Mainstrasse Village!!

Last weekend I spent three whole days in Covington, Kentucky working at a gymnastic meet. My only wish that entire weekend was that someone would skip on over to Mainstrasse Village and pick me up some yummieness. Mainstrasse is a restored 19th century German neighborhood. There are shops and restaurants housed in renovated buildings that are joined by cobblestone walkways. This area is just too cute. All a Cincinnati family has to do is cross the 75 bridge into Kentucky and take the first exit. The one landmark you see from I75 is the above Chime Bell Tower.

This bell tower plays a 43 bell carillon hourly and presents a little puppet play of the folk tale "The Pied Piper of Hamelin". Bill and I had just visited this area in November and these pictures are from that trip.

The shops are fun and entertaining. I do hope that more will open and many of the ones in business now stay for a long time. We were able to spend time in a few but will definitely go back for more sight seeing and eating. Fun and relaxing.

One of my favorite shops was Strasse Dog. I know...Iknow...you all remember that I am not a doggie clothing kind of person, but this shop was full of fun doggie toys and treats, too. Plus, the adorable little corgi, Cowboy, was on hand to greet the customers. I think I spent a good 15 minutes with the little pup. Too bad he wasn't for sale. Really......too bad. I think he loved me!

Our favorite memory from that trip was the tasty, creamy, oh so delightful gelato from Europa!Let me tell you...before tomorrow comes....go to Europa in Mainstrasse and get some!! You will make me your new best friend for telling you about this gelato. Really. You will.
Creamy....yummy.....yummieness. I enjoyed it just as much as the ice cream from that famous Cincinnati ice cream establishment. Yes, the gelato was that good. Could become an addiction. See all that loveliness in the picture below? Gelato!

Just so you know, my wonderful Sir Bill stopped into Europa last weekend and brought me some gelato while I was working so hard at the gymnastic meet. I cried and I ate and then I cried again.

I think I'll get myself down to Mainstrasse again this weekend!

Lessons Learned from Birthday Shopping

Bethany's birthday is on New Years Day. It was a great birthday and having her birthday fall on this holiday has been fun. If not for a birthday celebration we would just be sitting around watching football and eating leftovers and never getting out of our pajamas. OK, we still don't get out of our pajamas.

The problem, however, is shopping for this birthday. I don't like to pick things up during Christmas because, well.......I feel guilty. I would feel like she was just receiving left-over Christmas presents. So, that leaves me with shopping the week after Christmas. Which is fine, unless a major obstacle comes up during that week. And this birthday........it did.

I, purchaser of most gifts for the family, came down with the stomach flu. By the time New Years Eve got here, I was able to stand up and walk but I had to enlist my parents to chauffeur me around. I felt like a baby asking my children's grandparents to crate me around but they were also needed because they hold the membership card to the most important store I needed to go to - Costco. And this is where the lesson in life comes in....

Don't Go To Costco on New Years Eve if You Are Recovering From the Stomach Flu!!

All the sample ladies were out in full force on this day and they must receive commission on items sold because they were Relentless!! It just wasn't enough that my poor pitiful almost throwing up self had to deal with the SMELL of the food; I had to listen to every little sample lady's plea to try HER delicacy......Asian salmon, barbecue beef, guacamole, fried dumplings, granola, chocolate cake, so much more and the topper........Three Bean Salad. (I get squeamish even now as I type that one). One thing I learned about these women - they are hard core. I just wanted to scream out, "Leave me alone or there will be a clean up in aisle 4."

Fortunately, that wasn't needed. With Grams and Gramps help we found Bethany's Pyrex and movie, a couple of other things and skedaddled out of there. I think my parents saw that I was turning green and wanted to avoid a scene. Because that would have been more than they signed up for.

The opening picture......the Pyrex. It was very much appreciated.