Whole Foods or Bust

Heading west after Milwaukee toward Madison, we drove past what seemed like endless green fields bursting with fresh corn and great expanses of dairy land. One of my favorite moments of the trip happened without planning. We needed to pull off for an impromptu bathroom stop for my young son…

Culinary Tour of Google

Common lore has it that computer geeks survive on a steady diet of freeze-dried ramen noodles, power bars and over-caffeinated sodas. Such a notion jives with all the tech startups that tout their fridges full of free Snapple, endless games of foosball, or fleets of Segways for staff to…

High Season in Mackinac

Does homemade beef jerky count as healthy? Maybe if you’re a cowboy or fur trapper with little access to refrigeration on the open range or in the northern woods. I thought about this as I paid for my 1/2 pound of BBQ dried and cured beef from the highly recommended (by our generous…

Is In-N-Out Burger Fast Food? Is It Healthy?

Just to be complicated (and healthier) the Boak Family trip credo has included the mandate “no fast food” during our entire month on the road. When I originally proposed this idea, my wife’s first question to me was a good one: “How does one define…

No More Fast Food . . .

What if you crammed your family into a late model SUV and drove for 30 days from coast-to-coast WITHOUT indulging in fast-food? Two kids who’ll eat only McD’s snack wraps and burgers? NOT on the table. Will there be complaining? Yes. Weeping and gnashing of teeth? Definitely. Mutiny…

Embarkment

Fitting a family of four and all the stuff needed for 30 days on the road is a challenge. Adding to that our desire to never eat at a fast-food joint along the way meant further planning. I’d mapped out all the Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods available along the way. We purchased special coolers, assembled food…

Poulet a l’Estragon

Our good friend Heather hosted us in Milwaukee at her very cool Walker’s Point loft. Replete with a large, gourmet kitchen and an outdoor patio perfect for summer cocktails, her idea of staying in for dinner was met with relief, especially after our long drive in from northern Michigan and a…

Country French in Eugene

Jumping off of I-5, and veering toward the side of Eugene where the University of Oregon dominates, I noticed a sign on an angular building covered with corrugated aluminum and hip colored paint.

Rye.

Sunset BBQ in Menlo Park

Since our next stop was just a few hours away on what locals call the peninsula, we opted to lounge about my wife’s cousin’s apartment for a few hours, dealing with laundry chores and regrouping a bit. After hitting Philz, a local coffee institution, we had yogurt and fresh fruit for…