Oh that I could share some of the secret charms of Salina, Ks. with you but alas we saw nothing of it but the inside of the Ramada hotel. Such is the reality of my husband’s family reunion. I did hear tell that Salina is the terra-cotta capital of Kansas – no small feat considering how much terra-cotta clads the buildings of Wichita – but I didn’t get to see it – or visit some of our favorite restaurants such as the Cozy Inn and Jim’s Chicken. We did stop today on the way home at Freddy’s – the frozen custard/steakburger chain we first discovered in Oklahoma which seems to be expanding across Kansas. (We last spotted it in Hutchinson, now it’s in Topeka and Junction City.) Very rich custard – maybe too rich. My stomach hasn’t been right since – and eating Gates BBQ, which we picked up in Kansas City, probably won’t help. But fortune favors the brave….
Category Archives: THE MIDWEST
lawrence ks
Our $49,99 ($57 w/tax) hotel room in Lawrence wasn’t bad at all – spacious, clean, sort of soft beds but sleepable. There were some loud party girls at 2 a.m. but that’s to be expected. So for the record, the motel is the Virginia Inn. I’d stay there again.
we ate breakfast at Milton’s on Massachusetts – good hearty omelette and strong coffee then walked along the street in the blistering heat, stopping in at vintage shops and KU apparel stores. Kids got the obligatory jayhawks t-shirts although lily got her’s at a vintage shop.
we’re now at the ramada inn in Salina, ks. for a family gathering and this is the only sight I’m likely to see here.
t
Filed under DINING, Kansas misc, LODGING
Going to Kansas City?
Here’s what I recommended to friends looking for places to stay and eat and things to do during a trip this week to Kansas City:
– A good recent NYT travel article (http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/travel/16hours.html) on the city – recommends staying at The Raphael which is what I was going to suggest (although I’ve never stayed there but heard good things about it.) My husband, a former Kansas City resident, also recommends this:
www.bestwesternmissouri.com/hotels/best-western-seville-plaza-hotel/
I don’t know most of the restaurants mentioned in the NYT story (except the BBQ places Gates and Bryants, which are favorites). We also like the BlueBird Cafe (although it’s out of the way and hard to find) and Lidia’s – http://www.lidias-kc.com/, a good contemporary Italian place.
The new wing of the Nelson Atkins well worth a visit – including walking outside on its green roof/sculpture garden. We also like the Kemper Museum – although we haven’t been to its restaurant, which is mentioned in NYT story.
Filed under Kansas City
Minneapolis – new place to explore?
Apparently there’s a new area of northeast Minneapolis to explore – I thought we did that when we were there last winter but according to a story in yesterday’s NYTimes we didn’t do it all. The story mentions a stretch along 13th Avenue with a bunch of bars, restaurants and galleries including Northeast Social (a bistro); Modern Cafe (good brunch); Spinario Design (“mid-century” antiques…not sure what that means. 1950’s?); and Anchor fish & Chips (i usually only eat fish and chips in London but this place has a cool bar – made from the beam of a 115-year-old barn.)
This area appears to be about 1.5 miles northwest of the other NE Minneapolis neighborhood we explored along East Hennepin Ave. in December.
Filed under Minneapolis, Minnesota, Uncategorized
In and out of Indy
Quick trip to Indianapolis for a writing project and I had just enough time to wander around for a few hours in the Mass Ave Arts & Theater District which is still fledgling but has potential. Kind of makes the East Village in Des Moines seem like a long-established hip neighborhood by comparison. It dawned on me today – and I don’t know why it didn’t earlier – that I’m drawn to these revived neighborhoods where small entrepreneurs open up little galleries, boutiques, cafes and restaurants in old renovated brick buildings because my mom and dad did the very same thing in the 1960s when they opened their gallery in a then-very-unhip Royal Oak, Mi. (The hipness there came, alas, after they moved the gallery.)
Anyway, it was a gorgeous day in Indy – in the 70s and sunny so fun to walk the few blocks down Mass Ave. I stopped at a good gift shop – Silver in the city – and bought some tchotkes for friends; then ate at Yat’s, a hippie dippie fast food creole/Cajun restaurant. It had a line out the door at noon – and better yet a fast moving line – so I joined the crowd. Didn’t care much for the jambalaya (where’s the sausage?) but liked the moch chous or macque choux (or”mock shoe”) a lot – a sweet spicy cajun dish made w/carmelized onions, sweet corn and chicken. Also found a cute cupcake store and great old shoe store. I wished I had a bike to ride around some of the residential streets just west of Mass Ave which looked like they were filled with restored wood frame houses re-painted in lovely bright colors. Next time.
Walked past the amazing Soldiers and Sailors Monument/fountain downtown which was full of sunbathing office workers lounging on the steps leading to the tall ornate tower erected in the 1860s to honors Hoosiers who fought in various wars. Reminded me a bit of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square – so I got some postcards of it to send my London pals.
I stayed overnight at The Canterbury Hotel – (yes, someone else was paying ) a lovely boutique hotel right downtown. I had a tiny room on the 12th floor – the door looked like it would open right into the wardrobe but narrowly missed smashing it. I had a great view of downtown. Ate dinner at 14 West Restaurant – nice ambiance, so-so food – too much mayo-or-cream inspired sauces on things. Word to wise – instead of paying $39 for a cab to the airport (which we did on the trip into town) the best deal around is the $7 airport shuttle which stops near various hotels including mine.
