This is not OK

I am from Minneapolis.

I lived a few blocks away from where Alex Pretti was killed. For somewhere around 12 years. It was so long that I’m even a bit fuzzy around exact dates. Like, I think I moved there in 1994 and moved out in 2006? So let's say it was a dozen years.

I have stood right where Alex Pretti stood.

I have been to every business on the 2600 block of Nicollet Avenue many times.

Glam Doll Donuts, my favorite donut shop in the whole world, wasn’t there when I lived nearby. It opened later, in 2013. But even after I moved away, I made a point to stop there when I came back. Every time I was in Minneapolis, I tried to get coffee and a donut at Glam Doll at least once per visit. Every time, I thought to myself, geez, I wish this had been here when I lived in the neighborhood!

A perfect weekend morning for me on more than one trip was coffee + donut at Glam Doll, followed by record shopping at Cheapo Records. With friends, or by myself. The picture above was taken by me on a 2023 visit to Glam Doll.

That section of Nicollet Avenue is called “Eat Street” because it holds some of the best restaurants in the Twin Cities. I’ve been to many of them. Some have closed since my time there, but many remain: Quang, Pho 79/Caravelle, Black Forest Inn, Rainbow Restaurant, and others. Little Tijuana was a famously dive-y Mexican Restaurant right around the corner, on 26th Street.

I used to be nervous to walk around that neighborhood when I first moved there in the 1990s. It took me a while to get comfortable with it. I learned to love walking to the corner store, to the hardware store, to the restaurants, to the coffee shop that used to be on the corner of Nicollet and Franklin, and then southward down to all the great restaurants of Eat Street.

I used to stop at Caravelle to pick up Chinese food on the way home from my job in the suburbs.

I used to love a good Paulaner Weissbier at the Black Forest Inn.

That neighborhood was home. It still holds a special place in my heart.

I am sad and angry for what happened to Alex Pretti on 26th and Nicollet.

I am sad for the fine people behind Glam Doll Donuts. I want the world to know about them, but because their donuts are fantastic and everybody there is always friendly … not because of this. This is not why their storefront should be on the national news.

What the government is doing is damaging Minneapolis. Hurting my onetime home. Hurting my friends. Hurting good people.

It must stop.

Bag Storage at Denver Union Station

Denver's Union Station has no place to check bags, at least as of August, 2024. They used to. The station has a very nice hotel called the Crawford, which used to check bags for a fee. They no longer do. The station also services Amtrak, and Amtrak used to have lockers, but they no longer do. I have no idea why, but it's easy to guess.

I had checked out of my hotel in Boulder, taken the (very nice) Flatiron Flyer bus back to Denver, and now I had time to kill before my evening train back to Chicago. Where could I park my bags, so I could walk around and explore, unfettered? I asked at the front desk of the Crawford Hotel and the nice lady there gave me a card for LUGDEN. LUGDEN is....a van. A van parked on Wynkoop Street, by 17th, right across from Union Station. They'll let you check luggage for a fee (at the time of writing, $3/hour or $10/day). I was able to check both of my bags successfully, head to Meow Wolf, followed by lunch and wandering, then swing back and pick up my bags in time to grab a pre-train cocktail at the Terminal Bar.

So, I'm sharing this here for those who, like me, searched online and found information lacking. You'll find old message board posts that suggest that Amtrak and the Crawford will check bags for a fee, but then neither Amtrak or the Crawford's website say this any more, and when I asked at the hotel, they weren't storing bags for non-guests. So, anything you see online suggesting otherwise is probably out of date.

Need to store luggage at Denver's Union Station? You'll want to look for LUGDEN. Find their website here, get a card from the front desk of the Crawford Hotel, or look for them on Wynkoop Street.

While it may seem to be a bit of an odd setup, everything worked fine, the process was easy, the person manning the van was professional, and they do take credit cards. I had no issues at all and would recommend them to others.

Greetings from NOLA!

