You never know when fate might bring you to Cedar Rapids – and you’re hungry when you arrive – so here are a few restaurant options I found in the latest Edible Iowa magazine:
– La Salsita, 700 1st Ave. 319-365-9733 (Mexican)
– Gyro Hut, 1455 Mount Vernon Rd., 319-364-1959 (fully loaded gyros)
Filed under Iowa
During our visit to the Leelanau Peninsula last month, we visited only one winery (Black Star) and weren’t impressed (although pretty place.) But my sister J and her husband want to go winery hopping up there this month so here’s one suggestion – based entirely on a knowledgeable friend’s review of the wine, not the winery persay: Forty-five North Vineyard and Winery – which gets its name from being located on the 45th parallel – is good wine, we’re told. So maybe the winery will be worth a visit too. see http://www.fortyfivenorth.com Tasting Room Hours are Mon-Sat, 11-6
Sun, 12-5
Another option: visit a hard cider maker. Tandem Ciders – near Black Star – looked like a neat place but it was closed when we dropped by. The season is more likely to be happening in September. We also found two local beers we liked – North Peak (out of Traverse City) and Bell’s (from Kalamazoo). Bottoms up!
Filed under Michigan
We made a nice new loop on our bike ride Monday – starting on the Urbandale trail then heading north on the newly finished trestle-to-trestle trail into Johnston, which petered out too early at an ice cream stand – but then we cut through some housing developments and rode on too-busy NW 62nd street to hook up to the Neal Smith trail which we took to the Butterfly Garden at Saylorville Lake (some of it on recently improved trail), then headed back on the Neal Smith trail to the bridge that connects back to MLK Blvd. and the Urbandale trail.
A little improvisational but it worked and was a fun interesting ride.
Filed under bike trails, biking, Des Moines
We tried again last weekend to cobble out a decent bike ride via trail in Iowa City and did only slightly better this time than last time – a few years ago. Part of it has to do with the lingering devastation from the 2008 flood – which wiped out some of the trail along the Iowa River – not to mention several major arts buildings including Hancher Auditorium. (It was sobering to pass by those hollow wrecked buildings.)
Part of it is that Iowa City doesn’t have the trail system of a place like Des Moines to begin with – and no casino revenues like in DM to construct and pave trails. We did begin at the southern end of the Iowa River Corridor trail south of town and it got off to a pleasant enough start – a tree-lined winding trail along the river but then it got diffuse and hard to follow around campus and when we picked it up again at the city park north of Hancher, the trail petered out into haphazardly marked residential streets and then it dumped us out with no further explanation – just as happened during our previous ride – on a commercial strip under construction (again still-recovering from the 2008 flood). We ended up taking a sharp right and winding through a very odd housing development – what’s called the Peninsula Neighborhood – that looked completely out of place with mock-old urban architecture in a rural setting. It felt like a movie set. Granted the brick rowhouses and single-family new-old home cottages and bungalows are attractive – but looklike they belongin Baltimore or maybe Washington D.C.
We did manage to make the ride into a bit of a loop, riding past the housing development and a golf course to the north end of the city park where we rode through downtown and campus to catch the trail back to our car.
Filed under bike trails, biking, Iowa City
My brother and his wife are going to one of our favorite places in October – the beautiful villages of Talloires and Annecy in eastern France, south of Geneva. We haven’t been there since 1989 but glad to see that the hotel we stayed in Talloires is still there – Hotel Beau Site (and it is indeed a beautiful sight/site.) http://www.beausite-talloires.com/index-en.php.
As I recall the hotel is near the French campus of – surprisingly – Tufts University. Now there’s a junior year abroad I’d enjoy.
Good reading while you’re there: Hotel du Lac a Booker Prize winning novel (1984) by Anita Brookner – set in Geneva. I think I was reading it at the time.
From my diary: “Talloires is a lovely town – the prettiest on Lac d’Annecy as far as I can tell. There is no or very little modern development. The small village is one curving street with old stone houses and a few cafes and shops. There’s a small waterfront down the hill, bordered by three or four hotels and five or six stone private homes. Our hotel has a big landscaped garden that leads to a long green lawn that stretches to the water. The lake looks a darker blue than we’ve seen earlier and the mountains are smaller but in some ways more dramatic because they begin as rolling green meadows and forest then end at the top with a jagged sheer rock face jutting out like some dramatic monument set against the sky.”
“We spent the morning walking around the fruit and veg market held each Tuesday in the old city of Annecy. It was lovely- beautiful narrow streets crowded with stalls filled with red tomatoes, peaches, olives, cheese; two canals lined with flower boxes. We ate lunch at an outdoor cafe alongside one of the canals. Then drove to see Gorge du Fier, a dramatic gorge, (http://www.gorgesdufier.com/en/faq.html) and a nearby chateau. Pretty drive.”
Filed under France
A woman who runs a chocolate shop in Empire, Mi. recommended another website for renting places in that area – vrbo.com (which stands for “vacation rentals by owner” – she says it cuts out the middle-man/woman fee. worth a try although i was happy w/our visitupnorth.com rental.
