The long weekend

Our visit with our friends staying here was fun, relaxing and exhausting at the same time, LOL. They are laid back, like us, which is relaxing, but we also kept pretty busy for 3 straight days. They arrived around 1pm on Thursday (only then to spend a good hour of us dealing with neighbor and then discussing it all after, haha). We just visited the rest of the afternoon and evening. I had gone into the town store that morning and got the stuff to make taco soup in the crockpot. I'm glad I didn't decide to go into the city and see mom and groceries, since they got here 1pm.  We just had the taco soup and corn bread for dinner. Our friend is so picky in what he will eat, so that does make it hard to know what to make. Like I had planned to make ham and cheese sliders for dinner one night, but then in conversation found out he hates mayo, and this has mayo on it. I've never met an adult as picky as him. He's a big guy, so he must find stuff to eat, haha. He had lost a lot of weight several years ago, but has gained a lot of it back. She's not a picky eater, but he hardly seems to like much of anything. 

Friday we headed into the city to go to the big 4 story antique mall. We all found stuff. I picked up an old wash board to hang in my laundry room and a duck decoy. Well, it's not a real wood one (like the others I have) but it's made of ceramic and looks like wood and was a decent price. Dh got 2 A&W rootbeer mugs and a set of leatherbound history type books and a picture he liked. There were 13 books at $5.50 each but I asked her what kind of deal she would make if we bough the whole set, so she said $60. Friend bought an old pan for panning for gold and a small trophy. OMG - he had that trophy in his hand and dh said what is that? He holds it out  and says "I won 2nd place in the hillclimb in 1965". We all just burst out laughing. I can't remember if his wife found anything there. Friend also bought an old fire extinguisher, which wife was able to talk down in price because that booth's seller happened to be there, LOL. We stopped at a restaurant on the way back for lunch and dinner was just leftover taco soup.

Saturday morning we headed out to do the drive through a park (like 18,000 acres) where bison are, as well as other wildlife. First we stopped at a large antique store on the way there. Wife friend found a few things she wanted. "yard decor". She bought an old wash ringer with a tub (for flowers) and a milk jug (also for flowers). She wanted to find some wagon wheels, but they didn't have much and the ones they had were $200 each. We then headed on up the wildlife drive. We went there several years ago with dd and sil and that's where we saw a bear, while trying to hike a little trail at the top of the park. This is a drive through experience, though at the top there is a trail you can do if you want before you drive back down. Well, we barely get started with the drive and see a bear! We got a good view from the pickup of the bear as it came out of some bushes and then ran across a grassy area. 

The buffalo were very scarce this visit, though. We saw 3, each by itself, and then a small herd just before we were done with the drive. On the way back we stopped at a restaurant for a late lunch. For dinner we just had sandwiches and friends wife had some more of the taco soup.

Sunday we took a drive up in the mountains on forest service/logging roads. We had planned to go tour this old mining camp that still has all the buildings there and is like a historical type thing, but when we got up there there was a sign that it was closed. It's still owned by local family and they had it closed for a "family memorial". So, we kept on driving up to a lake we had heard about. We're driving along and there in front of us as we rounded a corner was another bear. We didn't get to see him too long, he moved on fast. We got up to the lake area where there was a small campground and thankfully a bathroom to use. It was a trail to get to the lake, which we had no idea how far it was. Thinking oh it's probably just a short walk. We started and realized it was going to be a long hike going down to where we could now see a little bit of the lake thru the trees. Friends opted to stay behind. He's not in shape for that and she has back and hip issues, but since we had driven all the way up, dh wanted to see the lake. It ended up being like a 1/2 mile hike down. Very pretty lake. The hike back up was a bit hard and we hadn't brought any water with us, as we hadn't realized how far it was going to be. But we made it fine, with taking a few stops on the way up to catch our breath.

Not going to lie, it was a tiring hike back up haha and by the time we got back home around 3:30 we were tired and I was not interested in making dinner, LOL. We had just brought a bunch of snacks for the day and that was our lunch. We rested about an hour and then went to a nearby restaurant for dinner.

Monday we just decided to stay home and rest and hang out. We did end up deciding to go out to dinner again, but nothing nearby was open, so we drove into the city to try this steakhouse we had heard was good. It was very good. I opted for some chicken and pasta off of their lighter menu section, so I could have dessert. Yummy cheesecake with caramel sauce

Before they arrived friends wife had told me they were just going to bring some stuff for their breakfasts (since he's so picky) so I didn't have to worry about breakfast meals. They are kind of like us, just pretty much eat the same thing for breakfast daily. She has a bagel with cream cheese, he has a frozen waffle and some sausages heated in the microwave. We all just got up when we wanted and ate breakfast when we wanted. Easy. Friend mentioned a couple of times to me he likes coming to our house as it's very relaxing.

Sunday we were outside chatting with Mr and Mrs and their guests they had for the weekend. They asked our friends how long they were staying and she said until Tuesday. Oh! well, no one told me the change, LOL, so I texted my boss and told her I'll have to take Tuesday off, too. We had planned on following them in the morning about 90 minutes out, to this car museum and old prison, but dh was just too wiped out from the hike. It's always 2 days after he over exerts himself that he can barely move. So, we decided to stay home. Which turned out a good thing, because the delivery driver for the side by side's hard top and windshield called to deliver it that morning. So good thing we stayed home.

Me and the cat just took a 2 hour nap Tuesday afternoon and I'm just now feeling somewhat less tired. The hardest part for me with guests is staying up later than I usually go to bed, night after night. That wears me down quick, because I still automatically wake up at 7am, so as the days went on I just get more tired. It's good to be back to normal routine.