Greetings from New Orleans! My wife and I are down here for a bit, dog and house sitting for a friend. So far we've seen some great music (Snug Harbor might be my new favorite jazz club), and had fantastic food and drink at too many places to mention, both in the French Quarter and around the Bywater neighborhood we're we are staying.

Impossible Sliders: Try 'em!

My wife and I are road tripping around the country with our dog. I am so tired of driving and ready to be back home, but that's another story for another time.

On Moving to Miami

So, we've decided that the town of Ithaca, New York, was not for us. When considering where to move next, my criteria was that I wanted to "move aspirationally." What I meant by that was, I want to move to some place where we like being, is someplace we've been and have had fun before, and is maybe some place where life would be really different for us. Someplace where we both have thought, "gosh, we really wish we lived here" during previous visits. And with Kate leaving her day job, and my job allowing me to work from anywhere, we thought that we really ought to take advantage of the freedom that this allows us.

On Ithaca and Bugs

Greetings from Ithaca, New York.

Need any bugs? Bugs are everywhere here in Ithaca. Flies, mosquitos, gnats, spiders, crickets, they all love us and want to come live in our home. Our tiny chihuahua is terrified of the bugs, but our other dog will chew on them upon request.

Everything is a .9 mile walk from our home.

Parts of it are flat, unless you want to go to Cornell, then it's straight uphill, on streets at scary angles, and that's before there's any snow and ice.

The falls are pretty, though.

Reasons to Live in Minneapolis

Here are just a few of the reasons you should live in Minneapolis.

Reason #1: The view from your balcony looks like this.

 

Reason #2: Cool things like Berger Fountain, this whimsical 1970s dandelion-shaped fountain.



Reason #3: Cool music festivals like Rock the Garden and the Basilica Block Party are held right outside your door, letting you see bands like Spoon, Belle and Sebastian, Courtney Barnett, Fitz and the Tantrums, Wilco and more, while barely having to cross the street to get there.

Reason #5: Just out your back door, there's tons of green space--parks, lakes, and trails, almost all suitable places for walking your best friend.

On living in Minneapolis

My wife was published in the "Your Voices" section of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune today, talking about what it is like to be a recent transplant to Minneapolis.

Minneapolis Roundup

Looking for something to do in Minneapolis? Here's a quick bullet list of a few fun places to check out.

Need good restaurant recommendations? Here's a few. Or if you're more into the fast food/fast casual (read: cheaper) kind of thing, here's a list of five less upscale places to consider.

Back in 2013, some random hack tried to expense a quick trip to the Twin Cities by pounding out an awful travelogue of his weekend's mis-adventure in the area. Here find my suggested alternative itinerary for how to spend a weekend in the Twin Cities.

Stuff to Explore in Minneapolis

Here's a few things you might want to check out when you're in Minneapolis. (Got others? Please add them in comments and I will update this post.)

• The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. A beautiful garden park with outdoor art. Much of it modern/abstract. Is not too huge to rue walking around in. Also has a conservatory, so if it's cold out it's wonderful to go inside and warm up while looking at the greenery. If you walk there from a downtown hotel, you'll go through the beautiful Loring Park and across a walking bridge with a poem on it.
• The Minneapolis Institute of Arts. A wonderful art museum. Worth a visit. In a neighborhood some consider ghetto, but it's not bad and I used to live right by there.
• The Walker Art Center. Comparable to the MCA in Chicago. Bigger than the MCA, I think.
• The Mall of America. You go here because you like shopping and it's cold outside and you need christmas presents. If that's not you, avoid. 
• The Minehaha Falls are beautiful. There's a restaurant there called Sea Salt that is fantastic. (Expect a line. And save this one only for warmer weather.)
• Drive or bike down to Nicollet Island and look at the cool homes and row houses. It's very small, so it won't take long. Then drive or pedal over to St. Anthony Main and have a beer at Pracna or Aster. Pracna is the oldest still-open bar in Minneapolis.

