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Monday, August 25, 2008

Manistique and Chanticleer House

The drive home from the UP, much the same as the drive up. Long, long, long, but beautiful with the nearly cloudless skies and the cool air. It was cool enough, in fact, that I tested the seat warmers for the first time. Two things of note. First, the Upper Crust Cafe in Manistique, Michigan. It’s right off the highway, and it was the best reuben sandwich I had since the last time I was at Zingerman’s.

Second place of note is The Chanticleer Guest House in Sturgeon Bay, where we stayed for the night. It’s a lovely farm with an outdoor pool, sprawling garden, sheep safely grazing. An early dinner back at Sage, where the cheese fondue was so good and so filling that I barely touched my pizza, and then back to the room to watch Michelle Obama.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

On a Cloudy Day, You Can Still See Canada

Joe and Barb have taken to rating sunsets. Five criteria: spread, intensity, duration, presentation, and chutzpah. Their home in the UP is beautiful, with large windows facing the water and the daily sunsets. They’re steps from a pristine beach that stretches for miles in either direction from their home, and across the water you can see Canadian shore and rows of white turbines turning in the wind.

It took us roughly seven hours to get from Sturgeon Bay to their place. But much of it was, indeed, with the top down and the music playing. At 60 miles per hour, we could still hear the stereo and each other, though I will confess that the MX-5 prefers being driven at 85 and as much as I could, I obliged. Zoom zoom.

We didn’t really have much time--Saturday night through Monday morning. But it was time enough to take a long walk along the beach, share a couple of wonderful meals in their home (Joe’s a fantastic cook), venture out to Tahquamenon Falls, and catch up over some good wine. See my Tahquamenon Falls photo album ...

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Select Registry and the White Lace Inn

Ever since we drove home from the Mazda dealership with Honey P.’s pretty new MX-5, we’ve been fantasizing about long weekends spent driving, top down, through country roads. Radio blaring, wind in our faces, sun in our eyes, sangria in my cupholder (just kidding about the sangria). Granted, we were imagining ourselves doing this in Vermont, but an offer to visit from our friends Joe and Barb, who had completed their dream home in the UP, was close enough. So Friday, after my last conference call, we packed the car and headed up to Michigan, via Wisconsin, with a stop in Sturgeon Bay for the night.

The first three hours of the drive, harrowing. A hard rain began to fall as we entered the highway, and the road construction on 94W made for a very uncomfortable drive in narrow lanes next to big trucks without mud flaps. By the time we arrived in Wisconsin, however, the sun and broken through, and we arrived safely at the White Lace Inn in Sturgeon Bay.

Let me recommend for your consideration the Select Registry, a collection of bed and breakfasts across the country. We’ve stayed in five places within the registry, and all have been--at very least--quite nice. Some, like the Inn at Sunrise Point, are positively exquisite. The White Lace Inn is charming, a short walk from the bay and the middle of town. The main Inn is surrounded by a series of houses converted into suites for guests, with shared garden and koi pond.See my photo album of the White Lace Inn ...

We enjoyed dinner at Sage, a restaurant we’d been to five years back, when we first came to Door County. It was just as good as we remembered it, and arguably the best restaurant in the town. Then back to the Inn for a soak in the jacuzzi, a fire, bourbon, and episodes of The Wire.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Fun Stuff for Under $50

I just discovered these terrific wallets at Haus a couple of weekends ago. Cool, limited-edition designs that are earth-friendly and durable. They’re made of a synthetic material called tope that’s manufactured specifically for constructing these wallets. Water-, heat-, and tear-resistant, and some really cool prints as well. You can also order them online, but shopping at Haus is too much fun to miss.

I realize that I’m coming late to the Sigg bottle party, and damn! these things are hard to find. The mysigg.com site closed down because it couldn’t meet demand, REI is sold out of most of them, and amazon.com is now charging double (I kid you not, up from $21.95 to $45.00) for the few that you can purchase online. If you can find one, grab it!

Sunday, August 17, 2008

What More Could You Ask For?

What to do on a leisurely Saturday morning. What with the crazy work and social schedule of the last two months, I realized that I hadn’t yet had a quiet Saturday this summer, and I’d forgotten what to do with myself on a day during which my free time was disproportionately larger than the list of my responsibilities. Even better, the weather promised to provide more mild-and-sunny in a string of perfect summer days that we don’t see all that often in Chicago. The biggest event of the day was dinner at home with Jen, Ken, and Emma, so I figured I’d start there.

Early morning found me at the Saturday farmer’s market run by True Nature Foods. Our friends Greg and Stewart started bringing produce from their small farm in Wisconsin to the market last year--this year, their offerings and their stand are much larger. Their email from the night before promised me fresh herbs, onions, garlic, eggplant, zucchini, cucumbers, mesclun, and cheese--everything I needed for ratatouille and a side salad for dinner. I loaded up two bags with fresh vegetables and went across the way to the pasta whore.

Pasta Puttana. Homemade, organic, fresh pasta made by a young Italian woman in Chicago. This is her first year at the market (and I believe she also sells her pasta at the Green City Market). I bought enough fresh herb tagliatelle for five--a little pasta tossed with olive oil, bacon, and parmesan would be another nice dish.  Ah yes, and I also picked up a loaf of olive oil ciabatta from Red Hen Bakery, who supplies bread along with Blind Faith Cafe for True Nature. Finally, the entree. True Nature carries eggs and chicken from Country Cottage Farm, and it’s simply the best tasting poultry I can get in the city. I marinated a bunch of fryer pieces in lemon, olive oil, and chopped fresh herbs ... nothing like dinner on the grill!

I’d unpacked the groceries and prepped for dinner by 9:00 a.m., yay! The rest of the day spread out before me in a happy sprawl ... I had an extended-play workout at the gym, walked around the neighborhood, did two loads of laundry, watched the pilot for the now-defunct Birds of Prey series, read 100 pages of Middlemarch, configured Honey P.’s Garmin Nuvi 750 (an early birthday present from yours truly), configured RSS feeds and downloaded applications to my new iPhone G3 (the subject of an upcoming post in which I will eat crow), and for a little, did absolutely nothing at all.

Then, dinner. Great conversation, lots of laughing, lots of wine, intense chocolate gelato and sesame biscotti from Pasticerria Natalina, a martini, and a warm fire as we caught some of the Olympics together. It was a wonderful day, what more could you ask for?