Brink Family Vacation 2024-Part Two

If you’ll recall, part one of this story saw us experiencing car trouble, losing a full day of our vacation due to said troubles, and finally arriving at our destination.

What you didn’t find out about was that youngest daughter Melody got car sick. Once in the van, and then again inside the lobby at Wally’s gas station when we stopped shortly after. I thought I was saving her some embarrassment by not sharing these details, but she insisted they be included for the sake of accuracy. Honestly though, I think she just likes to see her name come up in the blog.

So,

Melody, Melody, Melody, Melody, Melody, Melody, Melody.

Melody.

There, that should make her happy. Now, on with the blog.

DAY 1: De PERE
We spent the first day of our suddenly three day vacation tooling around De Pere WI, where our Vrbo was located. We picked up a few provisions for the house (snacks, drinks, and what-not) at Festival Foods. This is a local chain store that is not only impressively huge, but has arguably better selections than any store I can think of locally. No real story to share here, just giving a plug.

We also went to Scray Cheese, which is a small cheese shop/factory (Cheesery?) just outside of town. Not only do they sell their own wares, but you can also watch through the display window as the cheese is being made. There are plenty of choices to be made and samples to be tasted. This is where I tasted my first, official, fresh cheese curd. Not the fried kind from Culver’s, but an honest-to-goodness, made fresh that morning cheese curd, the state snack of Wisconsin! They are super chewy, and squeak when you bite them. So that’s a no from me. However, the various cheeses we bought and snacked on back home were all excellent.

De Pere is a nice, quiet suburban community with the kind of small “downtown” area one would expect. Except that this town has the Fox River running through the middle of it, separating East from West. There is a really cool section with a park where you can walk along the river and see the locks. Lots of people can be found fishing in this area, and during the Summer, pelicans gather on the river as well, giving some pretty neat photo ops. It’s a gorgeous little area, but it was quite a windy, chilly, and rainy day when we went, so our exploration of downtown De Pere was a bit more brief than it could have been. See, we are used to hot Summers here in St. Louis. While we knew it would be a little cooler than we were used to, it wound up being more than we expected. I brought along a hoodie just in case, and Tessa wore it all day long. Dad gets a W on that one.

We went out to dinner that night at The Village Grill, which is a nice, but reasonable restaurant featuring American fare. Recommended if you’re ever in the area. The rain got heavier as we ate, and continued poring down, so we went back to the house and had a nice quiet evening, resting up for Day Two.

DAY 2: SHEBOYGAN! WHO KNEW?

Okay, so this requires a little backstory. Early in the school year, many teachers will play “getting to know you” games with their classes. Melody (there’s that name again) can’t stand these. She is a very guarded person, and isn’t much of a sharer. So when her teacher asked the class where their dream vacation destination would be, she came up with Sheboygan. Because a.) it was funny, and b.) she figured there wouldn’t be too many follow up questions. She did, however, have to stick with the bit at school, and it became sort of an “in joke” with her friends and with the family too.

So, when we decided we wanted to travel to the Lake Michigan area, and we realized that Sheboygan was right on the lake and not far from where we’d be staying, a visit was an absolute must. We figured we’d probably spend an hour or two wandering around and then move on to another adventure. I mean, how great could Sheboygan be?

Well, “pretty darn” is the answer to that question. Situated right on the lake, there’s a really cool marina, and a lighthouse you can walk out to. It’s a really beautiful area, that feels a little bit like you’re on the ocean (just don’t let the locals hear you say that. I mean, they probably wouldn’t laugh right at your face, but you never know). There’s also a city park with a white sand beach for sunbathing and water activities, though when we were there, although it was Sunny with temps in the 80’s, the lake water was still freezing. No swimming for us but a few brave souls waded in up to their ankles. My soul and ankles are not that brave.

Next stop was the river walk, where the river and lake meet. There are some nice houses, a few shops, and restaurants to explore here. We ate at a barbecue restaurant called Parker John’s, which I misread as “Porker John’s” due to the cute little pig in the logo, and which is a way better name. This was a pretty standard place with lots of wood and tin décor, lots of signs and crazy crap on the walls, and a staff wearing T-shirts that read “We have the best smelling butts in Sheboygan”. BBQ Humor at its…finest? anyway, it was a big, satisfying meal, though honestly, Wisconsin is just a little too far North to get GREAT barbecue, but it was good and we all enjoyed it. Except for Patterson, who ordered Pizza, but he gave that a thumbs up too.

We spent the remainder of our time in Sheboygan exploring 8th street and the area right around it. 8th is one of those main streets you often see in vacation towns with lots of fun shops, cafés, and boutiques all up and down. One of our favorite stops was Freaktoyz, which is one of the coolest toy stores I’ve ever been in. They had lots of retro figures from Star Wars to He-Man, Strawberry Shortcake to the Smurfs, Funko Pops, horror icons, superheroes, and just about anything else you can imagine, both in and out of the box. Freaktoyz also carries video games-also often in the original box, going back as far as the Atari 2600, all the way up to the Nintendo Switch. Definitely a fun time!

