Saturday, June 20, 2009

Road Trip, Day 3: Wisconsin (Part I)

Trapezista and I arrived in Albert Lea, Minnesota and checked in at AmericInn. It was nice to stay at a hotel with wi-fi in our room as opposed to having to sit in our car in the parking lot to get a signal, like the previous night. When we checked in, the hotel attendant mentioned they had waffles for breakfast. After not having eaten very much the day before (we only stopped for a sub at Subway), it was nice to wake up at the thought of fresh waffles.

I couldn't imagine someone making fresh waffles for a complimentary breakfast, but I never thought of making your own waffles! I had never seen a machine that dispenses waffle batter. Once you get batter in a cup, you pour in the perfect portion into the waffle maker. It took a bit for two engineers to figure out how to turn the waffle maker but we ended up with nice fresh waffles. Great start to our day!



Make-your-own waffle machine for a nice treat!


Our destination for the day was Chicago. We decided to spend an afternoon there and check out the Windy City. During our drive, we saw more wind turbines. We then entered the state of Wisconsin and Trapezista got distracted by the thought of cheese. When we stopped for lunch, we inquired where we could get good Wisconsin cheese and were pointed to the cheese chalet.


Wind Turbines.



Cheese-y displays in Wisconsin!


Ehlenbach's Cheese Chalet
4879 County Road V
Junction V & I-90-94 (Exit 126)
DeForest, Wisconsin
608.846.4791 or 1.800.949.4791



After browsing the cheese stores, we picked the Artisan selection cheese board sampler ($5.95), consisting of Wisconsin-made blue cheese, gruyère and gouda. We each also bought some cheese to smuggle back into Canada. Shhhh! Our custom agent did not suspect a thing!


Many cheeses to choose from.

One thing we did learn from our sampler is that if you don't have many crackers, don't waste them with the gruyère and gouda, but save it for the blue cheese. We thorougly enjoyed our cheesy morning snack and were ready to finish our drive to Chicago!


Artisan cheese sampler!

For previous road trip posts:

2 comments:

Gastronomer said...

Vernon and my alma mater had a waffle maker in the dining hall. It was used to make waffles for ice cream sundaes. Decadent!

Cheese Chalet? I like! I also liked that you're a smuggler. Smuggling mangosteens from Asia is my goal.

EatTravelEat said...

Those waffle makers bring back many memories. Some hotels and conference centers have them and I remember making a waffle for breakfast almost everyday due to the facility! However, they didn't have that cool dispenser at my place. Instead, the place I went to premeasured batter in cups.