Some Good Twin Cities Restaurants

Compiled for a friend. Got any others? Leave a comment and I'll add it.

Downtown restaurants/pubs:

• Bulldog Downtown, 11th and Hennepin. Good place for a burger. Part of a small chain.
• The Local, 9th and Nicollet. Good Irish Pub. Not my favorite one in the world, because that would be:
• Kieran's Irish Pub, 6th and Hennepin. Great food, great atmosphere. My favorite Irish pub in the world. (Both the Local and Kieran's are owned by the same guy and the both have good food.)
• Brit's Pub, 11th and Nicollet. Best scotch eggs in town. Love this place. Go. If it's nice out, they have a huge patio.
• Vincent, 11th and Nicollet. Great French restaurant. 
• Barrio Tequila Bar, 9th and Nicollet. I actually haven't been here yet but it comes well recommended, so don't hesitate to check it out.
• Dakota Jazz Club and Restaurant. If you happen to see somebody you like playing there, it's a good venue. Like SPACE in Evanston. However, I find the food to be overrated, so I wouldn't bother going there just for food.
• King & I Thai. You will see this on maps and the sign is still there, but this place is closed, so don't bother. Which is a bummer, because their food was fantastic.

Eat Street:

• The Eat Street Area. This is Nicollet Avenue from 25th Street to 28th Street. Great Asian restaurants. Quang for Vietnamese. Rainbow for seafood. Pho 79 for pho noodle soups.
• Icehouse. 25th and Nicollet. Farm-to-table kind of place. Good vegetarian options (like crispy tofu). Had a great meal here a few months ago.
• Eat Street Social. 26th and Nicollet. This is one of those places where the have 15 kinds of bitters and it looks like an apothecary behind the bar. Good for fancy cocktails.

Elsewhere:

• Travail/The Rookery. In Robbinsdale, a north suburb of Minneapolis. Kind of a long haul from downtown. I haven't been here yet, but everybody says it is fantastic and that it is a destination. Map location. North Minneapolis can be a little unsafe if you don't know what you're doing, stick to the highways if you go up that way.
• French Meadow Bakery. 26th and Lyndale Avenue South. Great breakfast/brunch place. Haven't been for dinner. It looks worth checking out for dinner. Right next to a dive bar called the CC Club, which is a friendly space filled with lots of young people.
• Bryant Lake Bowl. Lake and Bryant. Was a bowling alley for many years. Has eight lanes hidden in the back, still. Is now a restaurant and also has a performance space. Is unique. A Minneapolis gem.
• Pazzaluna, in downtown St. Paul. My all time favorite Italian restaurant. Great gnocchi. Great asparagus and chicken pizza. Great almost everything else. Funny bartender (Steve) who tells horribly lame jokes that you'll love.

48 Hours in Minneapolis-St. Paul? Try #2

Here's what to do in Minneapolis, if you don't know anything all, don't have access to Google, and think Potbelly is fine dining. However, if you're willing to try a little harder than that, the next time you find yourself with 48 hours to spend in Minneapolis, here's what you should do instead:

Friday, 5:00 pm: Arrive at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP). Take the light rail downtown if you're up for an adventure. If you're tired and weary from flying, take a taxi. It's not cheap, though it'll cost less than cabbing it in from larger airports in larger cities like NYC & Chicago.

Don't stay out by the airport or the Mall of America. Nothing there is on a pedestrian scale, thus it will be a baffling ordeal just to get coffee in the morning. Instead, stay in downtown Minneapolis. Check your favorite travel site (such as Expedia, Orbitz or Hotels.com) for a 3.5-4.5 star hotel. Avoid the Embassy Suites, Hyatt Place or Normandy; they've all seen better days. Consider the Millennium; it recently underwent massive renovation and was nice even before that. Other solid choices include the Radisson Blu, Hyatt, or Marquette. The W Hotel (Foshay) is hip and young. The Grand Hotel provides old school elegance. (We haven't stayed at the Grand yet; but it's on our list for a future visit.) (Hotel list revised March 2015.)

