little gems in the UP

Some three months back Conrad, Karen (his sister), and I happened upon a great little place while roaming north in search of antiques in the UP.

Right as soon as I typed the word antiques, I should say, I felt about as gay as I've ever felt in my life.

Anyway, Lily's of Traunik was our great discovery that day. Their Website gives other variations on the name, but the sign on the store makes it simple. Housed in an historic property at a crossroads near the halfway mark between Escanaba and Marquette, the store endeared itself to us immediately. Pretty decent coffee, organic goods, and some prices that had me and Karen pinching ourselves at our luck. We were sold on it.

Despite the snow today, we were keen to get a drive in and revisit. Conrad's Mom declined to come, so we picked up Karen and drove - carefully - up to the store. You know what? Just as good as remembered. Did we spend an hour there? I think so. We were having a good time chatting with the people running the place - I'm assuming that would be Jeff and AJ Fischer, the owners. We drank our coffee and ate a cupcake and kept circling around the wares, picking out more and more things to buy. Candied ginger, the store's own chocolate truffles, a hat for Conrad, a Christmas ornament, spices, a postcard, a CD. What fun. We'll be back again some time this year. Doubtless there will be a third post.

It was getting on a bit after lunch when we left, and we hadn't had lunch yet. A slow drive back toward Escanaba, taking photos of snowy farms. At Rapid River, we headed to an old-time favourite called Jack's for a bit to eat.

OK, it's fair to call me (and Conrad, by extension) a food snob. I didn't want a sandwich, and I didn't want a big meal. Soup wouldn't likely be enough (I did order the clam chowder). What else could I have... ? Deep fried cauliflower, of course.

I know, I know. Batter dip a cellphone and fry it up, and it doubtless would be delicious. Do they make the little nuggets from scratch at Jack's? I don't know. I don't care. They were fried, and I liked the batter seasoning. They came to me hot, and they came with ranch dressing on the side. I was happy. Oh, and we bought seven pieces of various pies for gently reheating and eating for dessert tomorrow night at Conrad's mother's. The pie, we are assured, is homemade. It smelled mighty good.

Little gems dot the world, not the just the UP. The trick is stumbling upon them, of course. We don't go back to Chicago until Monday - I wonder what we stumble upon next....