Category: Adventures (Page 3 of 4)

Itineraries-Attraction & Restaurant Planning

May 20, 2015 / Rachel / 0 Comments

So, you’ve got it in your head to take a trip. There are many factors to think about when planning…location, transportation, how far away is it from your home, what you’ll do, and time of year you’ll visit. While there are a host of things to think about as you plan, one of the main considerations is what will you do when you get there?

Taking into account your preferences for things you like to do is key. You may want to visit Prague like David and Rebekah, but you may want to sit in cafes or pubs and enjoy your reading list. For our family, we like a good mix of exploring, learning new things, trying local restaurants, and resting together.

Each new place you visit has something to offer–and typically you know ahead of time where you want to go because you’ve heard about one particular place or have a desire to visit. So you decide to visit, but what else are you going to do while you’re there? And where are you going to eat?

This is where all the fun research, daydreaming, and planning happens! I love this part of trip planning; making reservations, finding flights, etc., that’s all well and good, but the researching and figuring out what you will be doing when you visit a new place is almost as good as the trip itself. I enjoy it simply because it builds anticipation for the trip and excitement for whatever I’m about to experience. Today I’ll be sharing some of my favorite strategies for trip planning!

First, if I know someone where we are about to visit, I ask them for their favorite places to take friends and/or eat. If you know a local, that seems to be the best starting place. If I don’t know a local, I might consult friends who have visited or put a post on social media to see what suggestions others might have. Next, I use a combination of TripAdvisor, Groupon, Yelp, UrbanSpoon, and the city or state websites (most of which have websites dedicated specifically to attract visitors).

We love to find unique things to do, sometimes the timeline that we are planning to go on a trip coincides perfectly with a local festival or city event. Being able to find those gems and plan them into our trip is always a highlight.

As I said, I use a combination of tools to find things to do; reading reviews on TripAdvisor or Yelp and visiting attraction websites, is a great starting point. For attractions that seem interesting, I type up all the pertinent information: days & hours of operation, cost, ticket needed, is there a tour, parking, specific highlights of the attraction, or any specific notes from reviews such as best time of day to visit, etc. Once I’ve gathered all the relevant information, I try to “organize” it into a loose itinerary.Our family likes the structure of planning what we’ll do each day but by gathering the extra information such as days & hours of operation we also have some flexibility.

I use a similar strategy, although using primarily Yelp to finding restaurants and places to eat–this includes any snacks or dessert options. Once we have a good idea of what restaurant options are available, we may plan to bring or make breakfast/lunch foods from home. Again, I try to gather relevant information such as address, days and hours of operation, as well as get an idea of the type of cuisine and cost.

Once I’ve gathered all the information about things to do and places to eat, I’ve found it most helpful to map everything. This is an extra step that I don’t always take, but have found it to be very helpful, especially if you’re trying to save on fuel and mileage on your car. For example, during our Madison trip, our hotel was on the far west side, the first night we got into Madison, we ate at a restaurant that was less than a couple miles away. It would have been a pain (and made us more hungry) to go all the way to downtown or the east side of Madison just to eat that day. So, we were purposeful in planning all of our east, central, and west side attractions and restaurant groupings.

What tools do you use to plan your trips?

Foreigners in a Local’s Pub

May 11, 2015 / David / 0 Comments

It was our first day in Prague, and we were starving!

After enjoying Czech art at Mucha’s Slav Epic, Rebekah and I were hoping to find a local pub for lunch and since it was after 2:00 PM, the delicious breakfast from our hotel had worn off. Following a recommendation, we found the Golden Tiger Pub, located a short walk from the touristy Old Town Square. The Rick Steves guidebook warned that it was not a tourist-friendly pub. Not that the place was unfriendly, but that this pub catered to locals. That was an understatement.

Exterior of the Golden Tiger Pub

As we entered the pub’s rectangular room with simple tables and benches stretched along the long walls, we looked for an empty space. All the tables were packed. Catching the eye of an employee, I attempted to ask him for a table. He simply walked away. Total fail. When I returned to the bar he saw I was still there, and stated abruptly, “Wait here.” After a few minutes, he returned for us, ushering us to a table with four other people. He indicated we were to sit down by tossing two beer coasters on the table. Before walking off without saying a word, he set a blank sheet of paper on the table.

We sat, encouraged by this small achievement. We had a table. I looked for a menu, even turning the sheet of paper over in hopes of finding a list of food and drink options. Blank on the other side. Feeling out of place, we surveyed the other guests at our table. A young Czech couple sat next to me. On Rebekah’s side of the table, two retired Czech men chatted away. No one acknowledged us.