While we were on 8th, we also went to a fancy boutique for Tessa, got some candy at an old time candy store, and a T-shirt for me. While walking around, we stopped in to the Kohler Art Center, just to cool down for a bit and use the free bathroom. Valerie and I both wished we could have stayed longer and explored the museum, because their bathrooms were amazing! There was art everywhere on every surface (I kind of felt bad using the facilities, to be honest), and we both took pictures to prove it. Of the art, I mean, not anything else. Don’t make this weird. Anyway, if that much attention was paid just to the bathrooms, how cool must the rest be?

That’s the question we were left with about Sheboygan itself: how cool must the rest be? There are still quite a few things we didn’t see. Obviously more shops and restaurants are waiting to be discovered. There is also a state park we’d like to explore, and a botanical garden with displays based on children’s literature, which for a family of readers sounds like a delight. We didn’t get to see one of the popular boat parades, or hang out for the live music and food trucks in the green space either. Who knew that this town would be so charming and have so much to do? I think a return visit will be happening some time in the future.

Sheboygan feels like it’s on the cusp of becoming well known as a vacation destination-not just to Wisconsinites and Illinoisans, but to everybody else too. We were there on July 3rd, and it wasn’t overcrowded or overly touristy at all. It’s a great little destination to spend a day or two, and I’m glad we discovered it.

Before we left Sheboygan county, we had one more stop to make. Johnsonville. Home of, you guessed it, Johnsonville Brats! It’s actually kind of funny, as you are driving to the factory/store, all you see around you is farmland. Then, suddenly, there’s this giant, gleaming, steel and glass office mecca that is the world headquarters-and it’s HUGE!!! The factory is right next to it, and the factory store right across the street. It was far too late in the day for a tour (if they even give them), but the factory store was open. Apart from being able to buy all sorts of bratwurst-with flavors I have not seen anywhere else- and Summer Sausage, there is just, like, a TON of merch. From useful stuff like coolers and grilling supplies (all branded with the Johnsonville logo of course), to hoodies, jackets, sweatshirts, t shirts, and more, the Johnsonville store is a slightly tacky, though undeniably delicious, sight to behold. I bought some sausage. And a baseball cap.

DAY 3- BAY BEACH

Okay, so now it’s July 4th, and we haven’t been to Green Bay yet. We were hoping to get into the downtown area, but first stop was to be Bay Beach Amusement Park. This is the only city run amusement park that I know of, and it is a city park. There are plenty of picnic tables and pavilions, a playground, lots of green space, and an amusement park that sits right on the bay. The park consists of carnival rides that were purchased by the city, rebuilt and refurbished on the park grounds. A lot of the classics are there, from the Tilt-A-Whirl to The Scrambler, a giant Ferris Wheel, a giant pirate ship ride, kiddie rides, and more. It is also the proud home of the Zippin’ Pippin’ rollercoaster, which according to lore, was Elvis Presley’s favorite ride. We rode it twice, and the air time you get in that thing is unreal! A classic wooden coaster to be sure.

Here’s the other cool part. Since it’s a city park, parking at Bay Beach is free and so is admission. You do have to pay for the rides individually by buying tickets, in true carnival fashion. The tickets are only .25 per! The most any ride takes per rider is six tickets, so do the math, and find me a better deal out there for families who want to spend a day at an amusement park. We spent $40.00 on tickets and rode everything we wanted to. We also had hot food in the cafeteria, which was also reasonable and tasted a bit better than you’d expect. So we got out of the whole day with food and rides for under $75.00, which is about what we’d pay for one ticket anywhere else. Sure, it’s all carnival rides like you’d see pull up in your neighborhood shopping mall-no state of the art stuff here-but they are a lot of fun. These rides are classics and make the rounds every year for a reason! For a family day out, you really can’t beat it. It was a really cool way to spend the 4th of July for us.

Remember that rain we had on Day 1? Well, it came back late afternoon. This prevented us from going to the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary, and kind of put me off trying to find my way around an unfamiliar downtown. So back to the house we go, with smiles on our faces, and yes, another t-shirt for Dad.

The rain did clear up in the evening, but we heard very few fireworks, outside of the faint noise of an official display somewhere in the distance. This is a far cry from where we live-every neighborhood sounds like a war zone on the 4th. I’m not against people having their fun, but it goes on and on into the wee hours of the night every year, to the point where the dogs are frightened and anyone who has to work the next day is going in with bags under their eyes for sure. This was a nice change.

A few more observations:

Wisconsin is super into roundabouts. I mean, we have them here too, but there were A LOT of them in WI. It’s almost as if the entire state decided that traffic lights were pure witchcraft and put in roundabouts instead. They mostly go smoothly, but some people are a little more bold than others in the roundabouts-so you have to keep your guard up.
In St. Louis we have, and love, our Quik Trip convenience store/filling stations. In Wisconsin, they have and love Kwik Trip. they are largely the same, only misspelled with a K, and still missing the “c”. Turns out it’s the same company owns both, so whoever named these things must think we all learned our “A, B, D’s.”
Anyway, the differences are notable. Better selection of fountain drinks? QT. Better donut selection? KT. More variety of premade food? KT. Food made to order? QT. Quality of hot food? Kind of a tie. So it all evens out, but, not gonna lie, it did kind of feel like Bizarro World in there.

