Studio C! Meridian Mall
1999 Central Park DriveWe knew Saturday was going to be a really long day in East Lansing.
The kids were competing in the Howard E. Van Camp Invitational figure skating competition at the Biggby Coffee Ice Cube. All of B’s events were on Friday so he had nothing to do on Saturday.
L had a really long day. She and J left the hotel at 7:30 AM to get to the rink and warmed up for a 9:30 AM practice. She then had events at 11:45, 4:40, and 7:45. I knew it was going to be hard to keep B entertained for that long. None of his friends were at this competition so he was kind of on his own and there’s only so much YouTube you can watch in a day.
My parents stuck around for L’s first skate but then they headed back to Illinois before it got dark. Since it was just us, I asked B if he wanted to see a movie. There really wasn’t much out that either of us wanted to see but it was a way to kill a couple of hours.
The only movie really appropriate for him was Kung Fu Panda 4. I don’t know if he’s seen the first four movies or not but it didn’t really matter. It was something to do.
I chose Studio C! Meridan Mall because they had an early enough show time that we could get back for L’s skate just before 5:00.
Studio C! is part of the same theater chain as Celebration Cinema. The location in Okemos is on Central Park Drive. It’s on the northwest side of the Meridian Mall in a building just past the main parking lot for the shopping center. The building does have it’s own parking lot to the west but I drove past that and just parked in the mall lot across the street.
Read more…Groovy Donuts (East Lansing)
3054 E. Lake Lansing RoadDay two of competition at the Biggby Coffee Ice Cube East Lansing.
B was not competing on Saturday. He had all of his skates on Friday. L had a really long day starting with 9:30 AM practice and ending with her last skate of the day scheduled for 7:40 PM.
I knew it was going to be hard for B to sit at the rink all day. My parents had come to town to watch the kids skate and stayed at the same hotel we did.
J and L left for the rink about 7:30 AM while B and I stayed at the hotel. Around 10:00, I texted my mom and asked if they were ready to head over. We checked out of the hotel and headed to the rink with them.
I got a little lazier than I meant to. I went back to sleep when J and L left. B just put his headphones on and watched his iPad all morning. I got up about 9:30 and started packing hoping we could get downstairs for breakfast before we left.
Breakfast was supposed to end at 10:00 but they had already picked most stuff up. B said he didn’t want anything from there anyway which is why he didn’t wake me up.
On our way to the hotel on Friday night, we passed a donut shop. We were going to have to pass that shop on the way back to the rink so I just made plans to pick up donuts on the way.
Groovy Donuts in East Lansing is the brand’s second location. The original is in nearby Williamston. This shop is on Lake Lansing Road just to the west of Hagadorn Road just barely outside of the East Lansing city limits in Meridian Charter Township. The building, at one time, was a Benjamin Moore paint store then a bakery but now it’s turned in to a Groovy donut shop.
Read more…BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse (Lansing)
2515 Lake Lansing RoadWe didn’t necessarily need to stay in Lansing for this year’s Van Camp Invitational but we decided to do it anyway.
We spent most of the day Friday at the Biggby Coffee Ice Cube for the kids’ figure skating competition. My parents drove in from the Chicago area so they were going to have to get a hotel somewhere. L wants to spend the entire day at the ice rink and watch all of her friends while B is ready to go as soon as he’s done. Instead of driving back to Kalamazoo, we decided to stay in Lansing.
I got a hotel out near Eastwood Towne Center on Lake Lansing Road. I figured it was close enough to the ice rink but far enough away it was a little cheaper and there was plenty of places to eat and shop (if we wanted to) in that area.
We left the ice rink after both kids were done for the day. L wanted to go back and watch some of the evening skates but everyone was hungry. There are a lot of restaurants *I* would go to in East Lansing but I tried picking something a little safer in hopes that everyone would find something to eat.
I picked BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse on Lake Lansing Road. The restaurant is a standalone building in front of the Eastwood Towne Center west of the US-127 interchange. I thought the restaurant location looked familiar when we pulled up. J and I lived in Lansing for a couple of years and we shopped at Eastwood occasionally. We had actually eaten at this spot before when it was a Max & Erma’s. There’s been a little work done to the facade to update the look a little bit.
