A Magical Holiday Escape: The Roost and Appleton, WI

The Roost Bed & Breakfast

Today the road has brought me to Appleton, WI.

Oh, what a difference a month or two can make.  Originally, I was going to be doing an earlier than usual Christmas review, but I ended up having to change plans when my selection opted to postpone its signature holiday event.  So I booked a different venue for the annual review and still found myself with an extra day off for the Thanksgiving weekend.  So I thought to myself, “Why waste a good day off?”  Thus, I scheduled a trip to Appleton to visit The Roost Bed & Breakfast, owned and operated by De Ann Steffens.

I enjoyed a pleasant drive to Appleton while sitting on pins and needles as I listened to the Iowa Hawkeyes pull off a miraculous comeback against the Nebraska Cornhuskers.  I lost the signal for the game’s final few minutes, but heaved a sigh of relief as I saw they had obtained the victory just as I pulled into the Roost.

De Ann greeted me at the door and gave me the nickel tour before leading me to the Tapestry Suite.  True to its name, a large tapestry does adorn one of the walls.  A cheery fire was going which added to the room’s ambiance.  A large two-person jacuzzi sat in corner while a high, four poster queen bed sat in the other.

I got things organized and immediately headed out to my car to experience some of the town.

Though this isn’t a formal Christmas review, I was able to scratch my Christmas itch with visits to Darboy Community Park to enjoy Fox Cities’ Festival of Lights and the nearby Oshkosh Celebration of Lights at Menominee Park.

The Festival of Lights is a half mile self-guided walking tour through a winter wonderland of lights that form elves, dinosaurs, toys, snowmen, and even Santa’s workshop.  It’s completely free and donations are cheerfully accepted.  You can even buy a hot beverage to ward off the chill.

But if you want a heavy shot of Christmas, you definitely need to visit the Celebration of Lights in Oshkosh.  It’s a drive through tour featuring twelve miles of lights and effects while you tune in to a dedicated radio station of Christmas songs to strengthen the magic.  Cost is $10 per car.  Aside from the dazzling display of lights, you can even stop by the workshop to visit that guy in the red suit who likes to say “Ho!  Ho!  Ho!”

Feeling the joy of the holiday, I returned to the inn and gamed a bit before curling up in my bed for the night.

I awoke the next morning and I was starved.  De Ann had prepared a fruit dish along with Baked French Toast that had a crust of brown sugar and cinnamon along with some bacon and eggs.  I was unable to finish the tasty meal and took a half hour walk to burn off some of the calories.  Then I hopped into the car to begin exploring some of Appleton.

First, I decided to get my history on with a visit to The History Museum at the Castle in downtown Appleton.  It’s not terribly huge and, at first, I was mildly disappointed.  The main floor featured an exhibit about famed writer (and Appleton native) Edna Ferber along with some tidbits about Appleton history including the first jukebox, X-ray machine, and new voting machine, but nothing with that wow factor.  I headed upstairs feeling overcharged for the $10 I spent, but then things took a turn.

History Museum at the Castle

The second floor features a little exhibit on social research and the history of toys, but its main attraction is the history of famed magician and escape artist, Harry Houdini, and that was worth the price of admission by itself.

Houdini had claimed Appleton as his hometown and the museum goes into a detailed history of Houdini’s upbringing and rise to fame.  The museum even has a replica of the trick coffin (a new illusion) that Houdini was buried in as well as cuffs he escaped from, one of his straitjackets, a replica of his milk can escape, a representation of his Chinese Water Torture Escape, and you can even perform his famed Metamorphosis trick where he would be locked into a box and then switch places with his wife in 3 seconds. You can also perform one of Houdini’s famed jail cell escapes.  Houdini wasn’t shy about sharing secrets to some of his tricks so be forewarned to skip the backstage part of the exhibit if you want to keep the tricks a mystery.

From there I drove through downtown Appleton and enjoyed the Christmas decorations.  Appleton is actually a happening town with a lot of restaurants and activities and even boasts a pretty impressive performing arts center which I may have to visit at some point in the future.  But, for now, I had a quest.

