Tuesday February 9, 2010

Day trips from the Twin Cities Guide

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Destination	Miles *	Description
The Green Room Waconia, MN	32.8 mi. map	When a storefront in sweet downtown Waconia became available this year, Keven Kvalsten, Tom Peterson and Peterson's cousin Matty O'Reilly teamed up, rolled up their sleeves, stretched a shoestring budget and launched the Green Room. Kvalsten's cooking stresses comfort, quality and value. A hearty bacon-wrapped meatloaf is just $11, and a mouthwatering Minnesota-raised pork loin, paired with apples and cabbage, is a bargain at $15. ... The cheery room (yes, the walls are the color of a freshly mowed May lawn) matches the mood of the friendly staffers, and the brief wine list is priced to move. In short, it's the cafe every town should be so lucky to have on its Main Street. -- Rick Nelson
Red Wing, MN	51 mi. map	Over the past decade or two, Red Wing experienced that minor city sprawl that many big small towns suffer. After a morning of historical tours, you can lunch at the local Applebee's, or you can hike the bluffs with boots purchased from the ol' Target on the edge of town. The silver lining, however, of the unfortunate highway development is that Red Wing has become a perfect, about-an-hour-away getaway for the relatively unambitious. Get your fix of history and both natural and man-made beauty on the Main Street of the rail-and-river town before retreating to the fringes for guilty modern indulgences like Godfather's Pizza or the exemplary indoor/outdoor pool at the Best Western (when you see a swim-through, you know chances are good you'll achieve the weekend vacationer's dream of drinking vodka and smoking cigarettes in an outdoor pool without getting in trouble, and the Best Western is no exception). The loss of the Ben Franklin store makes the town a little less Lynchian, but it's worth the drive nevertheless. Confidential to single ladies: A single night spent touring the taverns of Red Wing produced one marriage proposal, a handful of phone numbers and several local gentlemen who happened to possess a special talent for showing city girls around town. -- Emily Condon
Taylors Falls, MN	55.8 mi. map	There's nothing more soothing than watching the hypnotic rapids of the St. Croix River, especially when viewed from high atop the tree-covered cliffs of Interstate Park next to Taylors Falls. Just an hour from Minneapolis and just 15 minutes from my hometown, the park is both a day-trip destination and a nostalgic haven for me. Back in high school, the first warm days of May -- when a teenager couldn't possibly be expected to sit through an entire day of class -- were spent hiking with my pals to the highest rock formations, where we believed no park ranger could see us smoking Camel Wides or hear 311's music serenading us from a boombox. And no trip to the top was complete without a round of Hot Stuff pizza slices to go, bought with our hard-earned minimum wages at the Holiday station on the way. Nowadays, I forgo the company of friends when I drive to the park on those first warm days of May. When I need to disconnect, I'll head up there around noon on a Wednesday and navigate the trails by myself for a quiet, meditative day. It reminds me how simple a pleasure can be, even without cigarettes, music or gas-station pizza. -- Alexis McKinnis
Fisher's Club Avon, MN	94 mi. map	Nothing embodies up-to-the-lake goodness better than Fisher's Club. The 74-year-old glory was recently sold by its second-generation owners, and the transaction could have been a cause for concern. But not to worry. This veritable chapel of knotty pine was purchased by a group of investors that includes Mr. Lake Wobegon himself, Garrison Keillor, and these new keepers of the Fisher's Club flame appear to be exceptional stewards of its irreplaceable legacy. The kitchen follows standard operating supper-club procedure, which means lots of walleye, broasted chicken, steaks and burger baskets at reasonable prices. But many dishes go back, in Minnesota-speak, to "olden times" (translation: recipes resurrected from the club's archives), including battered and deep-fried sunfish (with a chunky, packed-full-of-chopped-pickles tartar sauce), a lusciously creamy coleslaw, a potato salad fit for a king (or at least radio royalty) and a boffo relish tray loaded with liverwurst, meatballs, pickled herring and garlic toast. -- Rick Nelson
Schell's Brewery New Ulm, MN	102 mi. map	In a pleasant twist of fate for the town of 14,000, small retailers thrive in a time warp. Unlike many small towns that tore down their 1920s, '30s or '40s charm and replaced it with forgettable concrete boxes in the '60s and '70s, New Ulm embraced its past (or stubbornly refused to change). The magnificent park system -- including German Park, where Bavarian Blast will be held, and Hermann Heights Park with its imposing copper monument of Hermann the German -- is as beautiful as Minneapolis' Chain of Lakes. Those shopping outside the Twin Cities' big boxes won't be disappointed. I saw a number of items that were cheaper in New Ulm than in the Cities. Curt Lambrecht, who owns Lambrecht's Gifts and the Christmas Haus, said New Ulm's population is fiscally conservative: "We're a small town with small-town prices," he said. -- John Ewoldt It's home to the second-oldest family-owned brewery in America (Schell's), the second-largest copper statue in America after the Statue of Liberty (Hermann the German, newly refurbished), the most polka-ized German festival in Minnesota (Bavarian Blast, July 20 through 22) and the state's winningest high-school baseball coach (Jim Senske, my uncle). At least that first distinction should sell you on the 90-mile drive southwest of the Twin Cities down Hwy. 169 toward the state's Germanic hub. Schell's gives two to four tours daily ($2), and if the free and fresh beer won't get you there, then how about its Prohibition-dissing history and surprisingly picturesque grounds? More info at www.schellsbrewery.com. There's also some fine scenery just over the hill from the brewery at Flandrau State Park, a great place to hike off the beer. Or head downtown to Veigel's Kaiserhoff, the best German restaurant in town -- and a great place to put on some more beer. -- Chris Riemenschneider
