Category Archives: Road Trips

Today, we drove back to Minnesota.

In Cedar Rapids, we visited Coe College, an institution from which I recieved many-a-mailing my senior year of high school in order to see their collection of Conger works as well as the semi-down-low Grant Woods collection they have there. Conger was totally disappointing, but Cone, another American painter whom they have 60 pieces by was fascinating. So, good morning.

Otherwise, we got to fully sample the rich fabric of small-town America taking 63 North back to Rochester and from there, rolling on to Minneapolis. We were totally thwarted by every cafe we tried to stop for lunch at after 1 pm, however we found some seriously excellent bakeries and returned to the homeland with a potpourri of loaves, sweets, and princess tortes. Excellent.

Last night I introduced Mom to the song, “What would Brian Boitano do?” from South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut while watching the NCAA tournament, which has been fantastically upsetting thus far. Frankly, I’m glad I didn’t make a bracket this year because there is no way I ever would have picked even remotely right.

Tomorrow, back to the real world.

Confirming my theory about last night, after sitting down on my bed to watch Grey’s Anatomy, I really did not move from it for the rest of the night. Like, getting up for Chardonnay was a major undertaking. But I was SO happy. Volksmarching through the city is hard.

This morning we slept in, scavenged for breakfast and checked out of our hotel – the only two items on the agenda being lunch at Lawry’s and driving to Cedar Rapids, IA.

Yes, Lawry’s is a seasoned salt. BUT, it is also a steakhouse. And honestly, next to Jax, it may be my favorite. It is everything that a glamourous, classic steakhouse should be. Plus, their lunch specials are out-of-this world. If Lawry’s was in Minneapolis, I think I would be hauling people there all the time. Nevertheless, Mom and I had an extremely pleasant lunch of prime rib in various incarnations culminating with the “Chocolate Bag.” The Chocolate Bag is a dessert – it is a bag of dark chocolate filled with white chocolate mousse and berries. It is a lot like heaven.

The rest of the day was dedicated to driving to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. What a thrill – we got to bond with every small town and corn field that America’s bread basket has to offer.

That being said, we do have a great suite at the Residence Inn. The best part is at this hotel, they have a sign that welcomes their perks club members by name and level. So when we checked in, it said, “Basic: Pamela W.” Like, OMFG.

I will spend the rest of the night on the couch watching the NCAA tournament and reading home design magazines with a bottle of J.W. Morris Merlot. Rock.

Mom and I left this morning at 5 am. Which, given the hour, was pure magic. It was actually nice to see the sun rise as we drove through Wisconsin but seriously, it was still an indecent hour to set out at.

As per the Girl Adventure-Itinerary, we ate breakfast at Denny’s Diner in the Wisconsin Dells, a throwback to the days when we had a yearly family vacation there at the end of August. Denny’s is decorated in a totally 50′s motif. However, in the spirit of St. Patrick’s day, they had boldly re-purposed their white Christmas tree as a St. Patrick’s day tree. C’est magique.

We got into Chicago about an hour early, which was super (Note: I didn’t know that Soldier Field looked so…historical). We’re at the Hyatt on Wacker (I knw, right?), and the best part about our room is that we’re super-close to an office building and the workers inside are totally excellent for people-watching.

Once we managed to get the car into a safe ramp, we found ourselves at “the bean” in Millenium Park. For those of you who know Tiffany & Co., the bean is a classic necklace pendant, so really its almost as if something came along and laid a giant Tiffany egg.

Following that portion of our adventure, I spotted the Chicago Public Library which turns out to be home to the largest Tiffany-glass dome in the world. Totally worth it.

Finally, making up for my lack of St. Paddy’s yesterday, Mom and I had dinner at Elephant and Castle (a pub).