OK – it’s not politically correct to say “Girl’s Getaway” and some of the women I was with would object.  Just between you and me, though, this post is about a Girls’ Getaway.  Don’t tell anyone, OK?

July 20 to 23, I went on my annual summer trip with my college friends. We have been doing this for awhile.  It feels good, somehow, to spend time with a bunch of women whom I have known for 2/3 of my life.  We all lived in the dorm together way back in 19 __ (fill in the year of your choice), and we still remember how to survive together 24 hours a day.  Better than that, we know a lot of the really important stuff about each other, so conversation flows well.  There were reasons we were friends back then and those reasons are still valid.

This week’s trip was to Lake City, Minnesota on beautiful Lake Pepin, which, by the way, isn’t a lake.  We rented a condo right on the shore.  This was the view from our living room.   We had planned to go out on that boat, but it rained the day we wanted to go.  That was OK.  We enjoyed looking at it.

Our trips are very causal.  Normally, we have no plans.  We get up in the morning and sit around in our jammies talking and drinking coffee.  Well, everyone else drinks coffee.  I drink Diet Coke.  You get the picture, though.  Eventually, someone gets hungry and we get ready and go get something to eat.

Some days, we have breakfast.  Other days, we start with lunch.  This year, we found a wonderful little restaurant called Chickadee Cottage right in downtown Lake City.  They have delicious, freshly prepared and slightly unusual food served in a very lovely setting.  They also have a great waitress who was very friendly and helpful to us.  We ate our first meal of the day there every day.  That’s Loretta over there on the left.  She has her purse in the chair with her.  She must have been hoping to eat soon.

One day we ventured to Redwing,  a few miles north of Lake City.  Redwing is known for many things, among them Redwing Shoes, which may not be much of a fashion statement, but which are widely accepted as being the best work shoes around.

There’s also Redwing Pottery.  The pottery has become very collectible.  Besides the new pottery being made today, many places have historic examples on exhibit and you can buy them in the antique stores.  Over the years, the pottery works has turned out some interesting pieces.

Redwing is home to the historic Saint James Hotel.  We have talked about staying there on one of our trips, but we really like having a place with a private living room where we can sit and talk.  In a hotel, you have to sit on beds if you gather in someone’s room, and you have to get dressed if you gather in the lobby.  Or you probably should, anyway.  That means that we look for somewhere other than a hotel. The St. James is a beautiful place, though, and we enjoyed a tasty dinner there on the outdoor deck.  That’s Loretta and Joanie on the right.  You can easily imagine that you are at a lovely outdoor table at a bistro in Paris or any other beautiful city while sitting on this deck – that is, unless you look over the edge at the backs of the buildings on the street and the parking lot.  We just didn’t look in that direction.

That’s me on the left.  I look pretty happy to be sitting down.  We had been doing some pretty heavy duty shopping during the afternoon.  We found a Hush Puppies outlet store.  They have fewer shoes now than they did before we arrived.  I think I even had on a new pair of shoes in this picture.  Of course, you can’t see my feet, so you don’t care about that, do you?

We fought the heat and humidity with nice cold beer and Bloody Marys.  I had Rosemary Parpardelle with shrimp for my meal.  It was delicious and the shrimp was cooked perfectly.  I would definitely have it again!   Consider dining at the St. James if you have the opportunity.

That’s Cathy and Millie on the left.  We all look pretty content, don’t we?

 There we are below arriving back at the condo with our purchases.  It looks like we gave the city of Redwing quite an economic boost!  Left to right, that’s Millie, Cathy, Loretta, and Joanie.  We had 6 pairs of shoes and several pieces of clothing to show for our day.

The next day, we headed to Wabasha, a few miles to the south and another interesting place to visit on the shores of Lake Pepin.

Wabasha was home to the Anderson House, another historic hotel, which is, sadly, not in operation at present.  It’s the oldest hotel in Minnesota, a very beautiful building, and is on the National Registry of Historic Places.  None of that is really why the hotel was famous, though.  It was definitely a hotel for cat lovers.  When you checked in (Dan and I have stayed there), you were taken to a room full of kenneled cats, and you could choose one to be your companion for the night.  It was a strange little custom, but one that I really liked since I am a cat lover.  I don’t suppose that it would have been a good place for a person with an allergy to cats, though.

I did some snooping and peered into the windows of the Anderson House.  The tables are still all set up for dinner.  The front desk looks ready to check you in.  I was very sad to see this interesting place closed.  I hope someone buys it and reopens it.  I hope they have cats, too.  By the way, I wonder what happened to all of the ones who were there?

Many of you have seen Wabasha even though you may not know it.  Grumpy Old Men and Grumpier Old Men were filmed there.  Cathy found this bench and could not resist sitting down with Walter Mathau and Jack Lemmon.  I’ve heard that Mathau and Lemmon really enjoyed the time that they spent in Wabasha.  By the way, if you saw either of those movies, there was no artificial snow made for them and they really do put fish houses out on Lake Pepin and drive around out on the lake in trucks in the winter time.

We had supper at a Mexican restaurant in Wabasha.  It was unique because it was the only Mexican restaurant I have ever seen that seemed to have no Mexican people working there.  Everybody looked very Scandinavian.  I expected them to break out the Lutefisk.  (If they had, I would have run for the hills!)  The food was good, though, and there were Hispanic-looking people eating in there.

In the evenings, we sit around drinking wine and talking.  We talk a lot of politics.  We tend to agree, so we don’t have any lively debates, but for some of us, it is the only time we talk to people with our same political views.  We occasionally talk religion.  We all like to read and Cathy is a retired librarian, so we talk about what we have been reading and what we plan to read in the future.  Sometimes we talk about our husbands, but not very often.  This time is about us, not about them.   We talk about food.  This year, we had a treat.  Karen, my college roommate, called and talked to all of us one evening.  She lives in Albuquerque, NM, and none of us have seen her in years, but we have been wanting her to come back and make one of these trips with us.  She says she will definitely come next year.  We are going to hold her to it.

Well, that’s what girls do on a trip.  At least, that’s what my girlfriends do.  Most of the time, we don’t do much of anything, but we do it very well!