Signatures Winona, MN	131 mi. map	If the dining room is a bit bland, the surroundings are anything but, a beautifully groomed 1920 golf course tucked into the craggy hills on the city's southwestern edge. Wide windows on the 18th hole open out to verdant, steep, mist-filled valleys. It's a stunner. Chef Matt Schoeller's work often lives up to the setting. A New York strip bison steak, grilled to juicy, full-flavored perfection, was paired with creamy potatoes loaded with a pungent blue cheese made in Faribault, Minn. A beer demiglace put a welcome gloss on beautifully braised lamb shanks. -- Rick Nelson
Boathouse Superior, WI	160 mi. map	I think that I can't be the only Twin Citian who thinks of Superior as little more than a blur out the window en route to the Apostle Islands. But I've revised my mindset now that Kirk Bratrud has rolled into town. Three years ago, the former owner of the Bayport Cookery teamed up with his brother Grant (Kirk does the cooking; Grant manages the house) and they opened the Boathouse, a Barkers Island bastion of passionate, original dining. Bratrud has a yen for rooting out top-drawer ingredients -- whether it's elk from Siren, Wis., chanterelles from nearby woods, crayfish from pristine northern lakes or north- and south-shore trout -- and liberally sprinkles his seasonally influenced menus with veal sweetbreads, foie gras, hemp seed-crusted tofu and other this-ain't-Culver's taste treats. ... By keeping most entree prices below $20, Bratrud thumbs his nose at citified prices, and the well-chosen wine list is similarly affordable. Service is affable and the waters-edge patio is deeply alluring." If you want to escape to a world of good eats, wine and amazing views head to 35S on the Wisconsin side. Start in Prescott and work your way down through Maiden Rock, Stockholm, Pepin, Nelson and Alma. You can stop at galleries, Nelson Cheese Factory (awesome wine bar), Harbor View Cafe (new owners great menu still), Gelly's and many more. Wonder and you will discover great bread shops and great local produce sold roadside. Go early!! -- Rick Nelson
Duluth Delights At Sarah's Table / Chester Creek Cafe Nokomis Restaurant and Bar Duluth, MN	178 mi. map	The sign on the building reads Taran's Market Place, lifted from the former Taran's grocery that once occupied the corner of 19th Av. and 8th St. on Duluth's East Side. The titles on the door -- At Sara's Table/Chester Creek Cafe -- are nods to the former Park Point coffeehouse that relocated up the hill and a nearby stream, respectively. All three names reflect the same business, an informal and impressive breakfast-lunch-dinner magnet for nearby University of Minnesota staffers and students. Morning hours are all about platters heaped with omelets and scrambles, big steaming bowls of oatmeal and thick, smoky strips of bacon, but the real stars are the crisp waffles, marvelous wild rice-cranberry French toast and sturdy buttermilk pancakes, all finished with either a dizzyingly good maple syrup by Duluthian Dave Rogotsky or a quirky apple-beer syrup that's an old family recipe of co-owner Barbara Neubert. Neubert and partner Carla Blumberg put a premium on organic, locally raised ingredients. Two-thirds of the very drinkable wines are priced at $25 or less per bottle. Best of all are the gorgeous apple, blueberry and strawberry-rhubarb pies; a slice of baker Diane Bailey's handiwork is truly the perfect cap to a whatever-this-place-is-called visit. Ten miles northeast, on the old shoreline highway to Two Harbors, lies Nokomis Restaurant & Bar. Chef/owner Sean Lewis has dropped the building's former supper club roots -- how many North Shore establishments send a petit four out with the check? -- and created a destination restaurant that's genuinely worth the detour. Lewis, who trained in several Chicago restaurants before opening Nokomis last year, concentrates on fish and flavorful accents: Lake Superior whitefish with a yellow tomato gazpacho; striped bass with fennel, English peas and pickled red pearl onions; and cakes made with herring (also from the lake) and Thai chiles layered into red pepper aioli-slathered rosemary focaccia. Other crowd-pleasing choices (entrees $9 to $18 at lunch, $17 to $29 at dinner) include a designer burger, praline- and pistachio-crusted chicken with a lovely lingering thyme hint, a beaut of a cheese plate and a fine pizza covered in pesto, asparagus and prosciutto. The wide-open dining room's vast picture windows frame dazzling lake views, and a patio and fire pit with equally exceptional vistas is on its way, fast. During a recent meal, the couple seated to my left were conversing in French (turns out their car, parked next to mine, bore Quebec license plates), and while my grasp of their language is shaky at best, I'm fairly certain one of them said, "Let's come back." I nodded in agreement. -- Rick Nelson