Suddenly, two full pints of Czech beer were set before us. Just as quickly, two hatch marks were added to our blank sheet of paper. “Oh, that’s the tab”, I realized. “But why had we received beers without ordering?” I wondered. As I looked at other tables, I realized everyone was drinking the same beer from the same glass. I guess this pub only serves one beer (Pilsner Urquell), and why would you be at a pub if you did not want a beer? I sipped the beer, enjoying the light yet flavorful taste. This is how a pilsner should taste.

The beer was wonderful, but we still had not ordered food, and we were hungry! When we entered, I noticed food on other tables. Finally catching our server’s attention, I requested a menu. He responded by walking off. He left me again feeling discouraged. However, in two minutes, he presented us with one menu to share.

We decided on a sausage plate and some beer cheese. Shockingly, our nameless waiter was back within a few moments to take our order. We pointed to our choices, and he briskly took the menu back from us, giving it to another table. Our order had been taken promptly because there were only a few food menus for the entire pub, and they needed it back.

Drinking the local brew, we waited for the food. A basket of bread appeared first. Soon after, two plates arrived at our table. The sausage, served with a house-made mustard and horseradish sauce was delicious. The beer cheese plate was a bit of a mystery. Two blobs dominated the dish, along with mustard and chopped onions. Thinking the smaller blob was cheese, Rebekah took a bite. Pure butter. She chased the butter with some bread. The first blob was the only cheese. And it smelled. With some effort, we spread the cheese on our bread. Adding the sausage, mustard and onions, we made miniature sandwiches. It was delicious! However, the Czechs at the table were visibly amused.

Almost finished with our meal, the young man sitting next to me turned away from his date, and asks, “What do you think of the cheese?” After sitting there for almost an hour and a half, our new friend spoke to us! Rebekah replied, “It is a bit strong.” He laughed, and informed us that we are eating it incorrectly. “You do not eat it on the bread”, he stated. I inquired, “How do you eat it then?” He replied, “I will show you,” ordering his own beer cheese. Turning back to the woman, he resumed his conversation without us.

Once his order arrived, he took a fork and began mashing the blob of cheese, mixing in the butter, mustard and onions. Still talking with his friend, he slowly, mechanically mixed his cheese for 15 minutes. It seemed like an hour. After this, he signaled to the waiter, who then brought a small shot glass full of a white liquid. Dumping it on the plate, he handed the glass back to the waiter without a word. For another ten minutes, he mixed the beer head/foam into the cheese concoction. Once complete, he turned to us and said, “This is how you eat the cheese.” Taking his knife, he smeared the mixture on a slice of bread, and proceeded to consume the entire concoction.

The Surprise Second Round

Thinking this unique experience was almost over, we began thinking about our bill. Before we could act, Rebekah’s empty beer stein was replaced with a full mug, and a third mark was added to our sheet of paper. I naïvely said, “I’ll help you with that,” thinking I had bested the unfamiliar system since I had left a small amount of beer in the bottom of my glass. However, as soon as I took a sip from her beer, my mug was also replenished, and a fourth mark added to our bill. Needless to say, we would be here for a while. The man next to me became more talkative, and shared some insights into the city and the music scene. This turned out to be a wonderful delay!

Two and a half hours after entering the Golden Tiger Pub, we managed to pay our bill. Not sure how to make the beer stop arriving, I put my wallet and money on the table, trying to convey, “We are ready to give you money!” The entire meal cost $14.40. For such a small amount of money, we had an amazing experience, one we will never forget. And we now know how to eat beer cheese in Prague!

Middleton, WI

April 16, 2015 / Rachel / 0 Comments

Just West of Madison is the suburb of Middleton; had we not arranged for our hotel to be in Middleton I think we likely would have missed out all we were able to enjoy there. Middleton is home to a number of little treasures, I’m going to share about three that we were able to visit.

After traveling up to Monroe, visiting Baumgartner’s, Minhas, and New Glarus, we drove up to our hotel in Middleton. Not wanting to venture into Madison proper yet, we searched for a place to grab dinner close to where we were staying. Yelp recommended Hubbard Avenue Diner, and it was all of three miles from our hotel so we said yes! Stepping in to Hubbard Ave Diner, you feel like you’ve stepped back in time. It has the quinntessential vibe of an old-timey diner with the menu and love of pie to prove it! Little did we know that they are all about the pie there! After waiting close to 45 minutes to get a table (it is a popular place on a Friday night!), we were seated and served quickly. When we visit a new place that we know we’ll only try once, Matt will always ask “what is the one dish we should have at this restaurant?”. Thus, he ended up with chicken pot pie and warm applesauce and I had the pot roast with veggies. We thought the specialty dish would have been a burger, but not here! The servers and clientele were all very friendly–an attitude we almost always experienced outside of Chicago and the suburbs! Unfortunately, we didn’t save room for pie but thought/hoped we might return another night when we were needing a snack.