In the end, we had a good vacation. It started off pretty rocky, but we made some nice memories and had a good time. Since we wound up having to “wing it” a little due to missing the first day, there were quite a few things we didn’t get to do or see, but sometimes that happens. Besides, this is a trip that can be driven in a day (providing your car doesn’t freak the heck out in Milwaukee) and we could easily do it all again. Only next time we stay in Sheboygan!

Thanks for reading, Mon-Davers. If you’re doing any traveling of your own this Summer, I hope you stay safe, keep yourself open to finding a new, unplanned adventure, and make some great memories along the way.

See you next time.

Brink Family Vacation 2024-Hello Wisconsin!

I’m back y’all! Not only am I back from the vacation I took with my family, but also from the hiatus I took from blogging. I do owe my regular readers a bit of an apology for that. I drafted an announcement about my leave of blogging absence but failed to actually publish the dang thing. Whoops. I guess that says it all about my need for a break!

Anyhoo, I’m back to it now. I’ve got some ideas for changing things up a bit around here, but for now let’s talk about the recent adventures on vacation in Wisconsin. Ready to travel with me? Great. Let’s roll.

PART ONE: CHANNELING THE GRISWOLDS

Every vacation brings with it some risk of having at least a few things go wrong. Most of the time things go pretty well, with only a few small hiccups along the way, if any. Sometimes, though, you get a big ol’ monkey wrench thrown into the works. Fortunately, it happened on our first day, but this was not the start that anyone would want to their trip.

We chose to stay in the Midwest this year, visiting one of the Great Lakes, instead of going South like we often do. We booked our first Vrbo (which was quite easy and an excellent experience overall), and planned to bring our dog Zoey with us, partially to avoid kennel boarding fees, and also so she wasn’t alone over the July 4th holiday. The area we live in has so many fireworks it sounds like a warzone and scares the heck out of poor Zoe, so we wanted to make sure she felt safe and comfortable with us.

So we loaded up on Sunday morning and hit the road. We had a pleasant drive with a few stops at rest areas for Zoey to potty and the rest of us to stretch. We also got to stop at the original Wally’s for lunch. Everything was going along great…until it wasn’t.

While passing through downtown Milwaukee, the van made that horrible “ding!” noise that tells you something’s wrong. My info screen read “low tire”. Our tire are usually inflated to 35 lbs., but there was one in back reading 29. Okay, no big deal, I’ll get some air in it next chance I get. But then the reading went rapidly down to 27. Then 14. Then 10. All in the matter of under a minute.

Yup. Blow out- in the downtown area of a city I’ve never been in. Not great. So I found a gas station to pull into, unpacked the luggage, and got out the spare tire. Our minivan has an inflatable spare tire, so it needed to be inflated and put on. This was not an errand I wanted to try in a strange place with a vehicle I haven’t worked on before. The two people working inside the Mobil were not willing (or possibly not allowed, but I got the feeling that it was the former) to lend a hand. Well, insurance exists for situations just like this one. Roadside assistance is covered in our policy, so we made a call to State Farm and within about twenty minutes or so a guy came out, inflated the spare, and also checked to see if he could give the tire a quick mend. No such luck. Oh, well. Woulda been cool though.

Anyway, one tire change later we packed up the van and were on our way. Except we weren’t.

When I went to start the car, the electric parking break would not disengage and it also wouldn’t start, and since the tire guy was gone there was no one to give us a jump. Once again, we called the insurance company, and they sent out a tow truck. Miraculously we got the van on the truck and it went on its way.

It is now after 6pm, on a Sunday, and there is no one open to fix our vehicle. The insurance company randomly picked a repair shop to take the van to and drop it off for work the next day. Meanwhile we are left in the middle of downtown with all of our luggage, our dog, and no vehicle or accommodations for the night. We were able to find a downtown hotel that would accept our dog (not an easy task) and all five of us into one room. The only one available was a *really expensive* Hilton, which ate into our vacation budget, but what could we do?

We made a reservation and called a Lyft (which is also included with our insurance) to take us to the hotel. The driver they sent out was super nice, but his vehicle couldn’t fit us and all of our stuff. This was going to require two trips, when he only signed up for one. Fortunately he sympathized with our plight, and made the second trip. We offered to pay him for his time, and he accepted but only asked for $6.00. We gave him ten. I honestly expected the man to ask for more, but his kindness prevailed.