My older and younger brothers, Brian and Dan, decided to utilize my being in Wisconsin to pick up some regional beverages.  So I began the search for Spotted Cow beer and Sprecher’s Grape Soda.  I went to a Super Target and was denied.  Then I reached a Festival Foods where I found Spotted Cow, but they seemed to have every flavor of Sprecher’s except Grape.  Brian opted for a cherry soda as a Plan B.

Flush with success I returned to The Roost to begin writing.  After a few hours I was off to worship at St Bernadette’s where I enjoyed a pleasant Advent service centering on a sermon telling us that Jesus, our Friend and Teacher, had come, will come again, and had never left us.  A truly blessed thought to warm the soul.

St Bernadette

With services completed, I grabbed an early dinner at Cinder’s.  This restaurant is famed for cooking over charcoal and I enjoyed the cindery goodness of a Northwoods Burger with a side of fries (bottomless, if you feel like more) while I watched the Minnesota Golden Gophers give the Iowa Hawkeyes an early Christmas gift in the form of a trip to the Big 10 title game with a victory over the Wisconsin Badgers.  Then it was back to The Roost to organize some photos, write a bit more, and grab a hot bath in my jetted tub on a frozen night while watching The Karate Kid before retiring.

At breakfast this morning, I met Fred & Sandy who seemed to love B & Bs as much as I do along with sharing a mutual love of theatre. As we conversed, we enjoyed sausage, eggs (over hard for me), granola & yogurt, and more Baked French Toast though with cream cheese and blueberries. I hated to end the conversation, but duty called, not to mention a fairly long drive.

And that wraps up this installment. Appleton is a nice little town with a lot of activities and Christmas cheer and Green Bay is not too far away if you happen to be a Packers fan. If you’re in the area, take some time to rest at the Roost and enjoy a little understated elegance.

Until the next time. . .happy travels.

Beware the Ides of Smarch, Days 7-9: Full Circle

Thursday, March 7

The Vegas trip had come to an end, but we still needed to hit up my favorite breakfast place on our way out.  That, of course, was the breakfast buffet at the Gold Coast casino.  It is still the best dollar for dollar value buffet in Vegas.  For about $10, you get a lot of wonderful breakfast foods and they were in especially fine form this day.  Their legendary French Toast was in fairly fine fettle and they also had some great chicken fried steak and an excellent corned beef hash as well.

Properly fueled we began the long drive back to Phoenix.  Dave and I once again waged battle in Super Mario Party where he managed to get the duke over me.

We got back into town about 4:30pm and just relaxed until Carolyn came home from work.  Then we went to dinner at Venezia’s Pizzeria which specializes in New York style slices of pizza.  I had never had a proper New York slice before and my Buffalo Chicken slice hit the spot.

When we got back to the house, Dave, Mat, and I took a little walk around the area to work off the meal before settling in to watch the latest episode of The Orville before turning in for the night.

Friday, March 8

This was definitely an easy day for us.  Mat had a doctor’s appointment so Dave and I were left to our devices for an hour or so.  Mat came back with doughnuts from The Hurts Donut Company which are still the greatest doughnuts on the planet and I very much look forward to the branch coming to Omaha.  I savored an Andes Mint doughnut while Mat introduced us to the web series, Cobra Kai, which continues the story of Daniel LaRusso and his rivalry with Johnny Lawrence from the movie The Karate Kid.

It’s actually a very entertaining and interesting series.  The focus is mostly on the character of Johnny Lawrence and it’s nice to see William Zabka get to show some depth with a character as his heyday as an actor in the 80s pretty much had him playing one dimensional bullies.

When we watched half the series, I suggested we go out and play some mini golf to get some exercise and enjoy the weather.

So we hopped into the car and made our way to Golfland Sunsplash were we once again dueled on the links.  In some ways, it was the most entertaining round of mini golf I’ve played as I shot video footage of some of our toughest holes.  In some ways it was the worst round as I shot pathetically average.  In one sign of the apocalypse, I finished last to Dave. . .again.  In another sign of the apocalypse, Dave won the ace award (most holes in one).  This left me in a fog where I muttered over and over, “Dave?  Ace Award?”

