July 4 Roadtrip to Michigan
A few photographic impressions from the roadtrip from the Twin Cities to west-side Michigan and back. Our excursion out on a pontoon along the Muskegon harbor of Lake Michigan was a highlight.
![giraffe decoration attached to a chicken-cage fence in front of a dark wooden background](https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/25423/2024/img-3852.jpg)
![can of Founders All-Day IPA beer atop a wooden outside restaurant table](https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/25423/2024/img-3869.jpg)
![the patio with several chairs and a pergola with the restaurant name Dockers Muskegon in blue](https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/25423/2024/img-3866.jpg)
![a USA flag in the wind atop a pontoon boat cockpit with a sandy beach in the background](https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/25423/2024/img-3871.jpg)
![collection of condiments in a wooden server with Lakeview titling on a wooden table at a restaurant outside](https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/25423/2024/img-3877.jpg)
![back of a semi truck trailer with an animated man with red text below Bob's Furniture](https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/25423/2024/img-3840.jpg)
A few photographic impressions from the roadtrip from the Twin Cities to west-side Michigan and back. Our excursion out on a pontoon along the Muskegon harbor of Lake Michigan was a highlight.
We went cruising across Vermont last week for a vacation, staying in a variety of towns (including Burlington, Stowe, Waitsfield, and Woodstock). Lovely place. It's very much a "Wisconsin of the eastern US plus mountains", as we visited a number of dairy farms and tasted our way through a terrific breweries. I didn't take as many photos as I would have liked, but... here are a handful of shots (specifically of the beer and cheese we tried).
The Alchemistâs legendary Heady Topper IPA, tasted off the draft line at the brewery near/in Stowe. Really nice campus there.
Fiddleheadâs IPA, which I saw in a can at just about every restaurant and bar we frequented.
An excellent pack of Plymouth Cheddar. We nibbled our way through this paired with a bottle of Ira Sylvan Trousseau wine, unintentionally good together.
The Waterbury Club Lager, brewed by Prohibition Pig. Apparently they were heavily inspired by signage across the street and âcopied it nearly to a Tâ as much as they could, in all fairness.
A package of the Willoughby Cheese by Jasper Hill Farms. Alas, we didnât get a chance to visit this farm, but ate this while staying at a farm B&B, so kind of worked out.
For consistencyâs sake, I usually always pose a photo of a water bottle. This was taken at the Billings Farm in Woodstock after a short bike ride there. Aluminum bottles or bust.
Itâs mid-February, and we decided to make a drive up to Fargo, North Dakota. We had planned this in advance back in January, but it still feels spontaneous as I write this two days into our sojourn. Mainly because we did this without much of a plan, like most spontaneous adventures ought to strive for. And what does one do in Fargo?
Like most trips, we planned to try a few restaurants, a few bars, and a few landmark attractions. I found more notable landmarks on the way up to Fargo than I did in the city itself, whether this is a good thing or an example of my poor research skills for this city... yet to be determined. We found Ole the Viking in Alexandria, MN a nice, 28-foot tall statuesque creation on the bank Lake Agnes. There was also a great little diner there, too (Janâs Place).
Fargo, though, doesnât really have anything like this. Instead, its downtown map signage points out three places to take your picture, one of which is a Super Mario Bros. mural residing in an âalleyâ off Broadway Dr (literally the main drag of downtown). I posed with my dog hovering over the pipe, which was admittedly kind of funny from the right angle. Otherwise, what the city doesnât tout but should, is a considerable amount of notable neons and legacy signs adorning its buildings, including notable ones like Fargo Linoleum Co, the Fargo theater, Empire Liquors bar, and for the âbest gem in the cityâ (as the barista at Young Blood told us) brunch spot, Bernbaumâs. Notable landmarks, perhaps not, but I do love good signage, and bonus points if itâs neon. Their water tower had some extravagant art as well.
