Cue the bucolic towns and quaint apple stands (which we of course stopped at for a peck of apples – did you ever hear of fancy vs. utility apples? Apparently the utilities are the uglies), we’re entering New England! And more specifically, we entered Vermont for the first stop on almost a month of family time, something we west coast transplants really cherished.
We spent several nights in Shelburne with Alan’s dad and Linda. (Though Sven spent the first night at the Shelburne Volvo station where the second set of Volvo service technicians were unable to figure out what was wrong with the car). We enjoyed a lot of their wonderful home cooking, which was most appreciated, especially using the great produce from Ron’s garden.
We indulged in several outdoorsy activities, including a surprisingly difficult about 5-mile hike. Ron was right – east coast hiking goes a lot slower with all the roots and loose footing. The foliage was beautiful, thought not quite peak yet, but the best part by far was having Olivia join us. She is the sweetest dog and the cutest ever to hike with. She runs ahead and then turns around and runs back down until she can see that everyone is behind her. Well that’s what I thought, until Ron went from last in line to first, and I realized Olivia was less concerned with my keeping up with the pack.
We got dinner after the hike at Shelburne Farms. It’s a beautiful 4,000-acre space with a most stunning barn and lawn overlooking the lake. It was lovely meeting our Merrill Lynch ladies in person. Alan used his newfound Oregon wine knowledge and ordered a Bethel Heights pinot from the Eola-Amity Hills AVA that pleased everyone.
We also set out on Lake Champlain for some kayaking which was beautiful and we saw some turtles, great blue herons, ducks and geese while we paddled south to the LaPlatte River.
Our last day, we all (Olivia included!) took Ron’s boat out and scooted over to Burlington for lunch and wandering around the town. Alan and I apparently bring bad luck with batteries, but fortunately we were able to jump the boat battery off the one parked next to it. I’m not sure if I’d ever spent much time in downtown Burlington before, but it’s really lovely. Next time we’ll have to do the Magic Hat brewery tour.
::cutest captain, though she did get scared on the bumpier parts, poor thing!::
It was great spending time with Ron and Linda, and especially lovely to be in Vermont doing so as this was probably our last time seeing his home up there before he moves to Florida full time.
::boats on lake Champlain at sunset::
::cutest captain, though she did get scared on the bumpier parts, poor thing!::
Jenni went to Cornell University for undergrad and Ithaca is a lovely town in upstate New York, so we figured this would be a nice place to spend our one-year anniversary. By coincidence, it was also Homecoming Weekend.
September 21, 2013 (Saturday) – Armed with Dunkin Donuts coffee we set off for Ithaca. The leaves have begun to change but the colors are not yet in full effect. We arrived around 1 pm and checked into a nice room at the Statler with a view over the clock tower and hills.
You may know that Cornell has a hotel school of world-renown. The Statler functions as both an upscale lodging property and training grounds for some of these students.
Alumni and students were swarming and we were glad to be rid of Sven for the day. We picked up tickets and Jenni received the alum gift of a wine glass contraption that excited her.
Outside the stadium was a large paved area with lots of sections and tents for various schools (i.e. law, business, liberal arts, etc.). We bought wine in the drink section near a food station serving Dinosaur BBQ before realizing we would get six drink tickets and free food at the arts and science tent. The BBQ pulled chicken with coleslaw on a roll was surprisingly good.
It began to rain and we headed into the stadium to watch Big Red take on Bucknell. Is there a more laughable mascot than Big Red?! Both of my mom’s parents and my wife (i.e. nearly my three favorite people in the world) attended Cornell University, but c’mon. Worse still were all the attendees who with their existing or impending Ivy League degrees could not figure out that using an umbrella inside a stadium might obstruct views and lead to rain pouring in unnatural ways onto others. Seeing Jenni so happy to be back made this but a minor inconvenience.
We tore ourselves away from this world-class sporting event as College Town Bagels (aka CTB) beckoned. I do not know if all Cornellians feel the same way, but if you asked Jenni to encapsulate her college experience in one phrase, it would likely be CTB. Were she forced to choose between me and CTB, well…Given that it was really pouring by now and homecoming weekend, I was surprised to find CTB merely crowded and not a madhouse.
We split the Vegetarian from a massive selection of bagel sandwiches and related items. It consists of veggie cream cheese, tomato and melted Muenster cheese served open face on your choice of bagel. Which for me was the rosemary salt bagel, a superb selection, indeed. With the obligatory pitcher of sangria we snagged a picnic table under cover before moving inside.
Outside at CTB
The Vegetarian lived up to the hype
I do not feel old, but I did make a mental note that since the newly arrived freshman are in the class of 2017, I graduated college when they were born. Unfazed, we walked over to see Jenni’s sophomore year house and I insisted we try to enter. We disclosed to the group of guys living there now that we are from Los Angeles and one had a Dodgers shirt on but I said I was not that into baseball. He replied that this was now the baseball house. The bookshelf filled with dip cans should have tipped me off.
Next we walked to Jenni’s senior year apartment and entered a random unit with youngins preparing for a centennial Tri-Delt formal party. Everyone was pretty friendly and respectful of this aged writer.
With the old palaces and castles segment of the walking tour complete, we hit the dive bar Dunbar’s for an $11 pitcher of Shock Top. We struck up conversation with a few other patrons when I offered them some of our beer. This is often an effective method. Apparently Rulloff’s is a better option for later in the evening. Instead, as Dunbar’s emptied out, Jenni got some pad thai from the Asian Noodle House (not near as good as she remembered) and I hit CTB for the second time. Partly to honor my grandparents who went to Cornell and lived in Queens for 60 years, I ordered the…Queens. Which is a bagel with egg salad, tomato and bacon. The Vegetarian is better, but it was still good.
September 22, 2013 (Sunday) – Today was our one-year anniversary! We agreed that we are in a much different place physically and spiritually than we would have guessed on our wedding day. A stroll downhill took us to Carriage House Café for brunch. Jenni raves about the brie-stuffed French toast here maybe even more than about CTB. But let’s be clear, I am not contradicting my earlier statements. This is but one dish, whereas CTB is a way of life. Initially told the wait would be an hour, Jenni advertised our anniversary and 15 minutes later we were lounging on a couch perusing the menu.
Carriage House couch
Brie stuffed French toast
The French toast with berry coulis is very good, but the hype was a tad too much for me to overcome. We were denied mimosas by the antiquated law forbidding alcohol service before noon on Sunday.
The up hill walk burned off a quarter nibble and we heard Coldplay emanating from the clock tower. It drizzled on us a bit but cleared up and we walked all over the attractive campus. Check out the neat permaculture exhibit/bench below.
Right in the middle of campus
Neat bench, no man-made materials
In the afternoon we picked up Sven, cruised by the impressive Greek houses and parked down in town. We saw that Michael Franti was playing at the State Theater tonight, and two minutes later we saw Michael Franti standing on the corner. We walked up and down the Commons which had the entire middle area torn up for construction. There are lots of shops and some bars and restaurants. We went into a used bookstore and I miraculously resisted adding a Biggie book to our storage locker.
Ah the everyday struggle
I confirmed that boba (aka bubble) tea and Thai food are everywhere before heading back to the hotel to watch the end of the Giants’ weekly embarrassment. We headed downstairs for a cocktail in the bar lounge before our 6:30 pm anniversary dinner at Taverna Banfi.
The charcuterie plate was very good, though it needed a little more cheese to balance out the meats. We also split a seared feta grapefruit salad and Jenni got the cavatelli Bolognese. My duck was outstanding, with a maple parsnip puree and brussels sprouts alongside. They started us with free glasses of champagne for our anniversary and the bottle of 2009 Foxen pinot noir we had was outright wonderful and an even better value. A successful anniversary!
