Valentines Weekend Recap, Part 1!

When Ben and I realized we were most likely going to end up going to graduate school in different states (long story...), we immediately decided to decide on a mid-way meet up spot. I'm not entirely sure how we found Lake Mills, Wisconsin but I think it basically started with us browsing through B&Bs in southern Wisconsin (about halfway between Minneapolis and Bowling Green OH), and going "hey this one looks good". So now, every couple-few months we drive to Lake Mills to spend the weekend at the Sweet Autumn Inn. Since September of 2009 we've gotten to know Teri the innkeeper, who is an AMAZING cook...and she now forces us to tell other guests the story of how we got engaged in India... and we're recognized at most local haunts.

We got in on Friday in time to make it to the Blue Moon for dinner... I die for their pulled pork sandwich...and then watched a movie at the inn. Saturday's breakfast started out with coffee (obviously), and valentine-decorated apple strudel:


Follwed by CHOCOLATE FRENCH TOAST..... this is something I need to learn how to make ASAP!

The rest of the day was basically homework. I had a lot of reading to get done, and Ben had some revisions to do on his thesis (he defends in two weeks!) so we holed up in the room with tea and our various study materials.


See how happy Ben is writing his thesis?....yes..............
Eventually we got bored of being in the room and decided to take a walk downtown... we saw several neat ice sculptures on the way (Including a GB Packers sculpture...booo... we won't be posting that one on the blog...)


As per usual, we ended up at our favorite coffee shop and sandwich place, Water House Foods. Water House is a great little place, and a nice organic/whole foods foodie haven in the middle of a town full of fried fish (not that fried fish doesn't have its time and place, but it's nice to have something different too). They make their own house-made granola, baked goods (lemon bars are to die for), and artisan breads....AND all their sandwiches are named after characters from Shakespeare!
We sipped on tea and finished up our work....

...and as we were getting ready to leave the owner of Water House mentioned that they were having wine and dinner specials with live acoustic guitar that night. Sold! So a couple hours later, after showering and relaxing, we ended up back at Water House for dinner and some Malbec.
We met a really sweet couple who classified themselves as Water House "groupies" (I think Ben and I might fall in that camp, too!) and gave us some other restaurant recommendations in the area. After hanging out at Water House for a while we headed to the local microbrewery, Tyranena, for more live music and some beer.

The band was called Brown Derby (I think...). They're from Madison and they were really good! We had fun dancing with the people we met there, and Ben and I split a pint of "Shaggin in the Wood", a bourbon barrel aged scotch ale. Yum! I also met a new friend... I have no idea what her name is but she was EXTREMELY drunk and insisted on smooching me (luckily we captured this moment on camera), giving me life-advice for about 20 minutes, and telling me and Ben she would totally trust us to sublet her place if we ever wanted to. We had known her for all of 5 minutes at this point. Here's a pic of me with my new bestie:

I look truly overjoyed. She was totally squishing my face.

After fun times at Tyranena, we drove back to the hotel blasting Bollywood music and had some wine by the fireplace. A great pre-Valentines date evening :)

Back tomorrow with part 2! Hope you all had a lovely weekend :)