The Baboon Congress, Travel

Return of the Winter Getaway

77 Comments

Today’s guest post comes from Barbara in Robbinsdale.

Several weeks ago Husband and I had an afternoon appointment in Stillwater, about an hour from home, and he delighted me by saying we should make it a winter getaway and stay overnight there. I was elated – the winter has been long and grueling, and we had not yet been able to “get out of Dodge”.

But where to stay in this river town overflowing with Bed and Breakfast places? I’d stayed at one of them decades ago, was charmed by the antique oak furniture, lace, and florals. Still, I wanted to try something new. We searched online and eventually came up with The Elephant Walk Bed and Breakfast, whose byline is Tour the World One Room at a Time.

They are not kidding. Although the house is an 1883 “stick style” Victorian, walking in is like taking a trip to the Far East, where owners Rita and Jon Graybill spent twenty some years, he in military and diplomatic service in Bangkok, Thailand. Downstairs parlors are a veritable bazaar of large and small antiques from Thailand, Bali, Spain and Italy, and the Americas – many of the items for sale. Elephants abound.

They’ve given the upstairs guest rooms names like Rangoon, or Raffles (for the British Colonial Hotel in Singapore), and filled them with exotic and colorful furnishings. Bedrooms are also equipped with a whirlpool in a private bath, a gas fireplace, small fridge with soft drinks, and a sound system. Ours was the Chaing Mai, named for the mountainous region of north Thailand.

We found the place so enchanting we didn’t even leave for dinner… we’d eaten a late lunch in historic downtown Stillwater, and we were provided with complimentary wine, cheese, fruit and nuts, and homemade crackers! The bay window in our room faced west, and we could see The Sunset. Breakfast the next morning was outstanding.

It was so refreshing to have entered this exotic world. I used to think I’d like to run a Bed and Breakfast, and though I probably won’t at this late date, The Elephant Walk has had me thinking of what unique theme I could use for an inn that was something out of the ordinary.

What would be the theme for your B & B?

77 thoughts on “Return of the Winter Getaway”

  1. Rise and Shine Baboons!

    Hallo! from Oslo, where it is 9:00am in an Airbnb apartment, not a B and B. I would make my B and B Dutch themed–have a giant Klompen (wooden shoe) shaped bed and a table with a windmill blade overhead. We loved Amsterdam and the surrounding countryside and found the Dutch people friendly, helpful, and curious about the many Americans there. Oslo has been more difficult to navigate, although some of that is our apartment location in the midst of city construction which is EVERYWHERE here. No bus or tram line, road, or sidewalk is untouched. This is making it very difficult to get around in the part of the city where the apartment is. Yesterday we went to the Norske Volksmuseem which was wonderful. There we viewed farmsteads from the Mid-1800’s–the time our people left for America. We also had a sample of freshly made lefse that was good, unlike the kind I have had in the US.

    I don’t have the link to the new contributor page with me. Dale, can I send pictures and a post? I bookmarked the link on my laptop which I do not have with me.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I loved the Volksmuseum – and if you haven’t yet gotten to Akershus Castle/Fortress, that is worth the trip, too (especially for the Holocaust/WWII museum – easy to forget that Norway was affected by occupation). Oh and Vigeland park…

      Like

      Reply

  2. What a delight to wake up on this winter day in late April to find notes from BiR and Jacque. Both of you describe your adventures charmingly.

    It must be tricky to decorate a B&B with elephant stuff, given all the regulations on that these days. My mind instantly goes to two Far Side cartoons on the topic. In one (as I remember it) an outraged elephant is in a phone booth. He roars, “They turned it into a WHAT?” He is missing one foot. The other one said something like, “The evening was mellow until Tantor realized that the piano keys were ivory.”

