Dunkin’ (Otsego)
1314 M-89J and L were in Salt Lake City for the US Figure Skating National Solo Dance Finals. B and I were at home in Kalamazoo.
B did a few Solo Dance competitions this year but he was nowhere near the top let alone in a position to qualify for Nationals. It was kind of a testing the waters year for him to see if he was interested in pursuing solo dance or not.
At least that was our perspective. He doesn’t look at anything that way though. He thought he was going to qualify.
He didn’t. He had a really good season but he was kind of learning as he goes. Next year will be his year.
He wanted to skate this past weekend though and there was a competition in Holland that our coaches were going to. I asked if he wanted to do that instead. Of course, he said yes.
We got up around 9:00 to make the drive over to Holland. His first event was at 12:20, but I wanted to get him there to watch some of his friends skate earlier.
We can’t go to a competition without getting breakfast though. L usually wants Starbucks on her way to the rink. B, on the other hand, is more of a Dunkin’ guy.
Of course, he asked for Dunkin’ before we left the house. It was kind of backtracking to go to the 9th Street Dunkin’ and it was still a little out of the way to go to the new Main Street one. I figured we’d just go cross country to Holland and stop in Otsego.
The Dunkin’ in Otsego is M-89 near 12th Street Otsego. The building is a new build in front of the Walmart. This was the talk of the town…or at least the Facebook pages… when it opened back in February of this year.
Read more…Krispy Krunchy Chicken (Douglas Ave)
1114 Douglas AvenueMy trip to Salt Lake City was super quick. I was in town just about 20 hours before I had to head back to Michigan.
I got back to Grand Rapids a little after midnight Friday morning. I made a stop at Speedway in Wayland for something to eat and got to bed around 1:30 AM back in Kalamazoo.
My alarm went off at 7:30 AM as it usually does on weekdays. I still had to get B up and on the bus then I had a 12 hour work day ahead of me.
I was dragging quite a bit throughout the day. My colleague and I had an assignment out in the northwest part of the city in the afternoon. When we got done, I desperately needed to find something to eat. My plan was just to come back down Douglas Avenue to Main Street then hit downtown Shell station to pick up some chicken.
My plans changed as I was driving down Douglas and saw a new but familiar sign.
The Marathon gas station on the corner of Douglas Avenue and Alamo had a sign for a Krispy Krunchy Chicken. You know how much I like gas station chicken and I’ve been seeing these Krispy Krunchy Chicken’s pop up all over Southwest Michigan. This is the first one I’ve seen in Kalamazoo though but I’ve heard there is a second one on Lake Street.
Read more…In-N-Out Burger (South Salt Lake)
28 E. 2100 SouthI didn’t have much time in Utah.
I was in Salt Lake City for the US Figure Skating National Solo Dance finals at the Salt Lake City Sports Complex.
I was only going to be in town for about 20 hours. I flew in Wednesday night, my daughter competed Thursday morning, and I was back on a plane Thursday evening heading towards Grand Rapids.
When J picked me up from the airport Wednesday night, she already had an In-N-Out Burger in her GPS. I asked if we could hold off on that until Thursday because I wanted to hit a Crown Burgers in downtown on our way back to the hotel.
Thursday, L competed at 8:00 AM and 10 AM. Her event was over around 11:00 and she got her medal for second in the nation around 11:30.
I didn’t have to be back to the airport until later in the afternoon so at that point, I asked J if I could go to In-N-Out Burger. She wanted to get L something to eat anyway so the two of us left the rink for a while to go pick up lunch.
We headed towards the In-N-Out Burger on 2100 South east of Main Street in South Salt Lake. This location is fairly new having been built in the last couple of years. This whole area has actually been rebuilt and commercialized in the last ten years. The area is anchored by a WinCo Foods store. After that was built, several national chains moved in to the spaces surrounding it. This In-N-Out Burger is on the northside of the building on a parcel of land that used to be a two story office building.
Salt Lake City Sports Complex
645 S. Guardsman WayThursday was competition day.
L qualified for the US Figure Skating National Solo Dance Finals for the third straight year. This year, the competition was the West Coast Regions turn to host and the event was award to the Intermountain Interclub Association in Salt Lake City, UT
We got really lucky the first year because the competition was in Chicago and we could drive. Last year, it was in Tampa. I wasn’t able to go because I didn’t have enough time off work. This year, I got lucky and found a way I could spend about 20 hours in Salt Lake City, only use two vacation days, and still get back to Kalamazoo for my long shift on Friday.