Grotto of the Redemption West Bend, IA	191 mi.	Spanning a city block, the Grotto of the Redemption is a maze of semi-precious stones, crystals, glass and statues held together through the magic of cement. Seminarian Paul Dobberstein claimed that the Virgin Mary cured him of a deadly bout of pneumonia, so he dedicated 42 years of his life to creating this Old World-style grotto on the flat plains of Iowa. The Rev. Dobberstein was stationed in West Bend, Iowa, in 1898, but the rich black soil held nary a rock. The priest was undeterred and spent the next decade stockpiling rocks for his dream grotto. He traveled far and wide, hauling back hundreds of pounds of rocks, crystals and minerals from such places as Hot Springs, Ark., and the Black Hills of South Dakota. He justified his obsession by citing a Biblical passage, Isaiah 54:11-12 (emphasis his): "Thou, the friendless, the storm-beaten, the inconsolable, shalt have a PAVEMENT of patterned STONES, and thy FOUNDATIONS shall be of SAPPHIRE; thou shalt have turrets of JASPER, and gates of carved GEMS, and all the BOUNDARY STONES, shall be JEWELS." Travelers needn't hop on a jet to visit European sculpted gardens with Stations of the Cross. Simply head south on Interstate Hwy. 35 over the Iowa border. Go west at Clear Lake (where the music died), stop at the Hobo Museum in Britt, and revel in the world's largest grotto with the largest known collection of semi-precious stones in West Bend. Even the Grotto's restaurant and restrooms are plastered with polished stones. -- Eric Dregni
Life of Pie Turtle Bread Linden Hills Minneapolis Park Cafe - Strelow Braham, MN Betty's Pies Two Harbors, MN	202 mi. map	New York has apples. L.A. has sugar-soft beaches. But we in the Midwest have pie. We win. Minnesota is the Nascar of Pies. The central fruit-filling standard. Start with breakfast at Turtlebread Bakery in Linden Hills in Minneapolis and pick up a latte and a slice of pie to go. I recommend the Bourbon Pecan Pie. My grandfather always recommended starting the day out with a little bourbon in your coffee. For lunch, head to delightful Braham, Minn., officially declared the "Homemade Pie Capital of Minnesota" by Gov. Rudy Perpich in 1990. Go to the Park Cafe, where owner Ellie Grell says Banana Cream Pie is the most popular. If you go on Aug. 4, you'll be there for Braham Pie Day (www.pieday.com). Highlights include pie and ice cream served in the park, the Pie-Alluia chorus, a senior pie-eating contest, a pie race and a Sweetie Pie Street Dance. Continue on Interstate Hwy. 35 north, through Duluth, for dinner at Betty's Pies along Hwy. 61. Drink in noble blue Lake Superior while slamming a sweet slab of French Cherry Cream pie or the five-layer Chocolate pie, an insouciant light flaky crust molested by dark chocolate, cinnamon meringue and chocolate whipped cream. Trip advice: The same as life -- drive slow, stop often, and take Tums. -- Heather McElhatton
Noah's Ark Wisconsin Dells, WI	218.3 mi. map	First, let's clear this up: 1) You're not too old for waterparks. Noah's Ark Water Park in Wisconsin Dells is decadently frivolous, maybe, but summer is too short. 2) Indoor waterparks may be all the rage around here, but they don't cut it, especially at the height of summer. The 70-acre Noah's Ark is billed as America's Largest Waterpark, and I believe it, with more than 40 outdoor waterslides (arranged in matching pairs, like Noah's animals in Genesis). Among the best: Dark Voyage sinks a raft of four people into a vortex of steamy blackness until you're completely disoriented. The Stingray is an ingeniously thrilling take on a half-pipe (and it's shaped like a pair of stingrays). Then there are the requisite vertical-drop slides, including the steep Plunge and the practically upside-down Point of No Return. For pure simplicity, the ordinary, twisting open-air slides are some of the longest and best designed I've seen. And the larger of the two wavepools, the Big Kahuna, is so voluminous and powerful that you'll need to pace yourself to survive it without a tube rental. What's more, you can get there and back in a day. Get your friends to take off a middle-weekday to minimize crowds. Leave home at 9 a.m., play in the water all day and return by 11 p.m. If you prefer to savor the cheese of Dells Vegas, book a room or suite at the affiliated Flamingo Motel, which has zero amenities but offers two free Ark tickets per night. -- Simon Peter Groebner
Chez Jude Grand Marais, MN	264 mi. map	From my perch at the enchanting Chez Jude, my eyes bounced among countless postcard-worthy images: the town's snug New England-like harbor, the delphiniums bursting like rockets from the restaurant's well-tended gardens and the lovely piece of smoked lake trout dressed with capers and herbs that chef/owner Judi Barsness was sending out as a salutation to her guests that evening. The menu changes weekly at this year-old gem, housed in a lovely yellow cottage, with Barsness and her crew buffing a polish on local treasures: Lake Superior fish, breads from a skilled neighboring baker, produce raised by a nearby subscription farm. A smoker in the back yard and a wood-burning oven in the kitchen add tantalizing flavor layers, from meaty pork ribs slathered with a slow-burn maple barbecue sauce and flavorful duck with wild rice risotto to wild-caught salmon and a brioche sandwich piled with prosciutto, apples, cheddar and a sweet fig jam. (Chez Jude's barbecue sauce is sold across the street at the Dockside Fish Market.) Careful touches abound: crisp white linen and gleaming blond floors in the cozy dining room, a front porch that catches cooling lake breezes, a well-chosen wine selection, small-town friendly service and marvelous desserts (especially a divine rhubarb tart) by pastry chef Misha Martin. I can see it in the travel brochures now: Don't visit the North Shore's most charming town without stopping at its most charming new restaurant. -- Rick Nelson
* Miles are calculated from MSP airport.