    We had some weird friends many years ago, a couple that is no longer a couple. Robert and Donna. One of their ideas was to open a B&B in Two Harbors called the “No Holiday Inn.” They loved the film, Holiday Inn, but their strongest feeling is that they didn’t want a lot of damned strangers hanging around on Holidays, so the B&B would be closed then. As I listened to them talk with revulsion about strange folks in their home, I was moved to suggest that maybe they weren’t ideal candidates for the hospitality industry.

    Like

    Reply

    2. When Teenager and I travel, we like to get the tourism books that the individual states put out. We go through them to try to find items of interest along our route. This usually turns out terrifically, but every now and then…

      On our way through Iowa once, we went a little out of our way to see a “Natural History Museum” in a very small town. Imagine the horror of a 9-year old animal lover to discover that this museum really just housed all the taxidermied items from some man’s lifetime of hunting. Serous hunting. There was a lot of it and it was AWFUL. And it did include TWO coffee tables made w/ elephant feet. We beat a hasty retreat!

      Like

      Reply

  3. Lovely post, BiR. Good to hear from you, Jacque.

    Going to have to think about this question, as like Barb, I have often thought it would be fun to have a B&B, but like Steve’s friends, I am afraid I would find the fact that not all the guests would be as charming and interesting as Barb and Steve off-putting. I think I mostly would like to decorate and plan menus for the B&B, but I don’t think I would do well as the hostess day after day.

    I often think what I really should do is figure out the b&b I want, and then make it into my own home 😉

    I seem to be stuck on the Depression Era Farmwife motif, but a b&b probably shouldn’t have the word Depression in it.

    My grandmother had a wild rose applique quilt from that era (no one has any idea what happened to that) and those are the colors I am seeing.

    Like

    Reply

    1. sounds like it would be a smash among the octagenarian travelers. my folks would be ideal candadates if they did b and bs but i am pretty sure that they were never adventerous enough to venture beyond the hiloiday inn although my dad uses do love staying in the old hotels in chicago and new york that were the hotels that people lived in permanantly during the 30′ 40’s and 50’s with a living room a dining rom and a bedroom. they were great old places that all got condemed and torn down shortly after we left they were rarely available the next year fr the conventions we attended. how he found them year after year in pre internet days has always been a mystery. maybe he had an inside guy in chicago and new york who would clue him in but that would have required a long distance phone call and that ws pretty much off limits to back in the olden days

      Like

      Reply

  4. Good morning. Thanks for the very nice guest blog, BIR. How about using famous authors as a theme. A beatnik pad would be used for the Kerouac room. Thoreau’s room would be based on his cabin on Walden Pond. For Garison Keillor the kitchen would be set up to resemble the cafe in Lake Wobegon.

    Like

    Reply

    1. love it jim.

      im dong the artists theme, jackson pllack, rembrandt, georgia o keefe ansel adams alexander calder, it sounds like fun and you woud always get the customers to want to come back for the van gogh or the michealangelo room kandinski, hopper, rothko, rubens davinci (birthday yesterday) avery and a oskar kokashka before we get to the scream theme munch which would have an appeal and be the ideal choice for the guy who comes home at the end of a day thinking it couldnt be worse.
      ok dale how do we insert stuff. i remember seeing something about it but cant remember how to do it. was it reviewed in the word press conference?

      Like

      Reply

      2. tim, the wordpress camp is next weekend, so I have no new information for you. Of course, if given new information there’s a slim chance I’d retain it. Are you talking about inserting “stuff” in the comments or as part of a guest post?

        Like

        Reply

      1. Someday, when I am living on the island, this will be available. There will be no WiFi access, you will have to hike in to town for thatm

        Like

        Reply

  5. We loved staying at the Strawtown Inn in Pella, IA. The rooms were decorated in motifs from different areas of the Netherlands. The Friesland room had a cupboard bed in the wall with doors.

