Travel

Planned and Past

We’re Home

Windsurf 1Part of my long absence here was due to our vacation in the Caribbean. We left on Friday, Feb 23 – just ahead of the huge winter storm that hit our area that evening. Now we are home again with the ice and snow 🙁 , but we did get away for a wonderful, warm, sunny and relaxed week.

Above is a picture of our ship, The Wind Surf, taken from the beach at the small island of Mayreau. It was tiny as cruise ships go, only approximately 300 passengers and nearly 200 crew. Anyone who doesn’t like the huge ships with thousands of passengers might consider trying the WindStar cruise line.

Right now we are still unpacking, getting the photos organized, and trying to get back to our normal routine. In the next few days I’ll post more about what we did and saw on this trip.

RestaurantLast weekend we were visiting our friends, Janet and Bruce, in SE Wisconsin/NE Illinois. On Saturday they took us to a restaurant they had just discovered – La Petite Creperie in Woodstock, IL.

I must admit I was dubious as Woodstock is a rather small town in (mostly) rural NE Illinois. I was pleasantly surprised! The restaurant is located on the historic square in the center of Woodstock, in a beautiful building with a large patio for outdoor summer dining. The inside was cozy and beautifully furnished with a very French ambiance.

Bruce, who is French, had called for reservations and our table was ready immediately. We were lucky that the Beaujolais Nouveau 2006 was still available so we started with a bottle of that great wine.

For the main meal I ordered the braised lamb shank which was huge and perfectly prepared. Jan chose (I can’t remember the French name) a young turkey breast with an assortment of vegetables. Bruce had a dish that was a selection of three different sausages, venison, alligator and (another forgotten French name). Janet went with the fish of the day.

When the meal arrived there were many expressions of delight and everyone dove in. A little later there was much passing of plates amid comments like “You have to try this!”. No one had the slightest complaint about the food, the service or the atmosphere. Unfortunately, no one brought a camera to capture an image of this well-fed quartet.

We finished up (after a second bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau) with dessert crepes and coffee. Everyone was smiling and happy. We all vowed to return sometime in warmer weather so we could dine on the patio.

If you are in that area or just want to see a little more about the restaurant, here is their website. The have a partial menu listed on the website but they have many specials and frequent changes.