Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

Summer

A Fair day

I don’t have to say much. This picture pretty well describes our afternoon at the Carroll County Fair.

We started the day with haircuts, then lunched at Arthur’s Garden Deli, a must for our trips home. Oh, Arthur’s how we miss you when we’re gone. Isabelle ate a bowl of cream of potato soup herself. “I love crackers!” she exclaimed before we ordered her soup.

After lunch, it was off to Milledgeville for the style show. Isabelle’s MeeMaw made her a Dora the Explorer nightgown that she entered in the fair, and Isabelle had to show it off for judging. Paired with Dora slippers and a Boots monkey friend, she was the picture of cute. (Of course, I’m her mother, and I’m biased.) See for yourself.

Her outfit didn’t win. She got a participation ribbon and a package of fruit snacks. (Really, they could have just given her the fruit snacks and she’d have been happy.) But she enjoyed herself and is loving her new friend, Boots. Don’t worry, there’s not Toddlers and Tiaras in our future.

We explored a few more areas of the fair — a kids farm display where Isabelle completed “chores” typical on a farm and got a goodie bag when she was finished; the chicken barn; the cattle barn; and her absolute favorite, the rabbit barn. I’ve never been a big fan of animals beyond cats and dogs as pets, but after a walk through the bunny barn, I can see why some people are bunny people. Awfully cute.

Phil and I wanted to treat Isabelle to a fair-style treat, so she got her first taste of shaved ice. Lemon-lime, once again her choice. Although, she did eat about a third of MeeMaw’s blue raspberry shaved ice. Pretty sure she’d have eaten just about any flavor of shaved ice.

I know Isabelle had a great day because she passed out in the car on the way back to Dixon. That’s her sign of a good day.

Me, I had a great day because she did. The whole county fair thing is still new to me. I went to my first county fair when I was 22 and covering it for the newspaper, so Isabelle has me beat by 20 years. I didn’t grow up on a farm or around farm animals. I’m still learning to appreciate the camaraderie and fun of the county fair. I haven’t really gone to any fairs for fun, always for work purposes.  Not that it wasn’t fun to go, but I’m reminded of deadlines and tracking down stories, trying to make sense of breeds of cattle and chickens and pigs. (Jeannine, if you’re reading this, don’t make fun of me too much!)

I’m glad my daughter gets to experience farm life. She can join 4-H in a few years, and I think she will. My husband had great experiences with it. I never really knew it existed. I’m in new territory, but I think I’ll adapt quickly.

Lunch, ‘Dinner’ and the great outdoors

Isabelle and her daddy are sleeping in a tent right now. Outside, where it’s muggy. Meanwhile Mommy and Corban are in the cool air-conditioned basement of our bed-and-breakfast, lunch and dinner (aka Nana’s house).

Today packed a double-punch of summer fun — date day and camping in the backyard.

Phil and I dropped the kids off with their grandparents and headed to Sterling to eat at The Candlelight Inn. The Candlelight isn’t on our usual tour of food when we come home. Typically, we take a date night to Salamandra’s, but that restaurant is closed right now for kitchen renovation. So, we moved to plan B. Chicken George.

It’s been years since I’ve eaten Chicken George. And for those of you who don’t know what it is, I don’t know how to describe it, except to say it’s the best chicken strips I’ve ever eaten, and the Jan sauce is simply delicious and hard to duplicate. We’ve tried and it  never tastes quite like the original. It was a lovely sit-down lunch for us.

After lunch, we had some time to kill before the movie started, so we went to the mall to walk around. Little did we know it was Senior Showcase day, so the mall was filled with vendors and senior citizens. We ran into some friends and former co-workers. Unexpected, but fun.

Finally, it was on to the movie theater to see “Dinner For Schmucks.” A bonus, besides paying the matinée price, was the $1 popcorn and drinks. Rarely can I watch a movie without popcorn. I had high hopes for laughter during the movie. After watching two hilarious previews, I wondered if those would be the only laughs of the next couple of hours, but “Dinner” didn’t disappoint. My husband and I are sort of Steve Carell junkies in withdrawal this summer without new episodes of “The Office.”

We ended the day having a picnic/fire/campout in the backyard of my parents’ house. Brats, chips and dip, chips and salsa for supper. Pool time for the children. S’mores and campfire pies cooked on the open flame. Mmm, mmm, good. We’ll see how long the sleeping outside lasts for the 2-year-old and her daddy. If this experiment is successful, our next campout might actually be at a park instead of a backyard.