Dear Texas, I’m so sorry!

A whole-hearted apology to Texas-west Texas in particular. In the last few years, I may have said that Texas is the ugliest state ever. I now know there are far uglier places. In addition to northeastern Wyoming……Southern Montana….Eastern Washington-Spokane in particular, which may be the single ugliest city I’ve ever seen! Sorry if anyone is from there. Truly! Just kidding. Hahaha! By the time we took the turn onto Highway 2, we were both so tired of the landscape we wanted to scream.

Tuesday marked 9 weeks on the big road trip. I got a message on my iPhone saying I need to purchase more space in iCloud or start deleting, so I went through our trip photos backwards and got rid of duplicates or photos that just weren’t that good. It made me re-live some of the great times we have had. It makes me a little sad that the trip is almost over…….. We went as far as Missoula, MT. Drove through Billings, Bozeman, and Butte. So, basically most of southern Montana.

We got to Wenatchee, WA late Wednesday afternoon for a quick visit with Rick’s brother Jim and wife Renee’. Hadn’t seen them in forever and had a very nice visit! Afterwards we headed to Leavenworth for a little dose of Germany. As if Rick didn’t have enough German the last couple of months…. But I needed a dose. Wienerschnitzl and Pomme Frites! They tried to serve it with spaetzle (which is a German noodle) and that’s just not okay in my book…. It has to be French fries, darn it!  It finally got prettier in the Leavenworth area! Our hotel is on the Wenatchee river with a balcony overlooking the river. Note to my brother-in-law, Hal, who has told me for the last 30 years that Leavenworth is not worth seeing: I call B***S***!

Thursday morning started out chilly and drizzly. We walked around Leavenworth and in and out of the many cute shops. Rick is not a shopper. I may have mentioned this before. So the only things we bought were some adorable stuffed animals for the nieces and nephews we would see when we got to Anacortes. There isn’t much room in our car for anything extra at this point anyway.

A quick apology to anyone who posted a message in the last few days. I have been inundated with BS spam, to the tune of up to 125 per day. So, when I sign on to the blog, the first thing I have to do is go through the messages and mark them as approved, spam or trash. I may have accidentally deleted some that I should have approved. I wish I knew how to block this evil intrusion, but unfortunately they are not all from the same sender or I imagine it would be pretty simple.

Some photos. Next stop, Anacortes.

 

 

 

3rd Full Moon

It’s hard to believe, but we are seeing the 3rd full moon of the trip. On our way from Lake Minnetonka to Mount Rushmore we drove through Le Sueur, MN, home of the Valley of the “hohoho” Green Giant. I never got that Le Sueur peas were named after a place. Now I know, and I saw it. Another day, another lesson.

Added two new states to my long list of first time-in states. South Dakota and Wyoming. As we were driving through the Badlands, we saw a billboard that said “Help manage wildlife. Wear fur.” Okay, not politically or otherwise correct, but it was good for a chuckle. This is the area where Dances With Wolves was filmed, and you can totally see it. The drive to Rapid City, SD, was a long one (574 miles), but there really wasn’t any place you’d want to stop, for lack of things to do, so we just went for it. We found a great restaurant (it was time for a steak) just a short walk away, and made a new friend. He is moving to Phoenix next month (we will try not to hold that against him though, lol!).

On our drive to South Dakota, we noticed motorcycles everywhere on the road. It turns out the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was over on August 10th. I guess we dodged a bullet on that one-apparently accommodations were difficult to find during that week-it’s still not great yet. Sturgis is 29 miles from Rapid City, where we decided to stay.

On Monday morning we headed to Mount Rushmore, which was pretty cool. Lots of people. There is a very short trail to give you different vantage points. After that we went to the Crazy Horse Monument, which I’m sorry, annoyed me a little. They charge twice as much to go in to it than Rushmore, but it is not even close to complete. The head is done, nothing much on the horse, which is what will be really amazing. I say wait on this one. Next stop-the Devils Tower in Wyoming. You can see this for miles and the drive is beautiful. Thumbs up. We took a really pretty scenic drive between Custer City and Deadwood-the Black Hills area is definitely worthwhile. Lots of little casinos everywhere-but we did not stop. We had hoped to make it to Billings, Montana today, but with all the oohing and ah-ing, that was not to be. A quick stop in some little Wyoming town, called Gillette, and then onward to Montana in the morning. I feel bad that this post is kind of boring, but how much can you write about all these rocks?