Friday, 7:00 pm: Like steak? Don't go to Capital Grille. It's actually fine, but it's a chain, a place you can find in any big city nowadays. Local options abound. SEVEN is hip and upscale. Murray's is the oldest of the old school. Manny's is a bit like how I imagine Morton's of Chicago was, once upon a time. JD Hoyt's is more of an old school supper club, but the room is nice and the food is fantastic.

Sadly, most of the vegetarian places I used to love seem to have closed. But if you're looking to avoid meat, I have a novel suggestion: Fogo de Chao. It is a Brazilian steakhouse, a churrascaria. But trust me -- vegetarians will find much to love here as long as you don't mind watching other people gorge on steak. Instead of approximately $50 for all you can eat steak, you can opt-for the approximately $25 "salad bar only" choice. Their salad bar is to die for. It makes all other salad bars cry in shame. I actually most often go to this restaurant just for lunch, and just for the salad course. It is thick with vegetables and cheeses, potatoes and pasta salads. Freshly dressed asparagus. Fresh mozzarella. I guarantee that you will not be disappointed.

Friday, 8:00 pm: As noted in that other article, Minneapolis has a strong and thriving theatre and music scene. Check the City Pages to see what your options are for the evening. TC Tix is also a good place to check, it's a "half price tickets" site. If nothing appeals to you, jump in a cab and head over to the Whiskey Junction bar. There will be a band. It will be local. It will probably be blues or classic rock. The scene may be silly. It will definitely be fun.

If you like jazz, then you're in luck. The area has two fantastic jazz clubs. My favorite is the Artists' Quarter, located in Downtown St. Paul. It's worth the cab ride there and back. I have a bias in that I've known the owner for years and have always loved this place. Don't take my word for it, though -- the reviews, universally positive, often say things like "this is what a jazz club should be:" dark, subterranean, not expensive.

Friday, 11:00 pm: Need a nightcap? Kieran's Irish Pub in the block E complex is a bright spot in an otherwise dull development block. Kieran owns a few pubs around, and he has a knack for taking something that starts as office space in a glass office block and turning into something that looks and feels authentic (or at least very fun). There is often live music.

Saturday, 10:00 am: For the love of god, don't go to Potbelly. If it's nice out and you want to go for a very short walk to get your coffee, walk to a specific downtown Dunn Brothers coffee shop at 201 3rd Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55401. It's a neat, old historic two-story brick building. The coffee is great, the service is good, and they'll be plenty of light breakfast options. If you have a car, head over to the French Meadow Bakery/Cafe on Lyndale Avenue South. Their menu is large, mostly organic, and fantastic. Be patient; it can take some time to order and find a table.

Saturday, 11:00 am: The Mississippi River is one of the stunning natural features of the area. If you can't find anything at or near the river, you're dead inside and need to stop writing travelogues. Nicollet Island, St. Anthony Main, and the Mill Ruins Park are just a few of the things you'll find near downtown. If you're up for a drive, take the south river road south/east bound out of downtown Minneapolis, and follow it down toward Minnehaha Falls, at the confluence of the river and Minnehaha Creek. It's a great place for an informal hike or a bike ride (rentals available). The Sea Salt Eatery is highly ranked and worth checking out.

Saturday, 2:00 pm: The Mall of America is fun to visit if you like to shop or have kids (and patience). If that's not your thing, take the kids to Historic Fort Snelling instead. If the weather's not nice, go see a movie at the fancy Showplace ICON movie theatre in St. Louis Park. Premium VIP seating with cushy leather chairs, gourmet food and a full bar will make it a movie-going experience you'll not soon forget.

Saturday, 6:00 pm: I guess you could go see a baseball game, if that's your thing. Or you could experience the arts up close at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, a wonderful museum of fine art located in South Minneapolis. Admission is free.