Hubbard Avenue Diner Menu

Matt enjoying his last bites of applesauce.

The National Mustard Museum was by far one of my favorite parts of our trip. When I had been researching things to do I didn’t come across it–I think we actually discovered it via a brochure in the Hubbard Ave Diner. Just a block from the diner, we decided we had to check it out; the claim to fame was something along the lines that there were hundreds of different types of mustard and the museum was FREE. The upstairs of the museum is a huge mustard store and gift shop. Throughout the store, there were samples of different types of mustard with pretzels. or you can take a particular mustard to the counter and one of the helpful employees will pull an open jar from the refrigerator case and allow you to try it. The employees were so knowledgeable knowing the different styles and telling us about the different tasting notes–who knew mustard was so involved! Mustard and different gift boxes are available for purchase as well–we stocked up on Christmas gifts for our parents and they loved it! The downstairs is the actual “history of mustard”, everything from when it was first used, to when it started being mass produced as French’s. There are mustard jars from all parts of the world that line the walls, along with other memorabilia and even a little space to watch a film. I know that this was a random little museum, but I loved learning and sampling(!) the mustard.

Vending machine mustard at the National Mustard Museum.

Capital Brewery is also located in Middleton, just a few blocks from the diner and museum. For $7 you get to go on a tour of their facility, receive a commemorative glass and get to sample four of their beers. This seemed like a pretty good deal, so we arrived early and were able to purchase tickets, receive our four tokens for the beers, and glass, and go on an afternoon tour. They have since changed their process and you must reserve/purchase your tickets online, so be prepared for that. The start of the tour included an informational session in their lounge where you could start your samples while listening to the history of Capital Brewery. The tour then moves through their hallway of awards–we were surprised to learn of their achievements and awards–not because the beer wasn’t good, but because we hadn’t heard of them! As the tour moves into the warehouse where the beer is produced, they share their brewing process; the tour guide we had was very proud of their product and passionate to share with the group; it was a great way to spend $7 and 90 minutes.

Logistics: 3 Now that they have moved to an online reservation system, this seems like it would be easier because you have a guaranteed spot, but it does mean you have to plan.

Atmosphere: 2 There was at least one bachelor party in our tour group, along with several other obnoxious patrons that made the tour not as enjoyable.

Value: 4 $7 for a long tour, four samples and commemorative glass make for great value.

Beer-Taste: 4 There was a seasonal beer available that had pumpkin notes, along with their year-round beers, we were impressed and enjoyed all that we tried.

Beer-Variety: 4 There were 8 different beer options available, so you really had to choose your samples carefully!

Tour: 3 The tour was informative, but I think the guide being a bit over the top made the tour just ok for us.

So there is Middleton in a snapshot, I think we captured the highlights, but also wish we had more time to explore. What are some of your favorite unexpected places you’ve visited (like The National Mustard was for us) and why?

Monroe, WI

April 14, 2015 / Rachel / 3 Comments

Matt on the Monroe Square

On our trek to Madison, we detoured through rural northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin so that we could hit up Minhas Brewery. Located in Monroe, WI, we didn’t have detailed plans other than to arrive by 12pm so that we could be a part of the 1pm tour. Thankfully, Monroe was just a couple hour drive from our apartment, so we set out around 9a and arrived around 11:30a. We purchased tickets for the tour and explored the town square of Monroe. Unbeknownst to us at the time, Monroe is a Swiss town (and has the architecture to prove it!), and is the Swiss cheese capital of the U.S.!

Baumgartner’s Menu

Yelp told us that we had to check out Baumgartner’s Cheese Store and Tavern–it is, after all, Wisconsin’s oldest cheese store. Let’s just put it out there (and I think Rebekah will agree with me), that we’re never going to turn down visiting a “Cheese Store”. Baumgartner’s faces the town square and is a charming restaurant that seats about 50 people. The front of the establishment is the “store” with refrigerator cases of cheese and sausage with just a couple tables and chairs. The back of the store serves as the restaurant. Pulling up chairs to the counter, we perused the menu overhead and ordered. Now, if you’re in Wisconsin, it really should go without saying, but at every opportunity, you really should order a cheese plate. HELLO, YOU’RE IN WISCONSIN! So, what did I have for lunch? A sausage, cheese, and cracker plate with a cup of chili. #noshame Matt unsurprisingly ordered a Reuben. We were SO glad we visited–conversation among customers was easy, the food was delicious, and we loved the casual atmosphere.

