Our Anniversary Trip and What I Found There

  Ken and I celebrated our wedding anniversary on the 16th of September. We took a short trip,only about an hour's drive from here. We had agreed not to spend too terribly much money,and instead try to put back what we might have spent for a bigger blowout next year on our 30th. Ken didn't really stick to that though. I went cheap and he instead spent money on me. So before we left we exchanged gifts. I'll be showing you what Ken got me in an upcoming post.
  We really did have a nice time on our trip. It didn't start off so well though. For one thing, I'd been having an on and off head ache for a couple of days. When I woke up the morning of our anniversary, I felt fine. Then the headache started to 'on' again. Not long after I got up I also began to feel really sick. I think it may have just been the heat,which also may have been what was causing the headaches. We don't have air conditioning, and the temperature had been in the 90s (Fahrenheit). I sat around a little while until I felt better. It made us have a late start though,and we had an hour drive to our bed and breakfast.

  In spite of the late start we did stop a couple of places on the way. (An antique store that is NEVER open when we pass was actually open that day.) But we got there in plenty of time. We met our hosts and picked a room. Here's the one we stayed in.

Hey look.There was a doll in our room. That makes this a doll post,ok?

I forgot to take a picture before I took the bedspread off. The air conditioner and electricity (lights,fan),were some of the few concessions to modern life. None of the rooms have a TV.

 

  Plus we had use of this, I suppose you would call it a dressing room, and our own bathroom.

 The whole house was beautiful,decorated with antiques. Just the type of place I could move in and stay!

There's another doll on that couch,just outside our room.

Our hosts showed us all three rooms so we could pick,but I went with my original choice. But I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the inhabitants of one of the other rooms.

  We hadn't eaten since breakfast,so we needed to sort out somewhere to eat. Our hosts suggested a few places. Finally we decided on the Malabar Inn or Malabar Farm Restaurant, the restaurant near Malabar Farm. There was really only one meal on the menu that I, as a vegetarian, could eat,but it was something I like: pasta primavera.So that was ok. (Since I have had dietary restrictions because of my LPR it has been even harder trying to find something to eat. I can't have tomatoes, which I LOVE,or tomato based foods and sauces,spicy foods, chocolate,onions, or citrus,all of which I also like,or caffeine. (That means I can't even get my usual veggie sub at Subway because it has tomatoes,onions and hot peppers. That leaves me with lettuce,pickles,and cheese!) A call was placed and a reservation made. We drove off through some pretty countryside.
 

It was a 20 minute drive, which isn't too bad. It's very pretty there, so we chose to eat out on the porch area.

