6877. Have corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day

 When our friends invited us to their St. Patrick's Day dinner, we had to accept. The food and company would be good. 

The menu consisted of corned beef and cabbage along with Irish Stew just in case no one liked Corned beef and cabbage. Neither the hubby nor I ever had corned beef and cabbage. We aren't big on St. Patrick's Day. However, I was more than willing to try it. 

The corned beef was slow roasted on the stove for 4-5 hours. Then the carrots, potatoes, and cabbage was added. That cooked for about another hour so. Then the meat was shredded. It was nothing fancy but smelled amazing. 

The Irish Stew went in the oven around 8 and we couldn't look at for 6 hours. It made the entire house smell amazing. Unfortunately I couldn't snag a recipe because she didn't follow one.

Both the corned beef and the Irish Stew were amazing. The corned beef was really tender and not tough at all. The carrots and potatoes were cooked to perfection. The cabbage was alright. I won't go crazy eating it but it wasn't bad.

The Irish Stew had such a deep flavor that I could eat it all day. The hubby really liked the Irish Stew.

No St. Patrick's Day Celebration would be complete without some Irish Whiskey. Since I was still on antibiotics, I mixed mine with the ice cream punch and it was perfect. I am not one to sip alcohol anyways. I'd rather have it in a cocktail.

For my first taste of corned beef and cabbage, I couldn't had a better meal or company. Our friends really put on a great dinner. I am sure we will go back again next year if invited. 

2459. Visit the Amana Colonies in Amana

 Planning a road trip with the hubby is always fun. I must check every bridge to make sure it isn't too high. I have to check freeway interchanges to make sure they flyover ramps aren't too high. I have to make sure there aren't any crazy switchback through the mountains. Sometimes I miss something or Googlemaps hasn't caught up to the construction yet. The latter is how we discovered the hubby doesn't like the flyover ramp going from I-80 East to 380 North and we now needed to avoid that interchange. I realized by going to the Amana Colonies, we can afford the interchange and it adds 5-10 minutes to drive. That's how I convinced the hubby to go to the Amana Colonies on our way home this year.

The Amana Colonies were German communal villages that started in the mid 1850s. Everything was shared among villagers. Life continued this way until the Great Depression. Today they welcome visitors into their community and their stores to learn about the past and enjoy their stores and restaurants.

Knowing we only had a little time to explore, I wanted to go to the Chocolate Haus and maybe the general store both were in Amana. The hubby initially wasn't too thrilled about going but once we got there, he definitely showed some more interest. We ended stopping at several places in Amana. All the buildings are German style buildings. There are parking lots by some of the buildings otherwise public parking down various streets. 

Chocolate Haus -- The chocolate store. We had samples of homemade caramels which were very good. They had many good treats that it was hard to decide what to get. I played it safe and got a truffle. The hubby got a truffle and a bag of caramels. There was fudge, truffles, chocolate covered cherries, peanut butter cups just to name a few.

Bakery and Coffee Cafe -- I am a sucker for a good bakery. Their baked goods looked amazing but the hubby was being cheap and refused to pay $5 for a single treat. Little does he know that most cafes that is about the going rate. A whole pie was like $15. The cookies were reasonable but nothing special. I felt bad for leaving without buying anything. 

Amana General Store -- This is your typical general store. It has a wide variety of items including local made food products and a whole wall of cookie cutters. There was even an entire Christmas store on the one side of the building. There was plenty I wanted to buy but wasn't sure what I would actually like. The hubby was far less impressed than I was with the general store. Apparently he needed to go on vacation with mom and dad as a kid and experience the general stores of the south to truly appreciate a good general store.

Amazing Grace Antiques and Gifts -- Antique stores are big in the Amana Colonies. Neither the hubby  nor I are big antique shoppers but we wandered in this one just to see what they had. They also were a soap store and you could buy many scented bars of soap. The smell was not overwhelming which was surprising.  

Village Winery -- I really wanted to hit a winery in the Amana Colonies as there are several fruit wineries. I figured the hubby really wasn't into wine tasting but he was like we are here so we might as well stop. Nothing like a little wine tasting at 11 AM. I sampled about 6 different flavors of their fruit wine. The cranberry was a surprising favorite. I even tried dandelion wine which was also good. The apple was sweet but that might have been because it wasn't chilled. A good apple wine is hard to find. Basil has ruined any other blackberry wine but his. The rhubarb wasn't bad. I did come home with 3 small bottles of wine. 

