After touring Reynolda, we made a quick stop at one of the most memorable places from my childhood: Krispie Kreme. 

Sure it looks like any old Krispie Kreme doughnut shop in any old place, but it isn’t.  It’s one of the original stores from before you could get a Krispie Kreme doughnut in Arizona or Oregon or Hong Kong, for that matter.   I actually have lots of memories of riding in the family van to this place filled with hope that the “Hot Doughnuts Now” sign would be illuminated.  Unfortunately on this hot summer day… it was not.  But for old time’s sake, we had to get a box to go.

And you know what, they were good.  And even better washed down with a giant sweet tea from TJ’s Deli, a little sandwich shop I remember for it’s delicious French Dips.  It was quite the treat!

Riding high on sugar, we continued our tour in Old Salem. My memories of Old Salem include the following: the bakery, the water pump, Moravian stars, and candles on window sills.  I know there are tons more things to see in this historic village, but I had to set goals and make priorities.

Our first stop was the Winkler Bakery.

Yes!  Sugar cake!  Sugar + cake.  It’s really good.

Here they are on the right of this next photo, all wrapped up in waxed paper, because they are sugary and sticky and so delicious.

They make everything at the bakery in a big wood-burning oven.

And they sell the most amazing, paper thin Moravian spice cookies.

But I wanted to find the sugar cookies I remembered from my childhood. So we did a little shopping and got a few treats.

Meredith, there may or may not be an extra sugar cake in the freezer.  Just so you’d know.

We then headed over to the legendary water pump.  I loved this thing when I was little. I even used to drink out of it.

Where did that fearless Emily go?  I guess to Egypt, where I became hydrophobic.  Thanks a lot, Nile.

Anyhow, back to memory lane.  We continued walking around Old Salem, admiring the old buildings, and remembering all the fun times we had there decades ago.

And then we got back in the car and continued the adventure.  I had to try the sugar cookies.  They were phenomenal, just as I remembered.

And yes, that is a colonial man shaped cookie.