Mars Landing (on Canada)

This alone makes Canada worth the drive. If you're watching, Dad, this is for you!

Oeux, Canada!

We finally made it to Canada today!

After many long hours of driving, we made it to the border of Canada, and they actually let us in. We spent last night in Detroit, and this morning we took the Windsor Detroit Tunnel underneath the Fleming Channel that runs between the 2 cities. Border patrol was pretty easy, and we got in the country in under 5 minutes.

Driving in Canada is not difficult, until you get into Québec where all the signs stop producing English, and only speak in French. You get pretty used to ignoring street signs and anything that does not pertain to you. Luckily we came equipped with a GPS that works outside of the country and even speaks the language... kind of. If only she could order for us at the restaurants. I'm sure there's an app for that.

After crossing the border, we ended up at a festival in Ontario that had live music and lots of food. This was the place to be. We ended up ordering a traditional French-Canadian dish called poutine (pronounced "poo-teen" I think). This consists of French fries smothered in gravy with cheese curds. Many people make their own version and add other things, but this is the original, au naturale:

Great food so far here in Canada. We made it into Québec City tonight and are only about an hour away from our final destination of Charlevoix. We'll stay here until Tuesday when we head to the Ile d'Orléans (Orleans Island) for an afternoon before reaching Charlevoix. It's been a great adventure so far, but only getting started. Stay tuned and good night!

Caleb & Nadene

The Epicurators

Nebraska

Dear Nebraska,

You are flat and boring. And take a shower... you smell bad.

Sincerely,

The Epicurators

Faygo Pop!

Dear Michigan,

Thank you for Faygo Pop and Coney Dogs.

Sincerely,

The Epicurators

Chicago Detour

This should come as no surprise to most of you, but we’re big fans of the FoodNetwork. We watch everything from the cooking shows to the reality competitions. A few years back we watched a show called “The Best Thing I Ever Ate”. This is where several people from the network talk about the best thing they ever had within a certain category. On the ‘cheese’ episode, Tyler Florence mentioned that the best grilled cheese sandwich he had ever eaten was at the gift shop of Muir Woods National Monument in Mill Valley, CA. This seemed a little unusual, so naturally we had to find out for ourselves. We took a trip to Sonoma, CA and visited Muir Woods only to confirm Tyler Florence’s claim. It was certainly the best grilled cheese we had ever tasted… until today.

We took a detour from our planned route to visit the city of Chicago this afternoon. We recently read an article in Food&Wine magazine about the best grilled cheese sandwiches in America, and Grahamwiches in Chicago won the top spot. This sandwich is made with Wisconsin cheddar, a tomato marmalade, and cheese curds on a Pullman loaf. With the marmalade, it was like dipping each bite in tomato soup, but the bread never gets soggy! This definitely wins our vote for Best Grilled Cheese Sandwich ever. Sorry, Muir Woods (and Tyler Florence).

After eating, we had a little time to kill before our parking meter time was up, so we walked around downtown and had our picture taken over the Chicago River. This is the same river where we had our photo taken while visiting Josh and Emily in 2007. We were still dating then:

It has almost been 5 years exactly since that trip, but we are even more in love today than on our first trip to the Windy City!:

We’re making our way to Detroit this evening where there will be more eating and much fun. We’ll keep you posted on further adventures!

Salut,

Caleb and Nadene

The Epicurators

Des Moines, Iowa: La Mie Bakery

After camping just outside Des Moines we joined all the people headed to the state fair and found our way downtown to the city where John Wayne was born. We tipped our imaginary hats for you, Jim, as we drove by.

Downtown we were in for a surprise. We found a bakery in a little strip mall with a drab exterior, but inside it was beautiful and smelled incredible! We had French toast with peanut butter, bananas, and bacon topped with maple syrup. Notice the "perfect bite" on my fork! All elements included in that one.

Nadene had the asparagus omelet with creme fraiche and brie cheese that was so light and fluffy. The eggs were so thin and light it was almost like a crepe! Very French.

The Lattes and coffee were excellent as well. Thanks for the nice surprise, La Mie!

Caleb & Nadene
The Epicurators

Ready For Anything...

Loaded up with bikes and all, ready to take on the Canadian roads. Too bad we didn't bike all the way to Québec... maybe next year's vacation!