Pointless Ramblings

This weekend we tried out the famous Beall Mansion Bed and Breakfast in Alton. It costs about the same as it would to stay in a decent hotel room, but you get much nicer accomodations and service! The couple who owns it, Jim & Sandy Belote, talked to us for about a half hour and were the nicest people.

There is the option of having a special-order hot breakfast delivered to you in bed, or you can have it downstairs in the beautiful dining room. However, we opted for the cheaper option -- the "continental" breakfast. We were allowed to raid the butler's pantry, which was a room with cabinets, a fridge and a large table. There was cereal, bagels, waffles, yogurt, pastries, eggs, fruit, cereal bars... just about everything you could want.

The weather was perfect, and we went for a walk around the quiet, historic neighborhood the night we arrived.


We came back inside and looked around at all the cool antiques. The owner had told us that "back in the day," when couples came home from a night out the men would sit in the parlor and drink brandy while the women went in the other room and "fainted." When we came back after dinner, Jonathan had to keep the tradition going and tried a shot of brandy "aged with oak". From pained look on his face, it appears that the stuff is pretty disgusting.


One other awesome thing about this bed and breakfast: 24-hour chocolate bar. Chocolate covered expresso beans, raisins, nuts, mints, jellybeans... need I say more?


We stayed on the third floor and had to use this skeleton key to get in the door.


Right before we left, we took another walk around the mansion and got this shot.


I would highly recommend the place!