That’s one thing I will say about our brief layover in Milwaukee, we didn’t encounter a single person who wasn’t very nice. I mean, except the guys at the Mobil. More than a few people asked if we needed help, but State Farm had us covered so we declined. One person even asked if we needed any “financial blessings.” While our expenses were building up quick, my conscience wouldn’t allow me to take any money from a stranger. We have a credit card set aside for emergencies and that would surely get us through, so again I declined, but how great was that offer? It pains me to say that I’m not sure this level of kindness would happen in downtown St. Louis. In the suburbs, sure, but downtown? Maybe. I wouldn’t count on it though.

Everyone in Milwaukee treated us well. Even the homeless people asking for money were super polite about it. The hotel staff were able to squeeze us in last minute, the Domino’s pizza staff made our order quickly when we told them our story (that was all we could find open by the time we were in the hotel and ready for dinner that wasn’t a sit down restaurant.) So five stars to the citizens of Milwaukee.

From the small part of Milwaukee we experienced, it looks like a beautiful city. It’s very clean, and has interesting architecture. I’d like to explore it more under different circumstances. I did find a nice green square to walk the dog too, so that’s a plus. Speaking of the dog, Zoey was a trooper through this whole experience. Not a fan of elevators though.

Okay, cut to the next morning. We are in our room making phone calls about the vehicle. If you’ve ever tried to have a vehicle repaired on a Monday, you know it’s not an easy thing to do. Even when making an appointment, I generally have to go two weeks out to get a Monday slot, and walk-ins are an even harder proposition. The shop that had the van told us it might be a repair that needed to be done at a dealership, but they’d see what they could do. We contacted a few dealers in the area, and none of them would even look at it for DAYS, even considering our situation. Typical dealer crap-never trust a dealer’s service department. That’s a free tip from your old pal Dave.

Eventually we had to check out of the hotel, but were still waiting for a call from the shop. So we camped out in the lounge area of the lobby with our stuff and dog, waiting for some news. Finally the shop called with quotes on fixing the van same day. We got permission from them to bring the dog inside their waiting room, so we got another Lyft, and proceeded to wait a few more hours while they worked on the electric and replaced our battery, which had somehow fried out during all of this. Eventually we were paid up and done with the electric.

As for the tire, we have a replacement plan with Discount Tire, who have always been good to us. Since they were right down the road from the shop, we figured we’d just drive over on the spare and replace it at the D.C. where the tire would cost $32.00 as opposed to $130.00. We called in the morning and spoke with a manager who assured us that they had the tire in stock, and as soon as we arrived he’d get us in the rotation quick.

Well, we arrived a little before 2:00 to learn that the person we spoke with had gone home, and no-one else knew a thing about the situation. So we were put on the walk-in list, and of course they were slammed. Because Monday.

So we waited again. The tire place is located in a strip mall/shopping area so we were able to grab some lunch, take Zoey to a Petco for a while to give her something to do, and wait outside in a mostly shaded picnic area. It could have been worse, but by now we were all more than a little tired of waiting around and we were watching our whole first day of vacation disappear before our eyes.

Discount tire closes at 5:00. We picked up the van at 4:45. This still left us a two hour drive to the Green Bay area where we were staying, with at least one stop for the doggo to be factored in. Day one of the vacation was pretty much officially shot-and we all had plans for Saturday, so our four day trip became a three day pretty quickly. Sure, we were determined to make the best of it, but the overall mood wasn’t the best. Still, we were all safe and had functional transport so it could have been much worse.

All this time we had been in contact with our Vrbo hosts. They were very understanding. They’d even offered to extend our visit by a day for no charge since we missed Sunday night but we couldn’t make that happen, since we absolutely had to leave Friday. Still, once again, Mid-West nice comes out to shine.

The house itself was a duplex with three bedrooms and two separate living rooms on two floors, and included pretty much anything you’d need as far as cooking, laundry, and toiletries are concerned. It was a lovely space, and thoughtfully furnished. This vacation was beginning to turn around.

By nine o clock we were finally settled in and ready for dinner. After the day we’d had, we just needed some comfort food and to relax. So, being in Wisconsin we ate at Culver’s. Seemed appropriate. It wasn’t any different than the Culver’s back home, but it hit the spot.

Okay, end of part one. Did the vacation turn around? Were we able to make some fun memories? How did we work around the missed day? Did we get some cheese? Were there fireworks on the 4th to scare the dog? Did we get souvenirs?

All of these questions ( and maybe more) will be answered in part two-next time right here on Mon-DAVEs!

Daytripper? Yeah!

Two weeks ago, the kids (and my wife, who is a teacher-have I told you that? She is.) were on Spring Break. So I took a little time off, too, and we had a few days of family fun. While we weren’t able to make a week long trip work this time around, we decided to do a day trip to our neighboring state of Illinois and visit Springfield to “do all the Lincoln stuff.”

In an effort to make things a little more special, we opted to take the Amtrak train instead of driving. It didn’t save time or anything, but it was kind of fun and different, and it gave the kids a new experience. I hadn’t been on the train since I was a boy, so it was fun for me too. For some reason, people don’t take trains very often around these parts, or at least you don’t hear about it much. Sure, some major cities have trains that you can ride around the city, like St. Louis’s MetroLink or the elevated train in Chicago, but as an option of travel from one city to another it falls well behind driving or flying. I get the impression that train travel is much more widespread in Europe, but what do I know?