  We were seated and  given menus. That's when I noticed that their pasta primavera had marinara sauce. Now, pasta primavera always comes with Alfredo sauce,or at least a white sauce of some sort. If you Google 'pasta primavera' images,not ONE picture on the whole Google images page shows it with red sauce. But I asked and was told they could switch the marinara sauce for the garlic cream sauce that comes on some of the other dishes. Great! The mushroom soup that was highly recommended by the female half of our hosts,(who said she is a vegetarian,but not a strict one.She doesn't worry about things containing animal products. She just doesn't eat actual meat.), ended up being made with chicken stock. (I would have guessed beef broth,but I figured it was animal based.)
   Ken found something he wanted.So we're all set. We're drinking our water,when the waitress comes out to say they are out of pasta. Huh?! How can a restaurant be out of pasta? Well, that was the only thing on the menu that a vegetarian could eat, unless I wanted to get by on salad,which, thanks to my LPR, couldn't contain tomatoes, onions, or spicy peppers.And in spite of what a lot of people think, just because I'm vegetarian doesn't mean I want to have nothing but a salad. Once in a while a 'big salad',as Elaine Benes would say,is alright,but not when I have to take all the good stuff out, and not when I haven't eaten all day.
  So we left the pretty scenery and went on into the next big town. Due to my diet limitations we ended up eating at the only place we could get a full meal that I could actually eat. The Olive Garden. Whatever people say about The Olive Garden,I like it. It wouldn't have been Ken's first choice though.
   By now my headache is really getting to me. I ordered my favourite, the cheese ravioli,which Ivy and I always request with the sun dried tomato sauce instead of whatever it is they usually put on it. (Oh yes. It usually comes with marinara.) There is very little actual tomato to it,so I gave in and had it that way. (I have been very good except for the tomato I got at the flea market a few weeks ago. I had waited all summer for a home grown tomato, so even though I'm not supposed to eat them,I thought one tomato wouldn't make much difference. Ha! I paid the price for a couple of weeks! My cough came back. My breathing wasn't as easy. I was choking on water again,and I could not stop having to clear my throat.) It's mostly cheese. I did find one minuscule speck of actual tomato in it,and I did NOT eat it. Somewhere in there Ken remembered that Olive Garden was still doing their 'buy one take one' special on the ravioli. Now we've been through this before. The 'take one' meals are made up ahead of time and frozen,so you can't request anything special. So instead of the ravioli I ordered fettuccine Alfredo as my 'take one'. As we are finishing up the waitress comes by to say they are out of fettuccine Alfredo 'take one' boxes! Is it my day or what?! But then she says they will make one up especially for me. Hey! Since they are making it especially anyway, can they make a ravioli with sun dried tomato sauce?   Sure,she says! Yay! So this is actually working out better! Then in a minute she comes back to say they are out of sun dried tomato sauce! My luck was holding out. I gave up and got it with Alfredo sauce.
  After that we had to go buy a nightgown because I had forgotten mine. I was just batting 1000 that day. At least by now my head is feeling better. We bought some dessert, since The Olive Garden didn't have a single dessert I could eat except maybe an apple thing, which I wasn't in the mood for. Everything had either chocolate,coffee, or lemon,none of which I can have.
  We took our peanut butter pie and went back to the bed and breakfast. Luckily we had use of the fridge because we took the rest of it home. As we are settling in,I notice something. There's an amazing thing in our room,and I didn't even notice it when we first  got there.

Can you spot it?

  It was a miniature version of the full size spinning wheel in the corner of our room!

I'm thinking ahead. I photographed it with a pen so I can show you what size it is!

 I have seen a lot of these in 1/12th,or dollhouse scale,and I have a few,but this one is bigger,more like 1/6! I'm pretty sure it's at least Skipper sized.

I become obsessed with this thing. Does Ken think they'd sell it? How can I talk them into it?  Do I have something they'd trade for it? I have a creamer or something that matches the do dad on the other dresser.

I took a picture so when I get home I can check if they are a match!

Maybe they'd trade for that?! I'm desperate! I keep saying to Ken,do you think I should ask them if they'd sell it?
  Then it gets worse when I check and find out IT ACTUALLY WORKS!

 
You can pump that little treadle and the wheel spins! If it were strung properly the other little parts would move too!

I don't know what it's called, but that U shaped part spins too.

Well, the next morning we go down for breakfast. Ken beat me down there while I was getting dressed. I'm thinking that's a little rude, not waiting for me,but then,there was food at the other end of the journey so I shouldn't be too surprised. The owner,whose name is also Ken,(So,to void confusion,I'll call him Other Ken.),cooks us breakfast and we all talk. When we are finished eating I have to ask Other Ken about the spinning wheel. I preface by telling Other Ken about the horrible luck I had all day the day before. I'm thinking maybe he'll take pity on me and sell me the spinning wheel. Unfortunately Other  Ken says he and his wife bought the spinning wheel during a trip to Gettysburg,so they wouldn't want to let go of it. Awwww. Cue sad Charlie Brown music.

