Category Archives: 2) Frequent Destinations

October 17, 2016 · 2:17 am

The cooks house, alliance, Spanglish — eating well in Traverse City

Botanical garden, village at the commons, traverse city

Botanical garden, village at the commons, traverse city

To date, we have had three meals in this foodie town, each unique and excellent. The Cooks House is just that, a small cozy house with some fine cooks using a long list of locally sourced products duly listed on a chalk board. We had a fresh vvegetable  first course (mine was a creative take on sweet potatoes) and then a very Hearty entree (excellent steak, pork, fish). Today we walked all around the city which is full of people and interesting shops. We walked down Front street (the main drag where our friends are urban pioneers, living ina stunning loft fashioned from the second story of an old sandstone brick warehouse, with a back porch with a dazzling blue of Grand Traverse bay) to a former “insane asylum” that has been converted into a series of little shops, restaurants, residential lofts.

Boardman River, TC

Boardman River, TC

 

We walked around a beautiful old farm with botanical gardens in an old horse stable, ate an excellent Mexican meal at Spanglish, sampled wines and cider at Left Foot Charlie next door. Later we stopped at several wineries on the old mission peninsula, with more spectacular views of hills with red, yellow and orange trees leading to Lake Michigan ‘s blue waters.

Tonight, we ate at Alliance, the hot new restaurant in town which is no small feat considering how many good dining options this small town has. Shared plates of food in one of a kind combinations with very fresh ingredients, vibrant and complicated flavor combinations. We thoroughly enjoyed.

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October 16, 2016 · 2:43 am

Fennville, saugatuck, on the road to Traverse City

img_0290GOrgeous fall day as we drove the second leg of our trip up north from an okay comfort inn in Joliet to TC. first stop, Crane’s apple orchard empire outside the sweet town of Fennville. “From your Iowa plates, you must not be part of the field trip,” said a cheerful guy directing traffic to rudimentary parking spots near the pick your own orchards. We picked our very own mutsu apples, one of my favorite breeds not readily found in Iowa and also discovered the cameo apple. We stopped nearby at the cranes cider mill and restaurant. Full of fall tourists, good not-too-sweet cider and many pie varieties. The restaurant had a clever “pie flight” with slivers of several varieties but we went on to Saugatuck, a pretty resort town I had somehow never been to. We ate lunch outside at a cute new diner called Grow. Clever food (my fresh take on a Michigan salad had Israeli couscous as well as pulled chicken, dried cherries, goat cheese and greens. Dirck had excellent fish tacos (which I don’t usually like but these had batter fried white fish, which provided some crunch and a good cause that kept them from being dry.)

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We hope to stay on our return trip at a cool Airbnb in fennville (“modern cabin in the woods”) that was booked. Next time. There appear to be some cool retro motels that are affordable. Just saw our first birch trees. Now I know we are up north!!

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September 24, 2016 · 1:30 am

Hyde Park diner, walk over the Hudson, train to 125th Street

Walkway over the Hudson

Walkway over the Hudson

Another day of spectacular weather in the Hudson River Valley. After another morning hike around my friend’s beautiful 39-acre spread in Dutchess County, we went for brunch at a classic old diner, the EverReady in Hyde Park (eggs with spinach and feta…my favorite dinner fare, plus delicious grilled potatoes with onions, not your everyday hash browns, and fresh squeezed orange juice.)

I was first introduced to East Coast diners by my college friends, who would take me to their hometown favorites in Forest Hills and Long Island.  And then there is our favorite stop on the way to Ithaca from NYC or Connecticut: the great Roscoe Diner. I love the shiny metal building, the encyclopedic menu, the huge showy cakes on display and all the locals hanging out over endless cups of coffee, not to mention the patient, efficient, seen-it-all waitresses.

imageNear the train station in Poughkeepsie, we walked half way across the footbridge over the Hudson, with spectacular views of bucolic waters in the distance and industrial workaday river scenes just below us. I envied the cyclists biking past us. As promised, the almost 2 hour train ride to 125th street offered great river views most of the way and then boom, I emerged in Harlem. I didn’t have to wait long for the m60 bus to Laguardia, a rare public transportation option to the airport and a much better deal ($2.75) than the ripoff black car I am embarrassed to admit I mistook for an Uber on my arrival at Laguardia. ($71…ouch. Lesson learned. Never get in a car with an uber sign unless you’ve ordered an uber online.)

