Graeters

It is sort of cheating to do my first ice cream post for a store that's minutes away.  However, I'm military, and I view the world as my tourist destination.  As some examples, we're 630 miles from where I was born, 1676 miles from where I grew up, 998 miles from where all three kids were born.  I've decided that anywhere I go I can be a tourist.

So today, in honor of first day of school, we went to Graeter's.  This is not our first visit to Graeter's, and it will not be our last. In fact, I got us a loyalty card so we can go a lot.  Graeter's is on the pro side of the list for why we might retire here.  However, that's years away.

Last time we went, I got the Buckeye Blitz.  My husband got it this time, and I got a deranged picture of him eating it.

Ice cream!

For those of you not from Ohio, which is the Buckeye state, you may be picturing something like a hazelnut ice cream.  That's because you don't know what a Buckeye is for those who know what's important.  The best kind of Buckeye is a candy which is basically a peanut butter ball dipped most of the way in chocolate so there is a little bit on top not covered so it looks like the less important type of Buckeye that is a nut.  Graeter's makes this with huge, and I mean HUGE, chunks of chocolate and peanut butter.  Mmmm.

The kids all picked cotton candy, because they are kids and it's cotton candy.

This time, despite my love for all things chocolate, I picked peach.  Why?  Because here it's the tail end of summer, and peach ice cream is about to disappear for a year.  And I'm pretending it was healthier.  There were large chunks of peach in it, so I probably got about 1/2 a peach.  

2 scoops of Peach, with the mandatory pile of napkins when you have kids

As a review, I'd say the peach was really really good.  I am not used to there being large chunks of fruit in ice cream.  I should have known better - their chocolate chunks are enormous (my daughter wanted to take a picture of a piece she found once they are that impressive).  The huge chunks of peach were really refreshing against the creamy ice cream - little icy bits with the creaminess.  

And of course, we do not leave an ice cream store without reinforcements.  Last night I finished off the family pack of Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip, which totally counts as housekeeping.  Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip is one of their main flavors that we can easily get another time.  So today, we bought a family pack of a seasonal flavor - the Black Cherry Chocolate Chip.  The little fingers that crept into the picture are my youngest's - she told me her fingers are excited for eating more ice cream.  It may merit another post later when we open this up.  

I think this is an auspicious start.  I'll have to see what's in an easy drive for this weekend!  Ohio has a lot of really quality dairies, so we shouldn't have any trouble.  I just want something easy since school has just started.

In which I attempt to blog again

I have always meant to blog. It seems like it would be a good idea. Surely it wouldn't be that hard. But time slips away. The last post on my family blog - my brilliant idea to keep family apprised of our adventures - was in 2008. Ha. That's current....

But I think I have hit upon something I can embrace with a passion that my kids can be involved with too. I love ice cream. I've loved ice cream for a long long time. My first real job was at Dairy Queen. Working hard on my feet all day was the only thing that didn't cause me to explode like a balloon. Seriously, I managed to lose weight working there, which I only really noticed because it shocked me. So, I shall become an Ice Cream tourist. I've decided that this should also include gelato, sorbets, and sherbert. I want to travel more with the kids, and I am always up for ice cream. We now live in Ohio, and there are a TON of dairy farms around to get started. I can also pretend that I'm getting in touch with my dairy farm roots on my Dad's side of the family.

No tourist adventure tonight, but I will go raid the ice cream in the freezer. It's from Graeter's. It's excellent. I think their local shop may be our first tourist stop. Maybe tomorrow to celebrate the first day of school!