Kirksville with Logan and Sydney and Delightful French Food

As we got ready to leave Chicago and take the train to Kirksville, Missouri to visit Logan and Sydney, we had breakfast at Le Pain. A french cafe that Mitzi had been to in other places. It did not disappoint.

I ordered Ancient Grain Shakshouki. Never had it before. Never heard of it. I saw the word cilantro in the description and thought, "I'll do it!" It was warm, spicy, and great for bread dipping. Mitzi had a croisant sandwich and waffle and loved it! We shared a hot lemon, ginger, and mint tea in a bowl. Yum!

We headed over to Union Station to wait for our train. We love riding the train! Such a relaxing and spacious way to travel. There's no security to mess with. We had our own little sleeper compartment and enjoyed the five hour trip.

Sydney and Logan picked us up in La Plata, about 20 minutes from their house and we enjoyed visiting with them.

Here's the view out our hotel window this morning. Looks like we brought the cold and the snow!

Funny thing happened at Enterprise Car Rental on Tuesday morning, Oct 29. We arrived at around 11a to get the car. The lady said we were supposed to be there at 9a (since when do you have to be on time for a rental car pickup?). She said there was no car available but there was a car that was out getting it's windshield repaired and it needed to be cleaned. And it was on the north side of town. And we were supposed to be there at 9a!

I asked if there were any other options? "No," she responded.

Can I pay to upgrade to another car? "No."

Can downgrade to another car? "No."

Is there any other option? The answer again was "No" we would just have to wait until the car was ready and she would call me when it was.

I'm learning how things work in Kirksville haha.

We had a nice early dinner at Take Root Cafe in Kirksville. Good food and good company and good conversation. One of my favorite things! We went to the hotels swimming pool in the evening and enjoyed getting half our bodies wet in the semi cool/warm pool

Oct 30 we spent most of the day at Logan and Sydney's house. Mitzi and Sydney were nice enough to let me do a photo shoot of them baking (I used the Hasselblad). Here are our favorites.

It was also time to return the Hasselblad to LensRentals.com. Sad :( But there's a funny story about it. Kirksville has limited options when it comes to shipping something FedEx. The local Walgreens has a shipping center so I went there.

There was one employee and he was checking out customers at the register. When he was done I asked if anyone was working at the shipping counter. He walked over and said he would help me. He didn't have any packaging but said he would look in the back for a box that would fit the camera.

I went to aisle 12 and grabbed some packaging bubbles. When I was done he was back at the register and there were customer for 10 minutes. When he finished he said he found a diaper box. However it was very narrow and wide and the camera box wouldn't fit into it. He was friendly and helpful but didn't have the resources to make it work. He recommended I go to a dry cleaner and they would probably have packaging supplies!

So I thanked him and headed over to the cleaners. It looked a bit sketchy. An older gentleman eventually came out from the back and I explained I needed to ship this via FedEx.

He said it would cost $8 for a box and padding and I said that was fine. He said "Go ahead and pay now and I'll package it up later and send it."

I didn't want to tell him there was $10,000 worth of photographic equipment in the box and I wasn't sure what to do. He wasn't going to package it right then while I could watch.

So I ended up taking a picture of the return label, the box on the counter, and one of the store. It was a little unnerving leaving it sitting on the counter like that without any proof I had done my part. So with some trepidation I left and hoped for the best.

FedEx tracking says the box is on it's way back to LensRentals.com so hopefully the camera and lens are actually in the box :) I'm still getting used to how things work in Kirksville, Missouri!

This morning Oct 31 it was snowy and cold. Mitzi showed me how versatile credit cards (and hotel cards) are in the winter, a trick she learned using her dad's credit card in Wanship as a teen when there was snow on the car. They scrape snow and ice off the windows :)

Mitzi and Sydney cut the croissant dough into pieces today. The dough is perfect in elasticity, color, density, temperature, and content. They have enjoyed this project so much. Tomorrow they bake croissants – and we eat! We have high hopes and can't wait!

Nov 1 – the croissants are ready! They were perfect. From the starter/levain Sydney made starting a few days ago – interruption here, funny story!

Sydney started a levain on Thursday last week (8 days ago). She put it up on top of the refrigerator thinking it was a safe place.

On Saturday Logan, being the good husband that he is, was cleaning up the kitchen. He noticed a strange container with some old looking doughy stuff in it and thought, "Well I'll get this cleaned out for Sydney."

He threw it out and cleaned the container.

Later that day Sydney saw the cleaned container in the sink and wondered where the levain was. She asked Logan. Oops haha!

She started a new levain. In the picture above with Mitzi and Sydney, the levain is the dough looking mixture in the square casserole dish in between them.

Mitzi and Sydney put on the finishing touches to the croissants as the morning progressed. Then Logan came home for lunch at noon and it was time to experience them. Oh my oh my oh my – these are the best croissants we've ever had. Perfect in every way. Warm, perfectly baked, tasty, crunchy, soft – how can I describe such a delicious food?

We stood around and consumed these croissants with jam & butter, and ham & melted swiss cheese. Divine!

And more!

Nov 2, our last day all together in Kirksville. Mitzi has decided to stay another week to spend more time with Sydney, I headed home to St. George to be here for Lizzie. It was sad to say goodbye, I loved our time with Sydney and Logan.

Before leaving Logan gave us a tour of the dental school where he's in his second year. It's a very nice facility and we are impressed!

Then Sydney and Mitzi took me to the tiny Kirksville airport where we had to say goodbye :( Then I got on this little Cessna for the 1 hour flight to St. Louis then on to Denver then on to St. George.

I walked in the door 5 minutes ago and after dropping my bags off in our room, sat down to finish this blog post.

We left last Saturday to Chicago to visit Spencer and Laura then on to Kirksville to visit Logan and Sydney – I love traveling with Mitzi, I love all our children and this big fun family I belong to. I'm so grateful for belonging to such a great group of people!