Today Greg and I did one of our favorite fall activities: visited the Great Pumpkin Patch in Arthur, Illinois. Mom and I first discovered the Pumpkin Patch back in 2007 while I was going to school at EIU, and now it has become a regular fall outing. It was the
perfect fall day today! Today as I was eating my traditional pumpkin ice cream cone, we were remembering that last year when we went to the Pumpkin Patch it was
freezing outside. But today it was sunny and 85 degrees.
I loved this little pumpkin house.
Here we are in front of Noah's Arc--filled with pumpkins and squash instead of animals. We loaded up on pumpkin butter and pumpkin bread, so we should be prepared for my yearly pumpkin fix. (Greg has already had to make me some pumpkin ice cream because my pumpkin fix started earlier than usual this year.)
And, of course, no trip to Arthur would be complete without swinging over to Flesor's Candy Kitchen in Tuscola--home of the BEST REUBEN IN THE WORLD! This is my favorite lunch: a chocolate Coke, and Flesor's special Reuben featuring warm, red cabbage instead of sauerkraut. Mmmmmmm. It was a yummy, yummy day. Today's advetures provided a much-needed break from Lincoln Home craziness. I'm pretty sure that place gets crazier every day. One of the rangers has started eating acorns off of the ground (maybe that would be okay if they were out in the woods, but I've seen the Springfield homeless people do some weird things with acorns). And the other day I almost started an international conflict with China. It was such a busy day, full of school buses, public tours, etc., and we had a group of 38 Chinese people show up wanting to go inside the house. Of course it was my luck to be stuck at the Visitor Center when they came. Their group leader and I talked in circles for about 15 minutes while I tried to explain why they couldn't go inside the house without a reservation. Finally I thought he understood, but then he went outside and asked several more rangers if they could see the house. Those rangers said no, so he came back in and talked in circles with me for another 20 minutes! Finally they left, but they said they would be back on Sunday (sorry to the rangers who worked on Sunday!). On Saturday afternoon I was working on some things in my office when I got a call from Kyle at the Visitor Center. He was mumbling about something, and then all of a sudden he said, very clearly, "Emergency!" right as the phone cut out. The phone literally died. I then looked outside and saw a fire truck at the Visitor Center. So I ran outside and learned that the Visitor Center had to be evacuated because the power had gone out, the boiler in the boiler room had overheated and started spewing smoke, and the Visitor Center had filled with carbon dioxide. And of course all of this happened at the busiest time of day. We moved our Visitor Center operations (handing out tickets and Jr. Ranger books) outside, and people kept coming up and asking us if they could go into the Visitor Center to use the bathrooms. We would say, "No, there are poisonous levels of carbon dioxide in there." Then they would seriously say, "So . . . I can't go in?" NO, YOU CAN'T GO IN! Silly people. This past week I also had some fun dinners. On Friday I met up with my grad. school buddy Laurie who was down in Springfield (from Chicago) for an archives seminar at the state capitol. It was so great to see her! She thought my Lincoln Home stories were funny (and disturbing). On Saturday Greg and I went to this really posh restaurant in Springfield called Augie's Front Burner with our friends Matt and Melissa. Greg had won a gift certificate for Augie's at a golf tournament earlier this year, so our $150 dinner was free! So it's been a fun and interesting week. I just have a little over a month left at the Lincoln Home before I get canned (they are, as usual, "out of money"), so I'll try to rack up as many interesting stories as I can before I leave. Next Monday is Greg's and my big #2 wedding anniversary, and yesterday was Mom and Dad's big #37 anniversary!!
Today Greg and I did one of our favorite fall activities: visited the Great Pumpkin Patch in Arthur, Illinois. Mom and I first discovered the Pumpkin Patch back in 2007 while I was going to school at EIU, and now it has become a regular fall outing. It was the perfect fall day today! Today as I was eating my traditional pumpkin ice cream cone, we were remembering that last year when we went to the Pumpkin Patch it was freezing outside. But today it was sunny and 85 degrees.
I loved this little pumpkin house.
Here we are in front of Noah's Arc--filled with pumpkins and squash instead of animals. We loaded up on pumpkin butter and pumpkin bread, so we should be prepared for my yearly pumpkin fix. (Greg has already had to make me some pumpkin ice cream because my pumpkin fix started earlier than usual this year.)
And, of course, no trip to Arthur would be complete without swinging over to Flesor's Candy Kitchen in Tuscola--home of the BEST REUBEN IN THE WORLD! This is my favorite lunch: a chocolate Coke, and Flesor's special Reuben featuring warm, red cabbage instead of sauerkraut. Mmmmmmm. It was a yummy, yummy day. Today's advetures provided a much-needed break from Lincoln Home craziness. I'm pretty sure that place gets crazier every day. One of the rangers has started eating acorns off of the ground (maybe that would be okay if they were out in the woods, but I've seen the Springfield homeless people do some weird things with acorns). And the other day I almost started an international conflict with China. It was such a busy day, full of school buses, public tours, etc., and we had a group of 38 Chinese people show up wanting to go inside the house. Of course it was my luck to be stuck at the Visitor Center when they came. Their group leader and I talked in circles for about 15 minutes while I tried to explain why they couldn't go inside the house without a reservation. Finally I thought he understood, but then he went outside and asked several more rangers if they could see the house. Those rangers said no, so he came back in and talked in circles with me for another 20 minutes! Finally they left, but they said they would be back on Sunday (sorry to the rangers who worked on Sunday!). On Saturday afternoon I was working on some things in my office when I got a call from Kyle at the Visitor Center. He was mumbling about something, and then all of a sudden he said, very clearly, "Emergency!" right as the phone cut out. The phone literally died. I then looked outside and saw a fire truck at the Visitor Center. So I ran outside and learned that the Visitor Center had to be evacuated because the power had gone out, the boiler in the boiler room had overheated and started spewing smoke, and the Visitor Center had filled with carbon dioxide. And of course all of this happened at the busiest time of day. We moved our Visitor Center operations (handing out tickets and Jr. Ranger books) outside, and people kept coming up and asking us if they could go into the Visitor Center to use the bathrooms. We would say, "No, there are poisonous levels of carbon dioxide in there." Then they would seriously say, "So . . . I can't go in?" NO, YOU CAN'T GO IN! Silly people. This past week I also had some fun dinners. On Friday I met up with my grad. school buddy Laurie who was down in Springfield (from Chicago) for an archives seminar at the state capitol. It was so great to see her! She thought my Lincoln Home stories were funny (and disturbing). On Saturday Greg and I went to this really posh restaurant in Springfield called Augie's Front Burner with our friends Matt and Melissa. Greg had won a gift certificate for Augie's at a golf tournament earlier this year, so our $150 dinner was free! So it's been a fun and interesting week. I just have a little over a month left at the Lincoln Home before I get canned (they are, as usual, "out of money"), so I'll try to rack up as many interesting stories as I can before I leave. Next Monday is Greg's and my big #2 wedding anniversary, and yesterday was Mom and Dad's big #37 anniversary!!
1 comment:
That does look like a fun pumpkin patch! I should search one out to go to. I love Fall :)
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