A Real Holiday

We were lucky enough to get the Paos all to ourselves last Saturday (yes, those Paos), and I must say that a grand time was had by all.

We drove down the Wisconsin side of the Great River Road, on a beautiful, beautiful day. The Paos were nice and exhausted by an exciting day at the Great Minnesota Get Together (the state fair), so they didn't insist on canoeing or swimming down the Mississippi - thank goodness!

We stopped at many historical markers, watched many eagles, introduced the Paos to the joys of both root beer and root beer floats, shopped a couple fun giftie stores, visited kitties who live in a hotel, ate chicken wings at a pub,



drank spring water straight from the source,




and the lovely Mrs. Pao rode on a carousel.


As if that wasn't enough, the generous Paos also gave us a wonderful bag of goodies! You can see some of them (the Canterbury cloth, the knitting magazine and Ewe Row Counter) at Jeanne and Chris' blogs - but here are the things specific to us:




I lost my struggle for patience and turned the beautiful springlike green & yellow skein into a ball, but the other skein (pink! I love pink!!) is still intact - and treacle toffee, beautiful (and much needed) salad servers, and a wonderful Neil Gaiman book for the Vampire (he is more than halfway through, in spite of a very busy schedule, and threatens to bite me if I don't read it once it's done).

Thank you, Paos, for a truly wonderful weekend excursion - we had a blast!