Category Archives: THE MIDWEST

October 26, 2011 · 7:11 pm

Kansas City Ballet and new Kauffman Center – more reason to go to KC

So I was about ready to jump in the car and drive to Kansas City after reading a NYTimes review of the Kansas City Ballet’s new ballet “Tom Sawyer” performed in the new Muriel Kauffman Theater  (inside the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts) but thought it wise to check first to see if it’s still happening.

And alas, the last performance was Oct. 23 (so why did the story run on Oct. 25….grrrr).  (“Tom” is reportedly KC Ballet’s first new production and likely “the first all-new, entirely American three-act ballet,” according to the NYTimes which gave the production, the dancers and the new performance space thumbs up.)

Anyway, the ballet company and the Kauffman Center- which we have watched being built during our frequent trips through downtown KC  – are now on my list for early May when there’s a performance of work by four famous NYC Ballet choreographers. (Apparently KC Ballet and NYC Ballet have a longstanding relationship. Who knew?) During its Masters of American Dance production May 4-13, the KC Ballet will perform work by four famous choreographers: George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Peter Martins & Todd Bolender (Bolender, was a former Balanchine dancer and artistic director of the KC Ballet.)

 

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October 2, 2011 · 3:02 pm

A b&b in Minneapolis – stick with tried and true or try something new?

We visit Minneapolis every couple of years and have had very good luck  staying at Evelo’s bed & breakfast, a low-key but charming house in a good location near the Walker Art Center. But for our next trip in late October, we’re toying with the idea of staying somewhere else – the Wales House near the U of Minnesota campus, in part because it may be available when Evelo’s is not and also just to try something new (always a temptation.)

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September 18, 2011 · 3:29 pm

milwaukee – serbian food, sausages, santiago calatrava

Friends are going to Milwaukee for a college visit to Marquette U. so here are a few suggestions of things to do/see/eat:

– Three Brothers – a Old World Serbian restaurant in a neighborhood just north of the airport. Yes Serbian food. Good. Try the burek, sort of akin to Greek spinach and cheese pie

– The Milwaukee Art Museum, designed by Santiago Calatrava. The building alone – looking like bird landing on the lake – is worth a wander. There’s an exhibit on the building of the museum, marking its 10th anniversary. (more below)

– Usinger’s Sausages – okay, you don’t have to go to the original store downtown but it’s kind of a kick. there’s a stand selling them at the Milwaukee Airport.

 

 

Building a Masterpiece: Santiago Calatrava and the Milwaukee Art Museum

September 8, 2011–January 1, 2012

Feature image for the Calatrava exhibition It has been named the sexiest building in the world, featured in TV ads and shows and Hollywood movies, and it has transformed the city of Milwaukee. In September, the Milwaukee Art Museum celebrates the 10th anniversary of its iconic building, the Quadracci Pavilion, with the exhibition Building a Masterpiece: Santiago Calatrava and the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Designed by internationally renowned architect Santiago Calatrava, the Quadracci Pavilion was the Spaniard’s first completed commission in the United States. In 2001, it was named Time Magazine’s “Best Design of 2001.”

 

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August 9, 2011 · 12:22 am

Tried a new restaurant in Kansas City – Po’s Dumpling Bar.

We didn’t have time in Wichita last weekend to eat at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant Saigon Market so we tried Po’s Dumpling Bar on lively 39th Street  in Kansas City – not bad. The dumplings were unusually oblong-shaped and fresh tasting. The spicy (but not too) Kung Pao chicken and two vegetarian noodle dishes (one with thick and wide homemade noodles that reminded me of the egg noodles found in Midwestern’ chicken-and-noodles) also were also fresh tasting, with good quality meat and crisp vegetables.

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July 19, 2011 · 12:23 am

Odds and ends from West Central Wisconsin

In Sparta, we ate at Angelini’s – a nothing fancy but good old-fashioned Italian restaurant downtown that was packed on a Saturday night and makes a good tomato meat sauce and has good thin crust pizza. One minor quibble – among the photos of presumably Italian notables (Sopranos actors, Al Pacino, Sinatra et. al.) hanging on the wall was one Benicio del Toro, who is Puerto Rican (full name: Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez)

In Westby, we ate at a nothing fancy very Norwegian cafe, Borgen’s – motto is “Spis, drik, a ver gla!” (Eat, drink, and be glad! in Norwegian I’m guessing. We didn’t  get too adventurous or Norwegian  (we skipped the Meatballs & Gravy with Lefse and the “Feisty Norwegian Chicken Sandwich”) but they served a good BLT. We had bacon several times during our Wisconsin trip (each morning at our B&B) and it never disappointed. But then bacon rarely does.  I also was intrigued by a replica of a Kransekake, Norway’s signature cake often served at weddings, birthdays and anniversary parties – a conical tower of thin layers of cake made out of almost paste, that narrows as it rises from bottom to top.


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July 17, 2011 · 6:43 pm

Canoeing via the Titanic on the Kickapoo River in Wisconsin

We inadvertently picked the best day to canoe on the Kickapoo River in southwest Wisconsin last week – a Monday. We were going to go on Sunday – when it would no doubt be crowded – but the weather wasn’t promising so we waited a day and had the river almost entirely to ourselves, which was a treat. We rented a boat from a rental place in Ontario called Titanic (and managed to stay afloat!) – good boat, fiberglass with molded seats so slightly more comfortable. We opted for the 3.25 hour trip, which was a little shorter than that, put in at the landing beside the rental place and were picked up right on time at Bridge #5 (helps that the canoe rental guy had few other customers.) The river itself is narrow and very curvy, with high grassy banks and forested stone bluffs. Really lovely. Must do again! There are several other canoe rental places next to Titanic but it suited us well.