Amana Meat Shop and Smokehouse -- The hubby wanted to stop here. I am glad we did. We picked up some summer sausage and ring bologna. They even had knockwurst but $16 it was staying in the colonies. Everything looked good though.

We had a good, short visit to the Amana Colonies. The hubby says he wants to visit all seven villages. Since it's only about 4.5 hours from us (still closer than going to the Apostle Islands), it is easy to get to. I'm sure we will be back and explore more of the shops. Personally I think March was a perfect time to visit. It wasn't too crowded, parking was easy, and there was plenty of things to do. If you have never been, check them out when passing through Central Iowa. 

2569. Go to Fort Larned National Historic Site in Larned

Our original plan on the way home from Arizona was to head up through Monument Valley, Utah, and Colorado. However, a potential winter storm in the Rockies had us taking the southern route basically retracing our old route on the way down. When I realized we would be going through Dodge City, KS around lunch time, I said I wanted to go to to Fort Larned. We always get to the area too late to visit on the way. down. 

Fort Larned National Historic Site is located in Larned, KS about an hour northeast of Dodge City. It is open year round 8-4:30. There is no admission fee.

Fort Larned was built in 1859 to protect traffic along the Santa Fe trail from unfriendly Native Americans. Because of being located on the plains, there was little need for fortification because the only real threat were the Native Americans. It was a working fort with the barracks, officer quarters, stores and storehouses being built around the parade ground. Other buildings including blacksmith, quartermaster stables, and mailroom were on the outskirts of the parade grounds.

The parking lot is a short walk from the actual fort. You have to walk across a bridge and down the gravel path to get to the fort. It is handicap accessible. It was very cold and windy when we got there. I gave the hubby the option of staying in the car or coming with me. He came with.

The first buildings were saw were the officer quarters

The visitor center is in one of the barracks. Inside the visitor center is also a small museum.

Because still having a good 4-5 hours of driving ahead of us, that is all we checked out. If it wasn't so cold and windy, we might have checked out some of the other buildings. Hopefully one day we will be able to get back to check out the rest of the fort.

For Larned is really well maintained since it is sandstone. The officers' quarters still have the name etched in the bricks.

If you are ever in the area, I would suggest stopping and check out Fort Larned. It gives you a glimpse at life at a plains Fort in the mid to late 1800s. It is definitely worth stop.

2024 Baseball Stadium Tour: Scottsdale Stadium

 Besides Sloan Park, we wanted to get to Scottsdale Stadium this year. We have been putting this one off because of the price of tickets. 

Scottsdale Stadium is the spring training home of the San Francisco Giants. It is located downtown Scottsdale, right off of Old Town Scottsdale. Being downtown, parking can be a problem. The City of Scottsdale and the Giants have found ways to alleviate the parking situation. They built several free parking garages through out the downtown area. The upper levels are free all day and the lower levels have a 3 hour restriction. There is one located near the ballpark but it is small and fills up quickly. To get to the Stadium from other parking garages, there is a free trolley that you can take or walk. We took the trolley which runs about every twenty minutes. We lucked out on the way there and only waited a few minutes. After the game, the wait was longer but we sat in the trolley and waited. 

When we first started going to spring training, we noticed the Giants had the most expensive tickets. I don't know if that was because of the year and teams they were playing. This year tickets for a game at Scottsdale Stadium were our cheapest tickets. We paid $30 a ticket -- still more than we pay for regular season brewer games but cheaper than any other park we went to. Our seats turned out were okay. They were bleacher seats in the sun. The overhang started a section over. We know for next time. The view of the stadium for our seats were great though.

Scottsdale Stadium is an older stadium but it has been upgraded. It has a small wall of fame. It actually was a very nice stadium to walk around. Since we had ice cream for lunch at the Sugar Bowl, we just picked up some beverages to get through the game. 

The game was a good game initially. The Giants were playing the Brewers. The Brewers started off with a 4-0 lead. Then Devin Williams came in the 4th inning and gave up 5 runs. It was a not a good afternoon after that. We left in the sixth inning, not knowing what the trolley situation was going to be.

I would go back to Scottsdale Stadium. I don't think the hubby was a huge fan of it because of the parking situation but that's what you get when you build in downtown. It has a nice atmosphere and is people come out to watch the Giants.