Still Hiding In Michigan

Soooooo.... another day of semi effective hiding is completed. Wednesday is kind of a day out of camp so with nothing to do there after morning program we hopped in the mini van and headed up to "Joe's Friendly Tavern" in Empire Michigan. http://www.empiretaverns.com/joesopen.html. Joes is self touted to have "the worlds best hamburger" and Empire is only about 40 minutes north so, what the hell? It was a nice trip on a beautiful day and we took another one of Laura's friends along who just finished her freshman year at Cincinnati as an Industrial Design major. She never stopped talking and provided excellent entertainment. Her dad worked for P&G for years...Tide Boxes.... something...I don't know. We headed up 22 which is the Michigan equivalent to Highway 1 in California. Not many Lake Michigan views but when they come they take your breath away.

Empire is in the middle of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park and has a huge public beach that is pretty sweet. Long story short is that we ate 5 burgers and they were unremarkable. They were of medium thickness and we had a number of incarnations from cheeseburger to bacon cheeseburger to BBQ bacon cheeseburger. They did not ask how you wanted it cooked. All were medium well ad of that middle thickness we do not see too much of in the Lou. At home the burgers are squashed flat like the Steak n Shake/Carls burger or served fat like Blueberry Hill or O'Connells. This burger was an inferior and unloved version of The Village Bars version. We were underhwhelmed. Nothing wrong with these burgers but nothing memorable and certainly nothing that would lead to any "world's best" appellation. How about "Northwest Michigan's" Best? I could buy that.

Which brings us to another general point. Northern Michigan Cuisine is...wanting. People rave about places. Fine food, diners, roadhouses, breakfasts etc... I discussed it with the sometimes brilliant Tim Tiemann and sold him on the idea that food up here was like food in Germany. There was nothing great about it but also nothing abominable. It is not as bad as English food (an atrocity) but is certainly no France or Italy. In short, when dining here I surprisingly find the camp food at Arcadia as good as anything I can find in restaurant up here. Maybe I am wrong. Sue me.

So we are going to have another party tonight and another opportunity to add to my inestimable beer can pyramid. I have very high hopes. Spending some quality time now fleshing out the first CD of Neil Young's new box set retrospective. This is a monster which will take the rest of the summer to digest but when he sings "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere"... I feel like he is speaking just to me and no one else. Neil sounds good in Michigan.