Sources:

StarTribune.com: "Dollars & Sense," John Ewoldt, 7/17/06
StarTribune.com: "Seven restaurants worth the drive," Rick Nelson, 8/3/06

Tired of the metropolitan grind? Whether you've got a few hours or a few days, whether you're looking for a cultural experience, a culinary experience, or both, plenty of great options lie within easy reach of the Twin Cities. We've compiled some of our favorites here. Feel free to add your own.
<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr bgcolor="#eeeeee"><td width="110">Destination</td><td width="50">Miles&nbsp;*</td><td>Description</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://thegreenroom-waconia.com/" target="new">The Green Room</a> Waconia, MN <img src="http://www.vita.mn/images/vitaTab/roadtrips07/waconia.jpg" /></td><td>32.8 mi. <a href="http://maps.yahoo.com/broadband#tp=1&amp;tt=the+green+room%2C+waconia&amp;q2=140+W+Main+St%2C+Waconia%2C+MN&amp;q1=msp&amp;mvt=m&amp;trf=0&amp;lon=-93.499146&amp;lat=44.867063&amp;mag=8" target="new">map</a> </td><td>When a storefront in sweet downtown Waconia became available this year, Keven Kvalsten, Tom Peterson and Peterson's cousin Matty O'Reilly teamed up, rolled up their sleeves, stretched a shoestring budget and launched the Green Room. Kvalsten's cooking stresses comfort, quality and value. A hearty bacon-wrapped meatloaf is just $11, and a mouthwatering Minnesota-raised pork loin, paired with apples and cabbage, is a bargain at $15. ... The cheery room (yes, the walls are the color of a freshly mowed May lawn) matches the mood of the friendly staffers, and the brief wine list is priced to move. In short, it's the cafe every town should be so lucky to have on its Main Street. -- Rick Nelson

</td></tr><tr><td>Red Wing, MN <img src="http://www.vita.mn/images/vitaTab/roadtrips07/redwing.jpg" /></td><td>51 mi. <a href="http://maps.yahoo.com/beta#tp=1&amp;tt=taylors+falls&amp;q2=red+wing%2C+mn&amp;q1=msp&amp;mvt=m&amp;trf=0&amp;lon=-92.871552&amp;lat=44.723808&amp;mag=8" target="new">map</a></td><td>Over the past decade or two, Red Wing experienced that minor city sprawl that many big small towns suffer. After a morning of historical tours, you can lunch at the local Applebee's, or you can hike the bluffs with boots purchased from the ol' Target on the edge of town. The silver lining, however, of the unfortunate highway development is that Red Wing has become a perfect, about-an-hour-away getaway for the relatively unambitious. Get your fix of history and both natural and man-made beauty on the Main Street of the rail-and-river town before retreating to the fringes for guilty modern indulgences like Godfather's Pizza or the exemplary indoor/outdoor pool at the Best Western (when you see a swim-through, you know chances are good you'll achieve the weekend vacationer's dream of drinking vodka and smoking cigarettes in an outdoor pool without getting in trouble, and the Best Western is no exception). The loss of the Ben Franklin store makes the town a little less Lynchian, but it's worth the drive nevertheless. Confidential to single ladies: A single night spent touring the taverns of Red Wing produced one marriage proposal, a handful of phone numbers and several local gentlemen who happened to possess a special talent for showing city girls around town. -- Emily Condon