 

 

Lake Minnetonka

The drive to Lake Minnetonka from Duluth is a nice short drive. As we got closer to the lake we were totally blown away by the homes around here. While some people live here year round, a great many of the houses are vacation places. The CEO’s of Target, General Mills, and the many huge corporations based in the twin cities have homes here…..There are mansions you wouldn’t believe, many far nicer than the Hamptons.  There is 125 miles of shoreline. On a lake!

We got to our friend, (Hideout) Steve’s house on Thursday afternoon. He has this great old house that his parents purchased in 1959. It was originally built in 1908 to house ladies of the evening, so there are many rooms…. He is updating this house room by room, and it is a labor of love. It is a big two story house with a full basement and attic, right on the lake with over 130 ft. of shoreline, complete with a dock and a pretty red boat (to match his pretty red truck). He gave us the grand tour and showed us his many projects. It is great to see what he is doing here and we can’t wait to see how it looks when he finishes it. It is a big project, but he is clearly enjoying the journey!

The first thing we did after settling in, was to go to the grocery store and get all the stuff for me to make a big German dinner. Bratwurst, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes and French bread, then we played some cards-till after 1:00 a.m. So much for making a healthy meal-oh well, it seemed right at the time. We introduced Steve to Phase 10, a game my friend Carol introduced us to. He proceeded to beat us.

In the morning we woke to the smell of coffee and bacon-best thing ever to wake up to-along with blueberry pancakes and eggs. We then got our stuff together for a day on the lake. This lake is over 14,500 acres. We wandered in and out of coves and under bridges and through channels and explored it for hours with several swimming stops before going out to lunch where you pull your boat in to a slip at a restaurant dock and dine on the terrace. Pretty incredible place! I feel very lucky to have experienced this! We got home around 6 p.m., cleaned up, rested a minute then went out to see some live music at the local watering hole. There was this band called “Coyote Wild” that was the strangest mixture of people, but some pretty great country music (there was a time I may have considered that to be an impossible combination-pretty great and country music!). The two female singers were totally gorgeous with amazing voices, but the men, as Steve put it were “an old guy on the keyboard, Duck Dynasty on the bass, the guitarist looks like a trucker and a skinhead on drums (not to mention the other guitarist looked like Jonny Depp goes rastifarian). Fun evening….

On Saturday we headed to the University of Minnesota Arboretum. It was a beautiful place with a 3 mile loop walking tour of the many gardens and a maze. A glass artist, Craig Mitchell Smith has 32 glass sculptures installed all over the park. I may have gone overboard in photographing them, but I will whittle them down to just a few for posting purposes.

We decided to head out on Sunday morning, because we find 3 days to be just about the perfect time for a stop. Too long and it’s hard to get moving again. But on the last night, one more home cooked meal here. Rick made his famous fried chicken dinner-I made the salad. After this stop-we are heading towards Mt. Rushmore. Not looking forward to the find a hotel drill again……We are starting to wind this trip down. But still having fun!

 

Minnesota-Part 1

Duluth. Not a pretty sounding place. But it really is. Duluth was never even close to being on the radar. And had it been easier to find a place in the U.P., we probably never would have made it there, but here we are. The hotel is lovely and the location is wonderful. Right downtown. It sits on a beautiful bay and there is a Lakewalk that goes on for a really long way. It has a boardwalk, a bike path, and even a path for horse drawn carriages. We immediately took a long walk on the Lakewalk and went out to dinner, then wandered back through the downtown area. Halfway there, we saw these big lights, and there, in the middle of downtown was a Casino. Nice. We may have gone in there for a while before returning to the room for a movie marathon.

Our second day in Duluth was spent getting lots of exercise, both in the hotel gym and a whole lot of walking. We also took a great boat tour up the river and around the bay in Lake Superior. They have this huge bridge, that unlike the regular drawbridges, which they also have, this particular one goes up and down like an elevator. I’ve never seen anything like it before. The architecture here is pretty cool. I highly recommend it.

Next stop-Lake Minnetonka! So excited!

