Another Day, Another Sandwich!

This morning we said our good byes to Jac and Jude, and headed out through Wisconsin to Chicago.  It was a rainy and miserable day out there, but we did have a high spot.  We stopped in Milwaukee to enjoy the Wisconsin state sandwich, and we were not disappointed!  The best one so far, by far!

We knew we were in our kind of place hen we spotted the original (and best) edition Trivial Pursuit cards on the table.

 There it is...the Short Stout.  The. Best. Sandwich. Ever!!

 

It is the dairy state, so the mac & cheese was definitely in order.  Delish!

And the pie was amazing too....

Don't mind if I do!

Oh yes, Honeypie was the best restaurant so far.

 And finally, we made it to Chicago!  We have a big tourist day planned for tomorrow, can't wait!

L'Etoile du Nord!

Today we got to spend the day sightseeing and touristing in the Twin Cities, MN with Jacquelyn and Jude.  We had such a great time seeing (and tasting!) St. Paul, thank you to J & J for their excellent hospitality!

Good morning!  Kylie and her aunt having some quality get-to-know-ya time.

Our tourist activity of the day was to visit the Minnesota State Capitol.  As we've said before, they're America's Palaces!!  Here I am getting into the mood by acting out a statue out front.  I make a decent Floyd Olson, right?!

There it is!  When the weather is good, tours of this building go out on the roof to see those golden horses.  Apparently 65 degrees, sunny and gorgeous is not good enough weather.

 Jac & Jude getting in on the statue copying.  Good work guys!

There's the rotunda with the star of the north.  According to our guide, it represents Minnesota's fourth branch of government, the people.  (wtf?!)

 Here is the House Chamber, forever ruined by the unoriginal, added later and completely awful mural over the speaker's head...according to the guide.  She was something of a building purist...

Learning about government and history is fun!!

What??  Mr. Colvill???  Did he head west later in life to found our beloved Colville?!  The world may never know!*

(*the world does, in fact, know...and this man did not found Colville...)

Look!  I'm immortalized!!  There's Kylie...who's that other kid?!

The view into the courtyard.

Here is the official portrait of Minnesota's coolest governor ever, Jesse "The Body" Ventura.  He is depicted smoking a fine cigar in what appears to be a post-apocalyptic Minnesota... 

Everyone smile!

The basilica's silhouette in the afternoon.

These sandwiches were amazing.  The one on the right is called the Cheesemonger and is the Minnesota sandwich as per the Food Network state sandwich guide we are using to travel the US.  So much better than Montana's sandwich....

The St. Paul Cheese Shop, purveyor of fine sandwiches!

Thanks again to Jac & Jude for such a fun day!

Touristing, Midwestern Style!

Today we have another very long day ahead of us, due to our detour.  We are looking at about 14 hours before we arrive at Jacquelyn's house in St. Paul, MN tonight, and we really do not want another day like yesterday, so we decided to enjoy some roadside attractions along the way.

The first attraction?  Wall Drug in Wall, SD!  We passed dozens of signs like this one along the way.

Oooh, South Dakota even makes their rest stops fancy!

Finally, Wall Drug!  This turned out a bit blurry, but it's too cute to leave out.  :)

Let's do this!

Eric and Kylie excited for breakfast time.

And with a spread like this, who wouldn't be excited??  Those doughnuts are made on site and were incredible.

Here I am in the cavernous Wall Drug breezeway.

Yikes!  This creepums had eyes that moved around.  No me gusta!

Western overload....

We picked up some fudge for later...apparently it is deadly to everyone.

Um, what?  Beware of poisonous snakes??  Use this rest area at your own risk!

Next roadside attraction?  The Mitchell Corn Palace, of course!  Every fall the residents of Mitchell, SD decorate the outside of this building with dried corn products from the harvest.  It is really the only reason this town exists, I think.

Here we are with the corn palace!  The baby was asleep, so we didn't include her in this photo.

I personally think the corn cob cheerleaders are the best.  Eric is partial to the wrestlers.

After all of that tourist fun, it was time to get serious about the road.  We finally made it to Jacquelyn's house late, but okay.  Looking forward to a day out of the car tomorrow.  Hurray!!

Not All Days Are Good Days...

So this is our 5th cross country road trip.  We have it down pretty well, we like to think.  However, there are still days that test our patience and love of travel...days like today.  So as we slept in Butte, the snow began.  It's an epic winter storm, expected to blanket much of the north with a whole lot of snow, and we were caught in it.  6" had already fallen.  Some baby-related unpleasantness also happened as we tried to leave...I won't go into detail, but the baby needed an impromptu bath in the hotel room sink when all was said and done.  This was just the beginning...

This is not how I like to start my day.

Chains at the ready, we decided to head out.  Luckily, we ended up behind the plow over the pass between Butte and Bozeman, and did not need those chains.

As we approached Billings, we got ahead of the storm, and formulated a plan.  Instead of the original route through North Dakota, we decided to turn south at Billings and go through South Dakota.  The storm is not expected there for a couple more days.

In the last issue of Food Network Magazine I received this summer, they had a 50 States, 50 Sandwiches feature.  We decided it would be fun to try as many of these sandwiches as possible, starting here at the Staggering Ox in Billings, MT.

Miss Kylie, however had other plans for us this day.  We were able to stay in the restaurant about long enough to get these pictures before she started SCREAMING.  We had them packed up and went to eat them in the car...and were quite underwhelmed.  I think the only reason these this sandwich was featured was because of the gimmicky (and impractical) bread.  The sandwich was bland, dry, boring and not worth it.  Hopefully other future sandwiches will be better!

Once we crossed into Wyoming, the sun came out and stayed out.  That was a relief, but we still had a long way to go, and we were both exhausted after Miss Kylie kept us up in the night.  Here is a last look into the pines before we head into the Great Plains.

Good bye West!

Back on the open road!

We finally made it to Rapid City, SD at about 7:30 pm.  Rapid City is the home of the Delmonico Grill, one of the best restaurants I have ever eaten at.  After looking forward to it all day, we took one look at Kylie and realized we needed to have some family play time instead of trying to go to a fancy dinner...and it was such a good decision.  Things are definitely changing for us, but only for the better!  Looking forward to a new (and better) day tomorrow!

And We're Off...

This morning we got up early, packed up the last items in our apartment, packed up the baby and off we went.  We spent the last 3 days saying goodbyes to friends and family, packing and planning.  We met up with dad and Lynn in Colville for a cup of coffee, then we hit the road en route to DC.  Butte or Bust!

Starting the day off right with one more world's-best-cookie from Super One in Colville.

Our first state line.  Looking gorgeous out there!

We stopped for lunch in Couer d'Alene, ID at Cafe Carambola, and were not disappointed.  Tortas (sandwiches in Mexico), soup and salads.  It was AMAZING.

The sun is shining bright at the top of Lookout Pass, the part of the trip I was most worried about snow.  Not a flake in sight!

Entering Montana, state #3 of the day.

Wait, Montana is how big?!

 Borg Park?!  This park is threatening to assimilate me!!

Enjoying some fine cupcakery at Bernice's Bakery in Missoula.

We met up with my niece, Jessica, for dinner in Missoula.  It was really fun visiting with her, and she chose a great restaurant!  We made it to Butte tired, but in one piece.  Much more to come in the morning I am sure...