Marquette, Michigan: New Year's Eve Up North

Late afternoon on Lake Superior

We never get a white Christmas here in Texas.  But oh, do we love snow - so we decided to head north for New Year's Eve - really far north!  We spent just over a week in Marquette, Michigan, visiting with family - it's a lovely small town right on the shore of Lake Superior. Historically Marquette was  a mining town (and it still is), but is now more of a college town with a healthy downtown and plenty to do for kids and parents (whatever the season).

For starters, there is just so much natural beauty here - witness Presque Isle Park.  This serene wooded peninsula juts out into Lake Superior and is closed to cars in the winter, making it a great place for walks with fantastic views. In the summer you can ride your bicycle all the way out to the park along the paved path that hugs the shoreline. There are beaches and playgrounds along the way - we stopped at one icy beach and "skated" on the big ice puddles on the sand...

Strange beauty - sandy icicles 

There is also a bit of industrial beauty - on the short drive out to the park, we passed the enormous Ore Dock, with a train perched high above us, loading iron ore onto a huge ship. These incredibly long ships move slowly in and out of the harbor all day.

For the past several years, the Upper Peninsula Children's Museum has hosted a New Year's Eve party (with a deejay, cookies, and cider) for children and their parents. "Midnight" happens around 7:30 pm, out in the courtyard, with a countdown, a ball drop, and lots of cheering and noise-making when the ball hits bottom and starts flashing wildly. This is one of the most delightful and creative children's museums I've seen - so many fun and stimulating (and very much hands-on) exhibits are packed into this rambling upstairs space, it's inspiring.

The Ball Drop at the Upper Peninsula Children's Museum

The Head (those eyes can open from the inside) in the Body Exhibit

One corner of the Model Train

The Radio Station (broadcast to speakers located elsewhere in the Museum)

Mere steps (I'd say about three) from the Children's Museum is the unexpectedly wonderful Marquette Baking Company.  I did not expect to find top-notch bread and pastry in this neck of the woods (and I'm picky about bread), but here it is - their croissants are just so good! The Marquette Food Coop is also right next door (though soon moving into larger quarters a few blocks away) - it's my favorite place to pick up organic snacks, groceries, and whatever I forget from home (toothpaste, etc.).

The Marquette Baking Co.

One day, weary of throwing snowballs, we stopped by the NMU Superior Dome - the largest wooden dome in the world!  It's a truly impressive structure, and is free and open to the public.  My son ran races and generally got his ya-yas out just running around on the turf.

The NMU Superior Dome

The Peter White Library is another good place to go when you need to get out, but the weather isn't cooperating. The airy children's room takes up almost half of the basement level (it's light-filled thanks to the many windows and skylights), and includes a large play area stocked with toys and games, in addition to an impressive collection of books.

Sadly, the Marquette County History Museum was closed for maintenance this year - when we visited last year, we got to see their exhibits on local Native American history and culture (we hoped to get another look at their Wigwam), natural history, and Upper Peninsula culture. The Maritime Museum was also closed (for the season).  In summer, it's a fascinating place to learn about Lake Superior history. The Maritime Museum is a short walk along the lake from Lower Harbor Park and offers guided tours of the adjacent lighthouse.

The Maritime Museum

As for restaurants, nothing is too fancy, and there are many child-friendly options  - we ate pizza at Vango's, and had a pretty good health-conscious lunch at the Sweet Water Cafe.  For a nice dinner out, try the Vierling downtown (and order the whitefish!).

The Vierling, in the heart of downtown Marquette

San Antonio Daytrip

San Antonio is my favorite place for a daytrip - there is so much to do, so much history and atmosphere, and such variety of experience to be had.  We started off our weekend trip with lunch at Shilo's, an old-time German-Texan institution right in the heart of touristy downtown. Yes, it is full of tourists, but no matter - it's a fabulous survivor, with its wooden booths, raw plaster walls and tin ceiling.  The menu is full of German-Texan specialties like bratwurst and other sausages, potato pancakes, and sauerkraut.  The root beer is homemade and delicious.

Shilo's (photo from their website)

After lunch the relatives we were touring with suggested going for a boat ride, which is something we'd never done, but which suddenly sounded perfect after such a heavy lunch.  The Alamo could wait.  We picked up tickets down by the riverbank and after a few minutes wait were cruising peacefully along the river listening to our thankfully-low-key and knowledgeable tour guide.  The best parts were when we left the main part of the busy river walk, and explored the more workaday parts of the river - there's just no other way to get this interesting perspective on the city.

