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A Big Campus, a Great Lake and a Mighty River: WI/MN Trip Report

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A Big Campus, a Great Lake and a Mighty River: WI/MN Trip Report

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Old Sep 16th, 2007, 10:21 AM
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Oh darn, CAPH. I was hoping this was a continuation of your report. We are in the same boat, with both kids off at college. The house seems SO big with just 2 of us. Looking forward to the rest of your report.

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Old Sep 16th, 2007, 01:38 PM
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Hi, Tiff and Suzie! Thanks for the feedback, Tiff! And my apologies, Suzie. I've started the next day but keep getting interupted! I know I keep saying this, but I'm gonna really, really try to finish it up this week. Frankly, I'm tired of having it hanging over my head!

I'll probably add a little on the end as we had a quick overnight trip to Madison. Just got back an hour or so ago. This cool weather caught us all by surprise. We had to make a warm clothing delivery!

We ate at Husnu's again and loved it just as much as the previous three times! But we tried a new place for lunch today.

Hope you're adjusting to your big, empty house okay, Suzie. It's quite a transition, isn't it? It was very bittersweet leaving our son again today. But he's loving UW. And that makes me very happy!

Watch this space! With a little luck there will be additions coming soon!
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Old Sep 16th, 2007, 06:37 PM
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Caph - I finally found your trip report! I'm glad you liked Madison so much. It's really a cool place. I miss having an excuse to go there, DH's girlfried graduated from UW Law in May.
Now I have to drive south to Evanston to visit him.
We ended up spending an extra day at the lake, so were driving back on Sunday. So I missed your wave.
We just had the pleasant trip to Minneapolis to drop DS3 and his girlfriend off at school.
We also came back to an empty house. It still feels weird, even though this is not the first time for me.

Another place to try the next time you're in Madison is The Great Dane. They brew specialty beer on the premesis, and it's good.
I love Tutto Pasta. That's where we had dinner before the Lareena McKinnet concert.
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Old Sep 16th, 2007, 06:58 PM
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Hi, ange! I definitely want to try Great Dane one of these times. Just haven't gotten to it yet! I'm just amazed at the variety and quality of restaurants in Madison considering the size of the city.

Good luck with your job search. I hope that very soon you'll find the job of your dreams!
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Old Sep 20th, 2007, 07:20 AM
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Day Seven: On the Road Again

Of course, we awoke that morning to beautiful, clear blue sky! It’s a little irritating that things so often seem to work out that way. I would’ve loved to take the cruise on the Wenonah. But I thoroughly enjoyed everything we did. And, had we done the cruise, we would’ve missed out on something else. As much as we would’ve liked to have the nice weather the other two mornings, we were grateful to have such a beautiful day for our drive back down the shore.

We certainly didn’t hurry ourselves along that day. We had a leisurely breakfast and took our time loading the car. On the way out of town, we stopped to pick up donuts! We’d also decided that we wanted to take the time to make one stop as we left the North Shore. It wasn’t an easy decision, but we finally settled on Split Rock Lighthouse.

We couldn’t afford to spend a lot of time as we wanted to stop for lunch in Duluth and had reservations for the night in Red Wing. So we were quite disappointed to learn that we couldn’t even see the outside of the lighthouse without paying the fee to enter the park. I can’t remember exactly what it was, but I think it may have been $8 per person. And that was too much considering our time constraints. So we looked around the gift shop and then moved on. Fortunately, a short distance down the road, we passed (literally, but turned around and went back) a scenic overlook that gave us a very nice view of the lighthouse.

All of us were quite sorry to say goodbye to the North Shore. It turned out to be everything we’d hoped for, exactly the relaxing, beautiful couple of days we’d all really needed. I’ll be very surprised if we don’t wind up returning there in the next couple of years. There’s so much we still want to see! And restaurants we still want to try!

We were a little nervous about getting off of the interstate at the right place in Duluth. But we had no trouble exiting and getting right to the Canal Park area. It was crowded though! Lots of traffic and lots of people walking around. We had a little trouble finding a parking place in one of the lots.

