what a weekend!

As I write this post, I'm sitting on my couch, covered by the throw I knitted a couple years ago, sipping Bella coffee, and watching Charade, the next installment in my great movie rewatch. I have the day off, as I used incredible foresight to realize that after last weekend, I'd need a day off to recuperate!

Friday--I rushed home from work at 4:30, packed up, and headed over to my parents' house to pick up Val. After making two trips back to my apartment to get things I'd forgotten, we headed off for Indiana. We didn't take the normal route, though. Earlier in the day, I'd tried to search for Starbucks along the way, but Starbucks' website wasn't working right, so I tried to use Google Maps instead. When I typed in our starting and ending points, I was surprised to see a new shortest route pop up. Supposedly, by taking Highway 30 East until it runs into I-29 and then taking I-29 South to 680 East, we could cut 30 minutes off our drive. I was a bit skeptical, but I decided to give it a try. And it may have worked, if only the Columbus Starbucks would have been where Google Maps said it was. As it was, we drove around Columbus for about ten minutes before deciding to try to find coffee in Fremont. Val called her past and future roommate Jamie to have her google coffee shops in Fremont. She found one downtown that sounded promising ... except it closed at 5:30, and we got there at 7:30! We finally found a Scooters, but by the time it was all said and done, we'd spent over 30 minutes in Fremont, and we lost any time advantage we may have had by taking that route!

The rest of our drive was rather uneventful, though we did have to deal with rain and some intense fog. At 7 a.m. Eastern, we pulled into Grace. I got a kick out of watching Val and her roommates greet each other--lots of squealing, jumping, and hugging!

Saturday--After sleeping about four hours, we woke up to a delicious breakfast--pancakes, potatoes, scrambled eggs, bacon, coffee, and juice!

At one, I headed off for South Bend to see my college roomie Jen. We spent several hours downtown at Art Beat. Neither of us bought anything "artsy," but we enjoyed browsing the booths, listening to music, and admiring the sculptures. We met up with Jen's friend Peter, a photographer, and we served as models for a few shots. Recently, a bunch of sculptures by artist George Rickey were set up downtown; Peter told us to go look at one of the sculptures and talk about it. At first, I wasn't that impressed with the sculpture, but the longer I looked at it, the more entranced I became. I ended up enjoying the various sculptures more than anything else we saw at Art Beat!

After we were finished wandering around at Art Beat, Jen took me to The Chocolate Café, where we each bought a piece of cheesecake. I got the Dulce de Leche, which tasted remarkably similar to the caramel cheesecake I made earlier this year. (Maybe that’s what I should do with my life—make cheesecakes and sell them for ridiculous amounts of money!) Anyway, we took the cheesecake back to Jen’s apartment, where we sat and chatted while sipping delicious jack-o-latte coffee. This portion of the day was definitely the highlight of the trip!

I spent the evening with Val and her friends. I’m getting braver in my old age, and I sampled some of the edamame they made for supper. I wouldn’t call it my favorite food ever …

Sunday--We went to church. At Christ's Covenant. It was wonderful. I'm still processing, so that's all I'm going to say about that for now.

Following Papa John's pizza with the girls and a brief, delightful conversation with Val's friend Sproul about our mutual appreciation for Nathan Fillion, we were on the road again. Val drove all the way to Des Moines, and we got there in close to record time. In fact, some guy we passed on the interstate recognized us at a gas station and commented on how lucky we were to not get pulled over!

We were hoping to stop at a Panera just outside of Des Moines for supper, but they were closed by the time we got there, so we went to Dairy Queen instead. Val observed that the Sunday night crew must have been the B team!

Monday--At 12:15 a.m., we got home. I crashed nearly immediately and slept until 9:30. I have greatly enjoyed my day off ... it has been the perfect way to end a wonderful weekend!