One of the floodgates on the San Antonio River (we're about to go through it here)

A river through the city...

And of course - the Alamo!

A bit later, we wandered all around the Alamo, which has lovely (if crowded) grounds.  A side building, originally the Old Convento, houses displays of nineteenth-century military uniforms, guns, swords, and other artifacts.  Outside, my son eagerly joined the crowd of children peering down into the acequia at the huge carp swimming to and fro.  I admit, these fish were really beautiful!

Later on, we tried to dine at La Gloria, but the hour-long wait again put us off.  Instead we found Tomatillo's, just a few blocks up Broadway.  This place is unassuming from the outside and couldn't be called hip, exactly, but has pretty darn good straightforward tex-mex (and good-enough margaritas served in comically large goblets).  Are you traveling with a bunch of kids and just need a good tex-mex place that will make everybody happy?  Tomatillo's is your place.

We had never visited the San Antonio Botanical Garden before, and boy, were we missing out!  It's beautiful and expansive, with so much to explore.  This was how we spent the next morning (and we'll need to go back, we couldn't see everything in just a few hours).

My son pointed out that this tree's not so great for climbing (there's a wonderful collection of potted citrus in the Orangerie in the background)

A map of the Gardens

The Gardens include some charmingly tiny historic houses, wide open lawns for running around in, a children's vegetable garden, a winding acequia, and a small Japanese garden with incredible bamboo fencing...

The Japanese Garden

There is also a series of rather futuristic glass pavilions and courtyards presiding over the site. My favorite, from a conceptual standpoint, was the Tropical Room, which housed coffee, chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon, and allspice plants - and many more in a similar vein. Here is the beautiful Desert Room...

p.s. I found out - sadly, too late for this little trip - that Trader Joe's is now open in San Antonio, in the lovely Alamo Heights neighborhood!  The perfect place for weekend trip snacks, right?  Of course, Central Market is always great too (that's where we went - it's worth checking out if you've never been.  Best supermarket ever.).

Armchair Traveler: Holiday Shopping at KIOSK

A tiny flock of sheep from Columbia, available at KIOSK

One of the fun things about traveling is shopping - and there are so many ways to shop!  You can shop for beautiful clothes, or antiques, or fabulous textiles...  Or (and this is my favorite, as a budget traveller) you can shop for little things - unfamiliar drugstore or candy items with intriguing packaging, little toys (a given with us), or other little bits and bobs that are easy to justify hauling back home.

My favorite souvenirs from Denmark include a handful of miniature (and cheap) comic books featuring Rasmus Klump, and a gorgeous (and rather hefty) 1950s book of nature photographs entitled Geheimnisvolles Leben Am Wasser - Mysterious Life on the Water. These sorts of unexpected finds from far-flung lands make great Christmas presents - they always feel special somehow.  But if you haven't managed an overseas shopping trip this year, have no fear - I have a solution!

Kiosk is a wonderful online shop (they also have a bricks-and-mortar shop in New York City, which also a delight). They describe themselves thusly:

"KIOSK is a travel story depicted through objects, a collection of interesting things from around the world, a study of material culture, a shop, several people's efforts to preserve unique and indigenous objects, an installation, maybe just something other than what we are used to."


The shop proprietors travel the world (Finland, Japan, India, Columbia, and more, including the U.S.A.) and sell what they discover. Chances are good that you'll find something you like too - something you won't find anywhere else.  Like these tiny terra cotta bricks from Columbia:

Or these funny cards from Portugal:

I love the look of this dartboard from Finland (it isn't for children, but I still love it):

Kraul in Germany makes wonderful toys (Walter Kraul was a teacher at the Rudolf Steiner School in Germany), but they're difficult to find in the U.S..  Kiosk offers this one:

Colorful chalk from Germany:

And from the good old US of A (specifically, Vermont), this beautiful wooden sled:

The product selection at Kiosk is always changing, and you just never know what will turn up. You can shop all of their children's items here.  

Chicago: Travelling with Baby

"Cloud Gate" (aka the Bean) by Anish Kapoor in Chicago's Millennium Park

To the new parent, traveling with a new baby can seem like a huge challenge, but it is more than doable, as evidenced by Leah's experience in the interview below.  I know from experience than in many ways traveling with  baby is easier than with a toddler - a baby is more willing to go where YOU want to go, and is easier to carry around.  There's no real reason to postpone that trip you want to take - it is very much worth getting out there with your baby!  Leah traveled with her family (including about-9-month-old Arlo) from Boston to Chicago and it sounds like a terrific trip.  

