More Antiques and a Disappointing Last Meal

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After our antique shopping Friday, the spa treatments and the fabulous dinner, we were reluctant to check out. BUT we were to head home Saturday; planning to spend the night some place in Pennsylvania on the way home. We knew we wouldn’t make it all the way home because we planned on hitting several antique stores (or one to two LARGE stores) on the way home.

As it stands, we hit several smaller antique stores Saturday and Sunday.  We awoke with a plan and a map.  Since we’re early risers, we looked for a place about 4 hours into our drive.  This lead us south to Pittsburgh.

We hit three to four places on the same road and found quite a few good deals.  I have had to text Dad a few times with photos of items that I thought he might be interested in.  They were having a sale on glass items and I stumbled onto a few unique and high quality items I thought he’d like to purchase for resale.

• Antique Mall Ohio River
• Rt. 19 Antique Mall
• Antique Center of Strabane
• Antique Junction

Then we headed to Belle Vernon, PA. They have several antique stores on Broad Street and a few off Broad Street that were well worth wandering through. We found quite a few pieces of glass worth purchasing.

A word to the wise, though. Make sure you have plans either before heading there or after you leave there. There’s not much in the way of food except for some fast food. I was getting hangry and S didn’t want to stop, but I knew if we didn’t I’d feel horrible and sick. So, we wasted some time trying to find some places on Foursquare, to no avail. They all looked and sounded good on the phone, but when we got there, they appeared more rough than we were ready to adventure into for a meal.

• Antiques on Broad
• Broad Avenue Treasures
• Morgan’s Antiques & Used Furniture

We drove through the countryside in search of other deals and steals. We headed to Somerset and stopped at a few places before calling it a day.

• Rustique Antiques in Ruffs Dale, PA
• Sugar Grove Shoppes
• Cottage Pine Antiques

We stopped in Somerset. There was a wealth of hotels in that are. How in the world was one to find the best price and the best place to stay? Thank goodness for smart phones!! I pulled into the parking lot of one hotel and we looked on Trip Advisor, Hotels.com, Expedia, etc to find the best rate for the best price. We booked a reservation while sitting in that parking lot and then drove to the hotel.

We checked in, then stopped at the front desk to find a place to eat. This is the Disappointing Last Meal. I don’t blame the hotel clerk. Honestly. If that’s the norm for that area, maybe she doesn’t know better? Maybe they treat locals better than people from out of town? Who knows? One can know speculate as to the events that happened next.

The clerk recommended Pine Grill. She even had a nice coupon for us to use for dinner, which was nice. The hotel room wasn’t as cheap and I had hoped, but the cheaper places had WAY worse ratings. Yes, I know that’s not grammatically correct. We walked down the hill and across the street to the restaurant. We asked for a table and were seated in the bar area. I have nothing against eating in the bar. It was just…loud.

It took a minute for someone to help us and a minute for them to bring drinks. I didn’t think anything of it because they appeared to be busy. We proceeded to order calamari. I didn’t read the menu on the calamari. I mean, it’s calamari. But apparently, it’s calamari that’s breaded and fried with breaded and fried pepperoncini rings. Not really the flavors I would pair together, but okay. We ate it. It was okay. I think I liked the fried pepperoncini better, but it’s all good.

I ordered the Portabella Salad. No. I didn’t type that wrong. That’s how it’s written on the menu. Portabella. I think that should have clued me in, but I didn’t pay attention, really. I had a hard time finding the mushrooms. They should call it the sun-dried tomato salad. I think there was about one cup of them in the salad.  You can see from the picture how much red is in there.  Oh yeah, and there were two artichoke hearts, I think, a few crumbles of blue cheese, and some lettuce.  Not the best salad and not the worst salad.  It was just food.

S ordered some kind of fish.  I can’t remember if it was the cod or if there was a fish special.  In any event, it was mush.  And the rice in the picture?  It didn’t even have butter, salt or pepper on it.  I like rice.  I even like plain rice, but this was horrible for even me to eat.  Just bland.  I think it was par-boiled boxed rice.  Just saying.

Here’s the kicker.  I had about half my salad eaten when the waitress asked my husband if we wanted to dessert.  Um.  We’re still eating.  Do you see the food on our plates still?  We, of course, said no considering the crap food we were witness to.  Shortly there after, she brought the ticket.

I’m glad we didn’t have to wait but honestly.  Serving 101; at least wait until they’re finished eating before asking about dessert.  Needless to say, since I paid the bill, there was NO tip and I informed her on the check as to WHY there was no tip.  S wasn’t thrilled with that, but I was pissed.

Surprising, I know.

We headed back to the room and planned our trip for Sunday. We were going to meander our way home through Maryland, planning on stopping in Cumberland. There were several antique and thrift stores in the town centre there.

It was a cold day and towards the fourth and final shop in the center, S said he wasn’t feeling well and wanted to head home. So we did. We stopped at these stores and found a few pieces of our pattern before heading home.

• Fort Cumberland Emporium
• Baltimore Street Collectibles
• Broadway Antiques
• Barkin Basement Thrift Shop
• Whimsical Fairy Antiques

The Barkin Basement Thrift Shop proceeds help support the Alleghany County Animal Shelter.  S was skeptical, but we actually did find a piece of our pattern in that store.  There was lots of glass, home goods, and clothes for sale in the thrift store.  Something for everyone!