from akron, ohio to saint joseph, michigan

we woke up and enjoyed the not free buffet breakfast at the marriott courtyard of akron/stow and then hit the road. it looked like it was going to be a gray rainy day and it was. it rained all day. we made it to ann arbor at about noon and we located one of the houses that josh lived in during his 5 years there, and then we headed to zingerman's. as soon as we walked in the door i was like a kid in a candy store. that place is amazing. we ordered some sandwiches and decided to to do a little snack shopping while we were there.

this was when i got sucked in by the shiny eyed mustard siren. i was looking at all the mustards, jams, oils, vinegars and such when one of the women who works there asked me if i needed any help, did i want to taste anything, etc. ? i said no, and that i was fine to just look, because in truth i wanted to taste EVERYTHING, and there just wasn't any time for this. then she sidled up to me when i was looking at the mustards and started fishing for a jar and a spoon. she spooned out a little bit of some grape must mustard seed something or another, i tasted it and i was in love, with whatever it was that was in my mouth and with her. we chatted about how josh and i are in the midst of driving from philly to seawa and how i am not supposed to be putting one more cubic inch of anything into the car, and then she led me over to the honey... and then to the fig jams. i asked her about some fruit mustard that we had in italy and she knew all about it. they carry it in 4 different flavors. heaven.

it was a completely overwhelming, sensory overload, josh was over a the deli counter getting cheese and salami and olives for to snack on with the zaroffs and then our sandwiches were ready, my head was spinning. we sat down to eat and then finished our shopping, and since it was still raining and miserable and no good for walking around town we grabbed some coffee and got back on the road headed for st joseph to visit tom, jule, zoe and ivy.

we arrived in st. joseph around 4pm. we got re-acquainted with the zaroffs, looked at the house, visited with the girls, and then we cracked open a bottle of wine and dived into our zingerman's snacks. visiting and chatting with good friends and then a dinner of sausage, peppers, onions & asparagus. YUM.

now we are off to bed so we can roll out of bed early enough to see the girls before they go to school...

p.s. i apologize that there are no photos to go with these posts, i promise you that i am indeed taking pictures, i was just not of sound mind enough to ensure that all the technology necessary for me to download said images was at my immediate disposal at the time of the packing of the car, so all images will be dumped into flickr upon our arrival in seawa.