You recently spent a few days in Chicago - was this your first vacation with Arlo? 

Yes, it was our first family vacation on a plane! He slept almost the whole way during both trips!

Any special preparations you make for air travel with a baby? 

I read a bunch of blogs about what to bring and about how to travel with the baby, i.e., rent a car vs subway vs taxi cab and the required or suggested accoutrements. After a lot of back and forth, we decided that we didn't feel comfortable riding in cabs without a car seat so we bit the bullet and rented a car. It was a bit expensive but well worth the anxiety and stress we may have experienced had we just decided to chance it in taxi cabs. It also made it easier to get around the city because it was fast and we didn't have to depend on public transportation or anyone else. We also brought our BOB Stroller and our Ergo. They both worked out beautifully.

Tell us about some of the fun things you did on this trip! 

We did a lot of great things. We came to Chicago for a good friend's wedding so we attended that. It was great to show off Arlo to all of our good friends. We also went to the Renegade Craft Fair, explored Wicker Park and downtown Chicago by the Magnificent Mile (where we stayed), went to the Shedd Aquarium, explored Grant Park and the walked along the lake shore, ate a lot of good food and shopped! We also went to Hyde Park to see Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studio. I ended up going on the tour alone because we realized how difficult it was going to be for Arlo to be patient for an hour. Jesse walked around the neighborhood and looked at the beautiful houses while Arlo slept in the Ergo. I was the lucky one and got to see that magnificent house!

How did you accommodate the baby’s needs (naps, feeding, things like that)? 

When we were out on the town, he would sleep in the Bob a lot. We also made an effort to bring him back to the hotel after breakfast and let him take a nap. He napped a lot in the car seat in the car. We also were almost always at the hotel by 7 or 8 so he could go to bed at his normal time. Our first night, we walked for about 2 hours and didn't get home until 10pm and he slept in the Ergo. He was fantastic. I nursed him in the Ergo as needed or in the hotel. He enjoyed food at the restaurants as well. I have to say, the Bob Stroller was a life saver and really kept us organized.

Was there anything you tried to do that didn’t turn out so well? 

Not really. Although we left the wedding at 8:30pm because he was getting cranky. Other than that, he was a total champ.

Where would you love to take Arlo next? 

Our next trip will be to Marquette, MI to visit my mom, stepfather and father. I can't wait!!

Austin, Texas: Seven Old-School, Kid-Friendly Eats

Wherever we go, I like to find places that have a kind of authenticity to them - what you could call “old school,” whatever the local language.   As Austin’s population has exploded over the past decade, bringing with it all kinds of cool new places to eat, these old funky places have become increasingly rare.  So, I present to you, my picks for Old-School Austin Eats - all welcoming to children, naturally.  Visit them while you still can.

As you may notice, the dining establishments listed below are not the most healthful sorts of places - this is just how they rolled back in the good old days in Texas.  Burgers and ice cream figure heavily.  However, they do all have character and that counts for quite a bit in my book!  

Top Notch on Burnet Road

Top Notch
Top Notch is a fully-functional drive-in restaurant that serves burgers, fries, onion rings shakes, etc..  They also serve fried pies, which even my husband is nervous about eating.  Top Notch opened in 1971, and seems to have barely changed; you can get a look at it in Richard Linklater’s 1993 film Dazed and Confused.  

Dirty Martin’s
Another funky old burger place - this one has served the University of Texas community since 1926.  It was originally called Martin’s Kum-Bak place, but the dirt floor - now gone - earned it the nick-name “Dirty’s” or “Dirty Martin’s”. 

Cisco's on East Sixth Street

Cisco's
I will be honest and say that I have never ordered anything other than migas and biscuits while dining at this East Side institution.  I happen to find them divine.  My son adores the biscuits with a bit of honey. The walls are covered with framed news clippings about the owners and other miscellany. There is plenty for kids to gawk at and the service is pretty quick.

Nau's Enfield Drug on West Lynn

Nau's Enfield Drug 
This is a rare and precious thing nowadays - a real old-fashioned neighborhood pharmacy with a small lunch counter (and other seating) in the back.  Nau's serves the basics: grilled cheese, hamburgers, etc.  We usually go for the ice cream sundaes, which are just perfect.  

Sandy's on Barton Springs Road

Sandy's Frozen Custard
Sandy's has been handing out soft-serve custard (also known as ice cream - as well as burgers and other lunch grub) from it's walk-up window since 1946.  Located right in the middle of town on Barton Springs Road, it's still the perfect place to stop by on a ridiculously hot summer day.  Picnic tables are in the back.

