That's a Pastie

That picture below is the world famous Pastie. It's a little meat pie with chopped meat, potato, rutabaga and ?? Terri and I split this for a snack after having had a very filling lunch on Mackinac Island. It was quite perfect actually. The crust was delicious. Reminds me of the Nebraska sensation, the Runza, though the Runza is a little meat pie, stronger on onion. Boy19 really likes those. They are sold at a Runza chain, whereas pasties are sold at small roadside stands and gas stations, uncommercialized. One worker where we didn't buy a pastie said she didn't know how they came to be named, but they were brought over by the Cornish or Fins depending on who you talk to. Let me look that up and I'll be right back.

Wikipedia states the pastie is from Northern Ireland, but the information is a stub (look that one up!). Isn't Northern Ireland called Wales, which is the same as Cornish. Oh please correct me someone.

I thought this was really cute. The Uppers (Yoopers) called those from the Lower Peninsula Trolls (because they live under the bridge) and the tourists are called Fudgies because they are always in the fudge shops.

Last Evening

These are some friends of Roger from Canada. Keith has been all over the world on oil rigs (Turkey, Iran, Norway, Nova Scotia, Williston, ND). He and Roger told old stories around the fire last night about their adventures drillling for oil in North Dakota. The winter of 1980 was the coldest ever: -40 degrees and -123 windchill. Yow. I put that part in for my parents who are natives of ND, but were long gone by 1980. Anyway, Keith is a funny guy, ends most sentences with eh? We had a long discussion about Tim Horton's donuts (something I haven't seen since Buffalo, but there's one about 20 miles from here in Mt. Pleasant). The girls googled West Edmonton Mall which beats our Mall of America, in size anyway.

I'm looking out over a gorgeous field to the west this morning with trees in the background. The house has wonderful views and great big windows to see them from (more photos later). Last night was really comfortable. We all sat around watching The Family Guy, chosen by the under 25 crowd. Roger has two teenage boys as well. We all got a chuckle out of different things. I heard one of the girls comment, "This is a really nice evening." Brenda and Roger are very good hosts. Roger summed up most men's feelings about Chelsea Handler when we were watching her stand up routine, "She's nasty. My mother wouldn't like her."

There are going to be about 15 showers here this morning so I better get moving. I should be in Mackinac Island tonight. Ta-ta for now.

Brenda got a kick out of our quest for pasties (we pronounced it paste-ee). She corrected us before we embarrassed ourselves, it's pronounced past-ee. Pasties are like pot pies, not things you use to cover your breasts.