To Princeton

I woke up to a beautiful sky outside the window.

We were planning to head to Greg's Dad's house (and his dear wife Karen's!)

and we all decided to meet for an early dinner at Davanni's (yay for pizza!)

Greg and my Dad went out for an interesting and tasty lunch.

It's lovely!

After that, we lazed around and chatted.  It was a perfect morning.

Here's what I wore:

t-shirt: Target
skirt: Michael Michael Kors (Amazon)
bag: ABage (Amazon)
shoes - eventually: Target ballet flats

Yay!  We found it, and we were right on time.

I got a delicious gluten-free crust with green olives, black olives, mushrooms, onions . . . 

and missing pineapple, which I request, but which was accidentally left off.

Greg's Dad, Rick, and his wife, Karen:

Still wearing the same outfit!

We drove over the Mississippi River on our way back to their place.

This is how much of mid-Minnesota looks:

We could've bought sod or cow manure . . . 

There's their wonderful home!

And their wonderful cat!  She doesn't particularly like new people, but she's huge and fluffy and wonderful.  She loves to be brushed, so I lured her in by holding the brush and promising lots of brushing.   

Greg's Dad has gathered and restored some gorgeous old sewing machines.

And they have a fantastic humongous garden with lots of tasty veggies and fruit.

LOTS of raspberries! 

Plenty of flowers, too.

The next morning, was Sunday, and I got a text from one of the other 1:1 volunteers saying that one of our students was asking where I was.  I took a picture with an apricot tree in the yard to show him I was thinking of him! 

We had a relaxing morning and ate a delicious lunch at home.

Here's what I had . . . 

The plan for the rest of the day was to visit lots of Half Price Books stores!

The clouds were skittering across the sky.

Here was my outfit for the day.

I'm surprised how many different outfits worked with that little light blue kitty bag!

blouse: Maison Jules (Macy's)
skirt: Max Edition (Amazon)
bag: ABage (Amazon)

There's the first store!

Oops - a hardware store!

After shopping, we went to Donatelli's, a restaurant near where my parents used to live and near where I grew up.  I looked at the other patrons and thought that perhaps any of the many middle-aged people in there could have been someone with whom I went to junior or senior high school . . . 

This restaurant is well-known for having a "stage" above the booths along the wall that is always decorated with Pink Panthers in various scenarios.  It looks like this one was having a picnic.  They change the scenes regularly.

I wasn't very happy with the menu, though . . . 

the pizzas were VERY expensive, and the gluten-free options charged by the topping.

I chose the grilled vegetable salad (which was still sort of expensive from my perspective for a pile of veggies) AND they charged me extra for switching the roll to be gluten-free.  

It tasted great, though!

After that long day with lots of activity (and lots of time in the car, which is often a little rough on me), we decided on down-shifting on Monday.  We stayed up late Sunday evening watching "Forged In Fire" on the History channel - FASCINATING! - and stayed in bed longer Monday morning after that.  I did a little reading and we had some good time chatting.

Greg helped his Dad with some computer stuff, which I'm sure was very helpful!

Later that evening, a big storm rolled in.

Karen and I had been watching something or other, when the signal was lost.

The men had been working on computer stuff in the shop,

but they made their way in, and we enjoyed the quiet and the dark together.

Greg got his guitar and played soft beautiful music for us.

Rick and Karen got out wine and crackers.  It was fantastic!

What a fun experience!