Keller Fest II

** Part 2 is dedicated to my friend Lauren too. Oooh, girl - we missed you today!

I didn't learn as much as I could have about Helen Keller at the festival today since my friend Shital and I chose to do the self-guided house tour and go at our own pace. It was nice, and once the small crowd left each room, I took the photos that I wanted. Shital was great too and took lots of pictures when I asked. I thought it was funny that a guy working at the main gate offered to zoom us up to the front door in a golf cart. The driveway was not very long. Such kind service!

   I'm not sure why it was necessary for the Keller's to have four fireplaces in their house. I thought the whole point of the kitchen being in a separate building behind the house was in case the kitchen burned down, then at least they would still have the main house to live in. But darn those metal railings for not letting the public sit in the very chairs that Captain Keller sat in so many years ago!

   The famous W-A-T-E-R spout!! (I started crying at that part the last time I watched the Miracle Worker movie. Sheesh. Online it said each year for the Helen Keller Festival, they put on the Miracle Worker play, but we didn't stay long enough for that.) I pumped, but no water came out. Then I apologized to an older lady who seemed to be waiting for her turn since I asked Shital to take lots of pictures at this spot, but then the lady politely said, "No, please. This is an important historic event. Take all the time you need."
   Behind everything was a small gift shop and had many small items for sale, including green aloe soap bars in the shape of Alabama. I almost bought a set of cards and envelopes that had a drawing of Helen and Annie Sullivan for five dollars, but I have so many other little cards in my scrapbook shelf already, and I promised I wouldn't buy any more. But I would have bought some of those cool stamps if they had the correct (up to date) postage amount.

   After the house tour, we stopped in to a couple places for lunch. Shital bought some yummy caramel and white chocolate Chex Mix, then we went to The Palace and got sandwiches and fruit. Instead of bread, my sandwich toppings came in two scoops with a big handful of butter crackers - one scoop of chicken salad and one of egg and olives! They were both really good. She paid for our meals as well as the admission into the festival when that started. About 25 vendors were set up to sell their crafts and we looked at each one, but didn't buy anything. It's times like this that makes me wish I had a ton of money just to help other creative people out, save their products to later give as gifts, then donate the rest to orphans and ministries.

  On the way home, Shital and I ended our discussion on one of my favorite topics: eating healthy and exercising. It timed out perfectly to when we got back to Birmingham and we stopped in at Winn-Dixie to buy some Dole bagged salads. They were on sale for $2.50 each and then they had a coupon right next to that for another $1.50 off. They were originally priced at $3.99 each, and I got each pack for only a buck!! The sale goes on through Tuesday, so if the salads are super amazing, I will definitely buy some more.