Girl's Weekend Out - Part 1

by Crystal Coons
Jul 23, 2003

I woke up at 6:30 am on Saturday morning, excited to escape The Valley heat and get started on the much-anticipated girl's weekend out with my mother-in-law and two of my sisters-in-law. A weekend of playing tourist, spending hard earned money, goofing off in a cool hotel room and eating good food.

I should have realized whom I was going with. With my mother-in-law around, how I expected things to be normal is beyond me.

We set off for Williams early, and had a great time laughing and giggling the whole way up, enjoying the scenery that was so familiar to us. Our first stop was a deer farm. As you all know, I am a city girl. I don't do the farm-animals thing. However, they were really cute, and didn't seem to pay any mind to me, seeing as I refuse to buy food to feed them. My mother-in-law, on the other hand, was mobbed from the second we got in there. The older of my two sisters-in-law was brave as well, and fed and played with the deer, while the youngest sister and I hung back in irrational fear.

We did the tour of the farm, stopping to laugh at the llamas. Once we reached the end, we found what had to be the most entertaining part of the whole farm -- The talking birds. While one clucked like a chicken, another chuckled at itself after meowing like a cat. They drove us to tears with laughter. If there were ever a reason to go back to that farm, it would be Mozart the Bird.

After we spent a few minutes browsing the gift shop, and buying surprisingly reasonably priced gifts (and somehow, I managed to find retro 80s bangle bracelets, which I quickly chose 16 and bought them immediately), we headed up to the main downtown area of Williams. Check-in wasn't for a few more hours, so we did what girls do. We went for lunch and shopped. I suggested an authentic 50's Diner that I had eaten at before. We went in, had a nice lunch, and then headed towards the shops. Williams had some pretty unique shops, focusing mainly around Harley-Davidson motorcycles, which thrilled my sister-in-law.

It soon became time to check into our hotel. We drove back to the outskirts, and pulled in to a cute little hotel with cottage style rooms. My mother-in-law and sister went to check-in, and got the room key. They got back, and pulled up in front of our room.

It was a caboose.

A caboose?!

This is where things got weird.

As the maintenance crew left, we climbed out of the car and Jessie, the younger of the two sisters, and I looked at each other in shock. For a moment we were convinced they were kidding. We laughed hysterically at the thought of us sleeping in a piece of train that was mounted on a mock track in the middle of forest-y Williams. When they started up the stairs, Jessie and I realized, oh yes. We were sleeping in the caboose. Surprisingly, the interior was beautifully restored and looked quite a bit like a normal hotel room. (Thank goodness). We brought in our bags from the trunk of the car, still in disbelief, while my mother-in-law, and other sister, Jena, got a good laugh at our shock.

The weekend had kicked off.

Part 2 >>