We got home late Sunday night and I must say I had a pretty good time overall. First of all the Amtrak was so fun! I'd definitely take it again. Next time though, I'd make sure we were heading somewhere with some sort of public transportation or at least a place to rent a car. We walked everywhere all weekend, because that was pretty much our only option. Okay time for a recap:
FRIDAY
My mom & dad picked me up at 5:30 Friday morning, then we picked up my grandma and last, but not least, my aunt. We caught the Amtrak at Union Station and from there traveled to Jefferson City. In Jefferson City, we had to switch to a bus because they were working on the tracks. We arrived in Hermann, MO about 12:30 that afternoon. We made the long trek up a hill to our B& B only to discover that check-in isn't until 3:00 and the office is closed. We made a couple of phone calls and finally the owner found a place to store our luggage until check-in. Then we started walking. We headed to Simon's on the Waterfront for lunch. Yum! I had a pulled pork sandwich and french fries and I wasn't disappointed, of course I was also very hungry. We only had snacks on the train and even though my aunt brought stuff, after trying the "only 1 point" muffins, I decided to stay far far away from her snacks. Next we visited the Hermannhoff Winery. That was really neat. We tried a few different wines and bought a couple to take back to our room with us. It wasn't like a wine tasting you see on TV though. This was them pouring you a little plastic shot cup of wine and you drinking it. There was no smelling or swirling. Oh well. So after that and a quick walk through some shops we headed back to the B&B. It was still only 2:15, so we decided it was time to just rest. At 3:00 on the dot my aunt was checking us in. We had reserved a suite for the weekend, but the box-like room we were in could hardly be called a suite! There were two beds, a desk, a TV, a mini-fridge, & a bathroom. Everything was dusty, the lampshades fell off the first time we turned on the lamps and the carpet was disgusting. At that moment we decided to spend as little time in our room as possible. After putting our stuff in our "suite" we escaped for some shopping. We went to several different antique type stores. Some that were really cute and others that were just dusty and old smelling. And then we found the Good Buy store. I think it was a screen printing store, but they had several other things. Some just plain weird, but the clerk was a very sweet old lady who gave us our dinner tip for the night, El Ranchito for some yummy Mexican food and the best margaritas in town. I think they were the only margaritas in town, but oh well. They were still good. After dinner we headed back to the B&B for the nightly marshmallow roast. We met several of the other guests and stuffed ourselves with marshmallows and the wine we bought earlier that afternoon. Now, I know what you are thinking....margaritas, wine, & marshmallows?? YES, but it gets worse. After awhile we started to get bored so we put grandma to bed and headed to the local Eagles lodge. We had a couple beers and my mom & aunt played pool. It wasn't long before one of us started feeling bad, and it wasn't me for once. Unfortunately it was my mom. I think we overdid it. And that was pretty much the end of the night for us.
SATURDAY
The next day, my mom still wasn't feeling good so we let her sleep in and went over to the main part of the B&B for the wonderful breakfast. Long story short, breakfast sucked! After that is was time for more shopping. We headed back to one of the antique stores and I picked up a Christmas gift for my mom. It turned out to be a good thing that she wasn't there. :) Then we went back to check on her and she still wasn't ready to get out yet, so we headed to the Arts & Crafts fair. It was huge and there were a ton of people there. It probably took us 2 hours to get through it. I bought a Christmas ornament and some homemade jelly & mustard and my aunt bought us all cute keepsake things for the weekend. After the craft fair we headed down to the Pamida. My mom compares Pamida to TG&Y, if you remember those. Anyway, one of the guests at the B&B told us not to buy anymore wine at the wineries, because you could get it at the Pamida much cheaper. So we went and stocked up! By the time we made it back to our room, my mom was feeling better so we all headed to the Stone Hill Winery. It was a very long walk...we stopped several times for my grandma to rest (this was about the time we started cursing the lack of car rental services). We finally made it and were so hungry that we went straight to the restaurant, where they told us it would be an hour and a half to get a table. So we put our names in and headed to the gift shop for some snacks. My aunt & I also decided to take the winery tour and since my mom still wasn't feeling great offered to sit with Grandma. Of course, no sooner than we bought our tickets for the tour, they could seat us. It had only been half an hour. We were too hungry at that point, so we skipped the tour and had dinner. After that we headed back to the B&B and settled down to watch a little TV. The next thing I knew, they were all putting on their pajamas and by 7:30 all three of them were asleep. I tried staying up to watch TV, but my mom kept waking up and telling me to turn it down. When it finally got to the point that I couldn't hear it anymore I gave up and went to sleep too. It was 8:45.
SUNDAY
So then it should be no surprise to anyone that they were all up at 5:00 Sunday morning. I woke up about a quarter to 6 because they were all getting ready. So I took my turn in the shower and then we waited for 8:00 to get there so we could have breakfast. We were the first ones there. Breakfast on Sunday was much better. I think someone else did the cooking and we filled up on quiche, sausage, waflles, & cinnamon twists. Oh, and lots of strong coffee for me. After breakfast we checked out of our room & took my mom to the craft fair to show her what she missed she bought a couple of things and since we were there so early it only took us about an hour to get through. At that point we still had about 5 hours to kill before we had to board the train so we walked and shopped a litle more. We visited a candy store and picked up some yummy treats and then went to a coffee shop. It was about lunchtime again, so we went searching for something to eat and decided to head back up to the Hermannhoff Winery because they had some Oktoberfest activities that afternoon. Really, it was just a guy with an electric accordion playing some not very polka music. We had a nice lunch there. I had yummy potato pancakes. And then we left and walked some more! Finally we decided we were tired of walking and went back to the B&B, picked up our luggage and headed to the train depot. We sat & waited for about an hour. We finally boarded the train and were happy to find out that we wouldn't be riding a bus at all on the way back. We made it back to KC about 9:15 and I got home about 10:30.
I was still tired yesterday and I didn't do much of anything after work except a little bit of laundry and watched TV with Doug until he went to work. Then I went to bed too. I didn't even watch the Bachelor yet and I'm sorry that I missed your call. I really do need to talk to you. I just need to do it when Doug's not here and with him not going in until 9:15, it's makes it kind of late now. :(
So that was my trip. It was a nice weekend, but it's even nicer to be home! I'll post some pictures soon.
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