</td></tr><tr><td>Taylors Falls, MN <img src="http://www.vita.mn/images/vitaTab/roadtrips07/taylorFalls.jpg" /></td><td>55.8 mi. <a href="http://maps.yahoo.com/beta#q2=taylors+falls%2C+mn&amp;q1=msp&amp;mvt=m&amp;trf=0&amp;lon=-92.930603&amp;lat=45.143305&amp;mag=9" target="new">map</a></td><td>There's nothing more soothing than watching the hypnotic rapids of the St. Croix River, especially when viewed from high atop the tree-covered cliffs of Interstate Park next to Taylors Falls. Just an hour from Minneapolis and just 15 minutes from my hometown, the park is both a day-trip destination and a nostalgic haven for me. Back in high school, the first warm days of May -- when a teenager couldn't possibly be expected to sit through an entire day of class -- were spent hiking with my pals to the highest rock formations, where we believed no park ranger could see us smoking Camel Wides or hear 311's music serenading us from a boombox. And no trip to the top was complete without a round of Hot Stuff pizza slices to go, bought with our hard-earned minimum wages at the Holiday station on the way. Nowadays, I forgo the company of friends when I drive to the park on those first warm days of May. When I need to disconnect, I'll head up there around noon on a Wednesday and navigate the trails by myself for a quiet, meditative day. It reminds me how simple a pleasure can be, even without cigarettes, music or gas-station pizza. -- Alexis McKinnis

</td></tr><tr><td><a href="http://fishersclub.com/" target="new">Fisher's Club</a> Avon, MN <img src="http://www.vita.mn/images/vitaTab/roadtrips07/avon.jpg" /></td><td>94 mi. <a href="http://maps.yahoo.com/broadband#tp=1&amp;tt=FISHERS+CLUB&amp;mvt=m&amp;gid2=27518860&amp;q2=428+Stratford+St+W%2C+Avon%2C+MN&amp;q1=msp&amp;trf=0&amp;lon=-93.831482&amp;lat=45.248788&amp;mag=9" target="new">map</a> </td><td>Nothing embodies up-to-the-lake goodness better than Fisher's Club. The 74-year-old glory was recently sold by its second-generation
owners, and the transaction could have been a cause for concern. But not to worry. This veritable chapel of knotty pine was purchased by a group of investors that includes Mr. Lake Wobegon himself, Garrison Keillor, and these new keepers of the Fisher's Club flame appear to be exceptional stewards of its irreplaceable legacy. The kitchen follows standard operating supper-club procedure, which means lots of walleye, broasted chicken, steaks and burger baskets at reasonable prices. But many dishes go back, in Minnesota-speak, to "olden times" (translation: recipes resurrected from the club's archives), including battered and deep-fried sunfish (with a chunky, packed-full-of-chopped-pickles tartar sauce), a lusciously creamy coleslaw, a potato salad fit for a king (or at least radio royalty) and a boffo relish tray loaded with liverwurst, meatballs, pickled herring and garlic toast. -- Rick Nelson

</td></tr><tr><td><a href="http://www.schellsbrewery.com" target="new">Schell's Brewery</a> New Ulm, MN <img src="http://www.vita.mn/images/vitaTab/roadtrips07/newUlm.jpg" /></td><td>102 mi. <a href="http://maps.yahoo.com/broadband#tp=1&amp;tt=new+ulm%2C+mn&amp;q2=new+ulm%2C+mn&amp;q1=msp&amp;mvt=m&amp;trf=0&amp;lon=-93.836975&amp;lat=44.599268&amp;mag=9" target="new">map</a> </td><td>In a pleasant twist of fate for the town of 14,000, small retailers thrive in a time warp. Unlike many small towns that tore down their 1920s, '30s or '40s charm and replaced it with forgettable concrete boxes in the '60s and '70s, New Ulm embraced its past (or stubbornly refused to change). The magnificent park system -- including German Park, where Bavarian Blast will be held, and Hermann Heights Park with its imposing copper monument of Hermann the German -- is as beautiful as Minneapolis' Chain of Lakes. Those shopping outside the Twin Cities' big boxes won't be disappointed. I saw a number of items that were cheaper in New Ulm than in the Cities. Curt Lambrecht, who owns Lambrecht's Gifts and the Christmas Haus, said New Ulm's population is fiscally conservative: "We're a small town with small-town prices," he said. -- John Ewoldt It's home to the second-oldest family-owned brewery in America (Schell's), the second-largest copper statue in America after the Statue of Liberty (Hermann the German, newly refurbished), the most polka-ized German festival in Minnesota (Bavarian Blast, July 20 through 22) and the state's winningest high-school baseball coach (Jim Senske, my uncle). At least that first distinction should sell you on the 90-mile drive southwest of the Twin Cities down Hwy. 169 toward the state's Germanic hub. Schell's gives two to four tours daily ($2), and if the free and fresh beer won't get you there, then how about its Prohibition-dissing history and surprisingly picturesque grounds? More info at <a href="http://www.schellsbrewery.com" target="new">www.schellsbrewery.com</a>. There's also some fine scenery just over the hill from the brewery at Flandrau State Park, a great place to hike off the beer. Or head downtown to Veigel's Kaiserhoff, the best German restaurant in town -- and a great place to put on some more beer. -- Chris Riemenschneider