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The bus took about an hour but the first stop, surprisingly, was terminal B where my grubby southwest gate was located. Now here I am at the St. Louis  airport with a 2.5 hour late night layover (again, a big change from my mad dash here a week ago with a 50 minute connection cut in half by delays.)

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September 23, 2016 · 1:36 am

Bard college, Red Hook, Tivoli, Germantown–Rambles in and around Dutchess County

Salt point scene

Salt point scene

 


 Sadly, I am a little early for the mutsu Apple crop here (due the first week of October) but I did get some good honeycrisps at a roadside stand near where I am staying Salt Point. And we have had gorgeous weather – 70s and sunny with a slight breeze.

imageWe drove past the frank Gehry-designed theatre on The Bard College campus, which looked like his building on the U of Minnesota campus.Then we drove through the nearby towns of Red Hook and Tivoli, which were sleepier than usual because, we learned, places tend to close on Wednesday. We got sandwiches at Otto’s, an old timey grocery store in Germantown where we ordered at the meat counter.

Otto's in Germantown

Otto’s in Germantown

Now sitting on the slate patio with my friends of almost 40 years, enjoying the late afternoon at this beautiful place on Allen Road that I’ve been visiting for, um, 31 years. (Some of which is soon to be available via Airbnb…)

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September 21, 2016 · 2:51 am

The new Whitney Museum — NYC

On a Whitney terrace

On a Whitney terrace with One World Trade Center in the distance

Finally made it to the new location of the Whitney Museum and loved everything about it – the architecture  (Renzo Piano building with great open terraces on the upper floors with dazzling views of the Hudson River, the downtown skyscrapers and the High Line right below the museum), the neighborhood (bustling art and commerce of Chelsea and the meat packing district with designer shops and old crumbling brick streets) and of course the art. The Whitney is big on figurative contemporary art, which happens to be among my favorite.

Inside the Whitney

Inside the Whitney

We saw a really interesting retrospective of photographer Danny Lyons work and thoroughly enjoyed the 7th floor exhibit from the museums’ portrait collection. We ran out of time so couldn’t see the 6th floor of portraits (which oddly wasn’t open because they were rehanging some work). NExt trip! Also enjoyed a light lunch in the top floor cafe, a Danny Meyer restaurant.

Robert Bechtle, 61' Pontiac, 1968-69 oil on canvas

Robert Bechtle, 61′ Pontiac, 1968-69 oil on canvas

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September 14, 2016 · 5:48 pm

Good bagels in Des Moines area!

I confess: I’m a bagel snob. But the new  5 Borough Bagels in Clive is the real deal (“New York-style” although I’ve never seen a “French Toast” bagel in NYC. It’s not bad.)

Just hoping Iowans appreciate and keep these young bagel entrepreneurs in business! They even offer onion bialys, which are heavier than I’m used to but delicious.

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September 7, 2016 · 9:00 am

Unexpected Ride along the Wapsi-Great Western Line Trail  – Northeast Iowa

imageThe weather didn’t cooperate on Labor Day — it rained in the morning in Lanesboro – so we scrapped our original plan to ride a third leg of the Root River Trail (from Lanesboro to Fountain , or another option – Lanesboro to Preston or Harmony) and drove south to sunnier skies and another bike trail in Iowa. We found both – sort of (there was sun but also thunder, lightening and clouds in the distance that fortunately didn’t result in rain) – in Riceville, Ia, where we hopped on the very pleasant Wapsi-Great Western Line Trail, riding through forested corridors lining corn fields and then through open cornfields, past Amish farms. There was scenery to delight both me as a Michigan native (a rare, for Iowa, strand of Birch trees) and Dirck, as a native Kansan (prairie, with yellow and purple flowers.)

prairie grass!

prairie grass!