Sunday, 9:00 am: Don't eat breakfast at your hotel. Hop in the car and head over to St. Paul's Cathedral Hill area. The Cathedral itself is very pretty, and you can kill time walking around while waiting for W.A. Frost to open at 10:30 am for brunch.

Sunday, 12:00 pm: After a long and leisurely brunch, Mark's suggestions aren't too bad. He recommends visiting the Minnesota History Museum and Science Museum of Minnesota, both located in downtown St. Paul.

Sunday, 5:00 pm: If you've got time for an early dinner before departure, for the love of all that is holy, don't eat sad pizza at some place that has no windows. Go to Pizza Luce, a local chain with multiple locations. Their gourmet pizza is quite possibly the best pizza you may ever have in your entire life. And they have slices ready for easy snacking, if you're on the run.

You could have had a fan, but...

I spent most of Friday evening at the airport in Indianapolis. American Airlines was doing that thing where they can't decide if they want to cancel a flight or not. So instead, every 20 minutes, they just delayed the flight by another 20 or 30 minutes. (See the snapshot from my phone? That's all the flight alerts my travel tracking app sent me last night.) Eventually, as I rather suspected would happen, the flight was canceled, so I went to reclaim my bag and make my way to a hotel for the night.

As I was collecting my things and figuring out next steps, I pulled up Hotels.com and found a hotel downtown that I'm familiar with, one I like, and it happened to be the cheapest option downtown this evening. So I call them on the phone, instead of booking via Hotels.com, because my hands are full and I'm walking, trying to get out of the airport. The hotel clerk, after bumbling through the process and putting me on hold multiple times, quotes me a price higher than Hotels.com ($169 versus $149). I ask her if she can match the Hotels.com price, meaning, can they come down by $20? She says nope, sorry, can't do that.

I asked to confirm: So you're telling me, that I have to go book online instead to save that $20, and then your hotel has to pay the booking website 20% of the booking amount? You can't just give me the same rate directly, saving me the time and saving you the booking fee? Nope, can't be done, she says. "Um, that's like, some third party thing, we can't match what they do." (Buh?)

OK, thanks, no point in bothering then. I'll go online.

By now, I'm already kind of miffed that the hotel wouldn't help me out. Last time I was stranded due to a flight cancellation, another hotel downtown had no problem matching that rate. It's a shame that hotel wasn't available this time around. I then decided that I don't really care where I stay for the night, I just want it to be as cheap as possible and somewhere downtown, so I can make my way to the Amtrak station early in the morning.

So while riding back downtown in the back of a taxi, I fire up the laptop, plug in the Sprint modem, and pull up Hotwire.com. Hotwire had a four star hotel in downtown Indy for only $113 tonight.

So I booked it. On the Hotwire website, they don't tell you the name or exact location of the hotel until you make the booking. And when I pushed the "buy it" button I found out that I had ended up with the exact same hotel that I had talked to on the phone. I got it for a full $56 less than what I was quoted on the phone, and they still had to pay the website for the booking. Yet, I was ready and willing to pay them $36 more directly.

I'm left frustrated by all of this. This hotel could have turned me into a fan by doing me a favor on a really stressful travel day. Instead, they turned me away, and then it dawned on me that if they're not going to be loyal to me, maybe I shouldn't bother being loyal to them.

Oh, and I was booked to stay at this hotel for a week next month. Now I'm starting to think I should cancel that and just use Hotwire instead. Treat me like a commodity, and I can do the same to you.

(Oh, and after getting to the hotel and checking in? I wanted to meet a friend for drinks, but I decided not to spend another dime in the hotel that didn't seem to care about me. So, we went down the street a block to the other hotel, the one that treated me better, but didn't have any rooms this time around. It felt good spending my money in their lobby bar, instead of at the first place. I'm a fan.)

B&B in the RP

The friendly neighborhood blogger over at "The RP & Beyond" points out that we have a cool little bed and breakfast right here in Rogers Park. The Cat's Cradle Bed and Breakfast is at 7421 Sheridan, right next door to the Emil Bach house. Neat!

Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Rogers Park

Kate and I rented a car for a long weekend drive to Minneapolis and back. Looking online, I found that there is a new Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Rogers Park, at 6816 N Clark Street (between Pratt and Farwell).

When making the reservation online, I found that I couldn't include the damage waiver and liability insurance in the online quote. This isn't that uncommon, as it seems that most rental companies don't allow you to include that in the online quote. This bothers me, though, because the insurance is an amorphous blob of a cost center, something they can puff up the price of at the counter to see if you're paying attention. (At least, that's been my experience in the past.) I wouldn't even utilize the insurance, but now that I have no car, why have car insurance? So, I use the car rental company's insurance when renting a car. Not cheap, but still cheaper than owning a car.

Doing my research onlilne, I found that Budget's online quotes can include insurance if desired, so I quoted it out via Budget as well, figuring that if I didn't like what I was hearing at the Enterprise counter, I'd walk and head on down to Budget instead.

Thankfully, that turned out not to be necessary. Enterprise called me an hour before my reservation, confirmed everything, and at my request, quoted me an updated price that included the damage waiver and liability insurance. (The full cost turned out to be much lower than Budget, too, even accounting for insurance.)

They provided me with a PT Cruiser, which is one of those many cars that I would never buy for myself, but it worked fine, and it was in very good shape. Very happy with it.

Long story short, next time we need to rent a car for an out-of-town trip, I'll go with Enterprise again.

Rogers Park Carless

Well, I can't call myself Chicago Carless, because that moniker is already taken. But I can be Rogers Park carless!

Back in August, when we lost our paid parking space, we decided to drive the car up to my father's place in Minnesota. As I mentioned then, it was a trial run, of sorts.

The trial was mostly a success. One caveat: Parking the car at my father's home was a pain in the ass. That just wasn't working out, for various reasons. So, in early November, I took the train up to Minneapolis and drove my car back down to Chicago.

Parking the car on the street here in Rogers Park throughout November was a real pain. We had to park a good 8-10 blocks away, and of course, you're supposed to move it every three days. That sucked.

I have no desire to keep a car in the city at this stage in my life, so I hatched a plan to sell the car to a friend of mine in Texas. We drove down to Texas over two days, Thanksgiving day and the day after. Boring drive, but easy, and kind of fun.

Spent the weekend in Dallas, met up with various friends, ate a lot of good food. Flew back to Chicago on that Sunday.

I still owed a couple of dollars on my car loan, so I paid that off with the money my friend paid me for the car, and the clear title arrived today. I took it out of one envelope and dropped it right back into another envelope and mailed it to my friend in Texas.

As soon as that was done, I called my car insurance company (Progressive Direct) and canceled. Since I actually like them, I wasn't jerky to them on the phone and politely answered their questions. Assuming we ever buy another car, they'd definitely be my first choice for car insurance. It's always been painless dealing with them.

So now, I'm free of a car payment and free of an insurance payment. I'm free of a car, and it feels good to be carless.

Megabus Double Decker Fun

I've written about Megabus before. I take it down to Indianapolis for work pretty often. I've ridden it many times, though after my one bad experience with the bus breaking down, I avoided it for a while.

So, I started taking the Amtrak down. It's a lot of fun if it's a night when the Cardinal runs. There's a bar car and food to be had, and it's a comfortable ride. Takes longer than driving, or longer than the bus, though. The Amtrak is always delayed in transit due to freight traffic, and it makes a lot of stops. This means what is about a three or four hour drive ends up being a five to six hour train ride. By the end of it it's after midnight and I'm usually sleepy and grumpy. Still, better than driving.

The return train from Indianapolis to Chicago leaves very early in the morning, which doesn't work for me. So, I ended up drifting back to the Megabus. For a while I was doing a split ticket, taking the Amtrak down and the Megabus back. That worked out well. If the bus doesn't break down, it's a comfortable ride. Sometimes, if it's crowded, it's a bit less fun, but still, usually tolerable.

