field trips for grown-ups

When's the last time you went on a field trip??  Fifth grade maybe?  Yeah, me too.  

I remember visiting the Blue Bell factory in fourth grade... which was awesome.  But who said field trips were just for fourth graders??  I've decided that is a stupid rule... and I'm now declaring that field trips are for grown-ups of all ages. 

Last week Lance and I made our own field trip.  We went to Cincinnati for the afternoon... visiting a few key field trip locations along the way.  It.was.awesome.

First stop: IKEA

I haven't been to an IKEA in years, and I've probably only been 3 times total in my entire life.  I almost forgot how awesome it was.

Probably my favorite thing about IKEA is how they have all these "rooms" set up... just ready to go.  Kitchens, bedrooms, offices, dorm rooms, living rooms, libraries... ideas galore.

I loved the wall-length floating shelf idea.  I saw this in a couple of spaces and loved the look.  How cool would this be to showcase your travel photos and mementos?

I mean, you could seriously just go crawl under the covers and I don't think anyone would find you until closing time.  I loved the natural bedding in this room.

They had duvets galore... and some really pretty ones.  But the bohemian comforter from Target still has my heart... (just ordered it!) 

The lighting options were awesome too.  I mean, seriously... where else can you get a super cute lamp shade for $5??

And what a great place to shop for affordable art?  So many choices...

We grabbed the Expedite bookshelf before we headed to the checkout line... well, I'm not entirely sure if Lance is heading towards the checkout or the $0.50 cent hotdogs...

Second stop: JUNGLE JIMS
What?  You've never heard of Jungle Jim's??  Yeah... me either.  But everyone told us we HAD to go.  So we did.  And it did not disappoint.  Hmmmm... how to describe?  It's like a ginormous international grocery store meets creepy circus fair.  They have food from every country you can think of... and these bazaar ceramic zoo animals scattered throughout the store.  It's weird.  But so-totally-awesome at the same time.

This is the entrance... That giraffe greets you with a low creepy, "Hello boys & girls!! Welcome to Jungle Jims!" with a weird chuckle at the end.  Told you, weird.

But once you bypass the weird ceramic zoo animals, you come across the most impressive cheese selection I've ever seen.  It's sorted by country and it seemed to go on and on.  I don't know much about cheese, so I just poked around in the France section and found one that looked pretty tasty... and it was.

The beer section was equally as impressive... and overwhelming.  They had every beer imaginable... from every country imaginable.

 Yummmm... baked treats.  I had to quickly walk past this section before I asked for one of everything.

 Even their produce section was enticing.  Everything was so fresh and colorful.

They made sushi fresh-to-order... which we did... for dinner. 

Third stop: CHICK-FIL-A
Don't freak out... we have Chick-fil-a in Louisville.  But sometimes it just tastes better on the road, no?  We stopped specifically for milkshakes... and were surprised to see that they were doing some kind of mother/daughter special event.  They had pink table cloths on all of the tables, a pink stretch Hummer limo (making rounds around the parking lot), and the princess chick-fil-a cow.  I totally cut in front of a 3 year old girl for this picture.  

So, there you have it.  Our grown-up field trip.  We'll definitely be doing it again.  Where are you going on your grown-up field trip?