Road Trip!

Daph and I usually talk about food when we reminisce about vacations.

San Diego? Mexican.

Prince Edward Island? PEI mussels.

Victoria? Every downtown street had a bakery.

So, what about this summer's Canadian trip? 

The Pan Chancho Bakery in Kingston, is a fun place to visit.

The last thing we did in Kingston before heading to the train station was to have breakfast there. I ordered the Weekender: two eggs over easy on a croissant with bacon, chives and 2 year old cheddar. I added the two strips of bacon to go along with the peameal bacon. The bacon jam was a welcome addition.

In Québec City the breakfast sandwich at The Paillard was also a knock-out.

Check out those layers.

Our breakfast at Café La Maison Smith (also in Québec City) was no slouch, either. 

This bakery has quite a delivery vehicle.

One common thread linking these breakfasts is a croissant so light that it hovered slightly above the plate. Only the buttery taste kept it from floating away. And these are just the croissants I took pictures of. Others were consumed before I even remembered my camera. It didn't matter if the croissants were as rich in calories as they were in taste. We relied on public transportation, and we logged 99 miles of walking in ten days.

That was back in July, and we haven't been to a bakery since. I Googled "best Iowa bakeries", and discovered that the Des Moines Register reported in 2017 that BuzzFeed had named The Café in Ames as the best bakery in Iowa. BuzzFeed enlisted Yelp’s algorithm that measured the star ratings and reviews for every bakery in the state.

That got me thinking. We don't travel to Ames very often, and we have not been to any of the bakeries there. Hmmmmm...

We started at the Ames Farmers' Market on Saturday. 

This has nothing to do with baked goods, but the ribs from the Cornbred Barbecue food truck were awesome. 

Ali Cakes is located on the same street as the farmers' market, so we stopped in for a salted caramel cupcake. (If you want to sound Canadian, pronounce it "care-a-mel".)

The Dutch Oven Bakery was close, so we walked over there. I did not tell Charlotte my definition of a "dutch oven."

Apple pocket:

Great Harvest Bakery and Cafe recently opened in Ames. What a great surprise! Des Moines had a Great Harvest Bread Company store for years, but it sadly closed when Char was an infant. 

I love their white bread. In Des Monies it was sold as "Whata White!" When we spotted a Great Harvest store in Seattle, Daphne was kind enough to lug a loaf home for me in her airplane carry on.

Char was all too happy to relax with a slice, "This bakery tour idea is a lot better than I thought it would be, Dad."

We had to drive to get to The Cafe.

We ordered a croissant, and the gal behind the counter told us that their croissants were twice baked with a layer of almond paste. 

I wish I had I known that "twice baked" meant "crunchy" like "when you bite this, hard flecks will break off and hit your family." I would have had different expectations with that kind of information.

So, it wasn't The Cafe's fault, and it wasn't the day-old-croissant's fault, but this wasn't what I had hoped for.

The surprise of the day was at Insomnia Cookies.

The space inside isn't much to talk about. It's fairly dark and industrial. But the warm cookies... wow. 

My plan was to end our time in Ames by stopping by one more eatery. I hadn't tried Taco Time before, and I had a recommendation of what to order from a buddy who is an Ames native.

I pulled the car into Taco Time's parking lot, and this is what I saw in the back seat.

I didn't have the heart to stop the car again, so I turned around and drove home quietly. 

So, was the Bakery Tour a success?

No, not really. We were all tired after our first week back to school, and we were all fairly crabby. I should have waited a few weeks before I surprised the girls with my tour idea. We were not in the mood to have a great time; some days are just not filled with sunshine and unicorns. 

But in retrospect, our moods wouldn't have mattered. I can't recreate our bakery experience in Canada here in Iowa, and actually that's a good thing. If I could, then why would we travel there in the first place? 

Summer's over and so is our vacation. It's time to focus on what Iowa can bring to the table. And that's some great Iowa Chops, awesome steaks, the best milk from AE Dairy, killer bacon, Maid- Rites, pork tenderloins, farmers' markets, etc, etc, etc...

And maybe Taco Time. I haven't given up on making that stop.