Last time around, I wasn't able to book my travel until the last minute. The train was sold out, so I had little choice but to take the Megabus down. To my surprise, I was able to ride a double decker bus. A friend had warned me that the top floor of a double decker can feel a little wobbly as you bob and weave down the highway, so I sat downstairs. I had just about the entire downstairs to myself, and it was a pretty sweet setup. It had chairs organized in a sort-of lunchroom/kitchenette setup, with a set of two chairs facing front, two chairs facing back, and a table in the middle. Since it was just me, I had plenty of room to spread out, set up my laptop and catch up on work, etc. It was a very nice ride. Very quiet, and since I had just about the whole downstairs to myself, I imagined that this is what it feels like to ride on a private bus, like the Madden Cruiser. Not bad at all.

So, next week, I'm probably heading down that way again. Should I take the train, or the Megabus?

Best Cab Company to Call?

Hi from Boston, BTW. Kate and I are here to see some sights, eat some seafood, and visit family.

After today's adventure with Flash Cab no-showing and not answering their phone when I called to find out what was up (3 phone calls, each time they answered, then I went into a queue, then it rang about 400 times until I gave up), I'm wondering what a better option is, if I want to pre-arrange a cab to O'Hare from Rogers Park. Anybody have any opinions?

(Kate did finally get hold of somebody at Flash Cab on the fourth try. By that time, it was already 20 minutes past when we needed the cab to be there, and we told them fuggedaboudit. Then we caught a cab on Sheridan in about 30 seconds. Which is perhaps just what we should have done to begin with.)

Weekend Casino Adventues!

Kate and I have made it down to Indiana to go to a casino a couple different times now. We had lots of fun both times. Going to a casino on a Saturday is a good way to waste a day.

The Horseshoe Casino in Hammond was our first destination. Getting there was easy. There's a free bus that picks you up in front of the Hyatt on Wacker. Leaves every two hours or so. Talk to the concierge at the Hyatt to find exact details. I think we caught the bus at 12:10.

After a quick bus ride, you get dropped off at the Horseshoe. If you're not a member of their rewards club, you pretty much have to join as a condition of the free bus ride. It's not much of a big deal. It costs nothing, and you get a coupon for money off the buffet.

The bus driver gives you a slip that works as your return bus ticket. It has a pre-printed time on it. Ours was 5:10. I imagine you could leave at 3:10 or 7:10 instead, if you so desired. I doubt they look that closely. I'm sure they give you a preset time in order to get you to stay long enough at the casino to spend some money.

We had a late lunch at the buffet. We're big fans of casino buffets, as they usually have pretty good food, and you can get whatever you want. I really liked their buffet. It was big and there was a lot to choose from. I rated it higher than Kate did, but she would still probably say it was fine.

The actually casino area itself is amazingly nice and new. I understand that the Horseshoe was recently refurbished and remodeled. It definitely looks really nice, and it feels pretty much like you're in Las Vegas. As with all the casinos around that area, you're actually on a boat. We walked around outside a bit to try to see the boat, but it's not much to look at. It's a giant building built on a barge. Not very boat like at all.

The casino layout was fine. Lots of slots. Not a lot of penny or nickel slots -- this place really seems to have more expensive games than other casinos. We played a lot of slots, a bit of video poker, and some roulette. We know very little about roulette, but our dealer was very kind and patient with our dumb questions. Be sure to tip your dealer.

Strangely, this casino has no hotel attached to it. That makes it less than suitable for a weekend excursion. I don't know that I'd want to stay here late in to the evening gambling, then have a nice dinner at the steak house, then have to take a bus or drive home. It's a lot more fun, too, when you have a room you can go chill out in, periodically.

Also, there is absolutely zero to look at outside the casino here. It's really in the middle of nowhereville, and there's nothing but a long driveway to walk back down to get back to civilization.

