Airport Bars, You Have To Love Them

Just time for one beer in the bar at the Minneapolis Hubert H. Humphrey Airport. You have to love an airport that as you approach it has a sign saying “Airport Lane.” Silly me, I thought that meant you should get into that lane to go to the airport. No, that was just the name of a street; you had to keep going straight to get to the airport.

I ordered a Blue Moon at the bar and it came with an orange slice instead of a lemon slice. When I mentioned that it should really be served with a lemon slice I got the typical “This is the way I was told to do it” response. She wouldn’t even replace it. Jeez, sometimes I just love airport bars.

Bar Man With His Beer And Orange Slice

A Fun Filled Day

Bruce decided to play golf with my nephew Charlie and Donna decided to take a nap so the Mysterious Chinese Lady and I decided to go out for some fun and excitement. Our first stop was a very nice miniature golf course. According to an ad in the paper they were supposed to have $3 rounds of golf and $2 beers. Unfortunately they hadn’t gotten their beer license yet so we settled for ice-cream cones. Blue Bunny is the brand of choice because it is made in LeMars, Iowa, not too far from here.

The golf course has a waterfall and a stream that runs through it and is quite nice.

And A Stream Runs Through It



The Mysterious Chinese Woman jumped off to an early lead but soon ran into difficulties and I managed to pull victory from the jaws of defeat.

The Mysterious Chinese Woman And A Tough Lie



After working up a thirst on the links we headed to the Barefoot Tiki Bar, Iowa’s first (I am surprised it isn’t the only) Tiki bar.

Barefoot Tiki Bar



I learned something interesting here too. The top of the palapa can only be made when the leaves are green so they shipped the leaves from Florida in a refrigerated truck so they could make them. Supposedly they are able to withstand hurricane force winds, not that you are likely to get a hurricane in Iowa. It was quite a pleasant place to have a beer. The scenery was nice and the weather was beautiful.

Bar Man At The Bar



The Mysterious Chinese Woman And A Friend



I had to take a picture of the door to the men’s room.

Dick’s Hang Out



After we got back and Bruce returned from his round of golf we decided to go out for dinner. We went to a nice little place on the water called The Wharf.

The Wharf



Bruce and I decided to have a pre-dinner libation at the bar so we ordered Bombay Martinis with a twist, straight up. One of Bar Man’s favorites.

Bar Man And Bruce At The Bar



I kind of wanted to sit out on the deck and enjoy the view of the lake but the women in the group were afraid of the sun and the bees so we sat at a booth inside and enjoyed our meal in air-conditioned comfort.

Sportsman's Pub

Sportsman’s Pub



There were a lot of neat little bars in the Spirit Lake area, but we didn’t really visit many of them. We went to a few restaurants and did some grilling, but bar-hopping wasn’t really big on our agenda. Hey, I was on vacation.

This bar was a neat little locals place and we found out some interesting information about the area we were visiting from a guy in the bar. The area is known as the Iowa Great Lakes Area because of the number of large lakes in the vicinity. These lakes are Spirit Lake, the largest, Lake West Okoboji, Lake East Okoboji, Minnewashta, and Upper and Lower Garand Center Lake.

Lake West Okoboji is a blue water lake which means that it is spring fed. President Clinton once said that there were only two blue water lakes in the world, but he was wrong. The guy in the bar said there were only three. He was wrong too. I am not sure why Clinton was wrong but I think the guy in the bar was confused because The National Geographic Society named Lake West Okoboji one of the three most beautiful blue water lakes in the world, the other two being Canada's Lake Louise and Lake Geneva in Switzerland.

Bar Man, Donna And Bruce At The Bar



After we finished our drinks we headed to Remington’s and had Bombay Martinis with our dinner but, alas, didn’t drink anything at the bar.

Donna, MCW And Bruce Heading Into Remington’s

Graduation Day

Charlie, The Proud Graduate



My brother Marty and his family live not too far from Spirit Lake where I was vacationing. This weekend they were celebrating my their son's, and my nephew, graduation from high school (MCC, which stands for, I believe, Murray County Central). Charlie, you my remember, visted me in New York last summer and even got some training as a Junior Bar Man (he practiced with sodas).

On Saturday there was a party at Marty's place and there was, as you might expect, plenty of good food. Marty and his wife, Paula Sue, own the Left Bank Cafe where they serve excellent food and their own custom roasted coffees. You can also order their coffee online and can get to their website by clicking the picture below.

The main dish at the party was roasted pork butt. He did up 100 pounds of the stuff but 60 of it was for someone else who was also having a graduation party.

Marty, Charlie, Paula Sue, Katie (my neice)



The next day we were back again for brunch and to watch a taped performance of Aida that Charlie's high school put on. Charlie played the role of Zoser (hiss).

After that we headed to the high school for the graduation ceremony then after a quick stop back at my Marty's we all headed to Spirit Lake again.