The intersection of 18th, Loomis and Blue Island is the perfect place for an ice cream stand, and La Michoacana fits that role like destiny.
The place is brightly lit and clean, but we all know the real reason to go is La Michoacana’s amazing mangonadas (sweet, refreshing, spicy, limey, salty, damn) and liquados… nevermind so many flavors of delicious paletas!
This wasmy first ever visit to Oneonta, and it being summer, I needed ice cream! The Golden Gurnsey caught my eye as soon as we pulled off the highway. This dairy stand was open on the later side (we got there just before 10PM) with many tempting flavors. I went with the mint chocolate chip and chocolate pretzel – a scoop of each – on a waffle cone.
Not only was it a cool treat to beat the heat, but there was a super mellow cow cat not the least bit afraid of humans rolling in the grass out front. That’s a good omen, man.
My group flew in from Chicago, in the middle of a cool Midwest summer the heat of the Yucatan hit like a ton of bricks. At the end of our walking tour I was drenched in sweat. Ice cream never tasted so good! I had the mantecado, a flavor similar to yet richer than American vanilla.
There’s a good reason why Helados Colon has been open for decades… not only is the ice cream and sorbet delicious, but in this weather, it could save your life!
I love that Governor Dodge State Park sells ice cream cones. Marcia got a peanut butter turtle and I got blueberry pie, with buttery crust.
Briq’s is a local Wisconsin chain for soft serve. It provided a satisfying end of day treat.
Etta got a large cone with vanilla covered in krunch kote and i got my all-time favorite: a peanut butter cup freezee. It was a delicious treat to bring to Torpy Park to watch the sunset.
After years of friends telling me about how good Lickety Split is, I finally got my sweet treat on. And let me tell you something, Lickety Split is amazing. Hands down the best concrete I have had in Chicago, and in the top three I have had in life. The damn custard is round in the mouth, not too sweet, so smooth, I was not able to stop eating despite being in real physical danger of exploding.
Etta got cheesecake ground up into concrete, Jimmy Hoffa-style. It had semi sweet cream cheese custard, berries and crumble, very refreshing. Rob Lamb got a petit looking red velvet cake sundae, with raspberries and vanilla custard, the quality of the red velvet cake brought it all together. I bought 2 peanut butter cookies (rich, salty, soft) for a midnight snack as well as a corn cob and black rooster sugar cookie for the next day. Excellent, excellent (rubbing hands together, Mr. Burns-style).
For my sweet treat, I got the Peanut Butter Blowout. I was in a custard trance for the first 3 quarters of eating it, and then I suddenly realized I was about to blow out. I continued to nibble all the way until I had one or two little bites left, and then I had to stop (all this after an epic feast of Chicago-style thin crust pizza) and let the sweats take over. Let me just say this: if I was Mr. Lickety Split (and I’m not) I would not put Butterfingers in the Peanut Butter Blowout.
Butterfingers is not peanut butter, but that’s just like my opinion, man.
After the beach we cruised up the peninsula, with the intention of heading to the hotel before dinner. I had ice cream and Green Bay views on the brain, as would anybody showing Door County to their friend for the first time.
We stopped at the Eagle Tower in Peninsula State Park. I give Meghan a lot of credit for crushing the climb to see Horseshoe Island, even though the tower was rocking in the wind. Afterwards, I ran into Wilson’s Ice Cream in downtown Ephraim for a scoop of peanut butter explosion.
As a kid, my family used to take us to Shady Glen for ice cream. We would eat our treats out in the parking lot. My sister, cousin Amy and I would then roll down the steep grassy hill. These days, I prefer my milkshakes in a glass.
Inside the restaurant, there are these amazing murals depicting elves on the coast. There are caves, shipwrecks, hamburgers, French fries, and ice cream treats. These elves, being elves, help themselves to whatever they like. The art is attributed to Ruth J. Flanigan and C. E. Kirk, from 1977. If anyone stumbles upon this post, and has more information, please share it in the comments.
Shady Glen, a restaurant in Manchester, Connecticut, has been named an American classic by the James Beard Foundation, and for good reason.
Originally a dairy, the restaurant’s milkshakes are legendary, as is their treatment of cheese.
The cheese is fried, crisping and curling the edges. This cheese, on a burger, is irresistible. Shady Glen is as good as ever.
There are some expenditures that suffer me no guilt: annual passes to state parks and hooded sweatshirts from said state parks are on the list. This summer and fall we will be able to visit all the state parks in Michigan and Wisconsin as many times as we’d like.
Governor Dodge is on a very short of the best state parks in the Midwest. And due to its location in Iowa County, WIsconsin (the southwest corner of the state), it is a relatively hidden gem.
We drove through the verdant country and pulled off into Governor Dodge. My girlfriend wanted to get a sense of what the park had to offer, so we drove from Cox Hollow Lake to Twin Lake. We also got a beefy hotdog and an ice cream cone at the concessions.
The ice cream that day in June was cream cheese with blueberry and pie crust. That says a lot right there: this is a very good state park. Instead of the more popular waterfall trail, we opted for the Pine Cliff Trail, because we wanted to hike off the treats.
What I learned was that during the last few glaciations, a species of pine native to northern WIsconsin was pushed by the ice packs down to the area. It found sanctuary in the acidic limestone cliffs, where it continues to live on, stranded on an island far from the rest its kind.
The other thing I learned is that Wisconsin state parks serve really good ice cream.