Read more…Biggby Coffee Ice Cube East Lansing
2810 Hannah Boulevard- East Lansing, MI 48823
- (517) 336-4272
- Website
It’s time to start figure skating competition season again.
I was a multi sport athlete growing up in the 80’s and 90’s. Each sport had a season. Yeah, I went from one to the next with the fall off (I didn’t play football), but there were still season.
It seems like it’s always figure skating season.
Our first competition this year was this past weekend in East Lansing. It was the Howard E. Van Camp Invitational at the Biggby Coffee Ice Cube in East Lansing.
This is actually our third time at this event since L started skating competitively three years ago but I didn’t start blogging about our ice arena travels until after this event last year.
The Biggby Coffee Ice Cube East Lansing is the new name for the Suburban Ice Arena/Ice Cube on Hannah Drive just to the east of Hagadorn Road and Michigan State University. The naming rights are pretty new as pretty much all of the signage still says Suburban Ice. It wasn’t even a month ago Black Bear Sports Group made the announcement. In addition to East Lansing, Biggby also bought the naming rights to the Ann Arbor Ice Cube and Kensington Valley Ice House in Brighton.
CD’s Quick Mart
135 W. Main StreetI think I’ve been to Hopkins twice in my life. One of those times was literally just to pick up a pizza. I was bored and not in a hurry to get home so I got off US-131 and headed Hopkins to pick up a pizza from Russo’s. It was worth the little detour.
I got sent to Hopkins last week for an assignment. I was leaving Kalamazoo with plenty of time so I looked up someplace to grab something to eat before heading to my work location.
There’s not a lot of places in Hopkins but one of them jumped out at me. It was pizza again but in a gas station in the middle of town. I couldn’t pass this place up.
CD’s Quick Mart is on Main Street in I guess what you can consider downtown Hopkins. The convenience store/gas station is a large red building with gas pumps near the road. The gas station canopy proudly displays “Home of the Vikings” which is the nickname of the nearby high school.
Read more…Ta Canijo Taco Truck (Bourbonnais)
5916 N. Convent StreetLong drives are always fun with an 8 year old who doesn’t know how to drink slowly.
We always joke it’s going to take us at least two stops between my parents house just south of Kankakee, IL and our house in Kalamazoo. I pretty much just prepare for it. I usually need something to drink or we need gas or someone needs snacks so it’s really not that big of a deal.
We hung out with my parents and my brother’s family for a while on Saturday afternoon before we had to head back to Kalamazoo. We don’t get there very often and since we had to go home for a funeral, I wanted to spend as much time as we could there. Our Saturday was wide open but Sunday, it was back to skating and back to work for me.
We left a little later than I thought we would. It was around 4:00 when I finally looked at my phone and realized what time it was. Losing the hour on the drive home always sucks so I knew it would be after 8:00 before we got back.
We made everyone use the bathroom before we got in the car…..but that didn’t really matter. We only got about a half hour up the road before B had to pee and needed a snack.
There are a lot of new trucks stops between Kankakee and I-80…like a lot. It seems like almost every exit has a new mega gas station now.
We pulled off the highway at Bourbonnais Parkway just north of what I consider “Kankakee.” We always lumped the towns of Bradly, Bourbonnais, and Kankakee together as Kankakee. The exit we got off on actually didn’t exist until a few years ago. There was never an exit between Route 50 (the mall exit) and Manteno when I lived there….but that has been about 25 years.
There’s a huge Road Ranger right off the exit that has a Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, Church’s Chicken, and a Subway. But we drove past that.
Just down the road at the corner of Bourbonnais Parkway and Convent Street is a Gas ‘N Wash gas station with a Dunkin’ and a semi local taco joint. The kids love their Dunkin’….and I love tacos.
TaCanijo Taco Truck is a small chains of taco truck themed restaurants around the area. The original location is actually in my old stomping grounds of Joliet. That restaurants on the corner of Route 6 and McDonough looks to be the only one (other than an actual taco truck) that isn’t located inside of a Gas ‘N Wash station.
