Life on the farm

We finally had a chance to get out during this Lent Season and enjoy a local fish fry. We haven’t been doing too good roaming around looking for new restaurants so I was glad we finally had a chance this weekend. Now I’m using the words ‘local’ kinda loosely. See we were headed to Minnesota and about 100 miles round trip. No big deal and honestly I thought it was even further than that.

Some of our friends have told us that the Sweets Hotel in Le Roy Minnesota was a great place to eat and especially go there if you want some good fish. So it didn’t take us much convincing and off we went.

After doing a little history investigation on the place, I found out that it was constructed in 1898 by William Sweet. And through the years it changed hands many times and it the current owners are working on having it restored. Since I had suggested this place, I was a little nervous if it was a good place, but once we walked into the building I knew it was a good choice.  It was pretty cool! We parked on Main Street and walked into the building from the main door and found out that most of the locals were using the back entry door to come in. But I was glad that we used the door that we did because we walked by the open wooden stair case that led up to the 8 restored rooms upstairs. With a full crowd, we really got our food fast and our friends were right – it was really good fish! So with our bellies full and the fire place going beside us in this old 1800’s building – life was pretty good. Yup, it’s a good time of the year to be a ‘Roamin’ Catholic’

Here is a picture that I found on the web that shows the outside of the hotel 

Yes, it all started with a little wine….

Kyle and I went to the local winery about 2 weeks ago and was on a mission to pick up some wine for possible gifts. No big deal right? Yea, that’s what I thought also. But it just so happened to be the time of the year when the owners of the winery was having a garage sale and had a bunch of things that they were selling of their Aunts estate. Cool.

So we had picked out our wine and decided to take a gander at the treasures for sale. When  we walked into the room there was the usual things for sale – books, doilies, household things, and then jewelry. OK, now I’ve always said that I’m probably reincarnated from the 40’s and 50’s and when I saw something shiny on the table from that period, well I just knew it had to be mine. What was it? Well it was a gold watch that was pretty cool. At this point I didn’t know if it worked and so I offered the lady $2.50. This was a fair deal because what happens if it doesn’t work? She was $2.50 ahead and I could be down the $2.50 if it doesn’t work.

Well of course I could’t get it to work so I brought it to a local jewelry store to get the scoop on it. It didn’t take them long to say that it was broke and to clean it the cost would be around $50. They also mentioned that it was a cheaper version of a Bulova watch and if it wasn’t an heirloom I should probably pass on getting it fixed. Wow, that was honest salesmanship if I ever heard it. So of course I said that I just liked watches and took a chance.

The next step happened so fast I’m not sure that I am totally clear on just what went down. The salesperson said that she had a Bulova watch that she got at an estate sale and she said it was so cool. Did I want to see it? Well heck Yea!

So out she comes with this totally awesome watch. As she was showing me this watch I was thinking to myself, I have my mother-in -laws watch and I really love that watch too. But this watch? It was so different and I’ve never seen one like it before. I stood there almost drooling and I’m sure at this point the salesperson thought that I was hooked. But I mustered up all my energy and said that I really didn’t need it and should be saving my money instead. Well she talked about layaway and I smiled and said that I probably will be back.

Now jump forward to the next week. In the morning I was digging around for something in the little car and came across the garage sale watch. No big deal right? Well later that afternoon I had a hair appointment and when I had parked the car I was right by the jewelry store again. At this point I knew it was fate.

After my hair cut and as I was walking to the car I looked up and thought to myself, it sure doesn’t hurt to look again at that watch now would it? So I went in.

The salesperson looked up from the cash register and smiled at me and went in the back room to get the watch. When she put it on my wrist I knew that I was going to buy it. OK, to be honest I knew I was going to buy it when I walked across the street  to the car 🙂

So as I’m talking to her about it and said that it would make a great watch for our son’s wedding and would look great with any dress that I would wear she gave me the most puzzled look. I guess she hadn’t come across too many people looking for justification for purchasing something. But if I was going to wear a watch, this one would look great!

Now at this time the jeweler was coming out to see what was going on and when I asked him what was the value of the two small diamonds in it, he slid his jewelers glasses over his face and then smiled. When I asked him what it ended up to be he smiled and said ‘not too much’. How funny is that?

Well needless to say I am the proud owner of a Bulova watch with two tiny diamonds in it from the 50’s. Yup that’s true.  I even was shown how to wind it from the jeweler and he reminded me that I had to wind it every day.

And to think it all started with just a little wine…