Enjoying our soda and beer on the Minhas Tour

Minhas Brewery was the primary reason we came to Monroe, and we left happy travelers. The tour was promised to be at least 45 minutes, would include a walking tour through the buildings and production lines, and would include samples of their beers. The tour started with a short video explaining the history of the brewery’s 160 years of operation and various ownership. We were given samples during the video and our guide offered to “fill us up” prior to the walking tour. The walking tour took us through their brewing process all the way to packaging as we learned about the history of the buildings and evolution of the brewing strategies that have employed. We also learned that Minhas makes their own sodas under the label Blumer’s Soda and were educated on that process as well. At the end of the tour, each participant was given a 6 pack to take home–in the beer pack there were 4 different beers, 1 soda, and a commemorative glass; in the soda pack, there were 5 different sodas and a commemorative glass. For $10, this was a great value and such a fun tour: the guide was knowledgeable, the other tour participants were enjoyable to be around, and the beers and sodas were on point. Also to note, you have to check out “The Herb and Helen Haydock World of Beer Memorabilia Museum’ located in the Minhas Brewery gift shop!

I am going to just provide you with a snapshot of our brewery rubric, I think the highlights are captured above to give you a sense of what you’re getting into should you visit Minhas. Check out our Brewery Grading Rubric post for more info on the specific categories.

Disclaimer: for the Texans reading this, soda is synonymous with “pop” or “coke”; I know the exact terminology is debateable, but since we were in the North and it is associated with a label, we’re going to go with the local opinion on the matter.

Madison Trip Overview

April 13, 2015 / Rachel / 2 Comments

Matt and I have a tradition of alternating years that we plan something for our anniversary and birthdays. We’ve done everything from a weekend trip, to a basketball game, to (last year) eating at Wendy’s with our three week old. We both love this because we get the opportunity to surprise each other and not one person always has to be responsible.

For our second anniversary, we were both knee deep in work. Before I started at my full-time job, we had been taking short weekend trips about once every 6-8 weeks, but with both of us working it had become a lot harder to get away. We both desperately needed a change of scenery, even if for just a few days! We both love Wisconsin and the previous trips we had taken there, so naturally when it was my turn to plan, I chose to put together a long weekend trip where we might be able to explore a new area of the state.

Now, you’ve probably already picked up that we enjoy visiting breweries and trying new beers as well as exploring whatever new town/city we happen upon. Originally, I had the idea to drive out to a bed and breakfast that was also a brewery(!); I was SO excited about this. You can imagine my sadness when I researched and found out that it was in a super small town, where by my Google search, there wouldn’t be any restaurants and the brewery itself wouldn’t be open. I tried SO hard to tack this on to either the first night or last night of the trip, but it just did not pan out. So, back the drawing board! Thankfully I found a few great online resources to look up various breweries in southern Wisconsin and came across four different breweries within a couple hours of each other–two of which happened to be in Madison.

Once I figured out where in Wisconsin we would be going, it was easy to put the rest of the trip together. When I trip plan for us, I use TripAdvisor, Yelp, and even city websites to create a list of a handful of places that we might want to visit, this includes restaurants, breweries, museums, local events, points of interest, etc. I try to gather all the helpful information such as hours of operation, address, tickets needed, admission price, and any other helpful information. If I’m feeling really ambitious I put everything on a map so we can easily see what things we might want to do on the same day. We usually don’t set an itinerary unless we really want to see a particular museum and say it is only open on Friday afternoon, then we plan accordingly.

So, some of the things you’ll be reading about the next few days are from this southern Wisconsin and Madison trip. Because of our work schedules, we took three whole days (including travel), leaving on a Friday morning and returning Sunday late afternoon. We decided that we could have easily spent one more day in Madison because there were things we did pass up, but if you’re looking for a snapshot, I think we captured it. Here is an overview of what we’ll be covering the next few days.

Tuesday — Baumgartner’s Cheese Store and Tavern & Minhas Brewery, Monroe WI

Wednesday — New Glarus Brewing

Thursday — Hubbard Ave Diner, National Mustard Museum & Capital Brewery, Middleton WI

Monday — Wisconsin State Capitol & Madison Museum of Modern Art

Tuesday — The Old Fashioned & Marigold Kitchen

Wednesday — Ale Asylum