Eat Cheese or Die!

The Rubies are now in Wisconsin, America's self-confessed Dairyland. Apparently their alternative state slogan is, 'Eat Cheese or Die!' A tough choice for the Mouse, TR and I, since we are allergic to dairy products. Eat cheese and die, in our cases. Ha-ha!

We drove up to Door County today, for the first of our 'vacations within a vacation' (see how I have adopted the vernacular?). Drs Norton and X, along with Blondie, will be joining us later. I'm hoping the cool beers in the fridge of their motel room (we have adjoining rooms) will help to lure them here. We are staying at the Apple Creek Resort in Fish Creek, Door County:

We stayed here once before, only that time it was in November and freezing cold. We have already swum in the hotel pool and picnicked in our hotel room. I baked bread before we left and, on the way here, we stopped to buy locally produced strawberry jam, German sausage (Wisconsin has a sizeable German community), and fresh cherries and raspberries. No offence, Waitrose, but those were among the best raspberries and cherries I have ever tasted. The wurst wasn't half bad, either! I am feeling slightly guilty, though, about the bread knife that I stole from Drs Norton and X before we left. Hopefully they haven't missed it and will forgive me when I present them with wurst sandwiches.

The journey here took us four hours. Luckily I was kept entertained by the twin joys of licence-plate spotting (Ooh - one from Maine - that's miles away!) and Americana-spotting ('Ooh - look everybody: a Fisher Price Barn! Maybe a giant-sized Fisher Price person will emerge from it in a minute!'). All Mr Ruby exclaimed was, 'You're very excitable, aren't you?'

When my brother and I were little we amassed a whole village of Fisher Price toys. Alarmingly, they are now known as 'Vintage Fisher Price'. TR and the Mouse still play with it all now, although the animals have mainly lost their legs. The farm set looks like this:

Similar to ours, but with more limbs.

And Wisconsin farms look like this:

To be fair, the cows on these probably still have all their legs. Quite a few things on this holiday have prompted a 'Just like Fisher Price!' from me, including fire hydrants and school buses. I keep hoping I'll spot a child on board one of those buses, with a saucepan stuck on his head:

Nostalgia demands a pan. Reality has thus far failed to deliver.

Well, that's enough excitability from me for one night. I must go and hide the bread knife before the Norton-Xs get here. With any luck, they'll never know!