Stephanie Steiner | Co-Editor-in-Chief, Meredith Van Zuiden + Brittany Poeppe | Assistant Arts + Life Editors
It’s 9AM on a Saturday and a knock comes on the suite door — a morning person hiding behind a box of donuts with a smile. Sure, homework took too much of Friday night and we might not know what we’re doing heading somewhere new on a weekend when we could be doing other productive activities (like sleeping).
But here we are, a team of two Arts + Life Editors and a Co-Ed-in-Chief taking a trip to Spencer, IA because we wanted to see for ourselves if it is worth telling to our readers to get away on a weekend.
Here’s your answer: It is.
It’s fall (arguably the best time of the year), the semester is settled, and we don’t know about you, but we’re ready for some inspiration. Getting away from campus is nice sometimes to help us students remember that we are more than just studying machines.
Fast forward an hour later and we’ve arrived in Spencer, in search for the perfect place to grab some espresso and milk. Thinking Starbucks would be our best bet, we piled out of the car in the Hyvee parking lot only to realize that we’d missed the memo: Starbucks’ opening day isn’t until two days later. So, after three more trips up and down Spencer’s main street, we finally used our GPS and found The Bear Coffeehouse and Wine Bar with ease, and were welcomed by a familiar barista standing behind the counter.
Senior Carolyn McDermott commutes to work there on the weekends, which none of us knew until we walked through the door.
“I really like working at the Bear because of the valuable skills that I’m learning,” McDermott said. It’s an oasis away from school. A lot of people ask me why I commute 45 minutes to work, but I tell them it’s worth it.”
McDermott continued on to tell us her favorite drinks and we ordered layered iced macchiatos. It was a blessing in disguise that Starbucks wasn’t open yet because this place was beautiful, situated perfectly overlooking a river.
The next stop on our list was Arts on Grand, a small art gallery located on main street. We wandered through the place and pondered the pieces there while sipping our Intellegencia brewed coffee.
After getting lost one more time, we arrived at our final destination: Hawk Valley Garden, a pumpkin patch located just outside of Spencer. We picked out our favorite pumpkins, took pictures with haystacks and tractors, and chased chickens around.
This journey was worth the time, worth the drive, and worth the experience with each other.
Photos by Stephanie Steiner