To do a loop, we did have to ride on a country road but noticed that some Amish cyclists we passed were taking the same approach as us – riding in the oncoming traffic lane so we could see the rare car coming our way and get out of the way. It seemed safer than having the traffic to our back, even if it may have taken the oncoming driver by surprise.

Birch trees!

Birch trees!

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September 6, 2016 · 4:51 pm

Airbnb/Java Johns/Oneota Coop in Decorah

We made a quick stop in Decorah during our Lanesboro, MN trip. Not long enough unfortunately to visit the Agora Arts gallery. BUt we did find a good Airbnb just south of town that was very easy Ina no out, clean and affordable $56. And we found one coffee house (among several) open on Sunday morning — thank you Java John’s. The Oneota Co-op also was open at 10 am so we lingered long enough to get picnic supplies there.

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September 4, 2016 · 1:06 pm

Root River Trail, Pedal Pusher Cafe in Lanesboro, MN  Burdy’s Cafe nearby and Decorah, IA (Topping Goliath)

Peterson, MN

WE finally made it to southeast Minnesota to ride our bikes along the much-touted Root River Trail and it was as lovely (and easy to ride) as advertised– at least the 15 mile stretch from Lanesboro east through the tiny town of Whalan (with its famous pie shop) and the slightly less tiny town of Peterson, where we had excellent pie at Burdy’s Cafe, an unassuming little place with cheerful teenage girls as our servers. The trail was largely flat but not dull. It follows the wide,often fast moving river for the most part, through woods and fields, past picture perfect old farmsteads, tidy towns and wooded stone bluffs.  We also lucked out with the weather, low 70s, sun but cloud cover.

Lanesboro’s main drag was packed with people, cars and bikes but not awful. It’s lined with wellkept old brick storefronts. It’s not as well heeled as, say, Stockholm, Wisconsin or ticky tacky as, say, places I won’t mention.It has a nice local art gallery, a popular ice cream shop and the Pedal Pusher’s cafe, which has a hearty Minnesota vibe (the Norwegian meatballs were already sold out when we arrived at 6 pm). We picnicked for lunch in the city park, overlooking a little pond where people were fishing and families pitched tents. We particularly appreciated the public bathrooms there, at the library, with pay showers (who knew?), where we changed into our biking gear.

TOnight we are 45 miles south in Decorah, one of our favorite places in Iowa, staying at a pleasant and affordable Airbnb ($53) on a rural highway outside town. We stopped in town for ice cream and beer at Topping Goliath, an award winning local brewery. or so Dirck tells me.

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August 26, 2016 · 4:05 pm

DIA, Chartreuse, exploring Detroit!

We began the morning with the world’s best bagels (sorry NYC)…Detroit bagels, which are smaller and chewier than New York’s,and the onion bagel has the onion bits baked mixed into the batter, not burnt bits on the outside. The egg bagels are superb too.  But irony of  ironies, the bagel store on Woodward Near Ferndale has the unfortunate name, New York Bagels.

We took Noah for his first viewing of the famous Diego Rivera mural at the Detroit Institute of Art (DIA), which was even better than I remembered from years ago. A knowledgeable docent was conveniently stationed in the courtyard and provided all kinds of interesting information, including where to find Diego himself among the workers and the comic book character Dick Tracy. We also saw a really fun photography show on American Road trips.

Dinner was at Chartreuse, a charming place on Woodward near the DIA, with a rustic earthy decor (and lots of chartreuse) and inventive food, using fresh produce and local products. We had delicious ribs (with” togarashi, soy mirin glaze, raw potato and seaweed salad”) and pork (Niman ranch tenderloin, clover fed pork shoulder, salsa verde, cheddar jalapeño grits, black beans, radish), good appetizers and dessert. And I bumped into my high school choral director who I hadn’t seen in years. Another treat!

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