September 23, 2013 (Monday) – One more stop at CTB and we departed for Burlington, Vermont to visit my Dad and Linda. Throughout this bucolic area we saw many farms, rivers, wildflowers and signs for maple syrup soft serve. The town of Greene, New York looked nice, as did the Sherwood Inn. There are towns here with a divided Main Street with cars parked head-on at angles in the middle. We noticed statues of union soldiers and crossed the Chenango River.
Lake George
Bridge to Vermont
We drove up the western side of Lake George which is a popular resort area. This brought us back to the land of painfully slow speed limits and above-ground pools. In Crown Point we visited Gunnison Lakeshore Orchards and got a fancy (as opposed to utility) half peck of apples for $8 shortly before crossing the bridge to Vermont.
Well, we made it through our first year of marriage even with a month and half of non-stop togetherness on the back end. Hooray! We still love each other! 😉
The day started with a walk down to the Carriage House for brunch. There was a long wait, but when I told the hostess it was our first anniversary she hooked us up in just a few minutes with the coveted couch seat. We of course ordered two brie stuffed French toasts which were fantastic and overly indulgent. I tried to order a champagne and strawberry rhubarb sorbet cocktail and was disappointed to be reminded that liquor cannot be served before noon on Sundays in New York. We contemplated extending our brunch as long as possible so that we could close with a celebratory toast, but ultimately hit the road for a walking tour of campus in which I recounted to Alan every memory that the scenery evoked. Thank you to Alan for indulging my tour of memory lane. The clock tower played Coldplay’s “Clocks” at noon as we walked through Ho Plaza. In addition, we covered west campus, north campus, the Arts Quad, the Ag quad, the Human Ecology area… lots of walking. It’s a large campus. We stopped by the Dairy Barn, which has been remodeled since I left, though it’s closed on weekends. As I recall, the ice cream they sell there is too high in fat content to be marketed as ice cream, though this may have been legend.
::brie stuffed french toast::
::us married folk::
We picked up the car (being sure to tip the valet girl well as I remember Emily doing that back in the day!), and drove down to the Commons. Sadly, the pedestrian street was under renovation and covered up so the hippie community that usually gathers was less entertaining than usual. We noticed that Michael Franti was playing that night at the State Theater and Alan actually saw him wandering around the Commons barefoot. We considered attending but decided to keep our reservation at Taverna Banfi – the restaurant at the Statler.
::at the commons::
::enjoying the cornell gear at the statler::
Before dinner we shared a split of prosecco at the bar lounge, then at dinner our waiter asked if we were celebrating something special. When we told him it was our first anniversary he came back with two glasses of champagne on the house. Feeling very loved and happy here in Ithaca! We had an amazing meal – splitting the meat and cheese plate, a seared feta and grapefruit salad, and then the duck with parsnip puree and maple and a cavatelli Bolognese. We also ordered a bottle of the Foxen ’09 Pinot which was divine. Man, we love our California ’09 pinots. For dessert we ordered a chocolate tarte concoction to go, which we brought up to our room along with our glasses of wine and devoured them in bed while watching some of the Emmy’s. Solid way to toast to year one and look forward to the next one, which is sure to be a memorable one for us.
::cheers!::
P.S. I almost made it through two blog posts about Ithaca without saying “Ithaca is Gorges” or some related pun. So I had to throw it in here. Sadly, we didn’t fit in any hikes around the gorges as it rained on us almost the entire time we were there (insert Shithaca reference here). Oh well – next time!
P.P.S. I googled the “paper” anniversary thing. It would have been the perfect year to exchange only cards as we were on the road, but we didn’t even do cards! Our gift to each other was this experience, and we are so glad we’re doing it.
And here I thought Minnesota was unique in all its Midwest charm with the cute town names, but I learned driving from Olean to Ithaca that there are towns in New York named Friendship, Harmony, Cuba, and North East! The adorable town names, coupled with the early stage fall foliage, and the fact that we were on our way to my alma mater for our anniversary (and my first trip back post-graduation) made for a charming morning.
::on the way in::
Arriving on Cornell’s campus was an exciting moment, as it was buzzing with activity for homecoming. And having hit a bit of a low point in terms of productivity and motivation in Chicago, we approached Ithaca with a refreshed effervescence. We checked in to our room at the Statler – my first stay at the Cornell Hotel School run accommodation! I was very pleased to see we had a spectacular view of the mellifluous Cornell clock tower from our window.
::far above cayuga’s waters::
Over at the tailgate for the football game (vs. Bucknell – my father’s alma mater!) we picked up my alumnus gift (a wine glass to go that fits in a cup holder… check this thing out! Awesome. My tuition finally paid itself off as we were awarded six drink tickets and free food just for showing up to the Arts & Science tent. We used our drink tickets to indulge in some boxed wine (oh the college flashbacks… slap bag anyone?) and BBQ chicken sammies.
::best wine glass ever::
::stubs::
Inside the stadium it began raining pretty hard, and I was disappointed to see that the Cornell way is to use your umbrellas during the game. Short folks like me disapprove.
::keeping dry, sorta::
::umbrellas ellas ellas::
Being a very unenthused football fan and witnessing a disappointing start to the game, we decided to try to beat the crowds at College Town Bagels post game and headed out early. (We found out later that Cornell came back for a win – oops… go Big Red!). CTB is best enjoyed on a sunny afternoon, sitting outside in the patio area with a pitcher of sangria and a vegetarian bagel (salivating so hard right now). Unfortunately we did not get the sun, so we sat outside under a tent that did little to keep the torrential (read: weak for Ithaca) rains off our backs, but it was still wonderful to be back. We snagged seats inside before we ordered our vegetarian (a bagel with veggie cream cheese, a slice of tomato, and melted muenster cheese on top). We switched it up a little and ordered it on a rosemary salt bagel (my go to is usually sesame). It brought me great pleasure to find the concoction just as tasty as remembered, and to see Alan enjoy it as well (especially given the fact that its called a vegetarian – my pork loving hubstah).
::CTB::
::sangria!::
::mmmm vegetarian!!!::
To walk off the consumption before we could justify ordering more food I gave Alan a tour of collegetown (the off-campus area most upperclassmen live in). We walked up to my sophomore year house (401 Dryden!), and having had a few beers and a pitcher of sangria in me, we knocked on the door and asked to come in since I’d lived there years ago. The furniture was the same, but it is now inhabited by guys on the baseball team and it was in a MUCH different state: the built in shelving in the living room was decorated with skoal tins. Just a touch of a difference in our decorating styles. After Dryden I took Alan to 211 Linden, my senior year apartment where we met a boy (who looked like a damn baby by the way – how old am I?!) who took us inside to a Tri-Delt’s apartment where they were getting ready for their centennial party. They indulged us “old” folks in a mini-tour of the apartment.
After my former home tour where I pointed out places that reminded me of my glory (or not so glorious depending on how you look at it) stories, we decided to get some more drinks at Dunbar’s. It was even more disgusting than I remembered, though an $11 pitcher of Shock Top never hurts. Except that we’re old and couldn’t finish it so wound up sharing with some other Cornellies we introduced ourselves to.
By this time we decided its acceptable to continue eating, and I went to my old regular spot – Asian Noodle House – for some pad thai. This one was nowhere near as delicious as I recalled. Alan knew what was up and went back for round two at CTB – ordering the Queens (egg salad, tomato and bacon) – one I’d never tried before. They have an extensive menu. My regulars were the vegetarian, eggs Melissa, and Brooklyn, but I really don’t think you can go wrong. We took our foodies back to the Statler and enjoyed them in our lovely hotel bed.