Anyway, the Amtrak experience was, um, interesting. Not unpleasant, I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t quite what I expected. For one thing, security doesn’t seem to be a big priority. Now, I believe that security at airports can be a little too strict, but I don’t think there was much security at all. Our car was more secure in the parking lot than we were as travelers.

There were no metal detectors for one thing. Bring whatever you want on board, guys, it’s all good. Also, nobody checked our tickets at the St. Louis station. I’d like to think it was just a mistake made for our group, like a miscommunication between conductors maybe, and everyone else got checked. I don’t know that for sure, though. I do know that we didn’t need to bring all that ID that the website said would be required because nobody checked that either. That’s not a big deal either, but in an age where most people/businesses are overly cautious about everything, it just felt weird. Some would call it liberating, but I don’t know. It seems like there should be a middle ground between the TSA and pretty much nothing. There are signs posted inside the trains that read “If you see something, say something.” Well, the conductor didn’t see my ticket and I say that’s a little off putting. For the record though, the Spring field station did check tickets (not ID though), so there’s that.

I don’t want to dump on Amtrak too much, though, because I did enjoy the ride. I spent most of the trip staring out of the window, watching the countryside roll by, and spent very little time on my phone. That was kind of nice. It was also nice not to be in charge of the driving for once. I mean, I actually like long drives for road trips, but every once in a while, it’s nice to let that responsibility go. The ride was pleasant, the employees were all quite nice (even when having to break the news to large groups that they couldn’t sit together), and while we didn’t get anything from the dining car, others around us did and it smell pretty good!

Okay, so on to Springfield, Illinois. Springfield is the state’s capital and is pretty much Abraham Lincoln’s adopted home. He moved to Illinois with his family at the age of twenty one, and spent many years in Springfield before being elected to the White House. The city has embraced and capitalized on this fact. I mean, honestly, the Lincoln thing is really all they have, so they’ve run with it, but they do it well. As daughter Tessa said when asked what she thought of the trip, “That’s a lot of Lincoln.” True, but interesting and kind of cool. You know, in a history geek kind of way.

Springfield’s main draw is, of course, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. While we did not visit the library (which would have been interesting, I think), we did see the museum, and it is well worth the trip and price of admission. The exhibits are mostly divided into Lincoln’s early years (in the log cabin section) and his presidential years. Roughly one-half of the museum is devoted to each. The tour is a self guided, move at your own pace type of thing. Pro tip: try to go when schools are not in session, as the roaming groups of pre-teens on field trips made sticking to your own pace somewhat difficult. There were a lot of them!

Also, be sure to see the special multi-media shows if you ever go. The one entitled “Ghosts Of The Library” is particularly good. The gift shop is also excellent for those who care about such things. Lots of high-quality knick-knackery on display for the discerning souvenir shopper. That may be my favorite sentence I have ever typed.

Another Lincoln based attraction is the Lincoln house and neighborhood, which stands just as it was at the time (lovingly maintained of course. It’s not just a bunch of old neglected buildings, what kind of tourist attraction is that?) and is an interesting walk back in time. Pro tip #2: Get there early, as tours of the Lincoln house sell out quickly. We got to the Lincoln house around 11:30-and it was sold out for the rest of the day. So, go earlier than that, I guess. We didn’t tour the house, but we got to look at it and take a photo or two, so that’s all right.

Downtown Springfield is very walkable, though strangely empty. Perhaps Wednesdays in March aren’t exactly high season, but it felt a little ghost town-ish. There were lots of buildings and a theater, city parks, and some restaurants, so signs of life abounded. We just didn’t see much life. We did, however find a cool used book store that I forgot the name of, but it was a just barely organized, shambolic place that smelled of old paper and housed an old out of tune piano for no discernable reason. I love out of tune pianos, even when they have books all over them.

Lunchtime. We found an awesome spot called Obed And Isaac’s Microbrewery and Eatery, with the slogan “Eat well and drink better beer.” My kind of thinking! People who don’t go to breweries often don’t realize that the food is usually pretty phenomenal. Sure, microbrews can be an eye-opening and pleasurable experience for the beer drinker, but don’t sleep on the food, man. Obed & Isaac’s is all ages during the day (as most microbreweries are), so we got a table and got tucked into some eats. The kids had burgers made to order, which they raved about, and my wife had a brisket burger which she assumed would be a beef brisket sandwich, and the burger part was in name only. Nope. this was beef brisket on top of a patty. I had a bite and it was excellent!