Quality Seafood on Airport Boulevard

Quality Seafood
This place is part fish market and part restaurant (a little bar in the center divides the two).  It's my son's favorite restaurant - he is obsessed with their fried calimari.  I like it too - it is super casual, quite tasty, and one of a kind.  Sharks and other sea life hang from the ceiling, and the staff are nice as can be.

Matt's El Rancho on South Lamar

Matt’s El Rancho
Warning: this place is popular.  Go early or you may face a bit of a wait.  Otherwise, it’s your basic tex-mex served in a big, rambling, high-energy (but laid-back) space.  Lots of rooms for wandering through (when baby needs to move around); lots of sympathetic friendly people; a great spot for big groups.

Lockhart, Texas: Barbecue Roadtrip!

For some reason, my seven year old gets a kick out of this sign...

There are people who are truly obsessed with good barbecue.  I am not quite one of those people. However, I do love great dining establishments, and Smitty is undeniably one of these (vegetarians might reasonably disagree). 

There are three barbecue joints of note in Lockhart: the enormous Kreuz' Market, the cozy Black's, and the no-nonsense Smitty's Market.  We drove straight to Smitty's Market, which many people consider the best of the three (and one of the best anywhere).  

Yikes!

I won't disagree; I love this place, starting from the moment you walk in.   You open an old screen door and are faced with a long, disturbingly blackened hallway lined with wooden benches.  Everything looks smoked.  At the end of the dim corridor take a right, and behold: Fire!  The pitmasters toss together orders and pile it all on a tray lined with butcher paper.  No forks or knives, and don't ask.  Just pay up and head into the bright dining room in the front, where you can find sides (cole slaw, potato salad, etc.), and dollar cones of Bluebell ice cream.  Yum!

They have good sides too; I always order some potato salad, cole slaw, and beans

My son won’t go near the fires, and it is undoubtedly a little scary back there.  However, he loves the rest of it.  The ice cream doesn't hurt.

After our recent visit to Smitty’s, we walked a couple of blocks to see something really spooky - the Caldwell County Museum, which is housed in the old city jail (built in 1908-09).  I had expected to see a gutted and renovated (read: bland and sanitized) facility, but the original interior has hardly been touched.  It's really more of a Jail-themed museum, rather than a museum of Caldwell County. The ground floor was the warden’s family home, and is innocent enough.  But head upstairs (equipped with flashlights courtesy of the docent), and it’s hard not to get a little spooked.  The rusty cells (cages, really) are basically intact, and you can explore them freely.  The best room in the house is on the third floor; it has great views and nice cross-breezes.

Nice crenellation! That little door is the prisoners' entrance.

A view into the cells

A broom, of sorts

After that we needed a dose of happy reality so we headed to the pool at Lockhart State Park - nothing fancy; it feel like an extra large backyard pool.  On a hot and spooky day, it was just the thing.

San Francisco: Dolores Park and the Mission District

During a recent trip to San Francisco, we spent an afternoon in the awfully hip Mission District - lots of great little shops and places to eat, and, despite a great deal of gentrification, still some older places too. My husband was very pleased to see that the burrito joint he frequented during a teenage visit back in the 1980s was still going strong.

We arrived via the 16th Street BART station and walked straight to Bi-Rite Grocery for sandwiches and other picnicky stuff.  Bi-Rite is fashionable and crowded and hectic but is a good source for nice-quality lunch stuff.

For something sweet, I was determined to check out Tartine Bakery, which is just down the street from Bi-Rite. Despite the line (which looked scary-long but moved quickly), I knew this was the right decision as soon as I saw the place - good god, it smelled amazing! I bought some enormous chocolate chip cookies and some petite orange-currant ones (both proved to be delectable). Everything looked amazing.

Then we made out way to Dolores Park.  The park occupies several square blocks and features grassy slopes, scattered palm trees, and a brand-new totally-fun playground. My husband overheard one visitor remark "We came all this way to hang out at the park??" But with children, that's often just what we do. The trick is finding an amazing park like this one, with stunning views, delightful architecture all around, great food spread out on a blanket, and a well-designed play area. We were in heaven!

After getting our fill of playing and lounging and eating, we headed back into the neighborhood and paid a visit to Paxton Gate on Valencia Street. This store is fascinating for child and adult alike with its fanciful collection of taxidermy, pinned insects, fossils, stones, and related exquisite objects.  It is definitely exploring!