Filed under Indianapolis, London
Macalester College…in St. Paul
I’ve had a little time to catch my breath after long day to and from Macalester. Pretty campus right on Grand Avenue, a little west of the area D and I used to visit now and then – near Cafe Latte (as usual – my landmark is a restaurant. It used to be a bookstore but that’s long gone, as is the case with many an independent book store.) Cafe Latte is still going strong – we picked up a sandwich to take on the drive home (note to self: next time, skip the guacamole on the turkey sandwich, much of which ended up on my black sweater as I tried to eat while driving.) and resisted the temptation to take home a piece of luscious german sweet chocolate cake too. Did get a bread for home and our neighbor, who kindly walked our dog yesterday. Noticed a new (or new to me) store across the street “Bread and Chocolate” (the kind of store I’d notice!) as we were leaving but didn’t have time to stop and later realized that on the other side of my Cafe latte carryout bag it said “Bread and Chocolate” so guessing the two are related. Also a Brasa in that neighborhood – a branch of the rotisserie place loudly advertising it’s good ingredients that we visited in Minneapolis last year.
Filed under DINING, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Cleveland: takemewithyou
For my neighbors who are heading to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (BRUCE!!!) over spring break, here are a few finds in Cleveland:
– West Side Market (1979 West 25th Street; 216-664-3387; www.westsidemarket.com) – cavernous old indoor market made of yellow brick (as I recall) and dozens of stands selling good stuff – meat, cheese, middle eastern food, sweets. It’s not THAT far from the RR Hall of Fame, downtown. It’s a National Historic Landmark to boot.
– Guarino’s, an old-fashioned southern Italian restaurant in Cleveland’s little Italy – There are hipper places but nothing older, apparently. This is Cleveland’s oldest restaurant – opened in 1918 – and has an old world feel, and a mean red-sauce. http://www.guarinoscleveland.com/
– Little Italy isn’t far from Case Western, which we visited briefly to see the Frank Gehry building on campus. (also worth a drive by.)
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Filed under Cleveland
Kooky Kansas: pt. 5 Lucas
One attraction I’ve longed to see during several trips to Lucas – but haven’t yet caught up with – is a traveling museum featuring “The World’s Largest Collection of the World’s Smallest Versions of the World’s Largest Things.”
I’ll give you a moment to absorb that properly.
It’s a clever idea – by an artist and free spirit named Erika Nelson who moved to Lucas, next to the Garden of Eden. She drives her museum (inside a van) to kitschy roadside attractions, often in little towns that overcompensate for their littleness by producing a LARGE version of something or other that, with hope, puts the town on the map. Then she makes small versions of these large things and exhibits them in her van, err museum.
Nelson has also compiled a state-by-state list of the world’s largest things and I’m pleased to report that I’ve seen several including the World’s Largest Swedish Coffeepot and Cup in the small Iowa town of Stanton (which doubles as a water tower); the World’s Largest Ball of Twine in Cawker City, Ks. (although this claim is disputed by Minnesota twine-ballers) and the World’s Largest Tire near the Detroit airport (a highlight of my Michigan youth). There is a larger point – that these quirky things make these towns and cities distinctive and, as such, should be celebrated. (Nelson is into “combating genericana” i.e. all the generic fast food restaurants and chain stores you see in one town after another that makes them all seem the same.) Check out the list at – www.worldslargestthings.com/wllist.htm
One final (as if) note about Lucas: this is the only place where I eagerly look forward to eating baloney – in this case homemade Czech bologna made at Brant’s Meat Market, an 85-year-old store on Lucas’ tiny main drag. The beef jerky is good too!
Filed under Kansas, Kansas misc
Kooky Kansas: pt.4 Garden of Eden
I never like making errors but maybe it’s a good thing I was tired last night when blogging (that’s my excuse) and made two errors in my post about the Garden of Eden BECAUSE I got an email today from the great-grandson of S.P. Dinsmoor (yes it’s S.P. – for Samuel Perry, not E.P. as I mistyped yesterday) politely setting me straight. Which I appreciate. And it’s interesting to hear from a vigilant member of the Dinsmoor clan. The great-grandson also noted, rightly, that technically S.P. is entombed, not buried, in the mausoleum. Again, I stand corrected.
Filed under Kansas, Kansas misc
Kooky Kansas: pt. 3 Garden of Eden
What really put Lucas, Ks. on the map, is an astonishing place called The Garden of Eden, which was built by an eccentric Civil War Veteran named S.P. Dinsmoor. The Garden is in the backyard of Dinsmoor’s small cabin made of limestone logs (vs. wooden logs.) I’ve struggled for years to describe it properly. It’s a true concrete jungle, made of concrete and stone vines and pillars with statues of Biblical figures (Adam and Eve are there) as well as pro-working Joe tableaux (such as the working man being crucified by the banker, the lawyer, the preacher, and the doctor.) One of my favorite parts is the large limestone mausoleum where Mr. Dinsmoor is entombed. A guide hands you a flashlight so you can enter and look through a plate of glass at Dinsmoor’s disintegrating skeleton. I have a priceless photo of my sister, who was visiting from the east coast during the late 1980s when I lived in Kansas, outside the mausoleum looking at me with a “You’ve got to be kinding me” expression.
Filed under Kansas, Kansas misc
TakeBetsywithyou 