At the end of most vacations, I always have a list of things I wish I’d done and hope to do next time (like the time I went to Spain and skipped Grenada – although I did get to Seville. Someday.)
So here’s my list for the Glen Arbor area:
1) canoe or kayak on the Crystal River. Our tubing on the Platte was a bit of a bust – too slow and sleepy. The Crystal River looks fun – narrower and more winding and mysterious. And we’ll skip the tubes next time.
2) visit the Old Mission Peninsula, especially the general store in an old wigwam.
3) visit Traverse City – we didn’t even get close to the place.
4) check out the towns of Maple City and Cedar something or other. (uh oh, I’m already forgetting names.)
5) do more hiking on the dunes and the other ride with the ranger on Point Oneida.
Filed under Michigan
A huge storm knocked out the internet access at our cottage on Big Glen Lake so I’m running behind in my blogging. Yesterday we took a very short hike at Empire Bluff for another spectacular view of the lakeshore and dunes, then checked out Esch road Beach – a relatively remote beach known for nude bathers (although we saw none.)
Later D and I rode our bikes from the cottage to Glen Arbor and then to Glen Haven which has a little maritime museum and a couple of old restored buildings, plus a lovely beach. We stopped at Cherry Republic in Glen Arbor for a drink and some free samples of dried cherries in various forms. Kitschy place but fun and generous spirit. Bumped into Ranger Ryan – who we’d gone on a bike tour with the day before – and he seemed a bit taken aback that we spotted him in civilian gear. Also stopped at Becky Thatcher’s Jewelry design which has gorgeous jewelry made with local stones – including Petoskey stones, which I failed to find on my own, and a pretty blue/green stone from Leland that I”m told is not technically a stone.
The huge storm rolled in around dinner time and fortunately we’d already decided NOT to cook out. We went to Art’s Tavern, the local hang out in Glen Arbor which was jammed packed but we managed to cram into a booth after a half hour wait and had the best cheeseburgers of our trip (they made mine rare!). More tomorrow. we’re safely in Chicago now although D is still searching for a parking spot.
One of the best things we’ve done here cost no money – yesterday we loaded our bikes onto our car and drove about 15 minutes south to an old school house south of Empire where we met up with a young forest ranger – Ranger Ryan – and 9 other people for a bike ride and ranger talk. Beautiful morning and lovely terrain. We rode on gravel and sand roads (a mountain bike would have been handy but not essential) through deep woods, wide open meadows with the occasional perfect white farm-house and red barns and outbuildings, to the sandy shores of Lake Michigan (near a nude beach, we were told). we stopped occasionally for a talk by Ryan about the invasive species in the ecosystem (not good) and the local lore (pretty darned good) about a ghost town and hard drinking lumber boss with a great baritone.
Outside Empire we stopped at the Grocer’s daughter – a fancy hand-made chocolate shop started by a Danish woman who was indeed a grocer’s daughter in Denmark. Good price chocolates. Then back to our favorite farm stand just north of Empire and then home to Brook haven where we met up with the kids who had done some kayaking on the lake and eaten at the Foothills Cafe nearby (good). Returned to Empire beach where the waves were much calmer and had dinner at the cottage, followed by ice cream (still not Mooners but delicious and good scoops) at the Pine Cone in Glen Arbor. waiting now for the weather to clear
Filed under Michigan
Last time we tubed in Boulder Colorado it was terrifying and the water was freezing. This time, tubing in the Platte River near Honor, Mi, it was boring and the water was warm. I’d love something in between. We debated tubing vs. canoeing beforehand and the Platte River vs.Crystal River and ended up on a three hour very very slow float (it was supposed to be two hours) along a pretty narrow river that leads into Lake Michigan that was full of canoers, tubers, and kakakers. There was even one guy swimming or snorkeling, since he wore a face mask. Oh well. I do remember tubing on the Delaware River in Pennsylvania Years ago and it was a lot of fun – speedy but no sharp rocks and swirling gullies like in Boulder.
We had a picnic on windy Empire, Mi. beach – which also has a small inland lake South Bar Lake. We again chose Lake Michigan, where the beach was busier than north bar Lake but a sandy not rocky bottom and great waves and warm water. fun. Onto Laker Shakes, a gourmet market near Burdickville along Big Glen Lake that specializes in yes, milk shakes. I had some Hudsonville (michigan brand) double chocolate almond on a cone – the scoopers around here do not skimp on the scoops. This is the second ice cream stand we’ve visited in the area where the scoops are really more like three scoops. My mother would be pleased.
We had friends over for a cookout – very good homemade brats from IGA Anderson in Glen Arbor; fresh produce (tomatoes, corn, herbs, from a farm stand just north of Empire; smores at a fire we built with our neighbors on the beach. Nice.
Filed under Michigan
TakeBetsywithyou
TakeBetsywithyou 