Bayfield

Friday, October 14, 2022

Our friends, Jerry and Barbara, came to Bayfield for many years each from Eau Claire, and now have come from Traverse City, MI (their retirement home). Since we do not get to see them nearly often enough, we asked if they would mind if we would just show up at their up north vacation and they said to come join them. Today is Barbara’s birthday, so it was a great time to get together.

We arrived late last night and realized we forgot a number of small things. I seem to think if I am traveling by car that all the things I want to bring will somehow magically just be in the car. Of first importance this morning was the fact that I brought neither comb nor brush. Keith was looking at his phone map and suggesting places we could go to the buy a brush. First suggestion: a hardware store. I said no. He questioned me, pretty certain a hardware store would have a brush. I reminded him I wanted a hair brush not a paint brush. He suggested a Swedish gift shop. I said no. Again, he said he thought it was worth a try. No. He suggested another gift shop and I said, “don’t they have a grocery store? Grocery stores have lots of not food stuff.” Indeed, a grocery store was within two blocks, so I put on a hat and off we walked. I was concerned that I was going to buy a brush, when I have a perfectly fine brush at home. I decided to rationalize that this could be my traveling brush and it could live in the traveling stuff drawer with its traveling friends and I would never again not have a brush.

Obviously, I had snacked on Crunch ‘n Munch as soon as I had gotten up, because we had Crunch ‘n Munch. I remembered to pack Crunch ‘n Munch, but not a brush. So, as we walked down the cute main street of Bayfield, Keith was wondering what kind of bakery item he could get for breakfast at the grocery store and I was maxed out on sugar. He picked blueberry turnovers, while I picked a beef tornado – a sort of tortilla wrapped around some zippy beef – $1.29 of delicious.

They indeed had brushes at Andy’s Grocery. There were three – two with purple handles and one with pink. I thought purple right away, but pulled both colors off the rack just to be fair to each of them. When I saw the pink, I changed my mind. I was going for the pink. I asked Keith which color he thought I would get (because there must be a game component to all things), and he said purple. I said I was going to go purple, but turned on a dime and decided pink. He said, “I thought you would pick purple because then the next person would get a choice and you would want to be nice to the next person.”

Darn. I didn’t think of that. I put the pink one back, because he is right. I wanted the next person to have a choice. He shook his head and took the pink one. “The next person will now not know there ever was a choice. They will not even know they missed out on pink.” I felt okay with that. I really like the pink one.

We walked down the street, with me eating my beef tornado. It was so good. We paused as I quickly finished it, wondering if we should get me another one. I said if I had another, I wouldn’t be able to eat lunch, because I am totally lame about being full. Since lunch was a mystery, I chose to remain un-stuffed.

We met up with Jerry and Barbara after my hair was brushed. We shopped at a pottery (shouldn’t that be a potteryry?) and it was full of fun stuff. I was quite taken with a very interesting and unusual bowl that had been turned out of wood and resin. It was like nothing I had seen before, but I couldn’t figure out where we would display it, so I didn’t buy it. I was DELIGHTED when Jerry and Barbara bought it! How fantastic is that? We hadn’t talked about it at all and then there they were checking out with it. Such fun.

We went to lunch at the local ice cream shop. Jerry and Barbara have ice cream for lunch every Friday (at Moomer’s in Traverse City. They forgot to let the folks there know that they are traveling this week, and they go EVERY Friday, so Moomers people are probably quite concerned that they are unwell), so ice cream for lunch was the obvious choice. The thing was, I was absolutely craving another beef tornado. Lo and behold! The ice cream was next to the grocery store. I just dashed away and got my ‘nuther tornado. Such a successful lunch for everyone.

We saw many gorgeous trees on the drive up yesterday (before it became dark dark dark), but the trees here are beyond gorgeous. We went for a leaf peeping drive and I nominated myself to say, “Look at that!” “Look at those ones!” “Look at that!” “Look!” and “This is the best fall color year ever!” over and over. I did a great job. I cannot even tell you how gorgeous it was. I wish I could. I wanted to take a picture every 3 seconds. I know better than to take pictures out of car windows (ok, I took a couple), so I just stared and stared. I commented that the best trees were on my side of the car. Keith said he thought that as we drove out, he did think the better colors were on my side, so he thought the better colors would be on his side on the way back. Nope. Better colors on my side both ways. I am charmed.

We had an amazing dinner with Jerry and Mary, the owners of the Old Rittenhouse Inn, where we are staying. Jerry and Barbara know them (yes, two Jerrys and two Barbaras) and we just joined in on their dinner. Jerry and Jerry are charming and delightful and could tell stories all weekend and I would be entertained. We lingered at the table for four hours – Hurray!