Girls Weekend

The Annual Peterson, Charlson, Strome, McNelly Girls Weekend held August 6th, 2011

Destination Des Moines!

We always start here!
In between the boutique's and specialty shops we do TJMaxx, Tuesday Morning, and Pier One.

As always we headed downtown to east village where it is specialty shops galore! A recently opened Allspice was on our list and it was delightful! For anyone who cooks or bakes this is the ultimate in spices, salts, peppers, oils, vinegars, and more! We spent a lot of time sipping vinegar and oil... and it was yummy. I walked out with a Fig Balsamic Vinegar to pair with my Blood Orange Olive Oil. An eighteen year old Traditional Balsamic Vinegar and a Dark Chocolate Balsamic Vinegar! I can not wait to use them in my recipes.

If you are local, I suggest you head down to Locust and try this place out! It is awesome, there is so much more I want!
Then we lunched at...
We all had the Asparagus and Tomato Quiche' with the Apple Salad. The quiche was perfectly cooked! Then we headed downtown to the West End Architectural Salvage and Coffee Shop. 4+ floors of fun finds and old stuff! If ever on a mission for something old and renewed this is the place to go. It was fun!
Before heading out for the evening we spent a few hours chatting, drinking wine, eating cheese, crackers, nuts, and dried fruit in my sister in laws lovely family area. She recently added a new kitchenette/bar with sitting area. The new stone fireplace is gorgeous and the sitting area consists of 4 lounge chairs and large round table. perfect for socializing and comfortable enough to lose track of time... which we did by the way several times!
Dinner was at the Red China Bistro which is located on Ingersoll. The building is actually owned by friends of mine and they have their chiropractic office upstairs. It is a cool hip building and the bistro is a great addition. We started off with Sushi (Red Caterpillar) and it was a feast for my taste buds. I will definitely be back for that! I had Laos Curry Chicken, took home my left overs and had it last night for supper. Too good to waste!

After all the food and wine we headed home to watch movies in the theater room! We each split a chocolate lava cake, drank more wine, and enjoyed some music. I found out Pearce Bronson should not sing and Christina Aguilera is even more talented then I ever realized.
That girl has a set of pipes on her!

Sunday morning we woke up with very little sleep and had breakfast that my brother in law prepared the night before. Cinnamon Rolls with Egg Bake (yum). My niece came home and we played games for a few hours and hugged and smooched on her for awhile!

Then off to do more shopping...

Oh yeah, shopping was still going on. I was feeling a little dirty and sweaty but I had places to go! I bought a brown jute rug at World Market for the dining room and towels at TJ Maxx for Todd's bathroom. Packed the car full of treasures and headed home around 4:30 or so...

Came home, caught up with TC and his poison ivy situation, tried out the rug, took a shower, ate my left over curry and went to bed.

Whew... I am still tired but it was all worth it!