Labor Day Adventure

Labor Day is the last three day holiday weekend of the summer.  Many people travel.  Labor Day is also known as a good time to shop sales for summer clearance item and dorm supplies.  I decided to combine the two activities, travel and shopping, and check out the Amish Cheese Festival in Arthur Illinois.

Mike and I had a good time.  We ate gourmet popcorn including chocolate covered cherry flavored popcorn a fair best seller, bought tickets for a quilt raffle, looked at many fall crafts, saw a man walking his iguana, waved to Artie Mouse and Miss Cheese, and shopped at a quilt store and a cheese store.  The highlight for Mike was eating an Amish cinnamon roll.  It was so good he went back two more times.  

On our way home, we stopped at Effingham where there is a Starbucks store.  I had my second and third Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season.  Then we checked out Hodgson Mills retail store and education center.  

The store is a beautiful log cabin building that can be seen from the highway.  We had always wondered what it was so we stopped by.  Hodgson Mills produces mainly flours, cereals and whole grain pastas.  Their production plant is in Effingham and they have been in business since 1882.  The shop gives them a chance to sell nearly their entire product line in one place and to give other local producers a chance to sell their wares.  They had pottery, jewelry and Boos cutting boards.  They also hold cooking classes there.  

Mike was happy to sit by the fireplace and read a coffee table book about mills in the area while I shopped.  It took me awhile to narrow down my purchases.  Just as I thought I had made up my mind the sales clerk offered me free coffee and some cookie recipes.  Then I had to go back and get the specialty flours for the recipes.  

So that is how we spent the last unofficial day of summer.