Da Yoop

Made it to the Upper Peninsula on Monday afternoon. Checked out the south shore-a little. Escanaba, Gladstone and a few other little places, and while some of the places were nice, we decided to try the north shore instead and are so glad we did. The Lake Superior shore is beautiful. We tried Munesing-no decent rooms available, so we went to Marquette, which really is a cute little town. I think if we went way over to the east side as several people have suggested, we’d really like it a lot, but I think we are both kind of getting ready to wrap it up. We have a few more things to see and a few more people we want to visit, but home is starting to sound really good.

We did the usual exploring around Marquette and went to a great little restaurant called Vierling’s, which specialized in local whitefish. And we had it. Lots of it. Smoked whitefish served with a dill and caper spread with toast points. Also grilled whitefish covered with crab and breadcrumbs-strange looking-see photo below. Kind of like a giant crab-cake riding piggyback on a fish filet. Heavy, but delicious.

We found a decent price on a Radisson in Duluth and jumped on it for a couple of days, after which we are heading to Minnesota to visit our friend Steve for a few days where I will get to cook again! So excited to go to a grocery store and buy real food again, not just snacks and all manner of beverages.

On the road to Duluth we made a quick stop for a snack. Although, my friend, Geri doesn’t like them and thinks they are too heavy, after seeing countless signs advertising Pasties, I had to try one. No, this is not some sleazy stripper apparel, it is something you eat. And it’s yummy, but heavy (Geri was right). We shared one on the road. It is a piecrust circle filled with ground beef, onions and potatoes then folded over and the edge crimped and then baked. Good stuff.

 

 

Onwards and upwards

On Sunday afternoon, we began our trip north towards the Upper Peninsula (hence the onwards and upwards). On our way north, we stopped in at Mars Cheese Castle, just outside of Milwaukee, on Dave Drabs’ suggestion (and he was very specific-take exit 340, etc.). There was a 45 minute wait. Neither one of us has that kind of patience. 10 minutes okay, maybe even 20, but 45, nope. That, coupled with the fact that someone threw up in the doorway, and as Gary said, “you can’t make this shit up!.” It was time to move on. So, we loaded up on cheese curds, and sausage and some cheddar/blue blend, that I cannot wait to tear into. We drove on up toward Green Bay munching on curds and sausage. Bad idea. That’s all I’m gonna say about that.

We got a room at the Hyatt in Green Bay for $68 a night! When we checked in, they said we don’t have the room that you reserved, so we’ll upgrade you to a suite. I’m liking this. Then we decided to go have some Wisconsin beer at  local pub, because, well, we’re in Wisconsin. What else are you gonna do on a Sunday afternoon?  The walk was kind of eerie. No cars driving around, no people walking around-we were both a little creeped out. We got to the first pub, and there were a couple of people there, but by the time we left, it was packed. With one bartender handling the whole bar. Very impressive! The bartender at the pub said it’s Double Bubble time. We had no idea what the heck she was talking about. You buy a beer, and the next one is free. This town is just one little surprise after another. Yay, Wisconsin! All this, and one of our best friends, Gary, is from Wisconsin.

On our walk to the next pub for dinner, we saw a marquis saying there was a concert that evening and one of the performers was St. Paul and the Broken Bones, which was a band we saw on our cruise in February. How cool is that? Anyway, the pub had live music on the patio overlooking the bay. After a bite we headed back to the hotel in the rain. This one time, the carry an umbrella in my purse and it won’t rain theory was blown. I got to use it.

It’s funny how little things mark the passing of time, for me, my 4 oz tube of Crest ProHealth is almost empty as is my 9 oz can of Vavoom hair mousse and quite honestly I should have brought an extra couple of toothbrushes-mine is looking pretty ratty and I will not buy one on the road with a ridiculous amount of them at home. For Rick, it was time for our second oil change since leaving (plus the little warning light was bugging him. a lot), and also tire rotation is in our future for the second time as well. The hysterical thing is we stopped at a little Mobil Lube & Oil change place in some obscure little Wisconsin town, and the three geniuses working there could not get the little “oil maintenance required” light to go away-to top it off the manager was a wealth of misinformation as far as trip tips go…. So for the next 22 miles that little light made my husband crazy and he could not focus on anything without complaining about the little light. He called the dealership in Tucson for help, got a recording and had to leave a message. I googled it, watched a video, we stopped and I re-set it. Yeah, I’m feeling cocky.