We returned to the house and did our own thing for an hour or so until Carolyn came back from work.  For dinner we went to Rubio’s which is famed for its fish tacos.  I had a Wild Alaskan salmon taco with a side of fresh greens and it really hit the spot.

From dinner, we went to the movies to watch Captain Marvel, the latest blockbuster from Marvel.  I found it to be a decent film buoyed by strong performances from Brie Larson as the title character and Ben Mendelsohn as a sympathetic war victim.  I gave it a 7 out of 10 and was especially impressed at how Marvel altered the traditional origin story formula.

But it was back to homestead and bed as we readied ourselves for the final day.

Saturday, March 9

This was it.  The last full day of fun with Mat and Carolyn.

Mat and Carolyn slept in.  I rose at my usual early hour and was surprised to find Dave up and about already as he watched the news on his phone.  I ate a banana and the last 2 pieces of bacon from the batch Mat had prepared the previous Sunday.  After eating, I decided I wanted to go for a long walk and persuaded Dave to join me.

Except for the little nighttime excursion taken a few nights prior, I had never really walked around this neighborhood as I was under the mistaken belief that the area was just a few lanes of houses buttressed up against a business area.

How wrong I was.

Once you cross the street, there are actually quite a large number of houses, schools, and neighborhoods to enjoy.  Dave and I ambled for about an hour before returning to the house.

As each member of our group held a victory in Super Mario Party, we decided to crown a winner.  We played an abbreviated version where Carolyn decimated us.  I mean it wasn’t even close.  But I did finish in second place.

Carolyn left for the afternoon to visit her brother while the three of us finished Cobra Kai and noshed on some sausage sandwiches Mat prepared.  The sausage was tasty, but I could have eaten a sandwich consisting solely of the delectable vegetable concoction prepared by Mat.

About 4pm we headed to Scottsdale where we would close the adventure as it started:  with an escape room.

We visited Escape Room 101 where our group was joined by Mat’s old friend, Rod, and his new girlfriend, Lisa.  In this room, we would be assuming the role of Baker Street detectives who were contacted by Oliver Byron, son of Lord Byron, the painter.  Oliver Byron had been approached by a cousin who held a will saying that he was the sole heir to Lord Byron’s fortune.  Oliver stated his father would never cut his children from the will and needed us to locate the real will before the reading of the fake.

The puzzles in this room were awesome and really required you to think.  The downside is that some of the devices activated by our solutions didn’t work as they should.  For example, Mat and I solved a symbols puzzles and nothing happened.  Mat unsolved and resolved it later which finally caused a hidden compartment to activate.

This one went down to the wire, but we managed to find the will with about 3 minutes remaining.  I would have combined the two rooms we had done as Blaine’s Basement had better presentation and pageantry while The Baker Street had better puzzles.

After another victory, we visited Carlos O’Brien’s for dinner which was a fusion of Mexican food and Irish pub fare.  I enjoyed a chicken and beef quesadilla while we conversed about various items.

Back at Mat and Carolyn’s we decided to have one final, all out battle at maximum turns on Super Mario Party.  It seemed as if Carolyn would crush us again, but we managed to start mounting a comeback.  However, my two “friends” decided to unfairly target me for purely their own amusement instead of focusing on the greater threat of Carolyn.  Dave stole a star while Mat stole my money to keep me from buying stars.  Due to their chicanery, Dave ended up winning and I vowed eternal warfare on both of them in all future games.

And so the end had finally come.  Having the old team back together added that x factor that made this trip quite a bit more fun.  Sadly, it will be a while before I see Mat and Carolyn again.  I may try a trip this summer or possibly even at Christmas as my family will be celebrating the holiday early.  Mat mentioned the possibility of road tripping to San Diego next time and that is a most intriguing idea indeed.

I see our first flight home has been delayed, so this trip really has come full circle.

Till the next adventure.