A relatively easy drive from Milwaukee put us in Evanston, IL by about 6pm on Saturday. We quickly learned how active Kenny’s social life at Kellogg is, as we rushed off immediately to tailgate the Kellogg football game with his fellow classmates. I was so surprised to see a college football stadium with food options inside. This ain’t Cornell football baby. After the game we went back to the center of Evanston to watch a fight at a bar slash hear lots of Kellogg students tell us how much they love Kenny already and how he was cast as “The Most Interesting Man in the World” in their video. Of course! We packed it in earlier than most other students as we had a big day ahead of us.
::kellogg: think bravely::
It was up before 6am so the boys could prepare the dry rub on our wings and we could pack up the car for the 3 hour drive up to Lambeau Field in Packers country, Wisconsin! With fingers crossed the weather would clear, it rained the entire drive up and we arrived to a sea of poncho-ed tailgaters grilling up food and drinking beers in driveways and front yards. That’s right. While there is a big parking lot it sells out faster than there are fans, so the homeowners outside Lambeau sell spots in their driveways and yards to fans who then park, tailgate, and use their port-o-pottys for $20. Is this something that happens at other stadiums? This was my first professional football game, so it was all new to me, but this was crazy. I mean, every year, every home game, these people stand outside and direct cars onto their grassy lawns, and rent toilets! What? So insane.
::working in the rain::
::frying up some peppers in the trunk, NBD::
Disappointingly the rain did not let up, so we had to tailgate in the rain. We poured a round of bloody mary’s and got to cooking in the trunk of the car (ingenuity folks). Luckily this haphazard attempt at sautéing onions and peppers for our sausages was noticed by our neighbors and they kindly offered us some space under their tent. They came PREPARED – full tent, big pop up grill, loads of food. It was much appreciated. The brats we’d bought in Madison were delicious, but no star in comparison to the wings the boys cooked up. After downing our food and a handful of BL’s we started to make our way into the stadium. Our seats were great, as damn well they should have been for the price tag! Holy NFL. Luckily the rain let up pretty much as soon as we entered the stadium, though of course we’re all wearing long underwear and rain gear in anticipation of four hours of cold wetness.
::the Leavitt boys at Lambeau Field::
The highlight for me was byfar my cheesehead which I had negotiated for in exchange for a budget blowing for a day of pure football. Lambeau was a great place to do it though. Those Wisco fans are good people.
::mmm cheesehead::
Kenny was a champ and drove 3 hours both ways, so with little brother being the responsible one, Alan .. well, he had a good time. And his good time culminated in knocking over a frying pan and open flame in the trunk of the Subaru when we attempted to make a second round of brats post-game.
Needless to say, the next day was a low-key one for us. We got bagels at Bagel Art in Evanston – mediocre and pricy! I dropped off my bridesmaid’s dress for Jaim’s wedding to get tailored. Then we sat on the couch catching up on our favorite TV shows online, both of us on separate computers with headphones in our ears (to be fair this was essentially the first time we watched TV since leaving LA, and we watched very little over the course of the 3 month trip). And that was the extent of our day. We did make it out at night for some Lou Malnati’s deep dish pizza with Kenny. They are famous for Chicago style pizza. I actually tried it before on my last cross country trip when I drove Concord, MA to Los Angeles, CA with my mom five years ago. It’s solid, but I’m still a thin crust girl. Afterwards we checked out the view of the Chicago skyline from Kenny’s roofdeck, which was impressive. The boys watched (more) football and it was off to bed.
::Chicago, as seen from Kenny’s::
I think that football game threw us into a tizzy all week, because we were kind of off our game the entire time in Evanston. I don’t know if it was travel catching up with us, or a multi-day hangover, or starting to miss the creature comforts of having a home and a routine, but we were slow here. The next day we had decided to go into Chicago, but it took us until about noon to get out of the house to do it. From there it was about an hour on the L to get into the city.
We started wandering around Chicago somewhat aimlessly, walking past the Art Institute, by the Chicago River, and up to Michigan Ave. We stopped at Portillo’s for lunch and Alan had a Chicago dog with all the trappings (mustard, relish, fresh chopped onion, chopped tomatoes, a pickle spear, and peppers, served in a poppy seed bun). I was sausaged out from the game and opted for a pasta dish. I had never heard of Portillo’s but it is apparently famous for its dogs. It’s kind of kitschy, and you order from windows like you do at a mall food court. Food hit the spot though. After lunch we continued wandering, meandering up Lakeshore Drive, and through the south edge of Lincoln Park, which is a charming part of town full of brownstones I imagined choosing between. It was here that we and others stopped to observe a dog that was stealthily creeping up behind a squirrel while his owner was caught up on a cell phone conversation. Everyone’s saying, “no way, he couldn’t catch it..” Then… he caught it! This was the most wildlife in action moment all trip! Who would’ve thought it’d be a domesticated animal in a public city park?
::street art::
::city of amazing architecture::
::wall built with pieces of famous walls::
::dog on a squirrel hunt::
One thing I noticed – and loved – about the L station: the drop-off area is called the Kiss-n-ride! How cute? Kiss your lover as you drop them off! Adorable! Also, there was a Dunk’s at our L stop, so amaze-balls all around. After we got back to Evanston, Alan and Kenny went out for food and partying with Kenny’s friends. I opted to catch up on sleep and a night of weird depressing movies that Alan would never want to watch 🙂
The next morning Alan got breakfast at Delbe’s Corner, and I picked up a pastry at Bennison’s and we did some “work” back at Kenny’s. I know that it seems like without jobs one would never have “work” but there is a surprising amount of time that gets spent on what is now our “work.” It’s just that we don’t get paid for it. What work, might you ask? Well, I won’t bore you with the details, but all the normal life stuff that people do (like paying bills, going through e-mails, reading the news, etc.), then there are a whole host of other things that you normally don’t have to think about while employed, like getting health insurance, traveler’s insurance, car storage, plane tickets by the bundle, hotel accommodations, research on the dozens of cities and locations you’re visiting so that you know what to see, editing photos, writing content for blog posts, constructing blog posts [I know, I know it seems like we didn’t do much of that… but I promise they’re coming!], and so on. This is not an explanation proffered to garner sympathy, it’s simply an explanation as I find many people expect we have nothing but time on our hands now that we travel full time. It’s not surprising that people think this, and I certainly thought it would be more like that myself. But life is always life and there are always things to deal with and work on.
Anyway, for lunch we met Kenny at Bat 17, somewhat of a Northwestern student must-see. Their sandwiches are GINORMOUS. I could barely eat half of my egg salad sandwich. The boys split some mean meaty sandwiches. I was tempted by the expansive beer selection, but opted against it. It was back to the apartment for some more errands and then into Chicago for a steak dinner.
We took a cab into the city during one of the most intense lightning storms I’ve ever seen. So intense. The restaurant was a typical fancy steak place, complete with a table of two businessmen and hookers sitting at a table near us. I ordered a peach and burrata salad which was really good. I honestly don’t even remember if I had any steak. (Meat is not my typical splurge item – I opt for desserts, pasta, pastries and cheese, and not always in that order. Do you think I will enjoy Italy?!). Though the boys certainly did (and bacon, obvs), which they thoroughly enjoyed. Alan and I smiled seeing Cristom’s Marjorie wine on the wine list (you might remember that from our Oregon wine country post). The rain let up on our ride home and the air was so clear, it afforded some epic views of the city’s architecture. Maybe it was just the rain clearing, but I felt that in Chicago there is a space between buildings through which you can enjoy the sky, versus New York, where every space seems to be filled with noises, sounds and smells. The thunder picked up again over night with intensity unlike that I can ever remember. Or is it just that I’ve forgotten what thunder sounds like having lived in LA for five years?. Either way, I was glad I had my thunder buddy for life (We’re not scared of thunder cause it’s just god’s fahhts! Ohh, I love quoting the movie Ted).