I flew out of Grand Rapids around 2:30 on Wednesday. Got to Salt Lake around 7:30, stopped at Crown Burgers for dinner then hit the hotel to get some sleep. We were up around 5:30 on Thursday morning. L competed at 8:00 AM and I was back on a flight to Grand Rapids at 5:30.
It was a really long week but totally worth it. L finished on the podium for the first time placing 2nd and bringing home the national silver medal.
The competition was held at the Salt Lake City Sports Complex near the campus of the University of Utah. The complex is on Guardsman Way north of East Sunnyside Avenue. The facility is multipurpose with two Olympic size ice sheets, two Olympic sized pools, and a fitness center. The Complex is run by Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation and was the official training site for the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Read more…Crown Burgers (City Center)
118 North 300 WestI hate flying. I hate not being in control.
My flight from Grand Rapids to Salt Lake, with a connection in Dallas, was actually pretty uneventful and on time.
I got to Salt Lake right on time around 7:30. J was still awake and not doing anything so she said she’d come pick me up instead of me having to pay for an Uber.
It took me about a half hour to get off the plane and make my way from the Terminal B to the passenger pick up lane. I walked outside just as J was pulling up to the curb.
She had put in an address for an In-N-Out Burger on the way back to the hotel. I told her that was a good idea but let’s do In-N-Out tomorrow. I had an idea for dinner that night. We put in the address for a Salt Lake City fast food chain instead.
Crown Burgers is a small chain of eight restaurants in and around Salt Lake. We chose the one in the City Centre on the corner of North 300 W (John Stockton Drive) and North Temple. The chain has been around since the late 70’s after being started by two Greek immigrant brothers. This location, on a busy corner in the downtown area, has it’s own parking and a pretty unique design for a fast food restaurant.
Read more…Bell’s Tap and Table
5500 44th Street SE, Terminal BI’m sure you’ve followed along all year as we’ve traveled all over the Midwest for figure skating.
We travel….a lot.
The season is wrapping up now and L qualified for the National Solo Dance Finals in Salt Lake City, UT. She would compete on Thursday morning and Sunday morning.
J and L flew out of Kalamazoo Tuesday morning and will come home Sunday night. I don’t have that many days off plus we still have B at home. He didn’t qualify this year and we weren’t going to pull him out of school for four days since he wasn’t competing.
I really wanted to get out to Utah because she had a really, really good shot at finishing on the podium at Nationals for the first time (spoiler alert, she finished 2nd!!).
The way I could make that work was by flying out of Grand Rapids Wednesday afternoon, watch her skate Thursday morning, then get back on plane Thursday evening so I could get back to work.
I opted not to take the 6 AM flight because, again, B was at home. I needed to get him to school. My parents were coming to stay with him but they couldn’t get there until later in the day on Wednesday.
I took a 2:30 PM flight out of Grand Rapids and as anyone who has traveled with me will tell you, I’m one of those airport dads. The thought of showing up at the last minute fills me with anxiety.
I knew I didn’t have to be there super early, but I was sitting at home falling asleep on the couch watching TV. I decided just to head to Grand Rapids and get through security then find something to eat.
Gerald R. Ford International Airport actually has some really good food options. I was heading to Terminal A which has a Uccello’s, a Freddy’s Frozen Custard, and a bar called Aletitude. They also have a Founder’s Brewing restaurant right past TSA.
All of those would have been fine but I went with something a little more familiar to me.
I headed over to Terminal B, again, just because I had enough time to do so to find Bell’s Tap and Table.
Bell’s Tap and Table is located in Terminal B near Gate B inside the Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids. The restaurant is managed by HMSHost, which is normal at airports, and serves up Bell’s beer alongside a small menu of fairly quick bites. It opened back in January of this year.
Read more…Pizza Hut (Mattawan)
56280 City Center CircleFriday night’s on the road. Well, kind of. I’m still in Southwest Michigan. I’m just not at home for pizza night with the family.
I had an overtime shift on Friday night so I ordered delivery from Cottage Inn for the family but I didn’t want cold pizza when I got home around 10:30.
As I travel around the area on Friday night’s in the fall, I usually try to find a local pizza place somewhere to grab a pizza from. The problem with that is I’m running out of local pizza places. Just about every small town I go to has one local pizza place.