</td></tr><tr><td><a href="http://www.signatureswinona.com/" target="new">Signatures</a> Winona, MN <img src="http://www.vita.mn/images/vitaTab/roadtrips07/winona.jpg" /></td><td>131 mi. <a href="http://maps.yahoo.com/broadband#tp=1&amp;tt=SIGNATURES&amp;gid2=24361234&amp;q2=22852+County+Road+17%2C+Winona%2C+MN&amp;q1=msp&amp;mvt=m&amp;trf=0&amp;lon=-92.425232&amp;lat=44.466131&amp;mag=9" target="new">map</a> </td><td>If the dining room is a bit bland, the surroundings are anything but, a beautifully groomed 1920 golf course tucked into the craggy hills on the city's southwestern edge. Wide windows on the 18th hole open out to verdant, steep, mist-filled valleys. It's a stunner. Chef Matt Schoeller's work often lives up to the setting. A New York strip bison steak, grilled to juicy, full-flavored perfection, was paired with creamy potatoes loaded with a pungent blue cheese made in Faribault, Minn. A beer demiglace put a welcome gloss on beautifully braised lamb shanks. -- Rick Nelson

</td></tr><tr><td><a href="http://www.barkersisland.com/%7Eboathouse/" target="new">Boathouse</a> Superior, WI <img src="http://www.vita.mn/images/vitaTab/roadtrips07/superior.jpg" /></td><td>160 mi. <a href="http://maps.yahoo.com/broadband#tp=1&amp;tt=BOATHOUSE&amp;gid2=16900447&amp;q2=14+Marina+Dr%2C+Superior%2C+WI&amp;q1=msp&amp;mvt=m&amp;trf=0&amp;lon=-92.636719&amp;lat=45.803914&amp;mag=10" target="new">map</a> </td><td>I think that I can't be the only Twin Citian who thinks of Superior as little more than a blur out the window en route to the Apostle Islands. But I've revised my mindset now that Kirk Bratrud has rolled into town. Three years ago, the former owner of the Bayport Cookery teamed up with his brother Grant (Kirk does the cooking; Grant manages the house) and they opened the Boathouse, a Barkers Island bastion of passionate, original dining. Bratrud has a yen for rooting out top-drawer ingredients -- whether it's elk from Siren, Wis., chanterelles from nearby woods, crayfish from pristine northern lakes or north- and south-shore trout -- and liberally sprinkles his seasonally influenced menus with veal sweetbreads, foie gras, hemp seed-crusted tofu and other this-ain't-Culver's taste treats. ... By keeping most entree prices below $20, Bratrud thumbs his nose at citified prices, and the well-chosen wine list is similarly affordable. Service is affable and the waters-edge patio is deeply alluring." If you want to escape to a world of good eats, wine and amazing views head to 35S on the Wisconsin side. Start in Prescott and work your way down through Maiden Rock, Stockholm, Pepin, Nelson and Alma. You can stop at galleries, Nelson Cheese Factory (awesome wine bar), Harbor View Cafe (new owners great menu still), Gelly's and many more. Wonder and you will discover great bread shops and great local produce sold roadside. Go early!! -- Rick Nelson

</td></tr><tr><td>Duluth Delights <img src="http://www.vita.mn/images/vitaTab/roadtrips07/duluth.jpg" /> <ul><li><a href="http://www.taransmarketplace.com/homepage.htm" target="new">At Sarah's Table / Chester Creek Cafe</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nokomisonthelake.com/" target="new" target="new">Nokomis Restaurant and Bar</a> Duluth, MN</li></ul> </td><td>178 mi. <a href="http://maps.yahoo.com/beta#gid3=35984134&amp;q3=5593+N+Shore+Dr%2C+Duluth%2C+MN&amp;gid2=24354813&amp;q2=1902+E+8th+St%2C+Duluth%2C+MN&amp;q1=msp&amp;mvt=m&amp;trf=0&amp;lon=-92.526855&amp;lat=45.909122&amp;mag=10" target="new">map</a> </td><td>The sign on the building reads Taran's Market Place, lifted from the former Taran's grocery that once occupied the corner of 19th Av. and 8th St. on Duluth's East Side. The titles on the door -- At Sara's Table/Chester Creek Cafe -- are nods to the former Park Point coffeehouse that relocated up the hill and a nearby stream, respectively. All three names reflect the same business, an informal and impressive breakfast-lunch-dinner magnet for nearby University of Minnesota staffers and students. Morning hours are all about platters heaped with omelets and scrambles, big steaming bowls of oatmeal and thick, smoky strips of bacon, but the real stars are the crisp waffles, marvelous wild rice-cranberry French toast and sturdy buttermilk pancakes, all finished with either a dizzyingly good maple syrup by Duluthian Dave Rogotsky or a quirky apple-beer syrup that's an old family recipe of co-owner Barbara Neubert. Neubert and partner Carla Blumberg put a premium on organic, locally raised ingredients. Two-thirds of the very drinkable wines are priced at $25 or less per bottle. Best of all are the gorgeous apple, blueberry and strawberry-rhubarb pies; a slice of baker Diane Bailey's handiwork is truly the perfect cap to a whatever-this-place-is-called visit. Ten miles northeast, on the old shoreline highway to Two Harbors, lies Nokomis Restaurant &amp; Bar. Chef/owner Sean Lewis has dropped the building's former supper club roots -- how many North Shore establishments send a petit four out with the check? -- and created a destination restaurant that's genuinely worth the detour. Lewis, who trained in several Chicago restaurants before opening Nokomis last year, concentrates on fish and flavorful accents: Lake Superior whitefish with a yellow tomato gazpacho; striped bass with fennel, English peas and pickled red pearl onions; and cakes made with herring (also from the lake) and Thai chiles layered into red pepper aioli-slathered rosemary focaccia. Other crowd-pleasing choices (entrees $9 to $18 at lunch, $17 to $29 at dinner) include a designer burger, praline- and pistachio-crusted chicken with a lovely lingering thyme hint, a beaut of a cheese plate and a fine pizza covered in pesto, asparagus and prosciutto. The wide-open dining room's vast picture windows frame dazzling lake views, and a patio and fire pit with equally exceptional vistas is on its way, fast. During a recent meal, the couple seated to my left were conversing in French (turns out their car, parked next to mine, bore Quebec license plates), and while my grasp of their language is shaky at best, I'm fairly certain one of them said, "Let's come back." I nodded in agreement.&nbsp;-- Rick Nelson