The next day we slept in and got a late start. While the boys went for chicken wings (for breakfast), I decided to use this as an opportunity to try 5 Guys for the first time (yeah, also I guess breakfast). They are EVERYWHERE now. We saw SO many on the road trip. Yet you have to drive miles from West LA to find one? Well, I suspect this is because they have NOTHIN on In-N-Out. My take: super messy meal. I got the little cheeseburger “all the way, no tomato” and fries (it’s well documented on this blog that I love tomatoes, but I hate fast food tomatoes and I don’t like ‘em on my burger). The portions are huge, the food good but not amazing. They do have this cool soda thing were you choose from a digital menu of dozens of flavors of soda. We took our greasy food back to Kenny’s, ate on cardboard boxes leftover from Kenny’s move and then settled in to a day of insurance torture.
So. You may have seen my public outcry for help on facebook as we were trudging our way through this health insurance catch 22. Here’s a quick summary: we had a 60-day window to elect coverage under COBRA after leaving our jobs. That expired at the end of September. With only a few days to that date, we began the process of trying to get insurance that wouldn’t cost the arm and three legs that COBRA does (something like nearly $700 a month per person! Yikes!). So here, in a nutshell, was the conundrum: we gave up our apartment in LA and have no “home” anywhere, anymore. For all intents and purposes we still consider ourselves CA residents as we have CA drivers’ licenses, pay CA state taxes, have a car registered in CA, all our belongings are in a storage facility in CA, and we intend to reside in CA once we finish travelling. But, we have no family in CA, so our mailing address is now at my parents’ house in Massachusetts where my loving parents sift through our junk mail, magazines, and bills and tell us when important stuff has come our way (Thanks Mom and Dad!!!). But, we can’t get insured in CA with a MA mailing address (Romney Care), and we can’t get insured in MA because we are not residents of the state (and had no interest in paying state taxes there as well, obtaining MA licenses (which isn’t even possible since we don’t reside there!), etc etc). We tried and tried to level with insurance brokers at countless companies, explaining our situation to people who agreed with us how ridiculous it was, and people who hung up on us, and said things like “well you could use a friend’s address, but I’m on a recorded line, ma’am so I can’t advise you to do that.” Absurdity. We finally found a traveler’s insurance company that we thought would do the trick, but the coverage would not kick in until we left the country. Ridiculous? Yes. Absurd? Yes. But we were about to get to Vermont, where we could easily drive into Canada for lunch. Easy peasy right? Except I left my passport in a safe deposit box in Los Angeles that only Alan and I have access to open. GAH. (Another example of the exceptionally poor planning we did before leaving!!!) I even looked into flights to fly home for a night to pick up the passport. Well I’ll spoil the ending for you guys and let you know that this drama went on for a long while, and it was eventually resolved. We got a temporary insurance plan that covers us until the end of the year. And we did not need to leave the country, though we did realize I needed my passport to apply for visas (another headache we dealt with later on – I’m looking at you India, China and Uzbekistan. Why so many hoops to jump through just to boost your tourism industry!?). Again, crisis was narrowly averted, as while in Vermont we filled out a power-of-attorney for our friend Mike in LA to get into our safe deposit box and Fedex us my passport. Huge thank you to Mike and the kind ladies at Merrill Lynch who gave us the idea (no thanks to you, Citibank, who said there was absolutely no way around it)!!!
Anyway, after a long day of annoying stuff, we met up with our friend Kris who had recently moved to Chicago, for drinks and appetizers at a nearby bar. It was great seeing him, and a good way to finish out our somewhat strange time in Chicago. It was wonderful (as always) seeing Kenny, but while he was busy with classes and school work, Alan and I had hoped to be super productive. Man, we were so off our game. And this feeling of un-productivity and un-funness (again, only with respect to insurance and other BS, not at all un-fun hanging with the brah-in-law) was further exacerbated on our thwarted attempt to leave Chicago. Having a 10-hour drive ahead of us, we started the day with more fruitless calls to insurance brokers. By mid-morning we had our things together and were preparing to leave town. Alan pulled the car around to the front of Kenny’s building, parking right where it states “no parking,” so that we could load the car up more easily. Once loaded, Sven refused to start again. He had quite the tantrum, rolling down the windows in a weird creepy slow way that led us to believe there was an electrical issue with the car. We called Volvo roadside assistance for a tow truck. Unfortunately the Volvo dealer in Chi-town was booked and couldn’t guarantee getting the car in same day, so we had to opt for a dealer outside of town. Not to mention everything we owned was in the car, and we had no place to put it, having left the keys to Kenny’s inside his apartment while he was off taking his first mid-term. The tow truck took over an hour to arrive. We’re watching our clocks and counting in our head the progressively later hour that we’ll be arriving at our next destination. Well, thankfully a battery jump gets Sven going, and we call the other Volvo dealer in town again to see if they can just squeeze us in for a battery replacement. Sure they say, no problem. Here’s a 1:30pm appointment, come on by. And come on by we did, arriving at 1pm. In the waiting room we take advantage of the wifi dealing with – you guessed it – more insurance calls and other fun errands. Good times. The only highlight was Maury playing on the waiting room TV, until the guy changed it to ESPN. Uncool. Well, we wait and wait until 5:30pm creeps up and they tell us they tested the battery and it’s 100% fine, and they have no idea what’s wrong with the car. GRR. (It took 2 more Volvo dealerships in Vermont and Maine to finally figure it out, maybe). So we head off on our 10 hour drive to New York, most of which it was pouring rain out, arriving at our crappy, middle of nowhere hotel at 3am. Huge thank you to Alan for driving after such a no good, terrible day!
Despite this being the most annoying day of the trip – there were some redeeming factors. First, we entered the Eastern Time Zone! WOOHOO! That felt good. We knew we had made it almost the whole way across the country, and it felt like our “old” home, having both grown up in Massachusetts. This was also the start of a stretch of the trip traveling through a handful of states we were both already familiar with. So homey indeed. Second, the initial part of the drive out of Chicago, through the first bit of Indiana, the rain had let up a bit and the views of the city skyline were so clear it was disarming. The buildings looked superimposed on a green screen. Lastly, and most important, we were now in Olean, NY, only a few hours drive from Ithaca, NY to see my alma mater and celebrate our one year wedding anniversary!!!
I need to catch up and Chicago is a well-known and well-covered city, and we mostly hung out with Kenny (first-year MBA student at Kellogg), so this will be a fairly cursory overview of our time in the Windy City. By the way, many assert this nickname has little to do with weather and actually refers to the hot air bellowing from politicians.
September 14, 2013 (Saturday, cont’d) – On the drive from Milwaukee down to Chicago we noticed the Apple Holler was packed and saw a sign for Wilmot Ski Mountain. We arrived in Evanston around 6 pm. Evanston is a Chicago suburb and home to the Northwestern University campus. With a population around 75k, it is a small city in its own right.
The Northwestern Wildcats football team started the season ranked well inside the top 25. They have since collapsed to mediocrity and perhaps beyond, but locals were excited when we were there. So our first activity was attending a small Kellogg tailgate on the golf course by Ryan Field, a couple “L” stops away. The scene was pretty good. Food options at the stadium were better than expected. The ‘cats started slow against Western Michigan but finished strong, though we left at halftime and took the free shuttle back to Evanston.
After a quick visit to BK we went to JT’s to watch the Mayweather vs. Alvarez fight, which was lame. Kenny already knows tons of people here and the MBA students like to drink.
September 15, 2013 (Sunday) – See my post on the Packers game here.
September 16, 2013 (Monday) – Today was a lazy day. We walked to Bagel Art where I got a Lox & Key on an everything bagel. It lacked the overall size and lox quantity of a NY bagel but cost less at $8.95 and was pretty good. Jenni dropped off her bridesmaid dress at A-1 tailor and she thought they did an OK job. I caught up on some Newsroom and Boardwalk Empire episodes back at the apartment.
