Picture of the Day: Tombs at Saint Louis Cemetery #1

New Orleans, Louisiana
United States
1.02.2012 

Picture of the Day: Street Signs in Times Square

New York, New York
12.20.2011 

Woodstock, Ontario: The Dairy Capitol of Canada

Yesterday evening I returned from a short business trip to Woodstock, Ontario. The city's website describes it thus, "We have much to offer in our city of 38,000 including tree lined streets, century old homes, abundant parkland and friendly citizens. Woodstock's history is preserved not only in our Museum and County Courthouse, but in our downtown buildings and beautiful Victorian heritage homes."  

It sounds like a quant small town and a nice place to wander around after finishing work for a day, right? Yeah, well that didn't happen. Over the first three days of this week I have managed to put in just over forty hours of work so in the limited time I wasn't working I was exhausted and trying to get a little sleep. Speaking of sleeping, the hotel I was staying at, The Woodstock Holiday Inn Express, apparently hosted Donny Osmond at some point. In the lobby next to the elevator was a photocopy of his portrait which he had signed expressing his thanks to the hotel staff. In my exhausted stupor this picture caused me no end of amusement every time I passed by it.

On the food front, I managed to squeeze in a few distinctly Canadian things to eat. Monday night we had finally arrived in town at eleven at night. We were starving since we had driven straight from work and hadn't eaten anything. Actually, that is not quite true. I ate a bag of Cheetos and drank a Coke that I bought from the work vending machine before we took off. Unfortunately I have Coke and Cheetos way too often for dinner. I digress. It was late, we were hungry and everything was closed but the lights at Tim Horton's were still on. We drove by and luckily enough the drive through was open. I got my go to Timmy's meal: egg salad sandwich, soda and a honey crueller. After I checked into my room I quickly devoured it and passed out asleep. We have Tim Horton's in Michigan but I tend to only go there when I am in Canada. I think that somehow being in Canada makes it taste better.

On Tuesday I was up at 5:30 and didn't finish work until nearly 9:30 that night. My colleagues and I opted to eat at Montana's Cookhouse solely because it was across the street from our hotel. It is a Canadian restaurant chain and the food was pretty good. I ordered a chipotle firecracker burger which was topped with bacon, colby cheese, fried jalapenos, crispy onions and chipotle honey BBQ sauce. Being in Canada, of course I had gravy with my fries. I don't normally drink on weeknights, but after the day I had I thought something was in order so I got a Caeser to drink. A Caesar is a classic Canadian mixed drink and is kind of like a Bloody Mary but with clamato juice instead of spicy tomato juice. It's pretty fantastic.

Wednesday after we finished for the day we decided to get a little something to eat before driving back to Michigan. A quick option was needed since we wanted to get on the road as soon as possible. We spotted a little roadside shop called Great Greek Souvlaki. It had a walk up window decorating with signs proclaiming the food's excellence and picnic table seating with umbrellas out front. I got an excellent lamb and beef gyro and couldn't resist a small order of poutine as well. Poutine is French-Canadian in origin and consists of fries topped with cheese curds and gravy. The version I ate had shredded cheese instead of curds, but it was still pretty good and hit the spot before we hit the road.

On the way out of town I did manage to see one sight: the Springbank Snow Countess Monument. As we were driving toward the highway I spotted it on the side of the road and convinced my co-worker to stop for five minutes so I could check it out. The Countess was a famous cow in her day, earning the world record for producing more butterfat over her lifetime than any other cow in the world. She held the record from 1933 through 1954 and the life-size statue was erected in her honor in 1937. No wonder Woodstock is known as the Dairy Capitol of Canada!

Do you have any favorite (or favourite) Canadian foods or drinks? Have you ever stayed at a hotel that Donny Osmond stayed at? Would you make your co-worker stop the car to take a picture of a cow statue? 

Picture of the Day: Sunset On Lake LeAnn

Jerome, Michigan
United States
7.05.2012 

Picture of the Day: Tiger Jellyfish at Shedd Aquarium

Chicago, Illinois, United States
5.28.2011

Picture of the Day: Degas Ballerinas at the Norton Simon

Norton Simon Museum
Pasadena, California
United States
12.2010 

Cincinnati Eats

I had to make a quick trip down to Northern Kentucky for work earlier this week and had the chance on the drive down and on the way back to try a few new restaurants in the Cincinnati area.

On Monday evening we pulled into Blue Ash Chili at eight p.m., just in time to eat before they closed at 8:30. I really enjoy Cincinnati style chili and Blue Ash Chili had a lot of rave reviews so I thought it would be fun to try it. I got a 3-Way which is spaghetti topped with chili and cheese. For reference, a 4-Way is a 3-Way with the addition of beans or onions and a 5-Way is a 3-Way with both beans and onions. Blue Ash Chili also featured a topping unique to their restaurant: fried jalapeño caps. Of course I had to have them added to my 3-Way. I really loved it. The spicy jalapeños gave an excellent kick to my 3-Way. The service was also really quick and we ordered, got our food, ate and left in under thirty minutes which was nice since we still had an hour and a half drive remaining that night. Overall it was delicious chili and I would go there again if I had the chance.

On Tuesday as we drove back we arrived for an early dinner at Terry's Turf Club at four o'clock, right when it opened. I had read that it was a popular place and fills up fast but we had no problems getting a seat since it was early on a weekday. I will say that almost all the tables had people seated at them by 4:30, though. The decor is really charming full of vintage neon signs and posters. The vibrant colors and neon continued outside as well, and I also spotted some old brightly colored stadium seats for waiting in line to get in, I presume. Besides the fun decor, another thing that I liked about Terry's was that every table has a bowl of peanuts and you can just toss your shells on the floor as you snack on them.

The menu looked awesome. I had never seen foie gras on the menu at a diner before so I decided to try it. It was served with toast points, grilled apple slices and a pomegranate pear sauce. It wasn't the best foie gras that I had ever had but it was pretty darn good. The burger, on the other hand, was probably the best burger I have ever eaten. Terry's offers all sorts of sauces and toppings for your burger and I couldn't resist getting Stilton cheese and the Burgundy wine with wild mushrooms and truffle sauce. The burger was perfectly cooked and both the sauce and the cheese were to die for. Absolutely delicious! Terry's is definitely worth a detour if you are anywhere in the area. 

Picture of the Day: Empire State Building at Night

New York, New York
12.21.2011 

Photo of the Day: View From Cadillac Mountain in Acadia NP

Acadia National Park
Maine, United States
5.21.2009

Picture of the Day: Tourists at the Base of Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
5.18.2009