Girls' Day Out

Today I had a girls' day out with one of my favorite people.....My daughter! About once or twice a month, we try to save a day to go exploring together. I enjoy being a mom. I really do! But today it occurred to me that within the last year my MOM role has really changed. If you are a mom that has grown children...then you know what I am talking about. It's a gradual change. But like most things in my life, the full impact doesn't hit me until the final results are right in front of me. It was as if one day I was leading a shy little girl around by her hand everywhere we went and the next day, I am the one following her around while she chats it up with everybody in all of the stores while making major purchases...with her own money. If I allow myself to think about the little girl with banana curls that thought I was her whole world.... I will get misty eyed and start to miss her...but then I look at the woman she has become AND I would NOT want to miss knowing and sharing this time with her for anything!!! I not only love her...I really like the person she is. Anyway...one of the things we like to do is visit river towns and buildings with a lot of history. When we don't feel like going far away from our home town...we head 40 minutes northeast to a river town called Washington.

Today around noon, we jumped in my car with no particular plans. There must have been an accident on one of the roads, because there was a major traffic jam. To avoid sitting in traffic, I decided to take a short cut . First, let me say (to defend myself if for no other reason), there have been a lot of new roads built since I have wandered those particular back roads. I was kind of lost but I knew exactly where we were (if that makes any sense). Actually, I was in the vicinity of the farm that my husband grew up on. After I had made several turns and did some back tracking, I had to swallow my pride and admit that I needed directions. I called my husband to find the quickest way out of the maze that I had gotten myself into.

By the time we arrived in Washington, we were starved. One of the things that we try to do on our adventures is to find places that we've never eaten at and have lunch there. We also try to order something that we've never tried before. Today, we chose a Bed & Breakfast/Winery along the river front.

We ordered the Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Wraps, salad, & fruit. I had the Chicken Ranch Wrap and my daughter had the Southwestern Chicken Wrap.

I was served a nice cup of hot English tea.

This was our waiter.

(No, actually, we had a really nice young waitress. When she brought us our ticket, she gave us 2 delicious, warm chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven). This wooden waiter was in the room we were dining in.

The flags are by the river.

We visited the train station.

Then we went antiquing!

After a few hours, we left the river front and headed to where all red-blooded American females go----Kohls, Rue 21, JC Penney, etc....

As usual, I enjoyed our day out...but we'll talk later about the huge blisters on my feet that I earned today!