We walked around a bit looking at shops (we found the Harry Potter book we’d been looking for!) and restaurant menus. There were a few restaurants that caught our eye. We wound up choosing Green Mill, not realizing that it’s a chain. However, my main reason for avoiding chains on trips is that I don’t want to eat somewhere I can eat at home. As far as I know, there are no Green Mills near us. So that wasn’t a concern. And the food turned out to be quite good. Both my husband and our son chose pastas from the lunch specials. My daughter and I each had a salad and split their “healthy” pizza. It was very good. But had we been told warned that it might take a while, we probably would have made another choice. In fact, it wasn’t until we’d been waiting about half an hour that someone finally bothered to tell us (without any effort at apology) that it was the pizza that was holding up our order. Maybe we should have realized that a pizza might take longer... At any rate we weren’t pleased as we were beginning to get a bit nervous about how much farther we still had to drive that day. And one of the reasons we’d chosen Green Mill in the first place was that there was no wait for a table!

We didn’t have a chance to see a lot of the Canal Park area, much less of Duluth as a whole. But we liked what we saw. I could definitely see spending a night or two there sometime.

The drive on the interstate from Duluth to the Twin Cities is pretty much your typical, boring Midwestern travel experience!

As I mentioned way back at the beginning of this report, we’d been watching Mary Tyler Moore Show DVDs over the summer. And our daughter had become quite a fan. So, of course, we talked about stopping in Minneapolis. But we began to realize that we were going to be hitting the Twin Cities pretty much at rush hour. And this was a Friday. So we decided that it would make a lot more sense to save Minneapolis for a time when we could come back and spend a couple of days doing the Mary Tyler Moore sites, maybe taking in a Twins game, etc. Unfortunately, due to a wrong turn and lots and lots of road construction, we wound up seeing a lot more of the suburbs of St. Paul than we’d wanted!

Once we got back on track, though, it was a very pleasant drive to Red Wing. And it didn’t take very long. I think we rolled in there around 6:30.

Our reservation was at the Super 8 out on the edge of town. Believe me, this is not a place I’d recommend to someone who’s used to 5 star hotels! But, for our purposes, it was just fine. Our room was fairly large, clean and quiet.

My husband picked up some tourist literature in the lobby. He read about a restaurant he thought sounded both good and fairly close to where we were staying. We drove around for a while looking for it. But couldn’t find it. So we headed into the downtown area. The drive had given us a chance to see a fair bit of Red Wing. What a lovely town! But I’ll go more into that on Day Eight.

Another place we’d read about was Liberty’s. The Moon guide described it as a “Red Wing institution”. So we decided to give it a try. It was busy, but not crazy. We found out that they have a Friday night all you can eat buffet. And it seemed like the majority of people there were ordering that. So three of the four of us did too. Our daughter got a chicken and wild rice salad that she said was very good.

I wouldn’t say the buffet was by any means outstanding. But, as those things go, it was okay. There were enough people eating it that the food didn’t seem to be sitting for long. It’s been too long and I can’t remember exactly what was on the buffet. But I know there was a decent clam chowder, a salad bar, a fried fish and one that wasn’t, chicken and German potato salad.

While it wasn’t the best meal of our trip, it certainly wasn’t bad. And it was a very pleasant place to eat. The service was good and my husband and I had some good local beer. The buffet was set up in the bar and it seemed to be doing a very good business.

When we were in that area, we saw the St. James Hotel. It had been recommended to me on Fodor’s and I’d checked their web site. It was, unfortunately, not within our budget. But, based on the web site, the location and the way it looks from the outside, I’d certainly mention it to anyone looking for a place that’s a bit more upscale.

We drove around town a bit more after our meal. And then we headed back to the motel so that the kids could take advantage of having a pool this last night on the road.