    So Ken (mine) and I spent a little time on the porch,where there were rocking chairs and ferns. Unfortunately,the sunshine of the day before had been exchanged for rain. Then we drove downtown to check out an antique store. Other Ken told us about another one that had miniatures,but of course, this was my cursed holiday, so that store was closed the day we were there.
  I had been telling Ken that antique stores were never going to have anything good for a good price anyway,and what I really wanted to do was find a junky little store in a small town. That's where you find the good stuff. We were trying to remember the name of such a couple of small towns we had visited a couple of years ago. We sort of worked out an idea of a route we might have taken when we found them. So when we left the bed and breakfast we started out that way. We never did find either of the small towns with the cool shops we had been to before. We did visit a History of Photography exhibit at a small town museum. At one point we took a wrong turn and ended up in a tiny town that literally had only one street. I turned around to retrace our way,just past a bait shop,which meant I had to pass it twice.There was a junk store next door! It looked closed though. I suddenly decided to go into the bait shop and see if there was an entrance to the junk store in there. Why would there be? BUT THERE WAS!
  The bait shop was run by a really bored looking guy who was sitting at the counter reading a bait magazine. He grudgingly turned the lights on in the junk half for us. Anything he was asked about got a sigh and a crabby disinterested answer. Usually his answer about prices was,"Whatever. I don't care." I found this.

I need to take it off the base and replace the giant spool on top with one of a more appropriate size. I think I'll also try to remove the separate piece of wood below that black handle so she can get her legs underneath.

It's no spinning wheel,but it's pretty cool,and definitely 1/6 scale! 

...and when you wind it up it plays "Buttons and Bows". The treadle is supposed to move as the music plays but it's not working.

   The counter guy's reaction to price questions on this was, "...It looks like a cheap piece of junk to me." This guy was a great salesman.
  Ken told me I "might want to look at that case". I thought he meant the showcase where Baitman was sitting. But he actually meant these cases:

  They did contain some interesting stuff.I didn't do a super detailed search so as not to seem so interested that Baitman would think he should charge me a lot for them,but it looked like there was a possibility of some vintage stuff hiding in there. But Baitman didn't care what we gave him for the stuff,because,as he put it,"I don't care. It's not mine.I don't know who brought it in." So we took the lot. It included the two cases, which were full of all this stuff.
 

A fairly recent Teresa, a couple of older Barbies, Magic Moves Barbie in her original clothes,Brooke Shields and her clothes ,Fashion Fireworks Barbie,Ken,another older Barbie, and Lady Lovely Locks.

Where does this blue stuff come from?

The Bionic Woman's shoes!

Brooke Shields (her original clothes were there too,remember.),and Fashion Fireworks Barbie. You might have seen mine HERE.

Ken needs an arm repair. Lady Lovely Locks even has her Pixie Tail.

Magic Moves Barbie,(The rest of her clothes were all there too.) There are Brooke's clothes.

I have seen this track suit before.Who does it belong to?

I know the pink and white gingham skirt is Barbie, and Ken's jacket is tagged,but if anybody knows who any of the other stuff belongs to,please let me know.

I think the navy blue flowered dress is Barbie Best Buy,and the shirt in the bottom left corner is Barbie. But what about the other stuff?

And also included in the stuff was this unopened Miko doll...

 ...and this Barbie motor bike in it's box.

  Eventually my head ache came back again. By the time we stopped for dinner on the way home I had a horrible headache and was feeling sick because of it. I felt better after eating. By the time we got home it was pretty late and we were tired. We still had to take a picture of our cat Mow to message to Ivy at college. We have had to send her a picture of him every day since she's been gone to college out of state,and she begins every day by messaging both of us with "Mow?" But before we got to that, Ken had one more surprise for me.  We had barely gotten in the door and I was ready to feed the cats and do litter boxes and go to bed. We were already on the phone to Ivy. As he talked to her he laid a bag out in front of me and said,"Open that." I had no idea what was going on,but I opened the bag.

The spinning wheel! Now that's a sweet husband!

He tried to make me think he had stolen it for a second. Then he explained that he had talked to Other Ken about the spinning wheel before I ever got down to breakfast. (That's why he didn't wait on me.)  He still won't tell me how he talked Other Ken out of it or what kind of deal he had to make. Other Ken sure had me convinced. He had been telling us he was an actor,(He does one man shows and played President Harding for a C-Span special years ago.),and he certainly did an excellent job then!
  Next time we'll see what I got from Ken before we left.