Top 10 Unique Eateries

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Cops and Doughnuts

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Frankenmuth, Michigan

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Oh Canada!

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Poutine from Swiss Chalet

Grand Lake St. Mary's State Park and Blueberry

We stayed three nights at Grand Lake St. Mary's State Park in western Ohio. It was so nice to be at the state park and enjoy the area with just a few other guests. We took a few walks and saw a snake and a bunch of song birds greeted us with their songs each morning.

While we were at the park our trusty mini-van, Vangoh, gave up the ghost. It has been limping along for several months, but faithfully did its job, almost to the end of our trip. So we purchased a new van in nearby Celina, Ohio. This 2011 model is such a major upgrade for us, that we actually get excited going for a drive, whereas before we almost dreaded having to take Vangoh anywhere. We named the new van Big Blueberry because of its unique color. Patsy said no more silver vans because they are too hard to find in a parking lot with the dozens of other vans with the same color!

We also visited a fun little restaurant in St. Mary's called Lost in the 50s. This eatery is filled with memorabilia from the 1950s and there is a little museum with lots more fun stuff from the era. It is funny talking to our sons and how they think we grew up in this era! The lightbulb came on when I explained I was born a decade after the 1950s were over. This was our parent's era!

Staff - 8 - Spoke to one ranger who was nice and the camp hosts were helpful as well.

Natural surroundings - 9 - Right on St. Mary's Lake.

Roominess - 8 - Plenty big enough.

Facility Fun - 8 -Two playgrounds, BB court, mini-putt, walking trails and lake fishing.

Facility usefulness - 5 - Laundromat, dump.

Bathrooms - 8 - Bathrooms were clean and showers were hot and plenty of them. Flush toilets.

Cleanliness - 8 - State Park clean

Nearby attractions - 5 - Close to Lima. Dayton and Fort Wayne within striking distance.

Value - 10 - Paid $12.50 a night for a back-in site with electric hook-up only. Used our Passport America card.

Overall - 9 - Cheap stay, modern yet in the midst of natural surroundings.

New England treats

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Cindy's Diner

Eating clam cakes at a New England greasy spoon is something everyone should do before they die! Check this one off of our bucket list - well maybe not because now we have to go back someday. Back to Cindy's Diner in North Scituate, Rhode Island that is.

From the outside to the inside this diner is a classic piece of Americana and the menu has lots of good comfort food mixed in with some wonderful local favorites, including clam chowder, fried clam strip sandwiches and clam cakes! Beyond that is has a kids menu and is modestly priced. Definitely not your typical casual dining experience, but we highly recommend it!

Chocolate Lover's Club

We had another delicious experience at the Chocolate Lover's Club in Princeton, New Jersey. This little shop of wonders uses pure chocolate in just about everything they make! We bought some chocolate covered pretzels and Oreos that were beyond describable! We got to talking to the owner about our family's trip across the country and she was so impressed with out story she gave us some carmel-filled chocolate truffles to sample! More delicousity!!

Be sure to stop into their shop if you anywhere near Princeton - like within a day's drive!! Yummy.

Rock Monsters and Betsy Ross

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Broadway Diner

Baltimore is a great eating town! All sorts of crab and seafood dishes, ethnic favorites and tastes influenced by the other big east coast cities. While April may not be the best time for blue crab dishes, we still wanted to try one of these Baltimore establishments, so after a morning at Fort McHenry we ate lunch at the Broadway Diner.

The Broadway Diner was featured on Diners, Dives and Drive-ins and has a great 1950s look with silver and metallic. One of the dishes that Guy really loved was the shrimp creole, so that is what I ordered. I has some creamy crab soup along with my amazing main dish. It was all very tasty. Patsy loved her dish - a shrimp melt.  The plates were quite big so we took half of our dishes home and had a tremendous lunch a couple of days later.

Our adventurous boys had hot dogs, macaroni, spaghetti and cheese sandwiches. Yippee!!

