Posts Tagged “rain”

This morning we had a quick trip to say goodbye to the Mall of America (to return something from yesterday) before we were off! First we headed into Minneapolis to visit the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. We love a sculpture garden!

The most famous and iconic sculpture there is the Spoonbridge and Cherry water fountain by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. Our picture doesn’t totally convey the piece though because it was pretty blah weather today with lots of rain, but here you go:

There’s a whole indoor component to the garden as well, but we couldn’t go in there because they were holding a wedding reception. We actually ended up semi-crashing the wedding ceremony!

I’m not sure what was going on because we saw a ton of people wandering around in formal attire, but they seemed to begin the ceremony (in the rain) with only a few people there. There may have been two events, but I think they just decided to go have a quick ceremony with only a few wedding guests because of the rain. Anyway, if the happy couple happens to read this, don’t worry, you guys. I’ve heard a rainy wedding day is supposed to be good luck! (I didn’t figure out who the groom was, but the bride appeared to be handling the situation with aplomb.)

Anyway, we drove through some pretty cute parts of town trying again to get an oil change (we were eventually successful after 3 attempts!) (and by the way, the guy who helped us at Jiffy Lube was totally nice, but he had no idea where D.C. is. He kept asking what state it was in because he couldn’t find it in his computer when he was entering our address. Brian was like, “it’s on the east coast… it doesn’t have congressional representation…”), then we ventured on to our next destination!

We went to the Ellingson Car Museum in Rogers, Minnesota! It was so fun!! They have an array of vintage (restored) cars from before the 20s to the 70s. They even have a Delorean:

And, in case that’s not awesome enough, they also have a wide variety of non-car memorabilia including a collection of signs, cameras, TVs, and Barbie dolls. This “mod hair” 70s Ken is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen:

Next we ventured to Darwin, Minnesota, to see the quintessential roadside attraction:

Yep. That is the World’s Largest Ball of Twine! Or, at least, it’s the World’s Largest Ball of Twine Rolled by a Single Person. (Turns out there’s also a World’s Largest Ball of Twine Rolled by a Community. That one’s in Kansas.) Anyway, when we arrived today, we found out that Darwin also boasts a Twine Ball Museum & Gift Shop, but alas, we didn’t get there until after it was closed for the day. Sorry, Twine Ball Museum & Gift Shop!

After that, we spent several hours driving through Minnesota’s smaller highways in the rain. We did get to see some pretty countryside:

Everything is more difficult in the rain (uff da), but we did manage to get to Worthington, Minn., and we’re staying at (shockingly) another Super 8. I have to say, I’m not as psyched about this one as I have been about some of the others, but what can you do? We are in the middle of nowhere here, people. Tomorrow, we will definitely make it to South Dakota and we are very excited!!

Today was mostly a driving day. I have to keep it real and let you know that this part of Wisconsin wasn’t all that interesting. I did, however, get my wish for cows:

We tried going to both Chippewa Falls and Eau Claire to find something interesting, but alas, there just wasn’t much for us. We didn’t do much research ahead of time to find anything awesome in this part of Wisconsin, so there may be great stuff around that we just don’t know about near where we were, but… another time, perhaps, Wisconsin. One interesting note is that we tried really hard to find a place where we could eat some Wisconsin cheese, but we were unsuccessful. It’s surprisingly challenging to find Wisconsin cheese in Wisconsin, apparently.

So anyway, now we’re in Minnesota!

We had a little housekeeping day today. I did laundry at a laundromat in St. Paul while Brian attempted to get Pearl’s oil changed (alas, that didn’t work out). Driving through Wisconsin all day, then doing laundry in some dubious neighborhood and driving around in search of Jiffy Lube in the rain (lots of crazy rain today, by the way) made us both kind of cranky and tired, so we found our Super 8 in Bloomington, Minnesota, home of the Mall of America, pretty early and are in for the evening already (and already feeling better). Tomorrow we should have more fun adventures to share!

Today’s journey took us through some very pretty parts of Pennsylvania:

And Pennsylvania thanked us when we left:

Then we were in Ohio!

Like PA, Ohio boasts lots of pretty farmland:

But I think what I will remember the most about Ohio is seeing the service plazas off the Ohio Turnpike shaped like Ralph Wiggum’s head (Brian’s words):

Right? Incredible likeness:

The other thing I noticed in Ohio was that many farms had a private pond, often with a little dock and/or diving board. They were all pretty awesome, but they only seemed to come up when I put the camera down. Sorry!

We also drove near Toledo! This is the first city we’ve actually really been able to see well from the highway since we left Virginia:

Anyway, then we got to Michigan!

We made a quick stop in Ann Arbor so we could go to Zingerman’s:

For the uninitiated: Zingerman’s is kind of the Zabar’s of the midwest (sans housewares). It’s an awesome deli with a ton of local products, gourmet food, things made with care, etc. It’s also a really interesting company with (apparently) good core values. So I’m a big fan, and so is Brian (in fact, going there today was his idea). Hooray!

We did run into some rain tonight, plus we had a silly little detour due to… construction, I guess (it wasn’t clear), so we had to backtrack a bit. We’re staying at the Knights Inn in Saginaw, Michigan, which is about 3 hours from Traverse City (though the detour may be an issue). We got in quite a bit earlier than we did last night, so we’re hoping for an earlier start tomorrow…

I just have to share a couple experiences from our Ocean City to DC leg yesterday. First of all, we enjoyed an important Ocean City tradition:

Thrasher’s is a french fry stand on the Ocean City boardwalk. It’s been there since 1929, so we’re not the first people to make it a tradition. The fries are cooked in peanut oil, and the stand has apple cider vinegar and salt to dress them with (no ketchup), and they are a delicious, greasy treat.

I also spent a ton of time trying to find Maryland’s official state cake while we were in OC. Oh, you didn’t know Maryland had a state cake? Well, they do. Actually, it just happened in April 2008 (before that, I don’t think Maryland had a state cake, and I also don’t know how many other states have official state cakes, but I think they should probably get on that because having a state cake is awesome). Anyway, Maryland’s cake is called Smith Island Cake. It originated on Smith Island, which is off the Eastern shore. It’s surprisingly challenging to find it in Ocean City, but I guess OC hasn’t had time to catch on to the state cake trend yet. (It is available at a place called Liquid Assets, but Brian was soooo not feeling their menu — not beachy enough — so maybe next time.) But you know where you can get it? Salisbury, Maryland, at Fratelli’s Ristorante. So we went there on our way home last night! And here is the cake!!!

The defining characteristic of Smith Island Cake is that it has these thin layers (8 to 15 of them). Other than that, it’s just a basic yellow cake with chocolate frosting (which is the classic flavor, but they are also made with all kinds of different flavors from banana to lemon to chocolate peanut butter to cookies & cream). Brian and I both opted for the classic yesterday and it was a truly delicious cake! So I’m proud that my former home state has adopted such a lovely official dessert. Good job, Maryland.

By the way, I learned from our waitress at Fratelli’s that the best place to get your very own freshly baked Smith Island Cake is Classic Cakes in Salisbury.

Also, although it was a bummer to cut our beach vacation a day short, I think it was a good call. This is what we were driving through last night:

… and that wasn’t even the rain we were warned about. Sheesh!