</td></tr><tr><td><a href="http://www.westbendgrotto.com/" target="new">Grotto of the Redemption</a> West Bend, IA <img src="http://www.vita.mn/images/vitaTab/roadtrips07/grotto.jpg" /></td><td>191 mi.</td><td>Spanning a city block, the Grotto of the Redemption is a maze of semi-precious stones, crystals, glass and statues held together through the magic of cement. Seminarian Paul Dobberstein claimed that the Virgin Mary cured him of a deadly bout of pneumonia, so he dedicated 42 years of his life to creating this Old World-style grotto on the flat plains of Iowa. The Rev. Dobberstein was stationed in West Bend, Iowa, in 1898, but the rich black soil held nary a rock. The priest was undeterred and spent the next decade stockpiling rocks for his dream grotto. He traveled far and wide, hauling back hundreds of pounds of rocks, crystals and minerals from such places as Hot Springs, Ark., and the Black Hills of South Dakota. He justified his obsession by citing a Biblical passage, Isaiah 54:11-12 (emphasis his): "Thou, the friendless, the storm-beaten, the inconsolable, shalt have a PAVEMENT of patterned STONES, and thy FOUNDATIONS shall be of SAPPHIRE; thou shalt have turrets of JASPER, and gates of carved GEMS, and all the BOUNDARY STONES, shall be JEWELS." Travelers needn't hop on a jet to visit European sculpted gardens with Stations of the Cross. Simply head south on Interstate Hwy. 35 over the Iowa border. Go west at Clear Lake (where the music died), stop at the Hobo Museum in Britt, and revel in the world's largest grotto with the largest known collection of semi-precious stones in West Bend. Even the Grotto's restaurant and restrooms are plastered with polished stones. -- Eric Dregni

</td></tr><tr><td>Life of Pie <img src="http://www.vita.mn/images/vitaTab/roadtrips07/pie.jpg" /> <ul><li><a href="http://www.turtlebread.com/" target="new">Turtle Bread Linden Hills</a> Minneapolis</li><li>Park Cafe - Strelow Braham, MN</li><li><a href="http://www.bettyspies.com/" target="new">Betty's Pies</a> Two Harbors, MN</li></ul> </td><td>202 mi. <a href="http://maps.yahoo.com/broadband#tp=1&amp;tt=411+W+highway+61&amp;gid4=24330543&amp;q4=1633+Hwy.+61+Two+Harbors%2C+Minn.&amp;gid3=16904857&amp;q3=124+S.+Main+St.%2C+Braham%2C+Minn.&amp;gid2=24306783&amp;q2=3421+W.+44th+St.%2C+Minneapolis%2C+mn&amp;q1=msp&amp;mvt=m&amp;trf=0&amp;lon=-92.493896&amp;lat=45.970243&amp;mag=11" target="new">map</a></td><td>New York has apples. L.A. has sugar-soft beaches. But we in the Midwest have pie. We win. Minnesota is the Nascar of Pies. The central fruit-filling standard. Start with breakfast at Turtlebread Bakery in Linden Hills in Minneapolis and pick up a latte and a slice of pie to go. I recommend the Bourbon Pecan Pie. My grandfather always recommended starting the day out with a little bourbon in your coffee. For lunch, head to delightful Braham, Minn., officially declared the "Homemade Pie Capital of Minnesota" by Gov. Rudy Perpich in 1990. Go to the Park Cafe, where owner Ellie Grell says Banana Cream Pie is the most popular. If you go on Aug. 4, you'll be there for Braham Pie Day (www.pieday.com). Highlights include pie and ice cream served in the park, the Pie-Alluia chorus, a senior pie-eating contest, a pie race and a Sweetie Pie Street Dance. Continue on Interstate Hwy. 35 north, through Duluth, for dinner at Betty's Pies along Hwy. 61. Drink in noble blue Lake Superior while slamming a sweet slab of French Cherry Cream pie or the five-layer Chocolate pie, an insouciant light flaky crust molested by dark chocolate, cinnamon meringue and chocolate whipped cream. Trip advice: The same as life -- drive slow, stop often, and take Tums. -- Heather McElhatton