My meal of choice was a “pony shoe” sandwich, which is a miniature version of the horseshoe, a Springfield staple. For those unfamiliar, a horseshoe is an open faced sandwich with thick sliced toasted bread, meat (usually beef or pork, but ham or corned beef versions are not unheard of) covered in cheese sauce and topped with french fries. Look, I said the food was good, not good for you, okay? I also had a “Fuzzy Slipper” milk stout beer made with chocolate and vanilla beans. Oh, and it was 9.75% alcohol, which they will only serve in 10 oz. pours due to its strength. It was actually way too sweet for my tastes, but it’s worth trying. In retrospect, I should have had the red ale. Anyway, we very much enjoyed the meal. A little bit on the expensive side (with five people, what’s not), but really good.

Before returning, we also toured the state capital building. It’s a beautiful building, though honestly, if I was an Illinois taxpayer, I’d be a little annoyed by the opulence of the place and the money it surely requires for upkeep. Remind me not to visit the Missouri capital building. Still, it was interesting to see. Also interesting were the many statues and portraits of Illinois governors. Illinois has quite famously had its fair share of questionable elected officials in that particular role over the years. This is not a political blog, so I’m not about to comment, but they’re all there on display if you ever want to see them.

Well, that’s about it for our trip. After about six hours of walking the city, we were quite ready to board the train, relax a little, and head for home. While I wouldn’t make a full vacation out of it, Springfield is a fun day trip for those who would like to take in a little bit of history and explore not only the life and times of one of our most famous and influential presidents, but also get a slice of small town Midwestern life.

Wherever you go and whatever you do, take care of yourself, and be good to everyone else. See you next time, MonDavers!

Colander List?

We are now firmly into Winter, and many of us are not only looking forward to warmer months on the horizon, but also to the possibilities they bring for travel. Some people have no doubt already begun booking hotels and transportation for outings near and far throughout the remainder of the year. I too have begun discussions with my family about what weeks would be good travel options and where we may like to go.

Most people have a handful of places they have been to time and again, and have dream vacations in mind for a “someday”, which may or may not ever come. A quick Google search will certainly bring up multiple blogs featuring “Bucket List Destinations” for both serious travelers and daydreamers alike.

This got me thinking about my travel goals. Not only about the places I’d love to see someday, but also the places I have no desire to go. I mean, there are thousands of destinations all across the world that may be interesting from a historical or architectural perspective, or filled with beauty, art, and fine dining that call to me-and others that just plain don’t. It’s not that they’re bad places to go to necessarily, they just don’t have any pull for yours truly. They represent almost an anti-bucket list. A colander list, if you will.

So let’s dive into that. Wait, can you dive into a colander? There’d be nothing to dive into. Never mind. I’ll start again.

So let’s explore this idea (much better!) of places I don’t wish to visit. Now, I don’t want to be too negative, or to dump on any specific location. I’m not out to insult the good people of the world, nor poop on the parade of anyone who does want to visit these destinations. Besides, me typing out a specific list would virtually guarantee that I’d wind up visiting at least a few of them just because I called them out because that’s how karma works. Instead of listing individual locations, I’m going to list the types of places I’d care not to go, and give a few examples just to prove the point. Got that? Me neither, but let’s roll.

-The Frozen Tundra
Okay, I’m not talking about Lambeau Field here (although I could take or leave it, honestly) but destinations known for cold and snow. You don’t have to know me for more than one winter season to know that I can’t stand to be cold, not even for a few minutes. This automatically rules out places like Antarctica, all of Norway, and Greenland. Actually Greenland would be out anyway just because it’s named like a beautiful, lush, green paradise but is full of ice and snow. Conversely, Iceland is green and pretty. I’m not going to either one, just on principal.
Look, I know a lot of people enjoy destinations like these. Some people love downhill skiing, or cross country skiing. People enjoy taking trips to see the Northern Lights, or snow capped mountains and frozen lakes. Admittedly, there is some beautiful scenery out there in the colder climates. It’s just the cold part I don’t like. Hey, I try not to go out of my own house in the Winter months, much less on a trip.
Now, having said all this, I would consider a trip to some of the Northern states in the US, like Minnesota, North Dakota, what have you. I’ve even been to Alaska and Victoria, Canada. Well, I visited in Summer, which is when I’d go up north in the USA. As far as the countries where cold is your thing 24/7- I love y’all, and much respect to you, but I’m not coming to see you anytime soon.

-Volcano Land
I am seriously afraid of volcanoes. Particularly active ones, but inactive ones too. What if they wake back up?
My fear of volcanoes began in grade school. During the volcano unit in Science class, we read up on the eruption of Mount St. Helens. One of the books we had access to began with a scientist who was studying the volcanic activity, and recorded his last words as he spoke them over the radio to, um, whoever he was broadcasting to. Some university or something. Anyway, reading a guy’s last words (without knowing it in advance) really got to me as a child and kinda messed me up. So yeah, I’m afraid of a volcanic eruption happening. It seems like a horrible death.
I know someone who climbed a volcano once. It wrecked her shoes. I have mad respect for this person, and in many ways, and I have been inspired by her, but I’m not going up Death Mountain. Some stories are best heard and not lived.
So I guess what I’m trying to say here is that Hawaii is out. So is Yellowstone National Park, because it’s basically one big volcano that’s gonna blow one day and wipe out just, like, a lot of stuff. I will not be there when it happens. Pity, it looks awesome otherwise, but I am not taking that chance.