We hit up the Horseshoe probably about a month ago. This past weekend, my parents were in town, so we took them to the Ameristar Casino in East Chicago. Seems like this casino has changed names a couple of different times. It was a Harrah's, then a Resorts, and now it's an Ameristar. Ameristar isn't a big name. I've never been to an Ameristar casino before, and their website suggests they're located in random cities, far from Las Vegas.

There's a free shuttle to the Ameristar, but we didn't use it. My parents rented a car to drive down here, so we just used that to drive to the casino. It was easy to get to. I-90 to Cline Avenue, and follow the signs. Piece of cake.

Turns out, the Ameristar is very nice. Like the Horseshoe, it's also on a boat. Unlike the Horseshoe, it actually looks like a boat from the outside. If you're bored, walk outside by the bus drop off, and turn to your right, and walk to the water's edge. You can see the boat -- a large four or five deck vessel, instantly recognizable as having actually been originally designed as a water conveyance.

The Ameristar is perhaps not as newly remodeled as the Horsehoe, but it's still very nice, clean and modern. They have a good three or four levels of casino floor on board the boat, and they have a ton of penny slots to choose from. Sometimes it was almost hard to find nickle or quarter slots to try instead. (And it did take a bit of poking around to find where they kept the video poker games hidden.) It's hard to tell for sure, but this casino might be a bit more affordable than the Horseshoe.

I tried roulette at Ameristar. My mom, who likes roulette, sat at the table and played as well. Our dealer seemed less on top of things than the dealer at the Horseshoe was. At one point she gave both my mom and another player the same color chips, and then there was a huge incident trying to determine who actually won a game, when that color won. That was confusing and irritating, and I damn near don't excuse the dealer for that. That was the one blemish on an otherwise enjoyable experience at the Ameristar.

The buffet at the Ameristar is a bit small. The selection was fine and nobody went away hungry, but it wasn't anything like what you'd see at any sort of Las Vegas casino, old or new. There's also a diner, a sports bar, and a steak house. The diner doesn't open until 6:00 pm. Next time we go, we'd likely try eating somewhere else, assuming the sports bar has food during the day.

The Ameristar has a hotel, and from what I read online, it seems to get pretty good reviews. In spite of the lackluster buffet, I do think this would be a fun place to stay a night. It's a shame that they don't seem to have musical acts or entertainment. This would be a fun place to come see some worn out old crooner, working the B-grade casino circuit.

We found both casinos to be a lot of fun, and they're both worth visiting. It's a very close call, but if I had to choose between them, I think I'd choose the Ameristar over the Horseshoe. The Horseshoe might have been a hair fancier, but the Ameristar is still very nice, and seemed a bit more affordable. I can see us going here some night to gamble, have a nice dinner at the steakhouse, then staying at the hotel for the night.

Hertz, are you kidding me?

So, we traveled from Chicago to Minneapolis for a few days, to take care of some family business, and visit some friends. We're taking the train back down to Chicago, today. As we sit at the Amtrak station, waiting for the train to come in, I've been observing what goes on at the Hertz car rental desk here at the station. That's Hertz Local Edition, here at the Amtrak Station at 730 Transfer Road in St. Paul, Minnesota.

It seems like a good idea. Oh great, I thought to myself. Next time we come up here, we can just pick up a rental car at the station. I'm not the only one who has thought this would be a great idea; as I have sat here for the past hour, I have seen two people walk up and inquire along these lines.

Only to be told that one can only pick up a car between 7:00 am and 6:00 pm. Which is somewhat of a problem, because the only train from Chicago arrives at about 11:00 pm every evening.

So, here's the deal. There's a train station, where you can rent cars, but not when you actually arrive on the train station on a train. Does that strike anybody else as incredibly useless?

I overheard an employee say to one gentleman, "this isn't here for the train station. It's here for the neighborhood." Can you say "missed opportunities?" I knew you could!