Uneventful drive from Des Moines to Chicago today on Interstate 80, which is the way I like it although it was strange to think that dirck was flying above me somewhere near on a flight to Chicago and then frankfort and Warsaw. The highlight of the drive was cheap gas at Sapp Brothers ($1.93 a gallon) just west of the bigger Peru exit where the gas was $2.24.
MAT, emma, Rocket and I had dinner at L.Woods in Lincoln woods, just west of the Edgewater neighborhood. The place looked like a real Wisconsin backwoods lodge with piney wood walls, rugged decor, outdoorsmen gear, dim lighting, leather but beyond the kitsch the food was good and yes, hearty. Excellent western style brisket, ribs and fried walleye. MAT liked table 133 (I think) in a less crowded rear room where it was easier to hear our conversation.
After a miserably gloomy, grey rainy Christmas Day, just seeing sunshine when we woke up today was refreshing. As an added bonus, it was also unseasonably warm, in the 50s and a perfect day to introduce Millie to the beach and lake — her first for both. HOllywood Beach was very quiet and lovely, perfect for a game of fetch.
DInner was at the new Andy’s Thai kitchen in emma and rockets neighborhood of Edgewater. it was as good as the original one, especially the pork neck and pork belly with basil.
GOrgeous 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.)
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!!
I was in Chelsea on Friday afternoon, about 10 minutes from the sight of an explosion by some sort of homemade bomb (last I heard) on Saturday night. SObering, especially after starting my day on Friday at the 9/11 Memorial. BUt New Yorkers seemed to take it in stride and today we passed soldiers on patrol in Grand Central Station that weren’t there pre-explosion yesterday and the attitude seemed to be “whatever.”
Zaha Hadid building on High Line
We had a lovely day and a half in Fairfield county, attending the wedding of the son of our dear friends Myra and Mike at a pretty Greek church in Bridgeport, with a reception, dinner,Marty and dancing to music from a great live band in Monroe. SHane and Mary (Takebetsywithyou readers!) are honeymooning in Santorini and Barcelona, among other places — and two of my favorites from long ago wandering spin the 1980s. WE chanced upon a smaller farmers market in Fairfield before taking the train back to the city where we found more farm stands at a street festival on Columbus Avenue. Tried a delicious arepa (sp?) a Columbian street food, two pancakes made of sweet corn with a little mozzarella between them, grilled. I ❤️ NY.
New York was stunning today. It helped that the weather was also stunning. I took the subway down to the 9-11 Memorial, which was as impressive and moving as expected and packed with tourists from all over. Also dazzled by the white winged Oculus trainstatuin/mall that I am assuming is a Calatrava design since it looks very much like his Milwaukee Art Museum. I kept walking north, stopping at Duane street Patisserie in TriBeCa for two tiny ginger snaps, then on along Greenwich and Hudson Streets to the Highline which is highlighting its Prairie Grasses (from the American Midwest…two park people were impressed I had lived in Kansas, aka home of the tall grass prairie) and they looked stunning blowing in the wind on a sunny September day. IN Chelsea market, I seemed to be the only one among the throngs eating salmon poke but I had my heart set on poke and it was an interesting version, with crunchy white rice noodles and edamame and some other things I didn’t recognize at added crunch and a slightly picked flavor. While waiting for my order I sampled several types of seafood bisque, all delicious.
oculus
I walked all the way to the end of the Highline at 34th street and would have kept walking if my back permitted. But no dice. I ended up taking a “select” crosstown bus which was confusing. instead of inserting your metrocard on the bus, you have to insert it at a machine by the bus stop that’s akin to the machines in the subway station you used to buy a metro card. YOu press a button, insert your card which spits back out and you get a paper receipt. Then you walk onto the bus. it reminds me of similar system in Berlin and Prague where you are on the “honor system” and I was warned there of periodic checks to make sure riders have paid and you get in trouble if you’re caught. Today, I not only had trouble figuring the system out…a very nice bus driver explained it patiently. But at the third stop, transit police boarded the bus and checked to see that we each had slips. One flustered woman didn’t although she quickly produced her metro card. So rider beware.
It wasn’t bad. But it could have been. MY 50 minute connection in St. Louis was cut in half due to delays last night but fortunately the gate for my connecting flight to Laguardia was nearby (I dashed from E20 to E12.) so I arrived just as the flight was boarding.
I wasn’t pleased when Southwest changed the eastern hub for Des Moines from Chicago to st.Louis but maybe it will be okay. The flight I was on was continuing onto Newark which, if it’s a standard thing, would perhaps be easier than rushing to another airplane. The flight is only 45 minutes to st.Louis (slightly shorter than To Chicanos midway) but I am not a fan of connections under an hour. it was nice to have the outbound flight short so I had less time to worry about making my connection and more time on the second flight to relax.