Iâll also note that seeing âFargoâ lettering everywhere has its own kind of gravitas, perhaps because of the cultural associations we impress upon the city (which, I suppose if you sum it up, includes the Coen brothersâ 90s flick, the current FX anthology show, and the erroneously-applied âMinnesotaâ accent, even though this is North Dakota, which naturally stems from the titular film). This isnât to marginalize Fargo as merely a poking joke from the vantage of cultural media â it is also an important transportation hub, with Amtrak coursing through it and it seated at the intersection of Interstates 94 and 29. The Air National Guard is there, too. And there is a thematic Nordic undertone to several buildings and naming conventions that we couldnât quite put our finger on, but Iâm sure thereâs something there ancestrally. They do have two sister cities (Hamar, Norway and Vimmerby, Sweden).
But overall, thereâs kind of the bummer with Fargo â and I donât say this lightly, because I love a good small city visit, but thereâs a lack of character here. You can build up a sumptuous fantasy about its barren location on the edge of the Great Plains, but when you get here, itâs sadly drab. Donât get me wrong, the people are friendly and the downtown is fairly lively, but its weaknesses in expressing any level of cultural spirit are evident at every turn, and you eventually wish there was something more to grasp. Maybe itâs because itâs February and weâre in the middle of a confusingly boring winter in the midwest (no snow, lousy March-like brownish landscapes, and sunny but shitty 20s temps). But aside from some neat coffee shops (Young Blood and Atomic, as well as the yet-to-try Twenty Below Coffee), a notable hotel (The Jasper), and truly fiendish dive bars (Empire Liquors hits the spot), there just isnât much to stick around for. Maybe we were hanging in the wrong areas, but I really didnât get a sense of where to be.
This is also a driving city, no doubt, so itâs not really walkable except for the downtown area â the neighborhoods are connected by massive suburban-sized avenues buttressed by sparse strip malls that seem unwelcoming to walkability. And sure, I marked a smattering of spots to check out beyond this main drag (really wished we would have tried Sickies Garage), but I donât know â we didnât feel the pull of adventure here. There wasnât enough city-cohesion. And we usually venture out in these places...
Anyway, there were several things we did enjoy, and more featured in my Fargo travel guide map here:
In summary, the trip was oddly worth it, but I canât say itâs a destination unless youâre compelled to check it out for reasons unbeknownst to me (youâre a Fargo film enthusiast?). Itâs not a bad weekend jaunt if you like in the Twin Cities, either, since this is only a 3.5 hour trip. It's magical in an overcast kind of way.
Otherwise, if youâre cruising through the plains, definitely take highway 90 through South Dakota instead and head to the Badlands and the Black Hills.
Egg on ball.
Bayfield, WI from a perch on the Madeline Island ferry. Pleasant sojourn at the island for the weekend. Lots of grilled white fish accompanied by wine, Old Fashioneds, and beer.
Curlyâs Bar up in Duluth was the perfect complement to a splendid dinner at New Scenic Cafe.
This is the right move. In this order. đ¤
When we were planning our Pacific Northwest crawl and decided to head into Seattle for a few days to visit family, it was an inevitability that there would be a stop into the manufacturing facility (plus embedded retail store) of one my favorite bag brands, Tom Bihn.
Located south of downtown Seattle in the Industrial District, Tom Bihn sits inside a long building housing a number of other functions, like Two Beers Brewing Co., Fulcrum Coffee Roasters, and Seattle Cider. It's a quiet little spot amidst the bustle of trucks moving in and out of the area. All of Tom Bihn's bag manufacturing happens here, so there's significant space in the building to accommodate the materials and sewing of products. But they're also open Monday through Friday from 6:30 am - 3:00pm ("more or less") for walk-ins to check the place out and peruse available goods. All the items in the corner shop are the same ones tied to their website inventory, so you know exactly what to expect.
When we stepped inside, a fellow named Cody emerged from the manufacturing floor and greeted us. He happened to the same person who helped my wife get a faster delivery of her new Synik 30 bag in time for this very trip, so it was perfect that he was there the day we visited. The store is really just a few peg walls and a long table cutting through the middle of the space, where Cody brought in and laid out a few items in which we were interested in seeing various colors.
They've also set up a vertical mirror for you to check the fit and style on your person, and covered the border of it with customers' submitted photos of sporting their bags all around the world. Felt very restaurant 90s, and I loved it.
