College Town Exploratory

I had a three day weekend!!!   We used it to visit the town where my eldest daughter will be attending college in the fall.  She needed to find the gas stations, taco joints, thrift shops, coffee shops, etc so she would feel at home and not get lost.  She did a lot of driving when we got there... napped on the way tho.

Let's see...

Friday.  We had to wait to leave town until Maddy and Meri got judged for their photographs for the county fair.  There were lots of blue ribbons (which are good!), a few orange dots (which are possible state fair good!) and a couple reds (which are not so good, because you might have caught the judge after a bad breakfast...)  As soon they got home from there, we hit the road.

We got there mid afternoon and checked into our hotel.  Maddy, Leon and I decided to explore a little while Robb and Meri relaxed a little from the trip.  We found a coffee/used book shop, which may be a good hangout joint for Maddy this fall if she can get over the fact that it's also a popular professor joint...  Maybe she'll get used to campus coffee.  Plus, she'll have her Keurig with her...

We also found a thrift store where Maddy picked up some necessary VHS tapes that she'll need to entertain herself with in between classes.

We went back and grabbed the rest, then drove around town and explored a little before supper at a fantastic German restaurant!  Oh MY, was that good!?!  

Leon didn't care for it much but really enjoyed the french fries.

On Saturday, we did some shopping at Target and Walmart, because you can't do that at home... **rolling eyes**  

Then, because it started raining, we decided to duck into their downtown indoor mall with Leon in the stroller.  However the mall doors were locked.  YEAH!!!  I couldn't believe it either!  The mall?  closed??  Robb went to get our car and the girls, Leon and myself ducked out of the rain into an antique store, where Robb wouldn't be caught dead.  The girls found some awesome jewelry and Leon grabbed at everything.  I think Maddy will be doing her Christmas shopping there.  The ladies there gave them discounts just for stopping in!

They also gave us advice on how to get into the mall.  Apparently the mall doesn't have much in it.  We got in on one end and walked through an abandoned mall...  CREEPY!!!  

Meri kept making references about zombies...  QUIT IT!  Found some desperate stores on the other end and decided to go to the car.  We walked underneath the mall through the parking lot back to our car.  Still creepy...  A few cars, but nothing else.

Hit Happy Joes for lunch, played the games and then attended a tour of the local brewery that makes our absolute favorite root beer!!!  

Leon got a kick out of the drinking fountains.  I could just see the water meter spinning while we were there...

We had to wait about an hour for the next tour to start, so after enjoying the peacocks,

 

 the guys played Bananarama in the courtyard while Leon practiced his throwing of tiles.  

 

There were lots of samples at the end. 

We had the root beer...  

Before the tour, we also explored through the museum.

 

Visited a few different thrift shops and between Meri and Maddy, brought back a few games to play that night at the hotel.  It was raining or we'd have attended a jazz concert in one of the parks.  Pass The Pig, Bananarama & Life.  FUN!  

The next morning, we attended a church that Maddy will most likely attend this fall, then a brunch buffet and then headed for home.

I could do with more weekends like this!