Carol Kroll

Racine, a great place on a Great Lake.

I had a LOVELY weekend visiting with my family. As usual, LOTS of laughing. My father’s incredible wit was out in full force. My mother and sister are no slouches either. We played Rummy Royale all night Saturday and just as I was making my comeback from owing “the bank” 8 times of borrowing 25 chips, we called it a night. Right on the edge of my comeback. I won that last hand, you know. My comeback.

Yeah, nobody cared then either.

Anyway, I thought I would share a part of my hometown with the internet. The parts of it I miss. Besides my parents, I miss Lake Michigan. I didn’t take my phone-camera with when I took an Easter Sunday walk with my sister, Mom and dog along Lake Michigan Sunday morning. Wish I had. It was a GORGEOUS day. And I tried to drink up as much sun, blue sky and blue wavy water and boats as I could before I left.

I miss that big body of water. I really do. I feel so lost without it. The sight and sound of water just soothes my soul and without it, I am sort of a wreck.

Kringle works the same way. Below is what we all woke up to on Easter Sunday. I nearly soiled myself at the sight of them.

That’s my mom and sister patiently waiting while I take my picture. They were pleased.

The Easter bunny (aka my father) brought these from the ONLY place on earth to get Kringle. O&H Bakery. If you see a product called Racine Kringle in your stores where you live, turn around and RUN in the opposite direction screaming FIRE because that is an abomination to this fine pastry. TRUST ME. Just order from these guys ok? Or better yet, come with me on band practice nights and we’ll go here together.

My usual, I also enjoyed nice cup of morning tea on Sunday (with my raspberry Kringle-moment of silence please) which had special fortunes on the back of the tea bag papers.

And yes, I am currently reading Eckhart Tolle’s New Earth pictured up there as well, but have recently switched to Tolle’s The Power of Now to better understand the “New Earth” concept. It’s NOT light reading, but a very comforting read for your head & soul before embarking on sleep. That is if you are into becoming more self aware and searching for true inner peace. Some will call it new agey (that’s a shame) but I call it what I need to focus on right now.

Moving on, other than my parents, Lake Michigan & Kringle, my other favorite place in Racine, is The Sausage Kitchen (well that is what WE call it) I guess its official name is The House Of Sandwiches. This place has not been remodeled since the 60’s? Thankfully? And I hope it will stay that way! It was a staple of my youth and I would be completely heartbroken if anything ever happened to this place. Or it gets “modernized”.

They have THE BEST deli sandwiches IN THE WORLD. I am quite confident of this. I get “The Mousetrap” when I go because I love cheese. Of course I do. I live in Wisconsin. Save the jokes, I have heard them all.

Just check out these deli counters! This place is a time capsule. You name the old man meat product, they got it. Ah, heaven. Hope my heart isn’t listening or looking.