The Queen's Day Trip

This is your intrepid court reporter (court.  Queen.  get it?) with the high/low lights of the Queen's recent road trip.

HQ (Her Queenship) had been wanting to see some of the country surrounding her world.  A day road trip was in order.  Diane would drive the big black SUV and princess would go along, too.  HQ spent some time researching the area they planned to cover (one of her favorite things.  researching.) and came up with what she thought would be  a reasonable trip.  It would include antique shops, garden centers, a festival billed as 'vintage', food of course, and even a thrift store (another one of her favorite things).

As luck would have it, it was a beautiful day for a road trip.  Clear and sunny but only about 60 degrees.  A little wind.  A scenic highway winds along the eastern side Lake Michigan and all the trees are in full green leaf.  The little -- admittedly tourist oriented -- towns are old and billed as historic and charming.

First stop a town called Three Oaks where an old factory has been turned into a collection of stuff.  Most of the stuff was very nice quality and fairly unique, if a little over priced.  Passed by a vodka brewery (thinking we might come back, but it is, after all, only 10 a.m.).  On the main street is the thrift shop.  This actually produced a couple of nifty things.  Something for all.

By this time, Diane is squeaking about being hungry so we troop into a fun looking little cafe/dinner house a couple of doors down.  Menu looked good but a little heavier than what we were wanting.  HQ ordered an iced coffee to go.  The door opened onto a small raised cement platform - which they all obviously had to traverse to get in.  Just as HQ pushed open the door, princess overstepped slightly and stepped on the back of HQ's shoe.  They both laughed and HQ turned slightly to say something cute to princess.  Well, that wasn't smart.

Picture it:  Slow motion.  HQ takes a step totally forgetting the 'step' and slowly rolls down the step, onto her right hip, right elbow hits next and coffee becomes Vesuvius.  Next to hit was right shoulder, then head hits advertising sandwich board before resting on cement sidewalk.  HQ tries to maintain her dignity while lying on the sidewalk.  Princess yelling.  Diane had been watching from just inside the door and comes running, also yelling, "Are you alright?"   Hmmmmm.  Taking a quick body inventory HQ says she thinks so.  Doesn't think anything's broken.... Getting up with Diane's help is still tricky but there is a chair right there!  And wonder of wonders  only a little bit of the coffee spilled and not a drop on HQ!

Result?  Slightly scraped and bleeding elbow, large lump in pretty colors on hip and very sore muscles.

Slight pause.

Next stop the Blackbird Vintage Fair.  A tad misleading but neat stuff.  'Designer' priced, but interesting.

Heading out on what are now back roads we pass - almost - a yard and garage sale sign.  Woooops.  U turn.  Tricky.  But Diane is a wonderful driver.  After following the country road - admittedly a very nice drive - for a while and seeing no evidence of sale, Diane notices another sign and turns to follow that.  Another sign pointing down a dirt driveway to Karen's Flower Barn.  Interesting outside but we have no idea what the inside will be like.  But being the curious sort, we adventure in.  OH MY GOODNESS!  This is a wonderland of every imaginable and some previously unknown types of dried flower/grass etc.  ever.  Wonderfully displayed.  Attended to by - we assume - Karen.

The problem was how to limit what we wanted to take home!  HQ has a thing for dried lavender and there was some imported from both France and England and some just recently harvested from Karen's own farm.  Bingo.  There is no way to adequately describe this little barn so I'm going to put her website here and you can see.  This little accidental excursion turned out to be the most outstanding thing of the day.  Practically worth a drive just to get there.

This gets us to lunch.  A place called Fitzgerald's in the town of Sawyer.  Good food actually on the gormetish side.

By now the day has pretty well passed.  We make a couple of more little stops and Diane garners a piece or two of her rare glass pattern.  Then we head home.  Again a beautiful drive.  Mostly on back roads.

What a wonderful day.  And HQ has the bruises to prove it.  The other 5 towns and numerous spots will have to wait for another day.

Signing off for now, your
ICR (intrepid court reporter)

www.karensflowerbarn.com