THE ADVENTURE BEGINS

You might be wondering why I chose this title for a blog entry about a visit form my sister and her husband...stay turned and you will read about a simple train trip from Washington to Minnesota that turned into an adventure for them. Here we are getting the guest room ready for our visitors. The room has just some of the basics and I hope to complete it before the years end.

A basket of snacks...some homemade and a few store-bought. I am trying to develop a few signature snacks for my guests that are exclusive to the cottage

My sister sure enjoyed them. She is sensitive to lotions and fragrance so I felt a snack basket was better than a lotions and potions basket. I am working on a few special items that will be available in my lotions and potions basket ( a body scrub. a face polish, bath salt sachet,sea salt soak, and maybe a sugar and spice soap.)

We grew up with candy dishes so I like to have one or two available in my guest rooms. You never know when you might crave a sweet treat in the middle of the night.

This is the wall in the guest room I forgot to post before. I will be changing it to a possible white entertainment center and new flat screen TV, maybe a small desk on the left and a bookcase on the right..all white or maybe black. I am still looking at possibilities and trying to figure out what will best serve my guests.

We arrive at the train station at 8:45 am. The train was due at 5:14am. The beginning of the adventure. It started in Tacoma Washington at the train station where they boarded a bus not a train. There had been mudslides so their trip from Tacoma to Everett was by bus not train. This was not a good start. They were making the train trip part of their vacation because they only had a week, this was a big disapointment. This part of the trip is beautiful and goes along the water for a good part of the trip. I have taken this a few times myself. After waiting 3 hours in the Everett train station they finally boarded a train , with mixed emotions. They had a sleeper car so it began to look a little brighter. They had some really good food and this helped to make up for the first part of the trip. ( I think) They also had a full moon so this part of the trip turned out to be not quite as bad as the return trip home.

That bright light is the train which finally arrived at around 9:00 am almost 4 hours late. I had a very special breakfast to make, Caramel Apple French Toast with Thick Sliced Bacon, Orange Juice and Coffee. A signature Cottage Breakfast

I can't believe I almost cried just seeing them. They had a pretty good trip the rest of the way to Minnesota and we all went home to eat. My sister Jean and her husband Jim from Lakewood Washington...they live on American Lake so visiting a state with 10,000 lakes was interesting to say the least.

The Station in Saint Cloud Minnesota (where we live)

getting all the luggage and people into the van for the short trip back to the cottage

Enjoying the Caramel Apple French Toast and then off to see my childrens homes and families which will be my next post. We really had a good time. I think this may have started some of the family thinking about visiting us. After 10 years they are our first overnight visitors. It was so nice to have some family time and I think the food was pretty good too!!