Apple Fest: Day 2

As if all the activities on Day 1 weren't enough, we had the parade on Day 2! Following a breakfast of apple fritters, we headed downtown for the festivities!

In keeping with parade tradition, the town mayor (or, here, the Village President) leads off.

One of at least a half dozen restored tractors that drove in the parade.

These girls had mastered the parade wave! This float was sponsored by the Snowmobile Club.

Kickapoo Laughing Queens - a group of ladies in old prom dresses and wigs having a riotous time. I went to their party on Saturday night where we had cocktails and rummaged through the costume supply!

Laughing Queen Kim did a spoof of Sarah Palin and rode in her own car. "Jenna" and "Barbara" are in the front seat.

Last but not least were the horses. This one did all sorts of jumping and bucking down the parade route.

Apple Fest: Day 1

We traveled to Gays Mills, Wisconsin (home of Jason's employer) this weekend for their 50th Annual Apple Fest!

Gays Mills, Wisconsin (pop. 625)

The old mill museum on the Kickapoo River.

The Kickapoo has flooded the town twice in the past year.

Jason starting on his run.

Saturday started with the 2-mile run and walk. Jason placed 9th overall and 2nd in the men's 30-39 age group. I was able to take this picture since I was just walking.

After the run/walk, we all went over to the Congregational Church for the pancake feed. We enjoyed pancakes with apple syrup, applesauce, and apple cider.

Later in the afternoon, there was a 2-on-2 basketball tournament at Coach Hines' house.

Notice the apple being dunked!

Saturday evening brought preparations for Sunday's parade! A separate parade posts will be coming soon.

Rachel's Wild Adventures

You all know how much I love Wikipedia these days. Well, I was looking for pictures for this post and found an interesting fact:

"The White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), also known as the Virginia deer, or simply as the whitetail, is a medium-sized deer found throughout most of the continental United States, southern Canada, Mexico, Central America, northern portions of South America as far south as Peru, and some countries in Europe. "

Well how about that! It's called the Virginia deer! Now I know why we have them in our yard for Rachel to chase when I am half (mostly) asleep in the mornings and don't have the energy to hold her leash when she gives chase. . . .Luckily, deer run faster than Rachel. We've seen them several times here at our home and at the park, so she's given chase to several but never gets far. I obviously didn't have my camera on me (or my eyes open) on our morning bathroom break, but here's a representative photo. I don't think our deer had horns of any sort, but I mostly saw it from the back end as it headed down to the creek. This is probably a picture of it meeting up with its friends.

Whoa! Anyone else see that funny little dog up there?

Update (9/23/08): Rachel now takes us straight to the far back corner of the yard each time we're out - hoping to see her deer friend. We did see him about 6 p.m. last night, which got her very excited! No such luck this morning.

Wicked!

I'm in Chicago this week for a mutual fund industry conference. Between all the technical seminars, there are quite a few opportunities for networking and seeing the sites!

Tonight was an open night so two others from Kansas City and I took the opportunity to see the musical Wicked! This 2 1/2 - 3 hours does a great job filling in the back-story about the Wicked Witch of the West and all of the characters of the Wizard of Oz story.

I didn't read up before we went, so I'm not sure if Glinda is supposed to be the good witch version of Elle from Legally Blonde, but ours was! It was all pretty hilarious!

Back on the Bike

The tears and disappointment of last month have been replaced by the pure joy of having a new toy! The paperwork was finally all processed and I rode my new bike home this afternoon!

My new 2009 model

My old 2004 model

I'm going to tell myself that whoever stole my old bike actually needed it for an important purpose. Yep, let's go with that. I do have to wonder if he/she/they knew it was a "women's specific design" bike. The blue and white don't really scream "girl bike." This year's model is decidely more obvious thanks to the lavender swirls on the cross bar and the brand name being written in a cursive font!

Jim Thorpe, PA

On Sunday afternoon, we dropped the dogs off and drove over to Jim Thorpe, PA, for lunch and a tour of the Asa Packer Mansion. Jim Thorpe is a quaint little town that at one time was home to 13 millionaires -- at the turn of the 19th century! You can read the wikipedia post about how Jim Thorpe got its current name in the 1950s. It was named Mauch Chunk, PA until then.

