Category Archives: THE MIDWEST

December 2, 2012 · 12:08 am

where to stay along the Mississippi in Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota

One of the worst nights we’ve had was staying aboard a boat that doubles as a hotel of sorts along the Mississippi River in Dubuque Iowa. It seemed like a good idea but the quarters were cramped and strange; the boat was docked beside not only a busy road but a railroad track so it was noisy; and we were the only people aboard. Given that this boat was among the recommendations listed for where to stay along the Mississippi in a 2009 issue of a Minneapolis based mag, I’m not sure how the other recommendations will be. But here they are just in case:

– Golden Lantern Inn, Red Wing, MN

– Tritsch House B&B, Alma, WI (this is a really nice little river town!)

– Alexander Mansion, Winona, Mn.- Wilson Schoolhouse Inn, LaCrosse, WI

– The Hancock House, Dubuque

– Mont Rest, Bellevue, Ia. (long been curious about this place)

– Tatanka Bluffs, Redwood Falls, MN

– Belle Rive, Lanesboro, MN

– Oakenwald Terrace. Chatfield, MN

– Woodland Trails. Hinckley, MN

– Inn at Sacred Clay Farm, Lanesboro, MN

– Solglimit, Duluth, MN

– Blue Heron, Ely, MN

– Loon Song Bed and Breakfast, Park Rapids, MN

– A.G. Tomson House. Duluth, MN

– Covington Inn, St. Paul, MN

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November 2, 2012 · 8:09 pm

Stroud’s famous pan fried chicken – good option for near Kansas City Airport

 Stroud’s Oak Ridge Manor: Deluxe Fried ChickenDinners

When we flew back from New Orleans to Kansas City Airport last month we arrived early afternoon – and were hungry, having skipped lunch. We were too early to have dinner at the Justus Drugstore in Smithville, Mo. – a destination-dining spot in an old 1960’s-style pharmacy  which I’ve always wanted to try – north of the airport. But we had perfect timing for Stroud’s in North Kansas City, just off I-35. On a Sunday at 4 p.m. it was relatively easy to get a table before the dinner onslaught and we had a lovely table in the back room in front of big picture windows overlooking a classic autumn scene – swans gliding on a small lake surrounded by trees with yellow and orange leaves. The food was great too – a chicken dinner for two was really two nights of dinners and a breakfast. We had a second helping of fried chicken and mashed potatoes the next night and ate the cinnamon rolls the next morning for breakfast. The chicken was delicious – crisp, flavorful, not greasy and hot; the mashed potatoes and thick gravy good; excellent service- even at the end of the meal our server brought more gravy so we could take it home with our other leftovers. We hadn’t been to this particular Stroud’s – in a pretty 1800’s white farmhouse and log cabin called “Oak Ridge Manor” – for years, preferring instead the old roadhouse Stroud’s further south in Kansas City but that one was closed, sadly, to make way for an expanded highway, so this new one is fine. There’s also a new one in the the K.C. suburb of Fairway and in Wichita. Good to know!

Justus Drugstore

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September 25, 2012 · 2:06 am

Taking the bus to Laguardia – and nabbing an earlier flight home in Minneapolis

I paid $2.25 (the price of a bus ride) to get to Laguardia airport this afternoon which is much better than a $40 cab ride – not as fast of course, but not as long as I feared. It took me an hour – from the time I picked up the M60 bus at 106th and Broadway to my arrival at Laguardia’s Terminal C – and frankly seemed faster than the express bus I rode into the city (for $12.50).

I had a three hour layover in Minneapolis so of course my arrival and departing gates were minutes away from each other (as opposed to my outbound flight when I had 37 minutes to get from one end of the airport to the other.) Noticing that there was an earlier flight to Des Moines (at 7:15 vs. 9:30 p.m.) I went to the gate for the earlier flight to see if I could get on. There was room but Delta wanted to charge me $50 (which United wasn’t going to do when I tried to do the same thing a week ago in Boston). So I said no thanks but then the Delta person saw that my 9:30 flight was overbooked so she waived the $50 fee. So here I am home – although my bag won’t arrive until 11 p.m. So I guess it pays to ask and stand your ground….at least sometimes!