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July 15, 2011 · 6:28 pm

When we return to west-central Wisconsin – what to do

I always seem to return home from a trip with things I didn’t do but want to remember to do during our next visit. So here’s some of those for West-Central Wisconsin:

– bike on the 25-mile Great River State Trail which goes through  Trempealeau. We’re told we can get shuttle service for this too – which we loved having on the Elroy-Sparta trail (it meant we could ride one way and be picked up at the end, rather than having to doubleback on the trail)

– in Pepin – maybe stay at A Summer Place http://www.summerplace.net (looked nice. It’s open mid-March to mid-November); other options include Lake Pepin Beach House, Journey Inn (an eco-retreat) and Pepin Farm Pottery and Guest house; TansyHus in Stockholm

– Go to the Oct. 7-9 Fresh Art Fall tour – a self-guided tour of seventeen artists studios and galleries in Lake Pepin region. see http://www.freshart.org including Gail Pommerening’s studio in Plum City (we liked her store, Art & Soul in Alma)

– in Stockholm – win the lottery so I can afford to buy something at the wonderful gallery, Abode.

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July 15, 2011 · 12:51 am

How to find the best backroads in Wisconsin

For some reason, we could not get a Wisconsin map at any of the tourist offices we visited while there last weekend – and we tried several. Perhaps it’s part of some budget cutback? Anyway, it forced us to rely on partial maps we found at the tourism offices – most notably a multi-county map of good roads for bicyclists.  The one we used was the West-Central Wisconsin State Bike Trails map, which includes “safe roads to ride,” “bike trails” and “Amish community.”  With it, we found a pretty series of mostly letter-named roads that went diagonally from Sparta northwest to Alma on the Mississippi. I suppose cyclists wouldn’t appreciate me sending car drivers on these roads but the fact is, they were great for both.  We took I-90 west to 108 north to Mindon, then VV (not to be confused with W, as I did) to Ettrick, then D, and T to Acadia, then 95 to E to Waumandee, then more E to 88 and my favorite named town – Cream, Wisconsin – and then E again to Alma. You do have to pay attention because these road names/numbers change pretty quickly.

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July 12, 2011 · 11:43 pm

Sparta-Elroy/Elroy-Sparta Trail in Wisconsin

Turned out to be my dream trail! We rode the trail on a sunny Saturday in July from Kendall to Sparta, about 31 miles when you add various excursions to explore little towns and shops along the trail.  The trail itself was hard-packed dirt, a fine surface for riding, and we were under a canopy of trees almost all the time which provided perfect shade and the feel of a sun-dappled lane. I was a little nervous about the three famous railroad tunnels en route – and they were, as promised, very dark and one was almost a mile long with literally no light at the end of the tunnel for some time. I was very glad that we brought flashlights. I noticed that some of the parents with young kids kept up a steady patter as they walked through the tunnel and I found that chatting with D. helped keep my mind off of the fact that we were practically entombed in this dark chamber in the earth. Some kids wore lights strapped around their foreheads like junior coal miners. This is as close to mining as I’d ever want to get.

The scenery otherwise was bucolic Wisconsin dairy land, tidy farms with red barns, blue silos, white wood frame farmhouses, grazing cattle and perfect green cornfields. Really lovely.  There were some fun places along the trail to stop – near Wilton, the Dorset Valley School Restaurant & Bakery, a former school house which now has a restaurant, an Amish furniture shop (where I bought a great little bent hickory and tile table – and picked up later in the car), a coffee/fresh smoothie shop and my personal favorite, a barber. One rider got his hair cut mid ride!  A b&b is next door.

There was also a popular trailside ice cream shop that was doing a banner biz with families with little kids. The famous pie shop is no more in Wilton replaced by another cafe that looked fun. We opted instead to picnic in the pretty town park, near the busy public pool.  The trail was busy but not too – and there were fewer hard core speedsters than we’re used to on Iowa’s trails – and no riders with boom boxes either. Amen!

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July 12, 2011 · 3:50 am

A tale of two beds – in western Wisconsin

Just back from a great trip to southwestern/west-central Wisconsin where the difference in the two places that we stayed may best be described as a tale of two beds. The first bed appeared to be as old as the historic hotel it was in – which dates to the 1880s. Sagging and soft from the start, it sat atop bouncy springs that creaked and moaned at our slightest move. Not good. The room itself was small but had considerable old world character, kind of like a place Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid would have stayed at after a robbery. We shared a bathroom with several other rooms – the bathroom down the hall. It was surprisingly available. We only saw one other lodger – a bearded biker who greeted us from his room by waving a bottle and asking “Want some Cherry bomb?” Um, no thank you. But hey, the room at the historic Trempealeau Hotel in Trempealeau, Wi. along the banks of the Mississippi River was $43.20.

The second bed was maybe the best bed I’ve ever slept in – king-sized (which the owner of our b&b said means it’s as wide as a queen bed is long…) with a special remote control that you can use to adjust the firmness ON EACH SIDE. I went with 45 (who knew) and Dirck went with 40. And we were both very happy at the lovely Justin Trails B&B Resort outside Sparta, Wi.  We stayed in the “Garden Suite” – on the side of a sunny yellow farmhouse on a former dairy farm with a big red barn, two newly built cabins,  lovely grounds, two lamas (Dusty and Rusty). We had a large room, with a glassed in porch overlooking a beautiful garden and beyond that a cornfield, a white barn and blue silo in the distance, and a green bluff rising beyond that. Classic gorgeous Wisconsin dairyland.  We never saw any other guest although apparently there were some. And that’s what you get for $135 (or so) a night. More tomorrow.

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