Chicago!

We arrived in Chicago after a harrowing drive. Following a gas tanker truck on the interstate, and literally could barely see his taillights. Why does this keep happening? I hate it. And the traffic getting in to the city-yikes! We could not begin to understand why Chicago was SO much more expensive than New York, and everyone knows I LOVE NEW YORK CITY! Well it turns out there was a big Lollapalooza concert in Grant Park. Oops.

We checked in to our hotel in the North River section and loved the area. It is so strange that there are so many short buildings in Chicago. I kept thinking this was not the highest and best utility for the property (real estate background talking). But, it was strangely comfortable, in that you felt a sense of openness, that you only get downtown in NYC. There aren’t the constraints of land here. Not an island. It just spreads out this way and that.

We checked in with Elliot Drabs (who we love), and let him know we were in for the weekend and that we wanted to meet him and his wife for dinner if at all possible. He was amazing. He sent us a list of must do’s and we made plans to have dinner on Saturday night.

For Friday night, we checked Yelp for some dinner suggestions in the area and decided on either Gallery Bar or J Rocco. Everyone talked on Yelp about how great the Ahi Tuna nachos were so we thought, okay, sounds delicious and healthy….kind of. And of course, they changed the menu, without changing anything on their site and what they did have sounded not so good. So we decided to go with Italian which we were really in the mood for too, and were so glad we did! The food was delicious, but, the service was spectacular. We absolutely fell in love with our server, Chase, and his general manager, Jodi, as well. Chase told us what we must do in Chicago, and it was exactly what Elliot already told us, so he immediately cemented his credibility. I wish every restaurant would understand the fact that you must have a great team of servers, or your food alone, will not bring people back. Be good to these people. They are essential to your success.

On Saturday morning we took a taxi to the Field Museum for the exhibit on the 1893 World’s Fair. Rick and I read a book called “Devil in the White City”, which was all about the 1893 World’s Fair, so we really wanted to see this. We really enjoyed it and wandered around for hours, and fit in a Chicago dog at Kim and Carlo’s. We decided to head over to the Architectural Boat Tour next, again on Elliot’s (and Chase’s) suggestion. We were so disappointed to see that they were sold out for the day, which was surprising, since it seemed that everyone was at Grant Park for the concert. Again, on to plan B. The top of the Hancock Building for a cocktail and a view of the city from the 96th floor. Check.

At 8:00 p.m. we met Elliot and Nara at the rooftop bar at the Godfrey, which was a great place, but, umm, I could have given birth to 98% of the people there. The people downstairs gave Elliot and Nara a hard time on the way up, do you have reservations, etc. He told them we are meeting an older couple (ouch. Accurate, but ouch. Thank god we always feel younger than we are…), a tall guy, and the guy said “oh yeah, go on up.” We moved on to The Kerryman, a little Irish Pub, for a quick drink before heading off to Topolobampo for dinner. This is an amazing Mexican (not taco/chimichanga-more Poca Cosa-but fancier) restaurant, it is one of the Obama’s favorites. It was incredible. You choose 3, 5 or 7 dishes. We all went for 3, and I couldn’t even finish 3, so was quite pleased that I didn’t choose more. Heck, it was difficult enough. What a menu. And don’t even get me started on the Margarita’s…… Sat next to a nice couple of guys, that we really enjoyed talking to also. We finally got back to the hotel after 1:00 a.m.

We considered getting up early and trying to get on the Architectural Boat Tour, but didn’t. Now we have a reason to go back. We stopped in at Elliot and Nara’s to say goodbye and headed to points north. Stay tuned. In the meanwhile, some photos…

 

Ramblin’ towards Chicago

We declared Thursday to be laundry day. God, I hate laundry day on the road. Not every hotel has a coin laundry, and the ones that do can be dicey. Found a good combination in Toledo, Ohio, though. I’ve heard of Toledo, but can’t say that I’ve ever wanted to go there. And can’t say we saw anything. This was our last stop before Chicago, which is where we decided to spend the weekend, and there was no way we could go there before laundry. Seriously thinking about burning my clothes at the end of this trip. Rick’s too.