So glad I didn’t spend this gorgeous day in the car driving home to Des Moines. Instead I got a long awaited swim in a lake, which I have been longing to do all summer. Better late than never and had a great swim in Lake Michigan at Hollywood Beach, a pleasant stretch of sand a short walk from where Emma and Rocket live in Edgewater — another great thing about their neighborhood!
Later we went to a funky place called the Rodgers park social club and made our own at the excellent Bloody Mary bar, which came with a chaser of beer or cider. Explored the neighborhood a little- a food store with lots of Midwestern products (and a shopkeeper from royal oak, Michigan …my hometown area; a little sculpture garden. Tonight we had a great dinner at Shaw’s where I tried a new dish that was as good as my aunt said it was – fresh grilled tuna in a soy ginger sauce with crispy thin sliced potatoes and chives.
Great to see our longtime family friend from Pennsylvania, Marjorie V., after so long.
Nice to have a story I wrote about our trip to Japan’s Yamanashi prefecture in today’s Des Moines check it out there
Or below:
Iowa farmers’ highlights from trip to sister state Yamanashi
Betsy Rubiner, Special to the Register11:50 a.m. CDT August 2, 2016
(Photo: Betsy Rubiner/Special to the Register)
After jumping at an invitation from Iowa farmers to tag along on a July trip to Japan’s Yamanashi Prefecture, I got even more excited when my guidebook had no mention of Yamanashi. I love traveling off the beaten path.
But Iowans – farmers, students, business leaders, governors – have beaten a path to Yamanashi since the 1960 “Iowa hog lift,” when Iowa donated breeding hogs and feed corn to help the region about 80 miles west of Tokyo recover from a typhoon.
So began the Iowa/Yamanashi sister-state relationship, the first between the United States and Japan. Exchanges of people, agriculture products and kindness have followed. (On the State Capitol grounds in Des Moines, check out the monument sent by Yamanashi residents in 1962.)
Our group from the Iowa Farm Bureau (where my husband works, hence the invite) was warmly welcomed with unusual opportunities, including an agriculture tour through a fertile valley surrounded by mountains, with stops at a peach orchard, rice paddy and grape greenhouse (rebuilt with some Iowa aid after a 2014 snowstorm).
But here are activities available to all:
Experience Mt. Fuji: Catching sight of Japan’s highest peak (12,388 feet) is thrilling – and not guaranteed, we soon learned. Among Japan’s most iconic images, the snow-capped, cone-shaped volcano can be found on everything from famous woodblock prints to hand towels and cookies. The real Mt. Fuji greeted us full frontal, with only a wispy cloud drifting across its mid-section, when we arrived at the Highland Resort Hotel, in the small city of Fujiyoshida, about a 33-mile drive north of the mountain. The next day, Fuji was gone, gobbled up by clouds. “She’s very shy,” explained our charming Japanese guide.
July and August are peak Fuji hiking season, including popular overnight climbs. Although I wasn’t among the Iowa farmers who went on a short, well-reviewed day hike, I joined a mid-mountain visit, arriving by tour bus after an hour’s drive south. Although the “fifth station” parking area was packed with visitors and buses (private cars weren’t allowed), being on Fuji and peering down into its spooky, dense green forest from the visitor area decks was a kick.
Japanese bathing: Yamanashi is a good place to try Japan’s famed communal bath houses, many with water from natural hot springs or onsens, thanks to the area’s volcanic activity. (Fuji hasn’t erupted since the early 1700s.) Yes, this is nude bathing. But there’s one area for women, another for men. (Some onsens offer private rentals for coed bathing.)
A typically American, solo shower gal, I discovered that lounging around in shallow pools of water (indoor, outdoor, hot, tepid, cold, rosemary-infused) is a relaxing way to end a day as a Yamanashi tourist, especially in hot-and-humid July. It’s also a very Japanese experience, with well-defined and obeyed rules that newcomers pick up, sometimes after a mishap or two. (Word to the wise: Wash yourself before entering the pools. And no people with tattoos allowed.)
Peach picking time in Yamanashi: One of Japan’s top fruit-producing regions, Yamanashi’s famous softball-sized, white-fleshed peaches are sold at roadside stands, indoor markets and pick-your-own orchards. (Look, too, for delicious peach ice cream.) We also spotted peaches hanging low from trees, each wrapped in paper. The result: pricey peaches pampered to perfection, rosy and blemish-free on the outside, sweet and juicy inside, sold in expensive Tokyo department store food halls.