I had to start branching out.
That was fine though because there was a pizza from one of the national chains that I’ve really been wanting to try anyway.
I was in Mattawan and the pizza place I was looking for was Pizza Hut.
The Pizza Hut in Mattawan is in the McGillen’s Crossing development on the corner of McGillen Avenue and Main Street. The address for the restaurant is actually City Centre Circle which is a road that runs through the development. The restaurant is on the Main Street side in a building that has room for about a half dozen businesses.
Read more…Speedy Cafe (Portage)
507 W. Milham AvenueFriday nights in the fall are my favorite. There’s an overtime shift available to me that I really can use and it’s pretty easy work so I take it pretty much every week until December.
All of that started last week for me. I finished my regular shift then headed out for the overtime shift.
I travel around quite a bit on these overtime shifts and for the longest time, I would use it as an excuse to find new pizza places in new towns. Friday night is pizza night after all.
This past week, I was in Portage for two different assignments. I didn’t have a lot of time between my regular shift and my overtime shift so I figured I’d just eat afterwards.
There aren’t many pizza places in Portage that I haven’t ordered from and the ones that I haven’t ordered from in a while closed before my shift ended.
That’s ok, I had another idea.
I really have come to like the pizzas from the Speedy Cafe’s and there was one not too far from where I was.
The Speedy Cafe on Milham Avenue to the west of Westnedge Avenue is part of the Speedway gas station that has been there for years. The store was remodeled in 2018 to add the cafe section instead of just having prepared foods like most Speedway’s do.
Read more…Schlotzsky’s (20th Street)
94 S. 20th StreetLast Tuesday was one of those days I got a lot of windshield time.
My day started at 10 AM in Battle Creek. Once I finished that job assignment, I needed to head to Grand Rapids to pick up some things at the home office.
I wasn’t in a super big rush to get to Grand Rapids. It was just a supply pick up that needed to be made so it wasn’t like I needed to get there at a specific time.
I got done with my assignment in Battle Creek around 11 and I figured I may as well take my lunch break before making the drive north.
I was on the west side of town near the airport again. There are a lot of good options out that way so I had a lot to choose from.
I picked the Schlotzsky’s on 20th Street just north of Columbia Avenue. I knew there were Schlotzsky’s in Battle Creek. There is one downtown and one out on B Drive North, but I had no idea this one in Columbia Plaza existed. It’s been there for years taking up the corner spot on the southside of the plaza but somehow, I’ve missed it every time I’ve driven down 20th Street.
Read more…Strand Theater (Paw Paw)
115 E. Michigan AvenueI took a personal day last Friday because the kids had some things going on during the day that I didn’t want them to miss. It’s J’s busy time at work and I was kind of in a lull so I offered to use one of my days off to get the kids where they needed to be.
The day started with skating practice at Wings Event Center. We then went down to Ramona Park for an end of summer party with some of the other skates in the club.
We were home fairly early in the afternoon. J still had to come home and run L over to Battle Creek to get one of her dresses altered before Solo Dance Nationals next month.
When they got home, J said she didn’t fell well and she went to bed. The problem with that was B. His room is right next to ours and he was playing video games. He gets a little rambunctious when he does that.
I was already thinking about going to a movie so I went and asked him if he wanted to go with me. He likes going to movies so even though he didn’t know what the movie I was going to see was about, he said yes.
Perfect, I get to see a movie and we got B out of the house so J could sleep.
B thought we were going to Celebration Cinema. Not sure why he thought that. I never said that. I guess he just realized we were going south on US-131 and assumed. He was thrown for a total loop when I turned on to westbound I-94.
I was heading towards Paw Paw. I’ve been wanting to go to The Strand Theater in Paw Paw for years but could never time it just right.
The small, one screen theater is on East Michigan Avenue between Gremps and Kalamazoo Street in downtown Paw Paw. The building is right next to the Village Hall. It was built in the late 1920’s to house vaudeville performances and eventually transitioning movies in the 1930’s. The theater went through that period of transition in the 70’s and 80’s when multiplexes started taking over. The theater was saved from demolition in 1984. It was bought by the current owners in 2010 and continues to run as a first run movie house…with a slight delay. There were several Strand Theaters in Michigan at one time including the one in Sturgis. They’re remaining theaters are independently owned now and have no relation other than the name.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 