For dinner we walked to Lou Malnati’s (a respected deep-dish chain) on Sherman Ave for some famous Chicago deep dish pizza. The pizza was good but I would say the Malnati’s salad was more impressive. We washed it all down with a bottle of pinot noir then went to Forever Yogurt for some make-your-own with an even more impressive topping selection than what is typical these days. Back home we enjoyed nice views of the Chicago skyline from Kenny’s roofdeck, followed by a Samburu board call and Monday Night Football.
September 17, 2013 (Tuesday) – We revisited the 7-minute exercise routine and then took public transport into Chicago. It takes much longer than I would have thought, especially in the middle of the day when commuter trains do not run and “L” line changes are required. More than an hour later we disembarked at the Monroe stop and walked past the Art Institute to Lake Michigan and then cut back in at the Chicago River.
From here we walked north on Michigan Ave and saw the Tribune Tower with its embedded rocks from various historically important sites throughout the world. See more information on prior link.
Tribune Tower
Historic rocks
We browsed in a couple shops and then headed west on Onatrio Street to Portillo’s. We were after another Chicago classic, the Chicago Dog. This is an all-beef frankfurter with mustard, relish, fresh chopped onions, red ripe tomatoes, crisp kosher dill spear and sport peppers on a steamed poppy seed bun. It hit the spot and was within budget at $3. Jenni got mostaccioli in red sauce which was OK. Portillo’s is like an amusement park with lots of neon and two levels. There is a drive through in back. And if it is good enough for The Fridge, it is good enough for me.
We returned to Michigan Ave and walked to Oak Street Beach where there is a lakeside path with lots of runners and cyclists.
Then we headed west yet again and saw a dog stalking a squirrel in the park. I figured there was no chance he could catch it, but I was wrong. Heading up Wells Street we passed Concord Lane which looks like it would be a great place to live. A New Leaf is a fabulous floral and plant shop (yeah, I said it) with a little garden and all sorts of accessories. This would be a good place to shop for gifts.
I heard the roof deck at Hotel Lincoln is nice but we did not make it. Ditto Toast for brunch. By the way, this is all in/around Lincoln Park. I knew Kris just moved there and heard it was a nice part of town so we were happy to amble through on our way back towards Evanston. And indeed we really liked this neighborhood. It reminded us some of Boston with its brownstones and many homes on the historic register. We walked on Armitage to Halstead and took the purple line by DePaul University.
Jenni was after some quiet time so Kenny and I met some of his friends at Tommy Nevin’s before a KWEST Arubacao group dinner at Cozy Noodles and Rice with BYO beer and wine. After this we hit 27 Live for a Kellogg band performance. Kenny told me that not only is the day after Thanksgiving Black Friday, but to MBA students the following Monday is known as Black Monday because so many return to school having broken up with their significant others.
Oh, most important, during video presentations made by MBA student groups a week or two back Kenny had been cast as The Most Interesting Man on Campus. A legend, already.
September 18, 2013 (Wednesday) – I got the very tasty Black Belt breakfast sandwich at Delbe’s Corner and Jenni a pastry at Bennison’s. We did laundry then met Kenny for an excellent lunch at Bat 17. One can order a full-size sandwich but we got the regular size which was plenty large. Kenny and I split a turkey reuben and a chicken salad while Jenni got egg salad. The gorgonzola cole slaw was on point.
That evening we took a cab to Chicago Cut for a big steak dinner. The spectacular lightning show over downtown eased the pain inflicted by our awful cab driver. As soon as we walked in we saw Grant Hill. This good sign was supplemented by the two high class pros sitting at the table behind us. Décor is red leather and velvet chairs with high ceilings and big windows to enjoy the river front location. Kirkland & Ellis has their office in this building. My steak was not as thick as expected but it was great. The creamed spinach was, too, and the lobster mac and cheese was good. We also got the Neuske bacon – triple cut, which was different than I expected but my notes are too shoddy for an accurate description. I think it was more like different styles of pork belly vs. your now-typical Peter Luger style thick cut bacon.
September 19, 2013 (Thursday) – Another lazy morning followed by Jenni’s first foray into Five Guys while we got a double order of wings from Buffalo Joe’s on Clark Street. The wings were crispy but slightly dry. They were still tasty, but I was appalled they only have ranch and not blue cheese. Waffle fries with a side of cheese sauce probably would have been better if eaten immediately rather than carried home.
Nice mosaic in “L” station
Things got hectic when we began to grasp the difficulty of health insurance logistics and visa issues. We had left Jenni’s passport in our safe deposit box in Los Angeles yet one of the travel insurance plans we thought would suffice for our full medical coverage would not take effect until we left the country. And it can take a while to process visas and we knew we would have less than two weeks back in Los Angeles in November before flying to Chile. I will not bore you with all the details, but the important part is that it is nigh impossible to get health insurance if you do not live anywhere and Jenni almost flew back to Los Angeles to get her passport. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and this situation now seems to be under control.
Kris came over after work and we all walked to Bar Louie for beers, a daily special $5 martini with blue cheese stuffed olives, tasty chicken nachos and some other bar snacks. Thanks again to Kris for his generosity in supporting us three voluntarily unemployed degenerates.
September 20, 2013 (Friday) – This was one of the worst days of the trip. After some more frustrating health insurance calls, I moved Sven from his parking spot to load him up for our drive to upstate New York, and when I tried to restart him he failed us. Kenny was in the middle of an exam and keys to his apartment were now locked therein. After waiting more than an hour for a tow truck to arrive, it turned out we could jumpstart the car. Which worked fine and then we drove to the Howard Orloff Volvo dealership and arrived at 1 pm for a 1:30 pm appointment. The space is comfortable with free wifi and juices and a fancy coffee machine, but they took forever and we finally left at 5:30 pm with no conclusive resolution to our car troubles.
Already about seven hours behind schedule, I missed the ideal highway turn. All I can say from this jaunt through Indiana is it has basketball players and people who drive in the left lane for no apparent reason. And a very poor value toll at $7.90.
It rained for 4+ hours and we arrived at 3 am to our tolerable Microtel in Olean, NY. I was thankful we booked this stop a couple hours short of our destination of Ithaca, NY. Despite the misery, it was a milestone day as we entered the eastern time zone.
At the top of any NFL fan’s bucket list must be a visit to Lambeau Field. We watched the Packers trounce our division rival Redskins, and it was awesome!
September 15, 2013 (Sunday) – We went to asleep around 1 am last night and the alarm rang at 5:45 am. Though we had put Kenny’s signature dry rub on the wings last night, preparations still had to be made, the game started at noon local time, it is a three hour drive, and we could not be rushed through our tailgating. My dad’s old Subaru Outback was passed on to Kenny to take to business school, and we added a little to its 153k miles. It poured rain for much of the drive.
The parking lot at Lambeau is perennially sold out to season ticket holders, but the theory of supply and demand proved true yet again. Commercial lots and homeowners all around the stadium sell parking spots in their driveways and on their lawns. Oneida Street is the main drag, we parked in someone’s back yard on Stadium Drive and it seems $20 is the going rate near the stadium. Our host even had a Porta-Potty on his front lawn.
The hatchback provided workspace and some shelter from the rain. Kenny worked up the Bloody Marys while I cut some onions and peppers that we had bought yesterday at the Madison farmer’s market along with the brats. We sautéed the veggies in butter on our backpacking stove.