The Arizona Chronicles, Vol. 4, Days 4-8: A Farewell to Tall Square and Arizona Mat in the Not So Wild West

In hindsight, it would have been better if I had simply checked into a hotel instead of having the cab driver return me to Arizona Mat’s house.  Arizona Mat’s house has an excellent alarm system and he has the only key.  I curled myself up by the front door and settled in for a wretched night’s sleep.

I blinked as the rays of the morning sun woke me the next day.  I yawned and mightily stretched a crick out of my back.  I heard the roar of the zambonis as they finally pulled up to Arizona Mat’s house.  Arizona Mat and Tall Square were beyond exhausted and both slowly got off the zambonis, limply punching each other in the shoulder.  I reached into Arizona Mat’s backpack and pulled out his keys.  I guided the weary frenemies into the house and let Tall Square fall in the doorway.  I proceeded to walk Arizona Mat to the alarm system, and maneuvered his finger to the numbers he pointed towards.  Then I let him collapse to the floor.

Today I saw something that I do not ordinarily see in Arizona. . .rain.  And not a gentle rainfall, but a full blown ripping storm.  There wasn’t much to do in the weather, so I spent the day inside with Arizona Mat and Tall Square who still weren’t speaking so I could enjoy some peace and quiet.

Around 1pm, Arizona Mat suddenly offered his hand to Tall Square and apologized for being such a drip.  To make it up to him, he offered him a free sandwich from Ike’s Love & Sandwiches and said he’d take us to the movies.  Tall Square, justifiably, was wary, but accepted the proffered handshake.  I sensed something was awry and decided to just observe.

So we went to Ike’s and it was probably the best sandwich I had ever eaten.  Hostilities seemed to be soothed and we went to watch Boruto, the final chapter to a long running anime series called Naruto.  It was an excellent film.  Things continued to remain calm between Tall Square and Arizona Mat and we spent the rest of the evening puttering around.

I remained suspicious of Arizona Mat’s kindness towards Tall Square the next day, especially after I saw Arizona Mat leaving the office which I was using as bedroom, giggling to himself.  He announced that he was treating us to lunch at Osaka, a teppanyaki and sushi restaurant.  Arizona Mat ordered the sushi boat which came with a large variety of delicacies and a dragon roll and a crunchy roll.

It was a delicious meal and Arizona Mat said he had a special treat for Tall Square.  The waiter brought out what Arizona Mat called a kanboo roll.  I raised an eyebrow as I was familiar with sushi types, but had never heard of a kanboo roll.  Arizona Mat offered Tall Square the roll, a sinister smirk on his face, and Tall Square wolfed it down.

Arizona Mat offers Tall Square the kanboo (amnesia) roll.

A few minutes later, Tall Square started to look a bit befuddled.

“Are you all right?” I asked.

“Yes, except for one thing.  Do I know you two gentlemen?”

“I think we need to get him to a hospital,” I said.

“No, he’s OK,” said Arizona Mat, a smarmy grin on his face.

“What exactly is a kanboo roll?” I asked.

“It’s Japanese for amnesia.  Yet another brilliant invention from Carolyn for stopping potential threats to my glorious personage.”

“Has it ever been tested?”

“Yes, just now.”

I heaved a mighty sigh as Tall Square regressed to his 21^st birthday.  Arizona Mat led Tall Square to the car and drove us to the airport.  He had purchased the first available ticket and we led Tall Square the gates.  Tall Square had continued to regress as he forgot more and more details of his life.  By the time we were  nearing the gates, Tall Square was now about 5, skipping around singing, A Tisket, A Tasket.  We got permission to assist Tall Square to his departure gate and left him on a chair, a zen-like grin on his face.  I think he had regressed to the womb.  We then left him to his own devices.

Farewell, Tall Square.

Tall Square under the influence of a kanboo roll.

“Now we can have some real fun,” said Arizona Mat, gleefully rubbing his hands together.

Arizona Mat failed to elaborate until we reached his home.  On his doorstep was waiting a giant box.

“Oh, boy!  She’s here!” said Arizona Mat.

Arizona Mat ripped open the box which held a pet carrying case.  Opening the door, a friendly golden retriever mix leaped out and began licking Arizona Mat.