Maryland McDonalds

We made a pitstop in Laurel, Maryland for a Walmart run and ran overtime with our shopping. We were all starving and decided to mark our Maryland McDonalds off the list right there in Walmart. We are really ticking our left of center friends off now!

Our kids are still plenty skinny so we are doing OK with these stops, next time it will be for coffee though!

Campground Review - Fredericksburg KOA

We visited our friends Brad and Barb Snyder in Fredericksburg, Virginia and they were wonderful hosts, showing the sites and best grocery stores in town! They also took us to a fun place to et called Spirits in historic downtown Fredericksburg. Our family also worshipped on Palm Sunday with the Snyders and had a great time at their church. We stayed at the Fredericksburg KOA while there.

Staff - 8 - One of the family members checked us in and was quite helpful, while another got us hooked up with some propane and was also very friendly.

Natural surroundings - 10 - Definitely in the country with lots of trees and a pond.

Roominess - 8 - Very large sites and ours backed up to the pond.

Facility Fun - 9 - Pool open during the warm months. Playground and fishing in the pond. Game room, volleyball court.

Facility usefulness - 8 - Propane, laundry, camp store, picnic tables at each site.

Bathrooms - 9 - Individual shower rooms are small but water is hot and with lots of pressure. Bathroom is clean and modern.

Cleanliness - 8 - Clean and well maintained.

Nearby attractions - 8 - Close Fredericksburg battle sites, Richmond and Washington DC.

Value - 4 - Paid $55 a night for a back-in graveled site with full-hook-ups including cable. We used our KOA card.

 
Overall - 8 - KOA are always nice and usually pricey for RVers.

Kettle Chips and Transformers

On our way up Interstate 81 we made a quick stop at the Route 11 Potato Chip Factory in Mt. Jackson, Virginia. These kettle fried chips are quite tasty, come in some unique flavors and are healthier than the average chip company. They fry the potato slices in a combination of peanut and sunflower seed oil, so if you have a peanut allergy these chips are not for you!

We had read that visitors can watch the chips being made and taste fresh samples. This is true on days when chips are being made, but we were not fortunate to come on a day when the machines were rolling. Call ahead if you want to see the chips being made. Otherwise you can purchase some freshly made chips at the visitor center and they are tasty! We got the sample pack and we all found some flavors we liked. Patsy and I thought the Chesapeake Clam flavored were the best.

The next day we had lunch at the McDonalds in Front Royal, Virginia for our 35th state with a golden arches stop on this trip! Wow. The little guys were excited about the Transformers toy, and we went for a hike in Shenandoah, National Park after to work off the extra calories and energy!

Charleston, SC and Oak Plantation Campground Review

We stayed an entire week in Charleston and we were able to get downtown for a walk through the open market and a lunch at Bubba Gumps! This is the only repeat we had from our trip here a few years ago. The open market is so cool with lots of interesting things for sale. We did not purchase anything since we spent plenty on lunch at Bubba Gumps. We had fun answering Sponge Bob and Forrest Gump trivia here. Oh yeah the food was great too!!

We stayed at the Oak Plantation Campground during our stay in Charleston.

Staff - 8 - Basic friendliness.

Natural surroundings - 8 - Surrounded by trees and smaller lakes, but close to town.


Roominess - 9 - very big sites!!


Facility Fun - 7 - Pool (open in season), small playground, horseshoes, free fishing, plenty of room to ride bikes.

Facility usefulness - 9 - Free decent speed wifi, laundry, propane, fenced -in dog run, exchange library, camp store.


Bathrooms - 8 - Average 

Cleanliness - 8 - lawn crews were out daily keeping it in shape.

Nearby attractions - 9 - Close to beaches, Charleston and Mount Pleasant sites.

Value - 7 - Paid $40 a night for a pull-through cement pad site with full-hook-ups.
 
Overall - 8 - Not bad for Charleston area in terms of price. Clean and big park with an average atmosphere.

Fort Pulaski

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Kidology to Go - Pinellas Park, Florida

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Shells, Owls and Citrus Heaven

 

 

We are sorry, but we have removed this post becuase it is a part of our new book entitled Napkin Dreams.