Melanie and Lisa attempt a self-portrait from the front porch of the Asa Packer Mansion.

Asa Packer Mansion which overlooks the rail line down in the city.

(Picture from Wikipedia site)

St. Mark's Church as seen from Asa Packer Mansion porch.
When the Bishop was in town for services, he stayed with the Packer's in their home.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Thorpe,_Pennsylvania

Hickory Run State Park

From the website below: "The 15,990-acre Hickory Run State Park, Carbon County, lies in the western foothills of the Pocono Mountains. This large park has over 40 miles of hiking trails, three state park natural areas and miles of trout streams. The Boulder Field, a striking boulder-strewn area, is a National Natural Landmark."

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/parks/hickoryrun.aspx

We took the dogs out hiking on Sunday morning. The day started out a beautiful 65 degrees and sunny!

Rachel and Lydie share the backseat on the drive to the trail.

The Boulder Field stretched as far as we could see. We stopped for a picture but did not hike across.

Lydie and Rachel on the trail

Most of the time Rachel was leading me with Lydie right behind me and Melanie behind her. We did stop to try for a group shot, and this was the best we could get! Two happy dogs and two happy dog moms, though!

Lackawanna Coal Mine

Saturday afternoon was rainy and overcast thanks to the remnants of Hurricane Hanna hitting even up in Pennsylvania. But we had the perfect solution! A tour of an old coal mine - you don't need sunshine to journey a mile under the Earth!

This mine is near Scranton, PA, so I got to see where "The Office" is supposed to take place. The city actually had to move the original Welcome to Scranton sign off the highway and place it in the local mall, since too many fans were pulling off to photograph it - a traffic hazard since there is virtually no shoulder along that road.

These tracks lead down into the mine.

Our ride to get down the tracks

We rode down into the mine until it leveled off. Then we got out and walked through various chambers of the mine hearing about how hard and dangerous the work was -- and dark! There were lights in the mine due to the tour, but it was still dim. The tour guide turned off the lights once for effect and just had his helmet light on to demonstrate how little light the workers have. The mine has anthracite coal, which is the hardest type of coal. Most anthracite coal is in Pennsylvania. Mining started here in 1860 and stopped in the 1950s.

http://www.lackawannacounty.org/attractions_coalphoto.asp

Hurricane Hanna

We have now survived our first hurricane!

Hurricane Hanna came through here on Saturday with lots of rain. Our Alexandria neighborhood - Huntington - has a creek that divides it from the interstate, so it is prone to flooding. Apparently the neighborhood starting two blocks east of us was even evacuated! There's even a video of it on washingtonpost.com where a woman is trudging through knee deep water. Our condo building doesn't appear to have had any problems though.

I say, apparently, though, because none of us were home this weekend to see it. Jason flew to London on Friday for a week of work meetings, and Rachel and I took a road trip to visit a friend in northeast Pennsylvania at the edge of the Poconos. When we left early Saturday morning it was misting. More posts and pictures of our fun weekend will be coming!

Oreo Cookie Cake

I tore this recipe out of a Kraft Foods magazine last year and finally made it this weekend for a Labor Day lunch with friends. Fantastic and delicious - and super easy!

Ingredients:

1 box of devil's food cake mix

1 pkg reduced fat cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups Cool Whip Light, thawed

12 Oreo cookies, coarsely crushed

Prepare and bake cake mix as directed on the box - baking in two round cake pans. I always substitute apple sauce for the oil in my baked goods and it makes them super moist and a little healthier! I actually noticed this time that there were instructions on the box to do that and slightly alter the water and cooking time.

Beat cream cheese and sugar together until well blended. I used slightly less than the 1/2 cup of sugar that is called for - hey, every little calorie reduction helps right? Once those are blended, fold in the Cool Whip and Oreos.

If you're not ready to assemble and eat promptly, refrigerate the filling. I made the cake and the filling both a day ahead and then assembled as we were walking out the door.

To assemble your Oreo Cookie Cake, place one of the cake rounds on a plate, cover with all of the filling and place the second cake on top! Easy, easy, easy!

The official recipe also called for a chocolate glaze on top of the cake, but I thought that was over the top and didn't do it.