. True Confession: I loved my Catholic school uniform. My Irish teacher organized the whole thing, and I went partly out of interest but also because I wanted to support her, not being sure how many people would show up. As it turned out, the place was packed, so our presence was not necessary, but my Irish teacher did seem happy to see us. I also saw a lot of other people there that I knew, and we didn’t know the couple sitting next to us, but they were very friendly so we got to know them. They have been to Ireland five times and are going back again this summer! No surprise, this morning I woke up from a dream about visiting Ireland again, although weirdly enough at the end of it Travalon and I went to the Faroe Islands, which are part of Denmark, and we saw lots of friendly miniature animals there, not just horses but rhinos and all kinds of things. I wonder what that might symbolize?

Famous Hat

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