-The Middle East
Okay, I know that visiting The Holy Land is supposed to be a moving experience, and that there is much beauty to be seen. I know there are some interesting and lovely people throughout the many countries, and that immersing myself in another culture would make me not only a more experienced person, but also perhaps more empathetic.
But, I mean, there’s been war waging over there since forever, and I am a pacifist after all. I am also a coward. Self preservation keeps me far away from these shores. By the way, please don’t read any of this as a political statement. The reasons for conflict in the Middle East are many. They are varied and complex. I would never make light of anything happening over there- I just don’t like war. Any war. Nor do I want to be caught in the middle of one.
Also, there’s lots of sand. Which brings me to…

-Anywhere With Too Much Sand
Sand sucks. I hate sand. I am not a beach person, and it’s roughly 90% due to my dislike of sand. So beaches are out, unless there’s a full fledged city I can explore with the beach in the background for scenery. That’d be okay. But like, small resort towns are out. Along with a good chunk of Arizona I suppose. New Mexico. Mexico. Parts of Texas. There’s a lot, now that I think of it.
Also, the Sahara desert is out. ‘Cause it’s a desert. I know I said I hated cold a little earlier, but just because I like warm weather doesn’t mean I’d like to melt to death.

-Creepy Crawly Country
Mostly Australia. They have lots of snakes, and what can only be described as big-ass spiders the size of your head. Nope. No thank you. I’ve met some Aussies in my day and they have all been really cool people. Australia seems like an amazing country to visit. I just need y’all to fumigate it before I come over is all. Thanks.
Ooh, and let’s not forget the Amazon Rain Forest. There are as yet undiscovered species of critters waiting to kill me there, along with all the animals that we know of which also want to kill me. Besides the creatures, going to the Rainforest and coming out alive just seems like a lot. I mean, I’m mostly basing this information on movies I saw on cable back in the 80’s and 90’s, but I think the premise is sound.

-Las Vegas
I’m sure it’s fine, and I’d have fun. It’s just that I don’t gamble, and being diabetic I try not to go to buffets since I would surely overindulge. From what I hear, the buffets are legendary, and that’s too much temptation for this guy.
Having said that, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that I may travel there for the right musician’s residency, or a festival of some kind. So Vegas isn’t totally out I guess, but it’s not real high on the list, even if Travis Kelce did make an impassioned endorsement at the Super Bowl.

Well, that’s a general idea of the type of travel destination that I would tend to avoid. Fortunately for me, there are literally thousands of places to explore in this great big world of ours, so there’ll be plenty of trips to be had and memories to be made.

Happy travels, and I’ll see you next time.

Dave’s Take On Kansas City

Our quick trip to Kansas City proved to be a nice little getaway/diversion for our family. While it would have been nice to have a little more time to explore, we enjoyed the time spent in the city. Compared to downtown St. Louis, it is a much cleaner city-not that STL is unclean, but it’s slightly more…not run down, but…used? Older, maybe? At least on the surface it seems that way. I love STL immensely, but we have our problems for sure. KC seems to be a bit more user friendly is all.

The downtown neighborhoods we drove through seemed nice. I also liked that the college seemed to be well integrated into the city landscape. It is a very hill-y city though. Well, the Missouri side is anyway. The Kansas side seemed to flatten out a bit.

Speaking of Kansas, that’s where we stayed. We looked at several hotels and wound up booking one in the suburbs, because it had an indoor pool for the kids. If there’s one thing that kids love while on vacation, it’s a pool. Our hotel of choice was the Homewood Suites by Hilton. Apart from the pool situation, it had rooms that would sleep the five of us comfortably (in one suite as opposed to two rooms-more economical), and had a full breakfast each morning. Very nice hotel, and clean, highly recommended.

Our hotel was in the suburbs, but located just a stones throw from the Kansas Speedway which was of course closed, but looked pretty cool. We were also next to Legends Outlet mall, which had like a bazillion stores in it. There seem to be quite a few functional malls in the area, while most of them are dying out here. To be fair, we didn’t really visit any of them, but they looked to be in good shape.

Okay, so there’s your initial impressions, let’s get to the attractions.

LEGOLAND DISCOVERY CENTER
-I’m kind of mixed on this one. Their website makes it seem like it is an attraction for all ages, and while that’s not untrue, it’s really geared more to smaller kids. I think if our kids were two or three years younger they would have absolutely loved it. Don’t get me wrong, it is enjoyable enough. There were some really interesting exhibits of Lego art, and multiple life size figures which were pretty cool, as well as a Lego replica of the downtown KC area itself, and a trip through the Wizard of OZ movie in Lego form. Of the two rides, one was definitely a child’s ride, but the other was a “dark ride” in which you got to blast stuff with a pretend gun and try to save the Princess. We all enjoyed that ride, but WHY SO MANY LEGO SPIDERS? Seriously, they should warn a person! Let’s see, what else…oh, there was a “Ninjago Training course” which I probably got the worst score ever on, and a cute little 3D movie theater. Oh, and an obviously overpriced snack bar that we didn’t go anywhere near. So, there was enough to keep us all entertained, and we did enjoy the experience, but it is aimed at young children (3-8) overall, so keep that in mind if you ever visit.

