Bloomington is only about 7 hours from Kirksville so we left Friday morning and got back on Sunday evening. Brett's event was Saturday and I basically vegged in the hotel room doing crossword puzzles on the iPad and watching extremely edited raunch-coms on USA. What is interesting is everything other than those moments. What did we do in everything other than those moments? EAT.
We have friends who love Bloomington. Our pal Jason got his PhD at Indiana University (do I get credit for having a friend with a PhD? I want credit.) and he and his wife Erin had lists of suggestions for us. On some of Brett's longer trips, he loses the energy to seek out a local establishment every night (and who could blame him) so we wanted to take advantage of the easy commute to tasty places (our hotel was SO close to downtown), good company (hello- ME!), and trust-worthy recommendations.
Friday night took us to The Upland Brewing Company. As expected, it offered totally delicious pub fare (I had fish and chips and Brett tackled their Reuben) and their brews were very tasty.
I think this is their wheat ale:
I ate breakfast at the hotel in the morning, but Brett was able to get away for lunch and at Erin's suggestion, we tried Mother Bear's Pizza- a delicious pizza place with a very busty bear for a logo.
I took this picture of some graffiti in our booth.
No photos of the pizza, which was devoured too quickly to snap a pic. We shared pesto bread sticks, I had the Illinois Central (I'm a sucker for barbecue sauce on a pizza) and Brett had the Tuscaloosa Touch Down (two words: pulled pork.)
Saturday night, I scouted out a place to try and settled on Bub's Burgers and Ice Cream, mostly because those are two of my favorite things in one name of a restaurant. Turns out, Adam Richman visited their Indianapolis location and completed their food challenge- The Big Ugly. This is a one pound hamburger. Brett strongly considered that, but wanted to save room for a milkshake. I really liked this place. I had a regular cheeseburger, but Brett got adventurous and tried their Elk Burger. (I tasted it. It tasted basically the same.)
I also took the most pictures here because lots of other people were taking pictures which made it less awkward.
Not our best, but blog worthy:
They brought us samples of their soup of the day and I made Brett take it like a shot.
Brett going to town on Elkie:
And our super tasty milkshakes- Cinnamon Crumb and Praline Pecan.
We had brunch on Sunday (yep- still eating!) at The Runicble Spoon, a place that serves Erin's favorite mimosa. I'm inclined to agree since it was a full glass for $5! Our waitress had a hard time splitting our check and we sat next to some fairly self righteous IU students, but my Eggs Benedict was kick ass and Brett had a stack of blueberry pancakes that were very, very worth it.
On the drive home, we stopped for lunch/dinner in St Louis at about 3. A weird time, but by this time we had been destroying our bodies with food on a pretty regular basis so what did it matter. We did (you won't believe this) 5 Guys Burgers and Fries.
It was really yummy and I loved it because I am the type of person who develops an emotional attachment to her food. It made me wanna say DAYUM. (You knew that was coming, right? You knew.)
As you can tell, there were NO weight resolutions on the queue this year. I just... GUYS WE ATE SO MUCH FOOD.
We had a really great time together though and I'm feeling super grateful to have the opportunity to spend extra time with Brett when he travels. It sorta sucks when he leaves and it felt great to pack up into the car with him instead of saying goodbye.
As with any time I travel out of town, I gathered quite a few thoughts and insights on the process (more than just "Another pale ale, please" I swear) and I'll share those soon for sure. For now, I think I'll read back through this post and enjoy the visual feast from our weekend!
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