</td></tr><tr><td><a href="http://www.noahsarkwaterpark.com/" target="new">Noah's Ark</a> Wisconsin Dells, WI <img src="http://www.vita.mn/images/vitaTab/roadtrips07/noahsArk.jpg" /></td><td>218.3 mi. <a href="http://maps.yahoo.com/beta#tp=1&amp;tt=taylors+falls&amp;gid2=16798195&amp;q2=1410+Wisconsin+Dells+Pkwy.%2C+wisconsin+dells%2C+wi&amp;q1=msp&amp;mvt=m&amp;trf=0&amp;lon=-91.499634&amp;lat=44.243232&amp;mag=10" target="new">map</a></td><td>First, let's clear this up: 1) You're not too old for waterparks. Noah's Ark Water Park in Wisconsin Dells is decadently frivolous, maybe, but summer is too short. 2) Indoor waterparks may be all the rage around here, but they don't cut it, especially at the height of summer. The 70-acre Noah's Ark is billed as America's Largest Waterpark, and I believe it, with more than 40 outdoor waterslides (arranged in matching pairs, like Noah's animals in Genesis). Among the best: Dark Voyage sinks a raft of four people into a vortex of steamy blackness until you're completely disoriented. The Stingray is an ingeniously thrilling take on a half-pipe (and it's shaped like a pair of stingrays). Then there are the requisite vertical-drop slides, including the steep Plunge and the practically upside-down Point of No Return. For pure simplicity, the ordinary, twisting open-air slides are some of the longest and best designed I've seen. And the larger of the two wavepools, the Big Kahuna, is so voluminous and powerful that you'll need to pace yourself to survive it without a tube rental. What's more, you can get there and back in a day. Get your friends to take off a middle-weekday to minimize crowds. Leave home at 9 a.m., play in the water all day and return by 11 p.m. If you prefer to savor the cheese of Dells Vegas, book a room or suite at the affiliated Flamingo Motel, which has zero amenities but offers two free Ark tickets per night. -- Simon Peter Groebner

</td></tr><tr><td><a href="http://www.chezjude.com/index.html" target="new">Chez Jude</a> Grand Marais, MN <img src="http://www.vita.mn/images/vitaTab/roadtrips07/grandMarais.jpg" /></td><td>264 mi. <a href="http://maps.yahoo.com/broadband#tp=1&amp;tt=411+W+highway+61&amp;q2=47.735456%2C-90.42212&amp;q1=msp&amp;mvt=m&amp;trf=0&amp;lon=-91.812744&amp;lat=46.31279&amp;mag=11" target="new">map</a> </td><td>From my perch at the enchanting Chez Jude, my eyes bounced among countless postcard-worthy images: the town's snug New England-like harbor, the delphiniums bursting like rockets from the restaurant's well-tended gardens and the lovely piece of smoked lake trout dressed with capers and herbs that chef/owner Judi Barsness was sending out as a salutation to her guests that evening. The menu changes weekly at this year-old gem, housed in a lovely yellow cottage, with Barsness and her crew buffing a polish on local treasures: Lake Superior fish, breads from a skilled neighboring baker, produce raised by a nearby subscription farm. A smoker in the back yard and a wood-burning oven in the kitchen add tantalizing flavor layers, from meaty pork ribs slathered with a slow-burn maple barbecue sauce and flavorful duck with wild rice risotto to wild-caught salmon and a brioche sandwich piled with prosciutto, apples, cheddar and a sweet fig jam. (Chez Jude's barbecue sauce is sold across the street at the Dockside Fish Market.) Careful touches abound: crisp white linen and gleaming blond floors in the cozy dining room, a front porch that catches cooling lake breezes, a well-chosen wine selection, small-town friendly service and marvelous desserts (especially a divine rhubarb tart) by pastry chef Misha Martin. I can see it in the travel brochures now: Don't
visit the North Shore's most charming town without stopping at its most charming new restaurant. -- Rick Nelson

</td></tr><tr><td colspan="3">* Miles are calculated from MSP airport.</td></tr></tbody></table> <h3>Sources:</h3><ul><li><a href="http://www.startribune.com/1229/story/557516.html" target="new">StarTribune.com: "Dollars &amp; Sense,"</a> John Ewoldt, 7/17/06</li><li><a href="http://www.startribune.com/456/story/590730.html" target="new">StarTribune.com: "Seven restaurants worth the drive,"</a> Rick Nelson, 8/3/06</li></ul>

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