a peek inside: Locally Grown!

When Gary and I were living in Minneapolis, I kept thinking how nice it would be to come back to Decorah to celebrate our 1YR anniversary. Though we moved back, I still thought it would be a lovely little getaway. Thus, in December or January, I booked a room at the Hotel Winn using the Locally Grown package they were offering through April 2012. Not only was the timing perfect but here is what came with the package:

1. One King Room (with a fridge & jacuzzi!)
2. $40 to use in Alberts
3. 2 free beers from the Tap Room
4. A coupon for a packet of seeds from Seed Savers
5. $15 towards lunch at the Water Street Cafe (aka Oneota Co-op)
6. A free 11x14 matted Story People Print (worth $30 a pop)

All of this for $175 (including tax). Peeeeerfect.

7. Made even more perfect by the accent I purchased along with it...chocolate covered strawberries.

Now that our staycation is over, I keep wishing we could do it over and over again. We had such a good time. Here's a recap of our little weekday getaway :)

The days and weeks leading up to our stay at the Hotel was a bit overwhelming to think about. It's such tight quarters where we are currently and there's ALWAYS someone or some dog around. No privacy.

This. was. privacy. Well, except for the adorable little (&loud) girls that stayed in the room next door. They were cute so it didn't bother us one bit.

We checked in around 3:45p on Thursday March 22 after we both got off work and ran some errands. We picked up some movies at Wal-Mart that we wanted to watch but decided to walk to get our wine later because the weather was so nice. The very moment we decided to go to Fareway though, it started to sprinkle. We made it to Fareway with no problem but you can guess how it was when we needed to walk back to the Hotel. Yes, it was pouring :) It actually was really fun to walk in the rain! It reminded me of our first trip to Chicago and we did the same exact thing. It was fun then, and it was fun now. Probably because we still had time to redo our hair and dry out :)

Our dinner reservation was at 5pm so we headed down to the Tap Room a little early to pick up some beers. Gary decided he didn't like or didn't want the tap beers they had so I got one now and picked up the second later. Surprisingly, I really liked the Mill Stream Amber one (I should know the name but can't remember at the moment!)

We wanted to get a lot of bang for our free bucks so we ordered conservatively in Alberts; spinach artichoke dip, entree caesar salad with chicken, Albert's hoagie; orange juice; We had so much left in our $40 budget that we ordered my FAVORITE bottle of wine, Falesco Sangiovese.

After dinner we attempted to take a bubble bath in the huge jacuzzi. It would have been fine if I hadn't completely overflowed the tub with bubbles. When they give you directions for how much to use, I suggest following it. :)

After the bubble fiasco we hankered down to watch our movies, drink wine, and eat those delicious strawberries.

My goodness were those strawberries good. We decided that the ones with the regular chocolate were better than the white chocolate but you won't find me complaining!

The first movie we watched was the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It was incredibly well acted and really interesting but I couldn't help how tired I was. We had been watching for what seemed like 3 hours and it had only been an hour. The movie was 2 hrs and 20 mins at least. Sadly, I didn't even make it through the first movie. I always seem to catch Gary when he's asleep so it repaid the favor :)

After MANY lovely hours of sleep we woke up and finished the movie. I definitely recommend it but be aware that there are some really disturbing scenes that you may not want to watch. No you probably won't watch. Despite that, it was a great movie.

Our next stop after checking out was Agora Arts for our Story People print. There were stacks and stacks for us to go through and despite all the funny ones I found one of Gary's choices won. He's such a sap ;)

Then it was off to the Co-op. I tried a new panini and I've got to say I'm hooked. I got the New Yorker - pepperoni, mozzarella and a fresh tomato paste sauce on sourdough bread. Perfect. Gary got his usual BBQ chicken with swiss and ranch on sourdough bread. To top it off, we spent $14.90 so only owed ZERO dollars! The best part was probably the little baby that sat down next to us with her family. Well, her family sat her down but anyway. We overheard later that she was 3.5 months old. Emma would have been that old at this point too and it was nice to think about her for a moment.

Back at home, we watched the second movie we rented, the Muppets movie. I'm sorry to say but I was not in the least bit intrigued by the movie. I just didn't grow up on the Muppets. Sadly, Gary watched the movie by himself as I sat on pinterest :)

Later on in the day, we decided to continue our staycation with another movie and dinner at Rubaiyat. Gary didn't think I'd like the Hunger Games so we opted instead for 21 Jump Street. G.i.g.g.l.e.s. It was a delightfully funny movie. And the best part of that showing was the "oooo la la's" we got from two little kids as we walked to our car.

We must have been on some sort of drug by the time we got to Rubaiyat because we most definitely scared our waitress. We were either laughing or being really awkward. The poor girl kept her distance the rest of the time! Oh well. We ordered our normal favorites, Isaiah's chicken sandwich and the seafood linguine dish I love so much. I almost peed when the waitress brought out our bread. It was the same bread that they served the night of our wedding. I cannot stress enough how delicious this bread is. I hate bread. Seriously. I don't often indulge in the bread all the restaurants put out but I would eat the whole thing if I could. It was fate.