Lake Michicgan Trip Part One
Aug. 22nd, 2022 07:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ateolfSo, back from our week-long vacation up to Lake Michigan! We left Friday afternoon after lunch (I'd worked some extra the other days of the week to take the afternoon off). First we drove up to St. Louis. When we got into town our first stop was Park Chop Suey to pick up some St. Paul sandwiches. We took them over the river out past East St. Louis to the Cahokia Mounds and went up to the top of the big mound and ate them up there. There are these stairs to get up to the top. There was a guy running up and down them over and over (in much better shape than us!). The view up there was pretty great. Then we drove back into the city and got some "toasted ravioli" (I guess that sounded better than "fried ravioli"), I don't remember the place's name. We ate it in the car watching the neighborhood. Then we went and found Vintage Vinyl and I got a few cds: Bogdan Raczynski: Myloveislove; Cecil Taylor: Cell Walk for Celeste; Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet: Dim the Lights, Chill the Ham; and Radiohead: Kid A Mnesia. Then sleep at a Motel 6 (it was our only crappy hotel/motel for the trip, it was alright, the bed was uncomfortable though, I had been running on a sleep deficit for almost a week before this and did not make it up that night). We got up and had breakfast at Southwest Diner (it was good, southwestern-themed breakfast that happens to be on Southwest Ave.).
Then we made the drive up into Chicago. First place we stopped, coming up through the south side, was Calumet Fisheries, this shack on a drawbridge that has smoked fish. And we got some smoked fish and ate it in the car and it was delicious! Then we hit the strip and made it to some stores but every place had shortened their hours and closed much earlier than expected. I first made it into Reckless but I was rushed because I ended up only having a few minutes. But I did okay, I guess!: Coil: Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil; The Hafler Trio: I Never Knew Thats Who You Thought You Were; The Body and Big|Brave: Leaving None but Small Birds; Rapoon/Cisfinitum: Mental Travellers; Nurse with Wound: Shipwreck Radio Volume One: Seven Sonic Structures from Utavær; Eugene Chadbourne: There'll Be No Tears Tonight; Merzbow: Doors Open at 8 AM; and Harry Partch: The Harry Partch Collection • Volume 2. Then I made it over to Myopic which was also closing earlier than expected. But again, I got some books: The Questionnaire by Jiří Gruša (which I already have, oops!, once again different versions by different publishers threw me off!); The Door by Magda Szabó; Greed by Elfriede Jelinek; But for the Lovers by Wilfrido D. Nolledo; American Woman by Susan Choi; A Night at the Movies by Robert Coover; The Erasers by Alain Robbe-Grillet; and Sleeping on Jupiter by Anurandha Roy (and yes, I DID mix up the writer's name with Arundhati Roy so I have no idea what I've gotten into with this one!). Anyway, with things closing earlier than expected, we were at least able to make it to our motel at a decent hour and get caught up on sleep. It was called Regal Inn and it was surprisingly nice. Comfortable beds and we slept well. We stopped for breakfast at Little Goat Diner (a favorite spot).
Then we headed out up through Michigan along the lake. On our way to our destination, we made a few stops at beaches along the way up. Mostly around Manistee, if I recall correctly. Mary Beth got out and swam and I hung out these times. Had sandwiches at Shipwreck Cafe on the way. And then we made it up to our motel, the M22 Inn in Glen Arbor, tiny little tourist town but near the park and beaches we were going to. There was a nice little market next to our motel and we picked up some sandwiches and stuff there. I got really into the Black Cherry Vernors soda and drank as much as I could while we were in Michigan. We had dinner at this place right around the corner (well, I guess everything was) called Cherry Public House. Food was good, you did all the ordering online through a scanned qr code which was kinda weird but okay. Yeah, lots of cherry-themed foods on this trip! (I was definitely all for that!) Okay, so I'm going to break this up here and continue in another post!
Then we made the drive up into Chicago. First place we stopped, coming up through the south side, was Calumet Fisheries, this shack on a drawbridge that has smoked fish. And we got some smoked fish and ate it in the car and it was delicious! Then we hit the strip and made it to some stores but every place had shortened their hours and closed much earlier than expected. I first made it into Reckless but I was rushed because I ended up only having a few minutes. But I did okay, I guess!: Coil: Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil; The Hafler Trio: I Never Knew Thats Who You Thought You Were; The Body and Big|Brave: Leaving None but Small Birds; Rapoon/Cisfinitum: Mental Travellers; Nurse with Wound: Shipwreck Radio Volume One: Seven Sonic Structures from Utavær; Eugene Chadbourne: There'll Be No Tears Tonight; Merzbow: Doors Open at 8 AM; and Harry Partch: The Harry Partch Collection • Volume 2. Then I made it over to Myopic which was also closing earlier than expected. But again, I got some books: The Questionnaire by Jiří Gruša (which I already have, oops!, once again different versions by different publishers threw me off!); The Door by Magda Szabó; Greed by Elfriede Jelinek; But for the Lovers by Wilfrido D. Nolledo; American Woman by Susan Choi; A Night at the Movies by Robert Coover; The Erasers by Alain Robbe-Grillet; and Sleeping on Jupiter by Anurandha Roy (and yes, I DID mix up the writer's name with Arundhati Roy so I have no idea what I've gotten into with this one!). Anyway, with things closing earlier than expected, we were at least able to make it to our motel at a decent hour and get caught up on sleep. It was called Regal Inn and it was surprisingly nice. Comfortable beds and we slept well. We stopped for breakfast at Little Goat Diner (a favorite spot).
Then we headed out up through Michigan along the lake. On our way to our destination, we made a few stops at beaches along the way up. Mostly around Manistee, if I recall correctly. Mary Beth got out and swam and I hung out these times. Had sandwiches at Shipwreck Cafe on the way. And then we made it up to our motel, the M22 Inn in Glen Arbor, tiny little tourist town but near the park and beaches we were going to. There was a nice little market next to our motel and we picked up some sandwiches and stuff there. I got really into the Black Cherry Vernors soda and drank as much as I could while we were in Michigan. We had dinner at this place right around the corner (well, I guess everything was) called Cherry Public House. Food was good, you did all the ordering online through a scanned qr code which was kinda weird but okay. Yeah, lots of cherry-themed foods on this trip! (I was definitely all for that!) Okay, so I'm going to break this up here and continue in another post!
