Eating My Way Through The Midwest

I’m usually pretty good when it comes to geography, so I’m going to admit three things I did not know before we made our pilgrimage to Camp Mishawaka.  But first, a little back story.  Because my dad was a college professor, he was off almost every summer.  My parents “dragged” my sister and I around much of the country when we were kids, so I’ve been to almost every state.  And if this is the first time you are reading my blog, it is also on these trips that my mom would make us write in a travel journal, so this blog is really just an extension of what I have always done when traveling this planet since I was a wee lad!

Both of my kids love to play the, “How many states have you been to game,” and at last check, I have been to more states than anyone in the family.  46 to be exact.  The only states I haven't been to are Alaska, Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi.  As I write this, I’m so close to Mississippi, I’m tempted, but I have other plans…

So the first piece of geography I did not realize is that the Mississippi River actually starts about an hour west from where I dropped my son off at camp.  I also didn’t realize that Lake Superior is only an hour and a half away in the other direction.  And finally, the Wisconsin state line is so close, there’s
definitely going to be some cheese happening before I begin heading south tomorrow!  By the way, California is the second biggest producer of cheese.  And I’m not talking about the TV business… ;)

I was a little teary-eyed when I dropped my boy off at camp, for sure.  The emotional end of our baseball season, and the stress of not knowing when we would actually get to camp had definitely taken its toll on me.  This on top of saying goodbye to my big little man for a month, and it was water works for sure.  However, knowing that I would be in one of my favorite places on the planet in just a couple days, New Orleans, certainly helped send these emotions in the other direction completely. 

True bliss, actually.  I have one kid in New York, and I had just dropped the other one off at camp.  Eyes and road wide open!

I hopped back in the bitchin’ Camaro, fired her up, and drove back down the dirt road, that winds its way along the horse stables, and back to the main highway. I set my sights on Duluth Minnesota, which is a port town on Lake superior. By the way, coincidentally there was another North Venice Little League family on our flight from Los Angeles! The dad is originally from Minnesota, and when I mentioned that I was probably going to stay in Duluth, which I pronounced Del-uth, he immediately corrected me and said it’s pronounced Da-Looth… The truth is, I have heard of Duluth, but just hadn’t put two and two together until that embarrassing moment.  Sigh.

I arrived in the port town of Duluth just as the sun was going down. There’s an impressive old drawbridge over a man made canal that separates the harbor from the open waters of Lake Superior.  The drawbridge can adjust to accommodate big freighter ships, and smaller sailboats alike.  Confession:  Just like old cars and old trains, I am a sucker for old operating drawbridges. I have been intrigued with how drawbridges work since I was a little kid.  They are engineering marvels, especially when you consider how long ago many were built.  Construction of the Duluth drawbridge began in 1901, and was completed in 1905.  

It was around 9:15pm when I crossed over the bridge, and I was quite pleased to find a cute little hotel just on the other side of the canal called the Marina Point Hotel.  Using my hotels.com app, I made my reservation, but by the time I got checked in, it was already 10 PM. There was not a lot of action in the old-town village, and it looked like many of the restaurants were already closed.  The hotel concierge said she thought that the only place that may still be serving food was just across the drawbridge.  This was walking distance, so I made my way down the street, and back over the bridge by foot.  I indeed arrived at the 310 Pub before the kitchen closed. Ironically, 310 is the area code where I live on the Westside of Los Angeles, so I had a lot of good stuff happening here!

I sat at the bar and ordered food, and it wasn’t long before I was chatting with the locals. Or so I thought they were locals, as they definitely had accents!  It turns out they were actually Canadian! 

My new Canadian friend and I had such a great conversation, before we knew it, it was nearing closing time. And it was probably a good thing, as it had already been a long day for me. We said our good goodbyes, and headed off to our respective hotels.

The next morning I decided to explore the seaport town of Duluth, and was happy to find a Caribou Coffee joint nearby. Caribou Coffee is a Minnesota based coffee chain similar to Starbucks.

Now, as much as I love to be independent while traveling, I also don’t mind being a tourist once in a while. So, I decided to take a 90 minute guided tour of Lake Superior by boat. Duluth is a legit shipping hub, and is North America's farthest-inland freshwater seaport. This port actually connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the other Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. This is an impressive shipping route to say the least. 

As I mentioned earlier in the blog, I didn’t realize I was this close to Wisconsin.  While on my boat tour we actually crossed over an imaginary state line into Wisconsin. As the boat pulled back into the harbor, I was getting hungry.  Since the neighboring state was only one long bridge over water away from Duluth, I knew where I was doing lunch... I found a cute little diner called Julie’s Family Restaurant just over the boarder, and across the highway from the University of Wisconsin–Superior. On the menu was the Wisconsin

cheeseburger, which was a healthy sized patty, gushing with four different cheeses!  “Oh, Elizabeth, this is the big one.  I’m comin’ to join ya’...”  Google that if you don’t know.

With a very full belly, I was back on the road on my way to Minneapolis. But first, I had to make a little side trip to visit one of my dearest friends

on this planet.  Mr. Tim Sheridan.  Tim and his family happened to be in his home state of Minnesota visiting family.  I met Tim, Diana and Max at Dana’s mom‘s farm just outside of Minneapolis. The Sheridan boys were hungry, so we headed out to dinner at one of Tim‘s favorite restaurants in the suburbs, Porter Creek. Oy. I was still full from my massive cheeseburger lunch, but the menu was too good to pass up. It’s not hard to eat your way through the Midwest!

Back at the ranch, I dropped the boys off and we said our goodbyes.  Max is a dynamite basketball player, so he went back to work on the hoop set up in the big driveway in front of the farmhouse.  I headed back down the dirt road to the main highway.  Minneapolis was only about 30 minutes away, and this is where I would be staying for the night. 

There's nothing better than visiting friends when you are on the road.  I had reached out to an old friend a few days ago, who grew up with Tim, and who lives in Minneapolis. I said I’d be in town "for one night only."  It has been about six years since I’ve seen my buddy Rick.  The last time I saw him was when I was in Minneapolis producing a concert film at the 7th Street Entry with the OG Minneapolis rocker, and musical genius, André Cymone. 

Rick was waiting outside his place for me when I rolled up in the Camaro!  We hung out in his downtown Minneapolis apartment and caught up, reminiscing about times we hung out in L.A., Lake Havasu AZ and Minneapolis. I also met his girlfriend, Jessica, for the first time.  Their apartment is decorated with cool art pieces, both collected and created.

It was still hot and muggy outside as we walked along the Mississippi River. You’ll find that the Mississippi River will be a recurring theme throughout my blog during this trip… Rick and Jessica took me to a few of their favorite neighborhood haunts, and we closed down the town in this cool and vibrant section of the city. Thank you both for letting me live as a local for one great night!

Good night MLPS!