Forest Craft Festival, October 9-10, 2004

I went to my parents' house for the weekend as I do every year for the Forest Craft Festival (aka Scenic Drive). Mom & I were on candy duty for the parade on Saturday morning so we joined my father for breakfast at 7:30 am, visited one flea market where I purchased an old English teapot, then reported for the parade line-up at 9:00. We drove my father's business truck. Keosauqua may be a small town, but I swear I've never seen so many kids in my life! We ran out of candy before the end of the parade. Next year Mom will have to buy double so there's enough.

The primary reason I go home on this particular weekend is so my mother and I can wander around to view the crafts and flea market items. I didn't purchase much - mostly food and drinks. Okay okay, you wrung it out of me. I also bought a 1/2 lb. of Tiger Butter gourmet fudge by Addie May. *sigh* I intended to take it to work to share with my coworkers, but it didn't last that long. Come to think of it, I intended that with the last one I purchased too, but it never made it to work either. LOL You wouldn't be able to resist this fudge if you ever tasted it! They give it to you wrapped in a wax-like paper with a knife to cut slivers for eating. Tiger Butter is chocolate and peanut butter layers. Yumm! If anyone ever ventures over toward Keosauqua way (Van Buren County, Iowa), be sure to head over to Bentonsport and visit Addie May's fudge store. It's a good thing I only buy the fudge twice a year. I'd be roly-poly by now if I had that temptation close by!

The day went on and after grabbing some lunch at Misty's Malt Shop (always delicious), we caught a free shuttle ride out to Lacey-Keosauqua State Park to watch the Lumber Jack show. We discovered more crafts there so we walked around before deciding to skip the show in order to return back to town. The line was VERY long to catch the shuttle rides back and we didn't want to be stuck out there forever. It would be a five-mile (?) walk back to town because of having to following winding roads along the river until we got to the bridge for crossing -- not that they would have left us out there but the idea of waiting in an even LONGER line later was not appealing. By now it was nearly 4:00 pm and we were very very tired. Mom & I checked out one more building of craft vendors, which proved to be my undoing, before buying lottery tickets and heading home to collapse. My vow to buy no crafts didn't hold up to the scented-wax dipped bears. It was a luxury but it smells oh so good!

Sunday wasn't quite as hectic. I had originally planned to spend the day with my grandparents but they had some last-minute urgent business to attend to, so, instead, I invaded my brother's place, spent some time with my cousin & aunt since they dropped by for an impromptu visit, and met my sister at her break-time so we could spend some time together before I had to leave. I had hoped to take pictures of some fantastic old houses (I love the architectural details) but I was too tired to do much walking. I took a few pictures (the fall foliage ones) on the way back to my truck and called it quits.