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September 17, 2012 · 8:00 pm

town topic, savoy grill, oklahoma joes, Lulu’s, chez elle in Kansas City

20100323-towntopic.jpg

My stepdaughter reports that there was a recent episode of No Reservations in Kansas City featuring some great looking BBQ places including Oklahoma Joes. She was also intrigued by Town-Topic Hamburgers and the Savoy Grill. (see: www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/anthony-bourdain/episodes/kansascity)

It would be hard for my husband and I to give up Gates or Bryant’s BBQ for the great unknown but Oklahoma Joe’s has been on our radar. We haven’t been to the Savoy Grill in years but it’s a place-that-time forgot, a Mr. and Mrs. Bridge-era restaurant that’s probably worth revisiting. (Fun wiki facts: The restaurant’s fantastic murals were painted in 1903.  The restaurant is KC’s oldest. The Savoy Hotel is the nation’s oldest continuously operating hotel …west of the Mississippi River.)

And Town-Topic – never been but always liked their  neon sign (more authentic relic than retro, I think.)  Some other relatives in Kansas City also recommend Lulu’s Thai Noodle Shop and Chez Elle, a creperie/coffee house at 1713 Summit St., near the new Kaufmann Performing Arts Center.)

 

 

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September 4, 2012 · 7:08 pm

photos of the eccentric sculptures in Mullinville Kansas!

The folk art sculptor I wrote about yesterday is M.T. Liggett and there’s a great article about him, plus a slide show, in the Wall Street Journal from 2010.

a small sampling of the sculptures along the Highway in Mullinville, Ks.

See: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703630404575053632726040838.html#slide/1 (slide 3 is a photo of M.T.) and http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703894304575047461204497670.html.

Here’s some photos we took yesterday when we passed through Mullinville and

The view from the road in Mullinville Kansas – lots of strange sculptures

met Mr. Liggett.

Art installation along Highway 400 as you enter Mullinville, Kansas

Angry art in Mullinville Kansas (yes, those are swastikas

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September 3, 2012 · 3:00 pm

Meeting the local eccentric scuptor in mullinville kansas

For years, the speck of a town on the map in western Kansas, mullinville, has been a highlight of our nine hour drive from des Moines to wright,Kansas (another speck) thanks to the ever-growing collection of nine foot high whirligigs and metal sculptures lining two-lane highway 400. Many are labeled with familiar names – apparently a commentary on the likes of al gore, Janet Reno, Ted Kennedy, hillary(of course) and even Laura bush (we noticed laura this morning when we parked alongside the near deserted highway to take a closer look and some photos. As we were getting back in the car, a dusty pickup truck came driving towards us and I half expected to need to run for cover. The truck pulled up next to us and an old Guy with a toupee, craggy face, overalls adorned with strange large round plastic buttons and two splotches of blue paint on his knuckles looked at us with piercing eyes and said “you like my stuff?”
He and my husband chatted for a bit – he knew of my husband’s family “good Catholics from Spearville.” He mentioned he was indeed “in a fight with the city council” aka “nazi goose steppers”. Which we we gleaned from one installation along the highway in town which included a toilet bowl (a popular element in his art, several swastikas, and some angry references to things like the Gestapo. (look here for photos tomorrow!)
We did drive down the narrow dirt road lined with more curious sculptures past his studio to see what pissed off the city council and found several homemade private property-keep out signs in the middle of the road, which he appeared to claim as his property. We are guessing that’s the issue – or one of the issues – with the powers that be in mullinville. I wanted to ask him a bit about his politics but conversation didn’t move in that direction. We’re guessing he’s somewhere between a libertarian and an anarchist.

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September 3, 2012 · 2:58 am

Boot Hill, Jalisco, bella Italia…dodge city,kansas

i made a rare visit to the boot hill museum in dodge city this morning to pick up some souvenirs for a Peruvian man my son is living with in Lima. Turns out he is a big fan of westerns so figured he’d like some dodge city stuff. Not sure his wife will. I was surprised by how busy the gift shop was. I didn’t stick around for the midday gunfight. Too much of that going on in the real world these days. Tonight we returned to our favorite Mexican restaurant in dodge, tacos Jalisco, where I tried the garlic shrimp rather than my usual carne asana (we had had steak for Sunday lunch…this being Kansas). Shrimp was good and always an interesting scene, full of Hispanic families and even some african Muslims. That’s dodge these days, with lots of immigrants working in the meat packing plant. We also went last night to Bella Italia, Italian food but everyone we saw working there was mexican. Very sweet people. Food, not great. We hit the road for nine hour drive back to Iowa. Word has it Obama will be back in Iowa again this week (and I will be away again during his visit.)