    Like

    Reply

  6. Forts. Tree forts, pillow forts, sheets & blankets forts, cardboard forts. Yep. All about forts. There could be water balloon fights on summer afternoons and Nerf gun wars during the winter. For the less violent, we would serve up crates of Lego and sidewalk chalk. And bubbles. Warm cookies and milk at 3pm. A bedtime story is optional, but available.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  7. I’ve always thought it would be grand to have a huge house with lots of bedrooms so I could make each bedroom a different theme. Alas, this would also have to come with enough income for someone to keep the place clean.

    The first room I would do would be the African room. Acadia trees painted onto the walls with photos of African wildlife, woven grass mat for a rug, bed and chairs made from recovered wood (that still resembles trees/branches), wooden slat blinds. And then all my African stuffed animal toys on the bed!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    2. Had to look up acacia trees. Very beautiful, but they look like something that wouldn’t grow in Minnesota. 😦

      My Siberian peashrubs kind of vaguely resemble them, though. Wonder if they are distant relatives?

      Like

      Reply

  9. That sounds like a fun place to stay, BiR; now I’m inspired to find a B&B for a week-end get-away. Also great to hear from you, Jacque. Glad you’ve been having a good time; I hope Easter doesn’t completely put you out of commission in Oslo.

    We have stayed in any number of B&Bs over the years, all of which have been quite lovely. My favorite, perhaps, was my friend Anne’s little Log House in her back yard in Northfield. It was ancient and tiny, and devoid of modern conveniences (except electricity and flush toilet). A great place to curl up with a good book and a glass of wine after foraging through their woods looking for morels. Anne, a French trained chef, served exquisite meals that you had to retrieve from her wonderfully warm kitchen. I just loved that place.

    I wouldn’t make a good inn-keeper at this stage of my life, though I have often fantasized about it. But owning a place like the Covington Inn, an old refurbished river boat, moored in the Mississippi River in downtown St. Paul would be fun. No theme needed, it’s built in.

    Like

    Reply

      1. Mike and Anne sold their wonderful house, including the old Log House, in Northfield years ago, and moved to Bellingham. It’s no longer in use as a B&B.

        Like

        Reply

  10. OT- help me out l, gardeners— tomoroow is Good Friday and my potatoes should be planted. Saved some of the lovely blue ones and they are sprouting away and ready to go.

    Do I chance it? Looks like it is going to warm up next week….

    Like

    Reply

      1. I just know you should get your potatoes planted then. I’ve known this all my life from my dad. I do not argue with what works- they always manage to have plenty of potatoes from the garden.

        Like

        Reply

        1. Since Easter isn’t on the same date each year, I’d think that Good Friday isn’t such a reliable plant by date. I’m sure waiting another week will be just fine.

          Like

        3. If you do straw bales, you can usually plant a couple of weeks earlier, since the heat from the straw breaking down is usually warmer than the late spring ground. I have my bales laid out this year (they looked funny covered with snow this morning) but have not started getting them ready yet. Figure I’ll start that next week and be ready to plant two weeks after that.

          I went to a talk last year by the guy who started the straw bale revolution and he says that planting potatoes in straw bales works just fine.

          Like

        4. I don’t have straw bales, but I think I am going to start them in some cardboard boxes with some dirt in them. I’ll leave them in the basement, then haul them out on Monday when it should be warmer

          I’ll keep piling in dirt an eventually the boxes can get torn away (or will fall apart).

          In other news, I’m waiting for my math carpool kids by Northrup where there is a group protesting Condeleeza Rice. Just a teensy bit stressful.

          Like

      2. Yep, I’d heard that too; plant potatoes on Good Friday. I haven’t done it and don’t recall my folks talking about it, but I’ve heard it.

        Like

        Reply

      2. I’m lurking tonight; does that count?

        I planted potatoes in straw last year and it worked great! Just stuff them down in the bottom and plant radishes (or other early crops) over the top of them. The stems came up through eventually and everything was harmonious and beautiful. 🙂

        This past Monday I delivered the first straw bales of this season. I’m expecting the calls to start rolling in any day it stops snowing and finally warms up for good.