A friendly family parked across the lawn had a more comprehensive set up and invited us under their shelter. Barry, Zach, Lauren and Lee stepped up for us, and further supported my belief that Wisconsinites are friendly folk. They chaperoned our three tailgater brats on their stand up grill and we ate those with pretzel buns and German mustard, both from Whole Foods. Delicious. The wings we had were actually all drumettes which we cooked on our portable Weber propane grill while we heated the Frank’s hot sauce and butter in our pan on their grill. We tossed the wings in the sauce and ate them with a thick, high quality blue cheese and they were outstanding. A nibble of brownie for dessert and we were satiated.
After a couple stiff Bloody Marys and some Bud Lights, the rain stopped and we made the three minute walk to Lambeau Field just in time for the first play. Kenny had secured Section 135, row 130, seats 4-6 at $220/each. That is pricey, but it could have been worse for very good seats at the home opener.
At this juncture, it was not clear (at least to me) who was driving home. I stood up to buy a round and asked Jenni and Kenny what they wanted. Kenny said “water.” He cracked the door and I plowed through it. The beers flowed nicely, the game was a crowd-pleaser and we saw at least four Lambeau Leaps. Kenny sat next to a very large woman and this was amusing.
Lambeau is a wonderful stadium with classy fans. They clapped always when an injured opponent stood up. I think if I had to wear the opposing team’s jersey to any stadium, it might be Lambeau. I think that many fans equally relish the game itself and the opportunity it offers for debauchery, and I submit that many favor the latter. But here one senses that football is religion. These fans are not at Lambeau to get hammered, they are there to worship at the temple of football.
Here I must give major proppers to Jenni. She was adamant about getting a cheesehead at the game, going so far as to demand it. When you spend $440 on two tickets to a football game and instead of asking for shoes or a handbag your wife asks for a $20 cheesehead…well, you have a cool wife.
Starving
As the game went on, the sun emerged and all were happy. Well, I was ecstatic and I think my companions had a good time when they were not babysitting. When we returned to the car we again fired up the stove and grill and made bacon jalapeño brats with more onions and peppers. If there ever were a time that I would knock over sautéing onions and peppers leading to an open flame in the back of a wagon, today would probably have been it. Theoretically.
Kenny stepped up big and drove both ways, and I got to check off a great item on the bucket list.
As I am still too far behind on the blog and spent a lot of time covering Madison, I am going to write this very quickly…
September 14, 2013 (Saturday, cont’d) – Wisconsin is sparsely populated for a while east of Madison. Jenni’s close friend Emily grew up in Milwaukee and it is on the way to Chicago so we decided to spend a few hours there seeing her childhood home and getting a wonderful tour from Emily’s gracious mother. They live in the Story Hill neighborhood right next to Miller Park, and the area reminded me some of where my mom’s parents lived in Queens.
There is undeniable evidence of urban decay in Milwaukee as the manufacturing base eroded, but overall it was nicer than I expected with some very impressive architecture. We passed the Miller building, a big Harley plant, and the old Pabst brewery before parking near the county courthouse. This building would hold its own in Washington D.C. or St. Petersburg. In front is MacArthur Square and there is a statue of General Douglas. I learned that his father was also a General and his grandfather was a judge, and all were Milwaukee residents.
Milwaukee county court
We crossed the Milwaukee River which has a river walk and saw the Northern Trust bank building, the Marshall building and some nice churches. I think Northwestern Mutual is based here, too. The Milwaukee Art Museum is on Lake Michigan and has an addition designed by Santiago Calatrava. We parked at McKinley Marina on the lake where there is a kite store, bike and skate rentals etc. There is a huge park here and I am told a very big summer festival each year. Between the lake and the road is a smaller body of water where people rented paddle boats and there are weeping willow trees. Discovery World and Reiman Aquarium are also here. I think in the summer time they do fish fry and films here.
We continued north along the lake and passed villa terrace and then a beach area with live music and a volleyball tournament. There are lovely mansions on Lake Drive and the homes were old and beautiful with ample property as we drove through the village of Shorewood and then Whitefish Bay, with its quaint, several block downtown.
Jenni had been schooled by Emily for years in the ways of Kopp’s frozen custard, so we knew a visit was mandatory. It has an amazing greasy burger smell but we stuck with custard. It was packed but we only waited about five minutes in the custard line. I think each day they have vanilla and chocolate and two special flavors, which are listed for today as well as on a two-day flavor forecast. One of the special flavors was Reese’s but we opted instead for Bienenstichkuchen. Ah, the old childhood favorite of Bienenstichkuchen, naturally.
Milwaukee also has a city bike service. Emily’s mom taught us about Little Free Library which is a great concept that hopefully is rapidly spreading. Check it out.
September 12, 2013 (Thursday, cont’d) – We crossed the Mississippi River and immediately I felt closer to home. To avoid any confusion, I use home to describe both my upbringing in the Northeast as well as Los Angeles. I am not sure if it was the symbolic value of crossing the river or entering a state where many I know attended university, or some combination, but I felt it. Perhaps it was the sign for Dunkin Donuts. Clearly this was Wisconsin and not the Northeast as instead of promising food and restrooms the Shell billboard advertised cheese and beer.
I did not realize a ski mountain was nearby until we saw a sign for Cascade Mountain. Approaching from the north, I noticed Ella’s Deli before we took a detour to the hipster part of town. At the corner of Winnebago and Atwood were a few spots. There are several more south on Williamson Street. Lao Laan-Xang gets good reviews but would not serve us just before 9:30 pm as they were closing. Our consolation prize was an excellent meal at the highly regarded gastropub A Pig in a Fur Coat. The waiter was very friendly if a bit wet behind the ears. It was cute when he guessed we had not heard of burrata and explained it to us. We ordered that with heirloom tomatoes, rabbit rillettes with pistachio and pickled cherries in honey, and pappardelle with oxtail, mushrooms and parmigiano reggiano. A robust offering of beer and wine by the glass rounds it out.
We stayed in another airbnb place and it was phenomenal. The location was great and we had a spacious en suite room akin to staying at a fancy hotel. Mike and Patricia were very friendly and accommodating. They left chocolate by the bedside and a bottle of Rosenblum cellars zinfandel. Cereal, yogurt, fruit, freshly brewed coffee, etc. were available for breakfast. We enjoyed our conversations with Mike who grew up in Chicago and explained that to Wisconsin natives he is one of the FIBs, a/k/a Fu#*ing Illinois Bastards. Capitalizing on the nickname, there is a food cart on the Square serving Chicago dogs and whatnot called Fine Italian Beef and Sausage. Anyway, there is more info available at the airbnb link above, but I cannot recommend this place highly enough and at $95 it is a steal.
September 13, 2013 (Friday) – Armed with recommendations from my friend Dani and now Mike and Patricia, we walked up to Capitol Square and soaked in the views from Monona Terrace. Frank Lloyd Wright, a Wisconsin native who spent many years in Madison, designed the terrace and first proposed in 1938. Met with resistance for years, it was finally approved and constructed in the 1990s, long after Wright’s death. Never mind that Jenni was incensed at the lack of symmetry between the path to the terrace and the State Capitol.
Monona Terrace, off-center and all
A quick orientation to Madison is that there are two larger lakes separated by an isthmus. In the center of the isthmus is Capitol Square and more upscale/business dining and drinking establishments. On the eastern side of the isthmus is Williamson Street, with more hipsters. At the southwest edge of the isthmus begins the University of Wisconsin campus. The campus and Capitol Square are connected by the pedestrian only State Street, which is lined with bars, restaurants and shops…mostly independent but with a couple chains represented.
Some places on the Square we heard are good include Coopers, Old Fashioned, Brocach and L’Etoile (ranked #14 restaurant in the country some years back by Gourmet or Bon Appetit, I can’t recall). We had dinner at Graze, by the same owner and in the same building as L’Etoile, but more on that later. The “Good Food” cart looked popular.