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September 2, 2012 · 2:57 am

Delano district, old town, Vietnamese-Cajun food in wichita

After barreling down interstate 35 for six hours, much of the time in the dark and rain, we made it to Wichita at about midnight. Did I really live there? It seems another life, another person, another time. And it was 1987. Wichita had some surprises then and it has them now, little pockets of coolness that a come as a pleasant surprise. The Delano district, a five-or-so block stretch of west Douglas, west of the Arkansas river (that’s pronounced aR-Kansas river I quickly learned when I moved to Kansas from connecticut, and don’t you forget it) wasn’t mUch during the late 80s, sort of a poor man’s downtown with nuts and bolts shops, the carpet shop, the auto body shop. There were always a few interesting places that are still there like Hat man jack’s, a great hat store (where I bought a floppy hat for our Peru trip) and the original Nuway, a loose meat sandwich shop. Now there are lots of restaurants,belittle boutiques, bakeries, tattoo parlours. Among our favorites:

Sugar sisters bakery, bike man, Sweet cheeks (for hip-organic chic mommies and babies),la galette cafe and crepes, TJ’s Burger House….you get the idea.

We also stopped briefly at the old town farmers market downtown where a bluegrass string band planned near the cold ales Keen Kutter building, now a hotel. We picked up some succulent plants for a song, at a stand run by a nice transsexual woman,drank some good cherry lime made, entered a raffle for a quilt run by deaf Kansas. On the way back we hope to try a Vietnamese-Cajun restaurant we just read about in the nytimestravel section. Surprise!

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July 29, 2012 · 7:06 pm

Leaving wichita

It is really more accurate to say that we are leaving the best western hotel in park city, Kansas, just north of Wichita. We arrived there yesterday at 3pm and didn’t leave until midday today. There was no reason to leave since we came for a family reunion and it was 104 degrees outside. We did make it to Saigon  restaurant on. Broadway  hearty view Vietnamese lunch. (I had the bun as usual, a cold salad of greens, noodles, char broiled pork and egg roll, aka no. 45 on the menu.)

Now we are back in the car driving on interstate 35, another six hours drive north to Wichita. The corn is prematurely brown due to drought..burnt up is the technical term, my husband tells me. Lawns and brown, not their usual green. My brother-in-law, a cowboy in western Kansas report he is running out of pasture for his cattle to graze, it is now 106 on our car thermometer.

Restaurants recommended my various relatives during the reunion:in Kansas city, Lulu’s for Thai.. Chez Elle, crepes;  Amano in New Orleans.

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June 15, 2012 · 11:02 pm

Note to self: when next in Milwaukee – try the Iron Horse hotel

Established 1882

A friend came home from a weekend jaunt to Milwaukee raving about the city in general and the Iron Horse Hotel in particular. (Nope that’s not it above – that’s the fantastic Milwaukee Art Museum) The Iron Horse a boutique hotel in a former 100-year-old warehouse at the crossroads of the city’s Fifth Ward and Latin Quarter.   With its urban chic decor and high marks from the travel industry, it looks like well worth a visit.  Last time I stayed in Milwaukee, about six years ago, I stayed at the old dowager of a hotel, the Pfister, which was a little bit frumpy but interesting and near the lively historic Third Ward district. I see online that there’s a $259 package at the Iron Horse  that includes tickets to the fantastic Milwaukee Art Museum, inside a whimsical building  designed by Santiago Calatrava, and the new Harley-Davidson Museum. One thing I didn’t realize about the museum, which resembles a bird, is that its “wings” open at 10 a.m. daily (when the museum is open), close and reopen at noon and close at 5 p.m. (8 pm on Thursdays). Now that I’d like to see! (Below is the new building he’s designed for NYC’s World Trade Center site – didn’t realize he’s doing that.)

Path Terminal

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