        Like

        Reply

  11. Back on theme of a B&B, I’d love a Japanese themed room, and Beduin tent room. And an Orient Express themed rail car would be fun.

    Like

    Reply

  12. When I think of B & Bs (I’ve never been to one), two things come to mind. One is anywhere that doesn’t have a mid-April snow dump; the other is imagining being there with someone I love..

    Like

    Reply

  14. Was just listening to MPR about Zelda Fitzgerald in Paris and thinking if I had the funds, it would be grand to own one of the F.Scott locations and make it into a B&B of their style and era. If I had that kind of cash, I could probably hire an innkeeper too!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. The only time I was in therapy it was in a Scottie and Zelda spot: the old Commodore Hotel in Saint Paul. We didn’t do the therapy sessions in the bar, which is about the only part of the hotel Scot and Zelda used. The bar at the Commodore is fabulous (but not now open to the public).

      Like

      Reply

    2. The Russians! suckled on a gallant generosity and weaned on the bread of revolution. They haunt Paris! Everything haunts Paris. Paris is haunted.
      – Zelda Fiztgerald

      Like

      Reply

  15. I would do a variation on Jim’s theme – Children’s Book Authors and Illustrators. Each room would have framed art work of the illustrators and stacks of books. The Margaret Wise Brown-Garth Williams Room would have a bunny theme. The Robert McCloskey Room would have a Maine Island theme. The Brambly Hedge Room would be decorated with not only Brambly Hedge prints, but berries, flowers, and branches from field and woods, and it could be changed for each season.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. Oooh, and an Alice in Wonderland themed inn could be a lot of fun. I’d serve afternoon tea, of course, and have a croquet game in the garden.

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

    4. Have you seen the Robert McClosky charcoal drawings he did many years ago at St Paul Central Library in the children’s room. Seems they had been stored someplace and were found during the renovation. Now proudly framed and displayed.

      Like

      Reply

  16. Tomorrow I bring my dad to our place and will try to make it as familiar and homey for him as possible. We will put all the things he had on his bedroom walls back up on the walls at our house. The theme is comfort and good memories. I don’t think he would want anything elephant.

    Like

    Reply

    1. This is a fine enterprise in which to channel your energy. As long as you still allow yourself the time to grieve. I suppose, though, that with your background you have a pretty good idea of what you need to do.

      Take care of yourself, as well as your dad.

      Like

      Reply

      1. Thanks! My main concern is keeping him from being bored. He is a busy, relentlessly social, and restless man who has always taken drives in his car as a way to combat ennui. Now he has no license. At least it is baseball season. He is too frail to garden. I will contact the RSVP for volunteer opportunities.

        Like

        Reply

    3. All the best, Renee. This is an assignment that you feel compelled to by love. I’m hoping that your relationship with your dad will see you through this period. I’m hoping you’ll both realize the gifts implicit in it.

      Like

      Reply

    4. Good luck and blessings on you Renee. Sounds like Dad will settle right in. You know he’s been around the block once or twice so I get the impression he’s going with the flow. As long as the flow doesn’t include elephants.

      Like

      Reply

      1. Renee, I look back on own dad, who I loved dearly. Toward the end he was difficult to deal with. I’m hoping you’re spared that difficulty, but that you have a storehouse of good memories to see you though should it happen.

        Like

        Reply

  17. First of all, BiR, I think the Graybills should give you a discount on your next stay for the unsolicited testimonial.

    My B&B would be themed “Breakfast Any Time”. As in the Stephen Wright line – “I went to a restaurant that serves “breakfast at any time”. So I ordered French Toast during the Renaissance.” You could have a lot of fun with that theme, yes?

    Like

    Reply

        2. No kidding, you got that right. I even wrote a song about it. It will be in my next album. It’s called Winter Blues. Think it will be ready for release at the end of April. I’ll let you know.
          We live in Mississauga, Ontario Canada, which is part of the Greater Toronto Area. It has been one awful winter.
          Leslie

          Like

Leave a comment