Wisconsin State Capitol
On the Square we saw a little circular garden with a sign from Great Dane Pub & Brewing saying they will soon make a pepper pilsner with the peppers growing here. On another corner was a group of protesters against Governor Scott Walker and his anti-union policies. There were perhaps 50 people in a circle with drums, trombones, guitars and tambourines and they had song books with original songs that folks actually knew. Politics aside, it was enjoyable to observe.
Protest groove
We bought a cleaning pen and flimsy tripod at The Camera Company before strolling down State Street. Kilwins Candy had an impressive selection of chocolates, fudge, ice cream etc. We were met at the edge of campus with a funky DJ set accompanied by live guitar and lots of food carts.
Jenni and I each selected nasi goreng from the Indonesian cart and took our food to a lakeside table at Memorial Union Terrace. I grabbed beers inside at Rathskellar (or really Der Stiftskeller) and we watched the sailboats while listening to sorority girls discuss pressing matters. While I have Tufts pride, I admit we had nothing this cool in Medford.
Lake Mendota from Memorial Union Terrace
After lunch we walked past the boathouse and through the lovely campus, taking in Bascom Hill and views back to the Capitol before visiting enormous Camp Randall Stadium.
Bascom Hill
The Giants’ disappointing Heisman winner
From here we walked several blocks on Regent Street which is dingier and I think has a bar scene particularly vibrant on game days.
What is that?!
We returned to State Street and walked past incense-burning and head shops up to Graze on the Square. Given the quality of the experience, it is remarkable there was no wait at 6 pm on a Friday. The space has high ceilings, a large U-shaped bar, huge windows, silver colored metal and medium wood tables. The crowd was a mix of friends, couples and families.
Graze
We started with a small order of cheese curds (these are THE thing in Wisconsin) fried in a vodka batter served with house ranch, which was heavy on the mayo and more like a cross between ranch dressing and aioli. They were bigger than I expected, some approaching golf-ball size, all delicious. Jenni loved her market tomatoes salad with fried squash blossoms, fresh mozzarella, Thai basil and gochujang mayo. I chose the $21 Graze burger. This beauty has fresh ground bacon, sirloin, ribeye and short ribs, caramelized onions, Worcestershire-cabernet jus, Swiss Emmental compound butter and garlic aioli served on a SarVecchio sesame brioche bun with housemade fries. The fries were solid but ordinary, the burger was exceptional. I have eaten a lot of burgers and they rarely live up to the hype, this one did and then some. It has an intense beef flavor, rich taste and perfect consistency. Described as a fork and knife burger, though I found 10 digits sufficient. This is probably one of the top 3 or 5 burgers I have ever had.
As a point of comparison, I have had the burger at db bistro moderne (in NY) on more than one occasion. Despite an ingredient list that includes sirloin, braised short ribs, foie gras and black truffle, I found it lacking. The texture was off. Maybe because it is a stuffed burger rather than being all ground together. Why did I order it more than once if I was not enamored, you ask? Stop asking silly questions.
Returning to Graze… there is a great selection of beers on tap. Jenni got the Spotted Cow from New Glarus Brewing and I got the Luna Coffee Stout from Hinterland. The back of the menu lists all the suppliers and there is a rotating selection of 12 different artisan cheeses. I highly recommend Graze. The service was top-notch, and despite the $21 burger (worth every penny), beers were only $4.50 each and our total bill was $67 with tip.
September 14, 2013 (Saturday) – After a banana and some more conversation with our airbnb hosts, we went for a run along the bike path past Monona Terrace to the Red Caboose then circled back to the center of the Square for the Saturday morning farmer’s market. WOW. Stalls line the entire Square and it draws a huge crowd. On offer is every kind of pepper, squash, tomato, potato etc. I had heard of, and many I had not.
There were flowers, pastries, venison jerky, beans, carrots, apples, pickled everything, ground cherries, baby rice popcorn which is a tender and hull-less variety of corn…Fresh cheese curds are promised to squeak in your mouth and we grabbed a satchel for $4.50, though kind of wish we had held out for the Farmer John’s stand. At Stella’s we got the famous hot and spicy cheese bread. It is basically challah and not that spicy and needs more cheese. Solid but a touch disappointing given high expectations.
Hot spicy cheese bread
With tickets for tomorrow’s Packers game, we knew we needed some brats for the tailgate. D&G came through with an impressive selection, we opted for a package of the fittingly named tailgater with beer and onion and also a package of bacon jalapeno. Jenni got a date and currant scone from Sugar River Country Bakery, where the guy advised to stick it by the windshield on the drive home to heat it up. We grabbed a delicious bottle of apple cider from Morren Farm.
Squeakiness: confirmed
I struck up a conversation with a young lady speaking to one of her older relatives (who had a stall) in a foreign language. I had seen multiple Laotian (some mixed with Thai) restaurants and stall owners who appeared Laotian so I was curious. The young lady told me there is a large Hmong population around Madison. She said that many Hmong supported the US in the Vietnam War and that the US brought them here to protect them from reprisals. As Laos is on our itinerary, I got a recommendation or two before we walked back to the apartment to pack up and hit the road for Milwaukee then Evanston.
Summary of Madison: I thought I would like Madison a lot, and I was far from disappointed. We had two spectacular, late summer / early fall, sunny, clear, crisp days. It is like a grown up city in a child’s body. The university presence is large and unavoidable. It is a well-respected institution with strong athletics. I love the culture of learning, curiosity and tolerance that one often finds in a college town. Concerts (check out the Majestic Theatre and the Orpheum Theater) and renowned speakers come through. Politics (and protests) play a big role since it is the state capitol. Outdoor activities abound with bike trails (and a city bike service), kayak rental on the lakes, nearby small mountains, etc. Madison is health conscious yet the foodie culture is prevalent, with terrific local produce, a strong brewing tradition and more. There is a hipster area. The city is very walkable. It is liberal but not in that echo chamber, obnoxious, in-your-face kind of way.
It occurred to me that on paper, Madison has a lot in common with Austin, Texas. They are both fairly liberal cities in more conservative states, the seat of the state government along with the state’s major university (and each is prominent academically and athletically), smaller than other cities in their states, on lakes with an active outdoors culture, etc.
Special thanks to Dani and Elyssa for their great recommendations. I will pass along some of what they said in unedited form below as it might help if you plan to visit Madison…which you should definitely do, likely between May and September!
“sardine also new, and by the capitol but haven’t been.
Also up by capitol, but old school: the great dane (brew pub), jenna’s (bar), jolly bob’s (carribbean restaurant). Coffee: espresso royale/ancora coffee/cafe michaelangelo. brewery tour if you’re interested, also essen haus (beer hall).
By stadium: mickey’s dairy bar (breakfast), dotty’s dumplings. Nitty gritty for burgers (closer to kohl center I think).
MUST go to the terrace at the memorial union and sit if it’s nice outside. Depending on the weather there are all kinds of lake activities too. The lakeshore drive walk/nature preserve. The KK (kollege klub) is a cheesy but classic college bar. The plaza bar off of state street. babcock hall ice cream. State street brats if you are into them. Bascom hill. Try to see a football game if you can, and there are tons of bars by the stadium. Walk up and down state street. Farmers market by the capitol on saturday mornings. I think it’s a really pretty campus, so just walking around the campus is nice too. In general, up by the capitol tends to get an older crowd, and the closer to campus the younger it is. All bets are off on football weekends though, as alums will go to bars closer to campus too.”
“Nikki’s pub; Alchemy (free music often); Nepalese food on State Street; Weary Traveler.”