Ashley decided on picking up a Side Hustle in Ursa Ballistic, which ended up as a perfect travel companion as we marauded up the rest of the west coast into British Columbia. If you're a Tom Bihn fan, it's absolutely worth the trip into their HQ, even if you end up just getting a few more of their endlessly useful swivel double-carabiners. And if you're in the area, curious about quality, USA-built bags for almost any context, it's definitely worth the visit. I only wish we had more time to ask for a full tour of the facility and to check out the really neat fabrics/materials they have on deck (like Halcyon).
An impromptu thought earlier last week: letâs visit Winona and check out a coffee shop that is up for sale near the campus. Which campus, we had no idea. We also didnât know anything about Winona (though apparently the nationâs capitol of stained glass windows, okay). I knew it was down the river near La Crosse (where we had stayed a number of times on the way to Madison going back and forth for Ashleyâs grad school), but⌠weâd never stopped here before.
So we saddled up a room at the Fairfield and headed down Saturday morning â predictably enough, right after a spring blizzard left the roads in absolute shit condition.
Winona is about a two hour drive southeast of the Twin Cities, smack on the Mississippi River (literally looks like an isthmus or island city), buttressed by the craggy hills that ride the water on either size of the Minnesota and Wisconsin border. Which creates a kind of off-kilter valley vibe.
And what a vibe this city is. Itâs like one big pseudo-city neighborhood, about 20k in population strong (plus however many attend the three colleges scattered around its geography). An initial drive through the streets gives the impression of a small, rural mill town with a barely-hanging on downtown, but also energized by young collegiate folks marauding around town and keeping the bars up late into the night. Something felt strange about the whole place â it wasnât as tightly centered as Red Wing, not quite as pretty as La Crosse, or as quaint as Northfield. It felt blasĂŠ. Maybe in a good way.
Iâll say this, though â theyâve got some gems here. Notably, one of the Winona State University parking lots has a solar panel yard atop it, the first weâve seen in the states. Definitely the future â it shades the cars underneath and provides a wide berth for getting perfectly sun-drenched and powering whatever its connected to.
I indulged the afternoon at Island City Brewing, sipping a beer and reading a book outside on a park bench. Also walked the dog along a few avenues and paraded around an inland park for a while before she tired.
Ashley and I then dinner-dined at Nosh Scratch Kitchen, which was⌠fine â dimly lit, wild Mediterranean dishes, good bar. It adequately set up the night. Afterwards, we slinked into Gabbyâs, which immediately made clear it was the de facto college bar. We slammed one drink each and left.
Then⌠it was to Broken World Records. A gamble. But what a place. Tiled overhang with lanterns above a ground-level bar, pulsing vibe lights, live band, locals nursing beers. Attitude. It was here that we settled into a few drinks and a shot and enjoyed the drama.
Next day wasnât as kind of this place. The Lakeview Drive Inn was brutally terrible. Microwaved burger. Mushy fries. But great drive-up car service.
The heralded Blue Heron coffee and breakfast spot had the worst burnt latte weâve ever had, and the peanut butter-topped chocolate cake was extraordinarily dry. We ate the frosting.
Mugby Coffee (the place that is for sale, or so we surmised from the commercial real estate description), was good, though. Nitro coffee, adequate. Latte, significantly better than Blue Heron. Plenty of space to stretch out.
Aside from a nice walk along the industrial river walk (Levee Park) with the dog to wrap things up, thatâs about it.
We also didnât see a single stained glass window. đ¤ˇââď¸
đşď¸âď¸We did a pleasant jaunt up to Grand Marais for a few days, taking in the quiet small town before it braces for winter. Couple stand-out places:
Wunderbar: An earnest bar/restaurant whose campus is home to a glamp-ground with rentable tents/RVs as well. Great lighting and vibes.
Grandma Rays: Roomy dive bar. Only realized the clever play on the townâs name itself on our drive home.
Angry Trout: A worthy lunch spot; the prepared fish over salads were great, and the soups (chowder and chili) warmed us up. Everything about the place is curated or designed with sustainably in mind.
Tre Søstre: A beautiful set of vacation rentals that directly channel Scandinavian architecture. Warm, inclusive interiors, ample views of Grand Marais via windows and balconies, and a great gas fireplace won us over.