My cousins, Danny and Patty Seitz came into town last week and they’re not only my cousins, they’re two of the nicest people I know! So I was thrilled that they wanted to take the time to have lunch with me. I wanted to think of something special to do and then I thought about the fact that school was starting soon. Danny graduated from Spalding Institute in 1969. I thought it might be fun to take him and Patty back to school days and have lunch at his old high school. So I made some calls, set it up and now let’s go meet them in the MBIP World Headquarters Parking Lot.

Danny and Patty

There they are, my cousins, Danny and Patty Seitz! Always great to see them and hang out and catch up on our lives! Danny’s driving and I’ve kept the luncheon plans a secret, so I’m giving him directions as we go!

The Chef and The Baker

The first stop is at The Chef and The Baker to pick up our box lunches. There’s Baguette the baby enjoying her lunch and there’s The Chef and The Baker themselves, Ian and Karen! The three of us had lunch at the original Chef and The Baker back in 2014 and Karen remembered Danny and Patty’s names, that was impressive! We chatted for a little bit and then we took our lunches and hit the road for our next destination.

Spalding Pastoral Center

And that destination is just up ahead. I told Danny to drive to Spalding because where we were having lunch was nearby. Then when we got there I told him we were having lunch in his old high school and both he and Patty loved the idea!

It’s now the Spalding Pastoral Center and they have Cursillo weekends here and they also host Teens Encounter Christ. There’s the buzzer, let’s get a little buzzed and see if they let us in.

We got buzzed in and made our way from the foyer to the office and met Betty and Deacon Rick. They’re both really friendly and Deacon Rick said that the Cursillo here is non-denominational and everyone is welcome to come and experience this. If you’d like information on the Cursillo, just click here. Betty told us we were free to go down to the dining room and then we could wander around and take a look at the building when we were done with lunch. Very nice!

Lunch

Since Danny went to school here, Patty and I let him lead the way down to the dining room in the basement. Sadly there were no lunch ladies down here, so we had to open up and put our lunches together ourselves.

If you’ve never had a box lunch from The Chef and The Baker, you’re really missing out on a luncheon treat! They come with homemade potato chips and one of their freshly baked cupcakes. And of course there’s the sandwiches too, The Chef and The Baker have one of the best and original sandwich selections in town! We had the Sweet Meat, The Havana and The Beef and Cheddar. You can see the whole menu here. We really enjoyed the food. It was a fun lunch and we had a great conversation swapping stories about our youth, families, school and other topics.

After the sandwiches and chips we dug into the final sweet treat of our lunches, the cupcakes and they were delicious! Then it was time to walk off lunch by exploring the building. Once again we let Danny be the tour guide.

Our Tour

It was fun wandering around and looking at the place that used to be Spalding Institute. We walked around and Danny shared his memories of going to school here and we looked out the window at the building that used to be the sister high school to Spalding, Academy of Our Lady.

Some of the classrooms are bedrooms now for the Cursillo weekends. We walked up the stairs and saw this portrait of a Pope made out of bottle caps. Patty had to take a picture of that!

Here’s a room that still has a blackboard in it from the old Spalding Institute days. Danny wrote the name of one of his favorite teachers, Father Teed.

I wanted to show them the Graffiti Attic up here, but sadly the door was locked and Betty didn’t know where th key to it was. Oh well, I’ve taken pictures of this before and I’m sure it hasn’t changed so...

Graffiti Attic

Here’s some of the graffiti up here in the attic. Believe it or not, this is just a small sampling. Click here to see all of it.

The End Of Our School Lunch Day And Tour

We thanked Betty after our self-guided tour and she took a photo of the three of us. Thanks to Danny and Patty for having lunch with me and hanging out at Spalding for the day! I had a blast and hope to see you both soon! We’ll see you all tomorrow!

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The Chef And The Baker

106 E McClure Avenue

Peoria

309-431-3134

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Spalding Pastoral Center

Peoria Cursillo

Teens Encounter Christ

419 NE Madison Avenue

Peoria

309-676-5587