Just thought of something. Isn’t it weird that the really nice, more expensive hotels, charge for wireless, have no complimentary coffee or breakfasts and often charge for parking? It doesn’t seem right. Or logical.

The highlight of this weird little leg of the trip was our lunch stop in Erie, PA. After so many weeks of wonderful, fresh seafood we entered an area that was short on seafood and big on meat. My body is just no longer accustomed to it, and doesn’t seem to like it a lot. Anywho, back to the stop-The Casablanca Grill. This is a little family owned Syrian restaurant and it was so healthy and delicious! Hummus, baba ghanooj, tabbouleh, dolma, fatayer, falafel, kibbi and subbusik. Not sure which was which on some of this stuff, but loved every bite. Oh and gyro with a sauce made of potato, garlic and olive oil, but 80% of this meal was vegetarian, and it was the best part. The lady who owned the place was so sweet! Really cooked with her heart and soul-I love that kind of place! I’m getting hungry all over again thinking about it.

Tomorrow-Chicago!

Back to the States!

We left Nova Scotia bright and early Sunday morning and made the long drive out (or oat, in Canada). 12 1/2 hours including multiple, but brief stops and a whole lot of rain and slow driving. We probably could have saved time by going on the Interstates, but we decided to take Highway 2 after Bangor Maine, which meandered through some amazing little areas and some adorable little towns that we had never heard of. Gorham and Lancaster, New Hampshire were two we really liked, and we landed in Stowe, Vermont. It is a big ski resort in the winter. Nothing like the kind of skiing we are accustomed to in the Rockies! These are some small mountains, but the town is beautiful! Lots of great restaurants and some nice looking shops.

We decided to stay for two nights so we could do some hiking on the many trails in the area. The Stowehof Inn is an old Inn, built in the 1940’s. It has great character, and it’s a lovely setting. Our room had a four poster bed with a dressing room and balcony. It is a quaint, comfortable, rambling old place with lots of antiques, hardwood floors and fireplaces. There is a big moose head mounted on the landing on the wall in the  stairway leading to our room. It was given to the Inn by Alan Alda after he finished filming the 1980 movie “Four Seasons.” There was a violent scene involving the moose….I will need to watch that movie again sometime.

Monday morning, greeted us with non-stop rain, so we had to alter our plans completely. Instead of exercise and the great outdoors, we got a big lunch and the great indoors. Oh well, stuff happens. We considered driving to the Ben & Jerry’s factory which is in Waterbury, but the Yelp reviews of the place were bad-you basically stand in line (for up to an hour) to pay $2 to watch an infomercial about the company then get a miniscule sample of the flavor of the day. Umm, no thank you. Sorry Tyler! We went in to the village for lunch instead and drove around the area, followed by a little nap and some serious reading in the lodge looking out over the manicured grounds and the forest.

On Tuesday morning we headed toward Niagara Falls for a couple of nights. We decided to stay in Rochester since we have a friend who lives there. Found another wonderful deal at the Hyatt Regency through Priceline. God, I love that site! We had a wonderful dinner and turned in early so we could get an early start on the Falls. It began to rain like crazy about an hour after we arrived. We went to the Cave of the Wind where you walk through a cave and get right next to the falls. The water came at us from everywhere, the sky, the falls, the spray when it hits the rocks. Luckily they issue you a pair of rubber sandals and a yellow rain poncho and set you loose to wander at will. I was soaked anyway. Have to admit, at first glance from above our first thought was-thought they’d be bigger. But from below they are pretty amazing and once you get on the Maid of the Mist (the boat-wearing a newly issued  blue poncho), and you get right up to the falls, wow! Combine that with the storm raging around us and it was terrifying. There was a clap of thunder and a bolt of lightening while we were on the top deck and I nearly jumped out of my skin. This is an experience that reminds me of the Grand Canyon….. You see it, you are awed by it and you are kind of done. So we headed up to Lewiston, which is a great little town to the north and had a little lunch at The Silo, a Man vs. Food place.

