what a day...this is incredible!

Today my mom and I headed out to do some wedding gift shopping. We were headed to Target, and eventually got there....after a very interesting side trip!
a note about ME: when i am driving and i see something interesting, or intriguing once and a while i'll follow my interest and go on an exploration, an adventure one might say...well my mom is not so adventurous, hence a point of tension from time to time.
We were in Latrobe, PA headed for Greensburg, PA when I looked over into the rolling hills and spotted a beautiful red brick building i had never noticed before, we were at a stop light and i saw some signs that pointed in that direction that said "Latrobe Art Centre and Latrobe Brewing Company" figuring that building was probably an art centre i insisted we make the right turn, surprisingly mom my agrees, knowing that my "explorations" are always memorable (for good or bad, but definitely a memory!)We follow the windy road (as most are out here, woo hoo! take that indiana) and decide to head toward the building- we need to turn left onto a road called monastery Rd. and there was a sign on the left for the St. Vincent basilica. I put the pieces together and realized this building of wonder was no art centre, and mos def not a brewery!
We pulled in a parking place labeled "St. Vincent Seminary Visitors" that was us...apparently...my mom looked at me and said "ok miss meredith...now what do we do?" "go in and explore!"
We headed up the steps past a large statue of the founder of the seminary, his name was Boniface something....we walk into the basilica and in the very front i see a monk speaking to (my guess) a group of jr highers, suddenly the yellow school bus outside the Basilica makes sense. my mom and i caught the tail end of his lecture about the building and monastic life. after his lecture i had a few questions so i walk up to him, and first introduce myself and also felt the need to describe our random appearance and tag along on the field trip, he graciously answered my questions and talked with us (he looked like a combo of baxter orr and tim from oneonta, NY)he introduced himself as father brian, and invited us back at anytime, the basilica opens at 4am. we realized the seminary was actually part of a college called St. Vincent College, so we bummed around the campus, and then found an old mill that is still used today to break down grain to make bread and other flours and stuff. there was conveniently a coffee shop there too, which has wireless internet (i just found a sweet new hot spot!) they also had turkish coffee, but that was only available when the turkish barista was working...all of a sudden i felt an overwhelming sense of culture in southwest PA! I got some black indian tea, which was good, and we headed out of the monastery! We headed to target and did our thing, and had lunch at this cool harper's pointe-ish restaurant. i got a hamburger..i don't know what possessed me because that was probably like the 5th time i have had red meat in like a year, but it was the most exciting burger ever. it said it came with onions, smoked gouda and roasted red peppers. when i got the burger it only had onions, i inquired about my missing peppers and cheese, she informed me that they where in the burger. confused, i took a bite, and behold there was a secret filling in the burger!
on our way home i was still interested in the art center and the brewery, so we turn back onto the road that we took to get to the monastery and began another quest!
we drove by the art center..it didn't really blow our skirts up, to say the least, so we thought the brewery would be more exciting. we went in and and there was a small museum with the history of Rolling Rock Beer (which is brewed here in Latrobe, PA) but also in the museum were Latrobe's other claim to fames, and they are noteable:

*Arnold Palmer (a famous golfer)
*Fred McFeely Rogers (Mr. Rogers- a part of my childhood!)
*The banana Split! (..invented here apparently)
*The Benedictine monastery of St. Vincent...
There was a short movie detailing how to make beer, and unlike the ben and jerry's tour there were no free samples....drat. just kidding!

well after that crazy adventure i was pretty tuckered out, but when i came up the stairs to my bedroom i found the carpentry project i had left there last night...i have been working on a bookshelf so i put the hammer to the wood and finished up that sucker, so far so good, but there aren't any books on it yet..i too have a problem with where to put books when i come back from school, so i did something about it.

bed. soon. yay!