Heading home again

After a great weekend, we spent evenings this week at more great eating places. Monday nite, we ate leftovers from Sunday at the Mermaid. Tuesday at PF Chang's, probably the tastiest oriental eating establishment I know http://www.pfchangs.com/ , Wednesday at Claddagh's Irish Pub at the prompting of a Spartan vet at the U of I. http://www.claddaghirishpubs.com/ Oh! Wow! I had corned beef and cabbage and Georgia had Shepherd's Pie. We again both had enough for lunch the next day. Not only was the food great, but the Irish music took me back to when I remember sitting in my grandpa Herron's "living room" with "uncle Roy" and others, all sitting in a circle, each with a different instrument. We would play a song (me on my ukelele) then they would pass their instrument to the next person and play another jig or reel, etc. (I of course held onto my trusty Uke.. After all, I couldn't have been over 8 or 10.. I might need some help on dates here from my sister or aunt Pat or Donn.) Mom and Dad loved to square dance. Sometimes dad would "call" the dance. I remember going to at least one "Grange Hall" several times. When the hours got late, we kids would sleep in the coats on the bleachers. As I got a little musical, I would sit in the band with my Uke and strum along as with the Herron clan, watching the fingers of the guitar player to know which chord I should change to. Later on we kids joined in the dancing. What wholesome exercise we got back then. I know that people still square dance, but line dancing and clogging seem to have replaced much of it. http://www.dosado.com/articles/hist-maca.html http://www.ceder.net/ That brings us to Thursday nite. This was one of the most pleasant evenings we've had along with the most original meal. Dr. Russ Stickle, a retired radiologist and his wife, Dr. Julie Stickle, an active clinical pathologist at Michigan State invited us out to their 80 acre farm east of town. Since Julie had to work until quite late, Russ prepared the meal of fresh garden salad including sugar snap peas, rice, and venison steaks on the grill, with root beer floats for dessert. These root beer floats were phenomenal because the root beer was from the local Michigan Brewing Company in Webberville and wasn't your average A and W. http://www.we8there.com/rest_detail.php?busid=8650busid=8650 The meal and the conversation was great, but the highlight of the evening was meeting Dolly, Chucky, and George. George took a liking to Georgia and I'm afraid I have a rival now for her affections. As you can see he certainly is more "buff" than I. Oh, I didn't tell you. Dolly, Chucky and George are Percherons. George and Chucky weigh approximately a ton each. Here is a picture of Dolly and Chucky, a couple of George, and one of George and Georgia. We got to look over their pasture fields with a few cows, calves and a bull surrounded by a nice woods and flanked by a just harvested hay field. Eat my heart out!!!! Well, if we can't have it, we're glad such a nice couple as the Stickles can enjoy this little bit of heaven on earth.

That brings us to our last nite in the Lansing area. Although we weren't blogging last fall when we were here, you may remember that Georgia's favorite place here is the Italian place in the Eastwood Towne Center http://www.shopeastwoodtownecenter.com/ is Bravo http://www.bravoitalian.com/ . We ate there twice this trip, but last fall it was 3 times. I might also remind you that the Eastwood center is really great in all. The Hampton where we are staying is just across the highway (127) from this mall. All of the eating places mentioned here except for the Stickles' are in that mall, along with Mitchell's Fish market, Smokey Bones, Johnny Rocket, Champs, etc. As usual, the meal was great and a fitting "last meal" in the area. Two great places we missed this trip, but enjoyed last fall are Clara's http://www.claras.com/lanwalk/lanwalk2.html A converted train station with great decor and food and a quaint little "hole in the wall" italian place downtown where the radiology faculty took us last fall, called Emil's http://www.10best.com/Lansing/Restaurants/Best_Restaurants/Emil%7Cs_Bar_&_Restaurant_Lansing_MI_BID_52359/

Although most of my ravings are about non-chain establishments, there are a few chains here that seem to rise above the average "same place/different name" eating places. We'll probably stop at the pie company on our way out of town http://www.gtpie.com/locations/tc.php. There is a little story about the Grand Traverse Pie Company. Last fall while we were at the Parke County, Indiana Covered Bridge Festival which we hav attended for the last 25 years or so, http://www.coveredbridges.com/ Georgia's neice found this store in Terre Haute where we were staying. Seems there used to be one in Indianapolis. Good Pie, etc. So last Tuesday, the radiology folks here invited me to their "Pie Rounds" where they discuss some medical topic around the fireplace before work ... at the Pie Company. I took Georgia there and we ate there a couple of times last week. Of course, we're not sure when that will be because, although we have been here 2 weeks, there are some "last minute" things we have to do.. Again we really enjoyed our stay in East Lansing. Although I still can't root for Sparty, the people I worked with and those we have met are really great. I guess we can be rivals in sports, but friends on a daily basis.