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Old Sep 20th, 2007, 07:35 AM
  #46  
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Just realized that I forgot to say that our pre-tip bill at Green Mill was $51.45. Unfortunately, I can't find the receipt from the dinner at Liberty's. I think the buffet was $8.95 per person.
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Old Sep 20th, 2007, 08:44 AM
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I can't believe all the details, even the cereal they serve at a Motel 8! You must have a lot of free time on your hands to write al this - and what about me for reading it. When our son went to SOAR years ago we stayted in the hotel rooms they have at the Union: very lovely but noisey at night from all the kids out on The Terrace.
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Old Sep 20th, 2007, 10:10 AM
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"You must have a lot of free time on your hands to write al this"

Actually, I don't. That's why it's taken me over a month and a half! And I still have another day to write about.

But I got so much help from people on Fodor's when I was planning this trip. The least I can do is find the time to write a trip report in hopes that it'll help someone else who is planning a similar trip.

And, believe me, if I hadn't been rushing this, I wouldn't have made some of the mistakes I noticed after I posted!
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Old Sep 20th, 2007, 11:49 AM
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Hi CAPH - as all your other reports, I loved this one too. Thanks for being so diligent and writing everything. It is too bad you didn't see any big ships come into the Duluth harbor. We see them almost every trip (except dead winter) and it never gets old. Next time you can do that!! We have had friends come up to Duluth with us and they are pleasantly surprised and end up staying in Duluth a couple days. It has become a tourist destination for people now. When you go to Mpls. sometime you will like it also. They have many gorgeous lakes right in the city and lots of places to walk, bike, run, etc. You would also like Stillwater which is on the St Croix River over by St Paul. Thanks again for your report. I loved it!!
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Old Sep 20th, 2007, 12:15 PM
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Thanks again for your feedback, Cali! I really appreciate it. Just as I really appreciated all of your help before the trip.

I've been curious about Duluth ever since a friend of ours went to visit friends of his there a few years back. He was so impressed with Duluth! And, even though we saw so little of it, I can see why he was. It seems like a very nice city in a very pretty setting. I definitely hope to have the chance to see more of it.

And I'm sure you're right about thinking we'd enjoy Minneapolis. Definitely on our list too!

Sometimes you get so caught up with wanting to see the world that you forget that there are wonderful things to see relatively close to home. This trip really made me aware of that.
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Old Sep 20th, 2007, 10:31 PM
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CAPH, You are so right about seeing things relatively close to home. We have recently take some weekend trips to different places not far from us here in Southern CA and they have been lots of fun We have also done some trips throughout MI when we have been back there (my husband grew up there) and have loved them. We frequently do through the Chicago Area and have enjoyed it but now have to do other parts of IL. We loved going to Amish Country in Ohio too. So much to see everywhere in this wonderful country.
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Old Oct 20th, 2007, 07:24 PM
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Day Eight: Red Wing, the Mississippi, home

The continental breakfast at that Super 8 was definitely the least appealing of the ones we encountered on this trip. So my husband grabbed a cup of coffee, I grabbed a cup of tea and we decided that, as it was our last day on the road, we’d splurge and have a real breakfast. We loaded up the car, checked out and headed into Red Wing.

The town was having some sort of a sidewalk sale. There were lots of people out and about. And we had a little bit of trouble finding a place for breakfast. One place didn’t serve full breakfasts. Another place was packed to the rafters. So we wound up back at Liberty’s. And it wound up being a very good choice. There were people there but it wasn’t crowded. And the food and service were very good. The pre-tip bill was $35.05.

Our daughter needed to find a post office in order to buy a stamp to send a post card to her boyfriend in Ireland. We asked where it was and found out we were parked a few blocks away. But we decided to walk so that we could see a bit of the town.

My husband was so taken with this town! And I certainly understand why. It’s the epitome of a charming midwestern small city. The Moon Guide mentions the “largely intact 19th century downtown, a gift to all from previous city leaders who were ahead of their time in historic preservation”. And I would add a thank you to those civic leaders who plant all of the flowers and see that it continues to be kept so clean, warm and welcoming.

After spending an hour or so walking around, we got back in the car and decided to drive around a bit before getting on the road. We took the Scenic Skyline Drive to the top of Sorin Bluff. According to the Moon Guide, this isn’t quite as nice a view as one gets by climbing to the top of Barn Bluff. But we thoroughly enjoyed the view we had. And our son was quite impressed by the frisbee golf course we passed!