We met our friend Amit, and his fiancee’ Dishy, at a great place called Dinosaur Barbeque for a late dinner, some cocktails, live music and a lot of talking. We have known Amit for many years through the dental biz, but this was our first time meeting Dishy. They are a beautiful couple and we wish them well and thank them both for the lovely evening! Hopefully we can reciprocate the hospitality in Tucson sometime……

 

Canadia-Part Deux

Next stop Prince Edward Island and the Green Gable Coast. On Thursday morning we woke to a chilly 63 degrees, which is pretty much how it was all the way to PEI (as the locals call it) and when we got there as well. It was drizzling the whole way up, but still, it was spectacular scenery. We passed several brave souls on motorcycles, and just wondered why. Why be cold and wet and miserable, when there are cars available? Don’t get it. Steve Bennett, any thoughts, or sarcastic things you might want to add?  There was another 8 mile bridge to get to the island (this one is the longest bridge in the world over water that ices over) , it sure seems like we’ve been on a lot of these mega bridges.

Fun fact: PEI claims to have not only the best mussels and oysters in the world (the Malpeque, which IS my personal favorite), but also the best potatoes. I do like my potatoes, so we’ll see about that, but the plants sure are pretty. After checking in to our very nice hotel on the water in a tiny place called Stanley Bridge-which is very close to both Malpeque and Cavendish, we set out for a bite to eat. Cavendish is where the author of “Anne of Green Gables” really lived. Avonlea was her fictional name for Cavendish. So, anyway, I had a big steaming bowl of PEI mussels, on PEI. How exciting, and delicious! That and a salad topped with bacon wrapped scallops, makes a great lunch! I swear we are eating like old people. We have coffee kind of late then lunch super late (looks like a blue hair dinner….), and never real hungry at night. We went out for oysters and a glass of wine later, then stopped to listen to open mic night at the local watering hole.

On Friday morning we headed to the ever popular and extremely touristy Green Gables Heritage Place, in Cavendish, which is a National Park and the “Green Gable” house here belonged to a relative of Lucy Maud Montgomery, and  was the inspiration for the house in “Annne of Green Gables.” After that we drove around and checked out the island and it’s Capitol, Charlottetown, and Kensington and Malpeque as well. It’s a beautiful place! Oh, and I do have a comment on the potatoes, they seem just fine. If these crazy people used seasonings, say salt, pepper or freaking anything, everything would have been better. I never had a meal here, ever, that I didn’t have to add salt and pepper to. Sriracha, or Tabasco, or ANY spice would have been so welcome.

Rick admitted that he is not terribly fond of Canada, or more specifically, Canadians, (I think it’s actually the French Canadians, because some of the people really were quite nice) at least in this area. I guess there is a kind of superior attitude, that I did not really notice at first, but now that it’s been said…… Attitude by France. Food by England. Bad Combination-too bad they can’t switch that around. So after we leave PEI, we will probably just head to Nova Scotia for a night or two, and then blow off Quebec, Toronto and Montreal. I wasn’t so sure how I felt about that at first, but I do understand.

As we were trying to plan the route out of Canada with a destination of Niagara Falls, we spoke to a couple of guys who worked at the resort, and one of the guys said this: “I would go to Niagara Falls through the states, if you go through Canada, you’ll have to go through Quebec (City), and Montreal, and what you have is the French Canadians who can be very rude, you’re not missing anything.” Alrighty then, route settled. Somewhat. Rick really wants to go to Vermont, so we are heading west through Vermont. He says we will drive as far as humanly possible to achieve this on the first night out of Canada (after Nova Scotia). Wish us luck!

Nova Scotia is perfectly lovely. We are in the small town of Truro (the hub of Nova Scotia-whatever the heck that means). The people seem nice, at least at the hotel. We took our standard walk around town, and to a beautiful Park called Victoria Park to see a waterfall. As we were walking down the street, an older couple (older than us-lol!), stopped their Mustang convertible to ask us a question. Rick immediately said: “We have no clue where anything is-we’re from Arizona.” So the guy said “I was gonna ask if you knew where we could get some booze.” Rick answered “We have some in our room, but other than that, I don’t know.” The guy came back with “Where’s your room?” We all laughed and moved on.

Truro has this thing called a Tidal Bore, which is when the river reverses its flow and the incoming tide forms waves, sometimes reaching 52 feet. People get out there and raft it in. Sounds like fun. Didn’t do it.

Soooo-that’s all for Canada.

I got those photos somewhat out of order……Also, I just noticed that I put the motorcycle folks on both Canada posts-oops. If I knew what the heck I was doing, I’d remove one. But I don’t.