“Who is this?” I asked.

“This is Jojo, my new sidekick.  She’s infinitely more loyal and has ten times the brains that Tall Square ever did,” replied Arizona Mat.  “Who loves you, sweetie?” he asked, as he rubbed her belly.

Arizona Mat announced that we would be heading to Tucson the next day to have a bit of fun.  We began the trip with a visit to Old Tucson Studios.  This is still an active studio and many classic western films and TV series have been filmed here.  I thought the entrance fee of $18 was very overpriced.  You’d be hard pressed to make a day out of this place unless you were gung ho about seeing all of the little shows and events that would take place during the day.

Still it was an enjoyable visit, especially for a film buff like myself.  I watched auditions for new saloon girls as well as an old fashioned western gunfight and fistfight in a little sketch about a botched robbery.  The most entertaining moment came when Arizona Mat decided to ignore the “Don’t get too close to the animals” sign and was poked by a bull.  It was just a glancing blow, but enough to send Arizona Mat into a faint.  I made some extra money by posing Arizona Mat as a horse thief corpse and charging 25 cents per picture.

Making a little profit off of Arizona Mat.

When Arizona Mat regained consciousness, he drove us to our hotel, The Doubletree, which was a rather nice oasis.  After settling Jojo into the room and getting an icepack for Arizona Mat’s injury, we proceeded to Dakota’s Bar and Grill.  Arizona Mat ate an avocado BLT and I munched on a jalapeno bacon chili cheeseburger.

Once we had filled our cavities, we proceeded to Golf N Stuff, a pretty decent miniature golf course.  It was a much closer contest than our last battle.  It was close until the final few holes, where Arizona Mat finally managed to build an advantage that I could not overcome.  When that ended, we returned to the hotel where I read and Arizona Mat watched football.

The next morning, we had breakfast in the Cactus Rose, one of two restaurants at the Doubletree.  I enjoyed a breakfast quesadilla that had chiles, onions, cheese, eggs, and sausage with a side of breakfast potatoes while Arizona Mat ate a Quick Start that had sausage, eggs, sourdough toast, and breakfast potatoes.

During our meal, Arizona Mat said we would be heading to the Chiricahua Mountains where we would be doing a 5 mile hike.  I was looking forward to it as I have been preparing myself for a climb up Mt Fuji in August 2016 and thought this would be a good test of my fitness level.

It was a lovely hike.  The scenery was beautiful and the weather was just right.  I was proud to say that I handled the hike very well.  It was a good first step on my journey to climb Mt Fuji.  Jojo proved to be a real trooper as she bounded about.  Arizona Mat introduced me to an interesting device called a camel pack which holds 3 liters of water.  Drinking from it is quite easy and much handier than carrying a thermos.  I’m going to have to get one for myself before climbing Mt Fuji.

The face of Cochise.

The mighty Jojo.

At the end of the hike, we hopped back into the car and began the 4 hour journey back to Phoenix.  We had a supper at Simi’s Café, an Asian cuisine eatery.  Arizona Mat had Pho and orange chicken while I had a garlic chicken stir fry.

Towards the end of the meal, Arizona Mat began to look a little befuddled.

“Are you OK, Arizona?” I asked, a smirk slowly forming on my lips.

“Do I know you, sir?”

“Yes!” I crowed.

I should probably explain.  When I saw Arizona Mat use the kanboo roll on Tall Square, I saw my chance to rid myself of this pest once and for all.  I managed to find some more of it in “Carolyn’s” office.  I ground it to a fine powder and waited for my chance.  When Arizona Mat was briefly distracted as he forked a piece of chicken, I used the sleight of hand which served me so well when I cheated Arizona Mat in poker several years ago.

I left Arizona Mat at the table where he had curled into a fetal position and was gently sucking his thumb.  I ran into the night and shouted, “Free!  Free at last!!”  I ran to the car, removed my luggage which I had placed inside before we left, and hailed a cab.

As I was driven to the airport, I sunk into the seat, a big smile on my face as I knew the Arizona Chronicles had finally come to an end at last.

The End????