I think it was close to noon by the time we finally tore ourselves away from Red Wing! We got back on 61 and headed down along the Mississippi. What a beautiful drive! I know there are arguments to be made as to which side is prettier, Minnesota or Wisconsin. And one of these days I hope to make the drive on the Wisconsin side. But, for right now, I can say that we sure did enjoy the Minnesota side. Of course, it didn’t hurt that it was a beautiful, sunny day!

We crossed the Mississippi at LaCrosse. And , from there, it was pretty much going back over territory we’d already crossed.

This was a wonderful trip! One on which I look back very fondly now that summer is over, the kids are in college and we’re adjusting to being empty-nesters!

I know that many people (and I’m often guilty of this myself!) see the midwest as ugly and boring. But I’d compare this trip very favorably to any we’ve taken, anywhere in the country.

A Brief Update

We did a quick over-nighter in September to Madison to take our son’s warmer clothes. After which, of course, it warmed up and he hasn’t really needed them since!

We had dinner that Saturday at Husnu’s which has definitely become a favorite of ours. It didn’t disappoint!

Early the next afternoon we took our son to brunch. We ate at Sardine, 617 Williamson Ave. It’s on the other side of the isthmus from the campus. And one of the reasons we chose it is that it has a very nice view of Lake Monona.

The other reason is that the menu sounded very interesting. Unfortunately, we didn’t find it to be quite as good as it sounded. Or quite as good as it should have been for the price. My husband ordered a salmon dish that came with potato pancakes. Well, the menu said potato pancakes but they were really more akin to hash brown squares. At somewhere around $15 (this was over a month ago so I don’t remember the exact price) , he felt it was definitely over-priced. I had a sandwich that included smoked salmon, our son had a burger. The pre-tip check was $41.15 for the three of us. On the positive side, the iced tea I had, a custom blend, was very good. On the negative side, it was very noisy.

We’re going back in two weeks. I’ll pull this up again if we try any new restaurants!

What a relief to finally have this done! I’ve felt so guilty about not finishing this trip report!

Oh, and a huge thank you to all of you who recommeded Red Wing when I posted asking for suggestions for a place to stay on the way home!


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Old Oct 20th, 2007, 07:47 PM
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Should be "recommended" of course!
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Old Oct 21st, 2007, 01:14 AM
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Hi CAPH - glad you like Red Wing. I have always loved that area too. We would go down to that area quite often when we lived in Mpls. Still like to go there when we are back in MN. Next trip, also go to Stillwater - also a neat town but upriver from Red Wing on the St Croix. We love that whole area. Glad your trip was so nice and I loved reading about everything.
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Old Oct 21st, 2007, 05:00 AM
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Hi CAPH52

What a wonderful report you've written! I enjoyed it so much with my coffee this morning. I feel as though I've been on vacation, but now I'm a bit hungry after reading about all your delicious meals! (turkey reuben with slaw, yum!)

My kids graduated college a few years ago, but oh how I remember the angst about getting the classes they wanted. Sometimes it seemed they had to go backwards before they could go forward. They had to take Class A before Class B, of course, but Class A wasn't available. Oh my. They eventually got thru (even in 4 years!) but it did seem there should be a better way.

Love the mustardweb site! "Bone Suckin' Sauce" and the King of the Mustards Gift Box is now on my gift list for the holidays!

Sounds like a lovely family vacation. We get fewer and fewer of those these days. Enjoy their company while it lasts!
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Old Oct 21st, 2007, 07:59 AM
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Thanks, Cali. A few others mentioned Stillwater when we were trying to decide where to stay. It's definitely a place I want to check out next time we get that way.

And thank you for hanging with me through this slow, arduous process! I can't believe I finally finished it!

Kopp, thanks so much for your kind words! I'm really glad you enjoyed my report. And the mustard website. Such a quirky little place! We picked up a jar of Bone Suckin' Sauce which we just about finished off when we grilled last night. Good stuff!

Wishing both of you ladies a very nice Sunday!
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