SEALIFE AQUARIUM
-Right next door to the Discovery Center is the Sealife aquarium which is exactly what you think it is. I always enjoy aquariums. Maybe it takes a certain kind of person, I don’t know, but I could sit and watch fish swim and interact with each other for hours and not get bored. This particular aquarium is nice and puts a little more emphasis on education than some that I have been to, but is not as impressive overall as Ripley’s in Gatlinburg, TN, or the St. Louis aquarium at Union Station, which is REALLY good. That being said, I would recommend Sealife as a quality stop for your next visit to Kansas City.

THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MINIATURES AND TOYS
-This was the coolest thing we did, hand down. The museum’s first floor is dedicated to fine scale miniatures, usually 1:12 scale. What I thought was going to be just a bunch of doll house furniture wound up being so much more interesting than I imagined. Pretty much anything you can think of is on display in miniature, and the detail is AMAZING. From Victorian mansions to an antique shop, artist studios and more, the scenes are incredible. Not only are the settings impressive, but the detail involved is doubly so. There are hand woven quilts and rugs in these displays, and objects you would swear have been hit by some futuristic shrink ray. Then the upstairs is full of toys from the early 1900s up to today, everything from board games to video consoles, rag dolls to action figures, teddy bears and more. There is something there to bring out the kid in everyone. I absolutely loved it.

Now let’s talk food. Of course, you can’t go to Kansas City without getting some barbecue. I couldn’t get everyone to agree to BBQ for every meal, but I didn’t really think that would fly anyway. Apart from breakfast at the hotel, we ate at Zaxby’s for one lunch because we don’t have them in St. Louis and I like them a lot-way better than Cane’s which we have a lot of around here. We also went to a Tex-Mex restaurant called On The Border which we had a gift card for somehow (?), and since those aren’t in STL either we went ahead and used it. Pretty good actually, I kind of wish we did have them here.

But I digress. The first barbecue restaurant we went to was Famous Dave’s, which I had heard of but didn’t know was a chain. I also didn’t know we had a to-go only location minutes away from where I work until I just googled that info a minute ago. I wanted to see how big a chain they were-and the answer to that is pretty dang big-when I saw a Creve Coeur location I’d never heard of or seen. I can only assume it’s very, very new. Or I need to pay more attention to my life.

ANYWAY, had I known it was a chain I might have opted for something else, since I wanted true KC barbecue. I was not disappointed however, because the food was really good-their burnt ends were excellent, as was the chicken. So, if you’re out and about and you find yourself near a Famous Dave’s, check ’em out. I’ve had better from independent BBQ joints, but this still hit the spot and was quite yummy.

Before we left town, we HAD to go to Gate’s Barbecue and get some ribs. They are famous as some of the best ribs you can get, and I have had many people bring them back for me, and they were always awesome, so it was a no brainer that we should go.

The thing is, nobody warned me about the actual Gate’s experience. As soon as you walk in to the much too dark restaurant, the counter person basically assaults you by shouting “Hi may I help you?”, and you are expected to order immediately. It took me by surprise. That approach works when there is a long line of people, and you are five orders away from the front of the line. You order, and by the time you get to the front your food is ready. I getit, but I don’t like it. Especially since it was our first time in and we had no idea what was happening. There was one group ahead of us and two behind. The lady up front just kept yelling “Hi may I help you” and no one knew who she was talking to. I found it to be abrasive, high pressure, and a little rude, honestly.

Again, I get that they are trying to assembly line your food, and I can see how that would work on a crowded day, but it was just bizarre to me. I know some people like that sort of thing. There are some small restaurants (and at least one chain) that are famous for treating people that way, or worse. Some people think it’s fun, and adds character. I don’t agree.

Oh, and then, to top it off, there is another lady who basically acts like a waitress and takes care of everyone at your table after you sit down. WHAT is that about? Also, why isn’t she bringing the food? I mean, she was super sweet and cool, I guess to make up for the initial abuse? Whatever.

You lost me, Gates, I don’t care for the way you run your business. To be fair the ribs are absolutely amazing, some of the best you’ll ever have, but I don’t think any food is worth that type of treatment. There were at least four other places I could have gone, and probably had a better experience. I know Gate’s has its fans, and if you dig that atmosphere then more power to you, have at it, but I won’t be joining you.

Still, all in all, we did have a nice trip. There is a lot more to see and do than we had time for this trip, so another visit to Kansas City may be in the cards for a later date. In any case, this trip was about getting away as a family and having new experiences together. It was as much about bonding as anything else, and that we surely did. We are blessed that not only do we all get along well and love each other, but we like each other too, which makes any time together good, and our family trips even more so.

Thanks for reading, see you next week.