Visit a traditional farming village, sort of: To Iowa eyes, Saiko Iyashi no Sato – a recreation of a farming village destroyed by a 1966 typhoon – brings to mind the Des Moines area’s Living History Farms. But this open-air museum/crafts showcase in the woods above one of the Fuji Five Lakes is distinctly Japanese, with traditional thatched roofed houses along winding paths dotted with purple hydrangea. Inside many are shops selling artwork and food, from Mt. Fuji depictions to green tea ice cream. (Yamanashi’s Fujiyama Museum specializes in Fuji art.)
Roller Coaster Riding: I hate roller coasters. But plenty of farmers were game to try the coasters – billed as among the world’s steepest – at Fuji-Q Highland, an amusement park well-known in Japan and located right behind our hotel.
Japanese dining – or not: Familiar restaurants near our hotel include a Big Boy, KFC and McDonald’s. But word has it, the hamburgers were less familiar – bun-less and more like meatloaf with gravy. All the more reason to eat Japanese classic cuisine at our hotel’s restaurants or at Aiya, a chain restaurant with an encyclopedic menu worthy of an Applebee’s, featuring greatest hits such as sushi, tempura, Udon noodles, karaage (chicken nuggets) and tonkatsu (akin to Iowa’s pork tenderloin). Fortunately, Aiya’s menu also has point-to photos, since our Japanese is pathetically limited to words like “arigato” (thank you) and “Ohayo” (good morning). And refreshingly, no one in the restaurant spoke much English.
Betsy Rubiner, based in Des Moines, writes the travel blog TakeBetsywithyou.
I’ve always thought the area just beyond Lake Shore Drive on Sheridan Road in Chicago looks more like Miami than the Windy City, with its old school highrises blocking the lake views, with names like “Malibu” and “Tiara.” So it was interesting to finally see what the public beach looks like beyond those highrises. Gorgeous views of the endless water and to the south, the towers of downtown Chicago looking like a glittering, far-away Oz.
We’re accustomed to a much closer view of downtown – from North Beach near my Aunt’s “Gold Coast” apartment. But the Edgewater neighborhood’s view is lovely in its own way – sort of a reminder of the leafy, relatively quiet neighborhood’s distance (but also proximity) to Chicago’s more hardcore urban downtown. We visited three small patches of beachfront – one by a Jewish temple that I’d never noticed before, whose sanctuary must have one of the best views in the city. There’s a little cafe at one beach, a snack bar at another with handy and fairly clean public bathrooms. Not many people were swimming but families and couples and other groups picnicked on the grass, played catch in the sand and admired the view on a rare holiday weekend when Chicago weather was at its best.
If you go: along N. Sheridan
Berger Park (with the Waterfront Cafe) north of Granville Ave.
Lane Beach Park (near Thorndale Ave.)
Hollywood Beach and Kathy Osterman Beach House (and snack bar), north of Hollywood Ave.
EAnother gorgeous day in Chicago and we had a great vantage point to see the Big City in all its glory– Terzo Piano, the sleek all white and windowed restaurant in architect Renzo Piano’s new wing of the Chicago Art Institute. A wedding party commadered the terrace but we had a fine view of the skyline and throngs of Sunday saunterers in Millenium park from the restaurant. Good food too – hearty bloody Mary’s served with a chunk of cheese, sausage and olive on a toothpick, the rim of the glass dusted with Aleppo pepper (which apparently is from Aleppo, Syria and getting harder to get as a result of the unending war there….and now, awkward transition, back to our relatively carefree existence…) Brunch was reasonably priced (apparently compared to other meals there) and delicious. I had brioche French toast, others had lox and bagel; biscuits and gravy, eggs with the best kale chips I’ve eaten (and I generally don’t eat them.)
We looked at a Gordon parks photo exhibit then took the cool elevated walkway over to the lovely gardens in Millenium park ((lots of purple and green and the occasional dazzling red poppies). Tons of bicyclists around (a reminder that someday we’d like to ride the bike the drive event, which took place today on lake shore drive. one fashion trend we have noticed this trip. Men wapearing heavy leather harnesses around their upper torso. Why?
Uneventful drive from Des Moines to Chicago today on Interstate 80, which is the way I like it although it was strange to think that dirck was flying above me somewhere near on a flight to Chicago and then frankfort and Warsaw. The highlight of the drive was cheap gas at Sapp Brothers ($1.93 a gallon) just west of the bigger Peru exit where the gas was $2.24.
I’ve always thought the area just beyond Lake Shore Drive on Sheridan Road in Chicago looks more like Miami than the Windy City, with its old school highrises blocking the lake views, with names like “Malibu” and “Tiara.” So it was interesting to finally see what the public beach looks like beyond those highrises. Gorgeous views of the endless water and to the south, the towers of downtown Chicago looking like a glittering, far-away Oz.
TakeBetsywithyou 