When the billboards starting boasting beer and cheese, we knew Wisconsin was in our near future. We got in rather late given the long day’s drive, so opted for a quick dinner before checking in to our AirBnB spot. We tried to stop at a Laotian spot, which was unfortunately closing for the night, so headed on down the road to Pig in a Fur Coat, which is solid! We shared the rabbit rillettes with pistachio and cherries in honey, the house made burrata and heirloom salad, along with the pappardelle with oxtail mushrooms and parm (I think these were all app or “bite” sized dishes, and there were plenty of mains that sounded amazing but we were trying to be quick slash not excessively unhealthy) and enjoyed these over a few glasses of sangiovese. Oh boy, I think that tomato salad may be the best I’ve ever had, and I’ve had a lot of tomato salads in my day. Is there anything better than a ripe tomato? Mmmm. Maybe a tomato toast trumps the tomato salad, but I’ll take my good tomatoes any way they come. Anywho, this was the first of MANY impressive meals in Madison.
Our bellies full, we headed on over to our AirBnB spot, which was, dare I say, amaze-balls. Patricia and Mike are amazing hosts, and their guest set-up is phenomenal. I adored the place, the people, the service… thumbs up ALL AROUND. Go there, stay with them, thank me later. (Here’s their AirBnB page: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1533109.) Plus side of me being over a month late in writing this and almost completely done with our 3 month road trip, I can honestly say this was one of the top accommodations we had on the entire journey. On top of being a lovely, inviting, homey abode (with world’s most comfortable mattress!) in a phenomenal location, our hosts provided us with stellar recommendations. I could tell our host Mike’s love of architecture stemmed from his Chicago upbringing, and he pointed us toward a wonderful walking tour of the city. He and Patricia both had great ideas for food and various activities. I could go on, but I’ll continue with the highlights of the city itself.
First day in town, we walked up to the capitol square, stopping to admire a little garden outside, where a sign noted that a local brewery was making pepper beer out of the produce grown in that spot! Could this place be any cuter? I remember a few minutes later being suspicious of a man who said hello without wanting something, before I realized he was just exemplifying the Midwestern charm. We checked out the waterfront patio area designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. While lovely, I still can’t quite understand why it’s designed to have the view of the capitol slightly off center. The OCD in me was not cool with this.
::see how off-center it is?! ugh::
Continuing around the square, we began to hear protesters’ chants heard every so often, eventually coming upon a circle of 50 or so people surrounding a group of men playing drums, trombone, guitar, tambourine, and singing, along with much of the crowd, and encouraging others to grab a song book (yes, they had real song books printed up!) and join in. I was impressed. It appeared numerous people knew the lyrics by heart.
::happy protestors::
::love this guy::
On down State Street we checked out some really cute stores with gifts and knick-knacks and lots of Sconnie pride greeting cards, t-shirts, and gifts. We passed lots of amazing restaurants. Of course, it is a college town so there was the obligatory Jimmy Johns and Pita Pit.
Once we arrived at University of Madison campus, we stopped for lunch at the food trucks, enjoying some live music from what I assume was a student band while we waited for our nasi goreng. We brought our Indonesian food over to the memorial union terrace to savor alongside the lakeside view and a beer. Afterwards we continued wandering around campus for a while, celebrating the lovely weather and vibrant college campus.
::union terrace, great lunch and beer spot::
::cute little badger::
::football stadium::
For dinner we walked back up to capitol square to check out Graze. While I said before that the best tomato salad I’ve ever had was at Pig in a Fur Coat, the best tomatoes were at Graze. MMM. Can you blame me for ordering so many tomato salads with this kind of success rate? We also enjoyed some fried cheese curds, and Alan tried their legendary burger (too ridiculous to try to describe so I’m copy pasting from the website: fresh ground bacon, sirloin, ribeye & short ribs, caramelized onions, Worcestershire-cabernet jus, Swiss Emmental compound butter, SarVecchio sesame brioche, with fries & aioli). Yeah… it placed in his top burger list. And yes, Alan has his top burgers ranked. Fun Fact: Rachel Ray said this is the best burger in America. The restaurant also had a vast selection of beers on tap AND wines on tap. This will be a new trend I suspect. Pretty neat idea for wines by the glass.
Our second day in Wisconsin we started off with a cup of coffee and a nice chat with our hosts, after which we set out for a jog along the bike path and up to the farmer’s market. The Madison Farmer’s Market is somewhat of a legend, and for good reason. A novice might not know to travel counterclockwise around the square, but it’s quite obvious as the masses practically pull you along. I’ve never seen a farmer’s market quite this crowded. You have to jump in and out of the steady current of market-goers as you find stalls that pique your interest. There are of course the usual items – every kind of pepper, squash, tomato, potato, flowers, apple cider, carrots, plums, and so on – and then are some more obscure items like ground cherry, baby rice popcorn (which, we learned, is tender and hull-less), and anything you could want pickled. In addition, there were bakeries aplenty, including a stand of scones rated from super healthy to semi healthy. It was scone heaven at this market, though surprisingly few raisin or currant varieties. I bought one for later and the vendor told me to stick it in the dashboard to heat it up. Interesting idea! We tried the famous hot and spicy cheese bread from Stella’s bakery (my take: not that spicy, and not that incredible for hot fresh bread that is filled with melty cheese, but this is not to say I didn’t eat a half a loaf by the day’s end). We also picked up some brats and onions for our upcoming tailgate (Packers game, you’ll hear about this in my Chicago post, stay tuned). The brat people had an impressive array of sausage flavors, and we opted for the beer and onion and bacon jalapeno. But the highlight by far, was the cheese curds – guaranteed to squeak! And squeak they did!!! I adored the cheese curds. It’s hard to pin down what makes them so great, but it’s like a bite sized cheese stick that tastes better and has a better texture than the grocery store kinds.
::guaranteed to squeak!::
::nom nom nom::
::packers pride and fall cheer::
::turks turban!::
::so. much. food.::
::mmm cheesy spicy bread::
After filling our bellies at the market we said goodbye to our most favorite AirBnB hosts and headed east to Milwaukee for a quick afternoon visit. My college roomie, Emily, is from Milwaukee and we were lucky to have her mom as a guide for the afternoon. We started at their home, getting a little tour, including some awesome baby and teenage year photos of Emily (I’m tempted to share…), as well as checking out her mom’s free library. I had never heard of these before, but what a lovely idea! People build little boxes, or “libraries,” in their yards where people can take a book and return a book for free. You can check it out here: Littlefreelibrary.org.
::little free library::
We drove around next, passing Emily’s high school, the Miller beer plant, a Harley plant, and passed the old Pabst brewery. (P.S. I once saw a greeting card that involved some joke of why you shouldn’t let men take phone messages and displayed a note on the fridge that said “your gyno called. He said you need another Pabst beer.” I always think of that now when I see Pabst). You can see the city is a bit past its prime in these areas where the lifeblood was manufacturing in days past. We stopped by the library and the impressive county courthouse which was a building St. Petersburg-esque in its grandeur and monstrosity.
From there we headed to the river walk where we saw a few weddings at the museum on the lake. Emily’s mom said it costs $20k just to rent the space here – holy! Nice park area where summer fest is held, and folks flying kites, biking, and so on. Passed discovery world and the aquarium where they do fish fry and movies in the summer. Our first sight of fish fry country on the trip.
Lastly, we took Lake Drive up past some stunning mansions in the suburbs just outside of Milwaukee. And then to the place of much anticipation – Kopp’s for frozen custard! Emily’s been telling me about this since college, and this one did not disappoint. They have a few flavors every day, and the specials on the day we were there were Reese’s and Bienenstichkuchen. Despite being awkward to order given my absolute inability to pronounce that flavor, I went with the german almond-y concoction and it was fabulous. In addition to the specials they always have vanilla and chocolate. The burgers there smelled incredible and I wished we had tried them.
::frozen custard!::
Alas, from there it was back to Emily’s to pick Sven up and head off to Chicago for some time with the brah-in-law.
champagne&backpacks 