Read more…Beans & Barley Brews
852 East Illinois 116Going home was not in the plans for this past weekend.
My aunt has been sick for a while and she passed last Monday. She already had her services planned out so all my mom had to do was pick a date and time. The funeral home was available Friday evening so we packed up the kids up and headed to Illinois for a couple of days.
The wake and funeral were all Friday night. We got back to my parents place around 11:00 and we just decided to stay there instead of getting a hotel just to sleep. I told my mom the kids would probably want to go to breakfast when we got up on Saturday.
I, of course, was the last one up. By the time I made my way downstairs, everyone else was ready to go eat. I put my jeans on and we headed out the door.
The town I grew up in is very small. There is only one breakfast option in town (other than donuts at the gas station) so that’s where we went for breakfast.
Beans & Barley Brews is just outside of Ashkum on Illinois 116 right at the interchange with I-57. The building has been there forever. For most of my childhood, it was a restaurant called The Loft and it was owned by my aunt and uncle (which is why I never blogged about it). It’s a pretty classic highway pit stop restaurant. I know it was part of a chain when it was first built but that was way before my time. The building still has the old “Restaurant” sign on top that I’m assuming was original to the building.
Read more…Ted & Marie’s Colonial Inn
>6416 Stadium Drive- Kalamazoo, MI 49077
- (269) 375-1057
- No Known Website
- Menu
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right?
Yeah….well, I skip it most mornings. I grab a bottle of Pepsi for a pick me up then head in to work. Maybe I’ll grab a Little Debbie Double Fudge Round, but that’s usually the extent of my breakfast on a weekday.
There are a few restaurants that I haven’t been to in a really long time that I’ve been wanting to get back to and write an updated blog about.
I had some time one day last week before work so I did just that.
Ted & Marie’s Colonial Inn is on Stadium Drive in Oshtemo Township at that weird intersection where Stadium meets Parkview. The small restaurant is right up against the road in the Harding’s parking lot. The blue building with the black roof is hard not to see when you’re sitting at that stoplight.
Read more…Frankie’s
56951 N. Main StreetIt feels like fall again. I’m picking up some overtime during the week doing similar work to what I do Friday nights in the fall. It’ll only last a couple of weeks but I’ll take the OT while I can get it.
I’ve been pretty much staying in the Kalamazoo area for this overtime but earlier this week, I got sent to Three Rivers for an assignment that was going to last about three hours.
I left Kalamazoo just before 5:00 and I was hungry. All I had to eat so far that day was a bag of microwave popcorn.
I was kind of in the mood for a pizza and I knew I’d be passing a great pizza place on my way.
As I was leaving Kalamazoo, I put in an order for a pizza at Frankie’s on the northside of Three Rivers.
Frankie’s is on North Main Street just inside the city limits. If you’re coming from Kalamazoo, you have to do the whole Michigan left thing on US-131 to get to Main Street. Frankie’s is just past that intersection and just north of Lovers Lane. The building is kind of a hodgepodge that looks like it’s been added on to over the years. There’s a parking lot to the northside and a few spots sort of the area between Main Street and the building.
Read more…4×4 Grill
2901 Howard StreetThe late night meal options around Western Michigan University are definitely getting better.
I’ve complained for years about late night food. I’ve always really wanted a late night pizza place…and there was one for a while.…but having options other than fast food late at night is something I really love about college campuses.
The late night scene used to be pretty bad, but now with Two Fellas, Que Buenos, Middle Eastern Appetite, The Wing Hut, DP Dough, and B-Side Social House, there are pretty great options.
I’ve had some really long work days recently as I’ve been picking up some overtime after my normal shift. Tuesday night I ended around 10:00 and I was near WMU. I hadn’t eaten much all day and I was pretty hungry.
I passed on all those other great options and picked a place that just recently opened up.
4×4 Grill is in the Campus Pointe Mall on the corner of Howard and Michigan across the street from Western Michigan University. The restaurant is in the large corner spot next to Insomnia Cookies. This spot has been a lot of things over the years. It was a Real Deal: Classic Burgers and Shakes, then it was a Sliders Burgers and Belgian Fries. After that it became Coexist Cafe. Now, it’s back to being somewhat of a burger joint.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 