Travel Archives - The Midwest Millennial

In Travel

Arts & Eats in Marshalltown Iowa

September 5, 2022 No Comments

The arts & eats in Marshalltown Iowa are sure to make a vacation you won’t forget. This small town community is filled with big town flavors and an even bigger town art scene! With a population just under 27,000, Marshalltown gives you a great taste of local community, art, culture, and so much more. Eats in Marshalltown Iowa Start your day off with breakfast from Tremont Grille. We stayed at the Tremont Inn which is located above the restaurant and owned by the same people so this was a quick and easy walk to breakfast each morning. They have a variety of breakfast favorites such as omelets, classic breakfast plates, and a unique(at least to me) way of serving breakfast potatoes! These thinly sliced fried potatoes were salty and crispy and were the perfect addition to every meal. Head across the street for an amazing lunch at Smokin’ G’s. I…

In Travel

5 Must Do’s in McHenry County Illinois

June 27, 2022 No Comments

If you’re planning a trip to McHenry County, Illinois these are the 5 things you should be adding to your must do list! Stay When staying in McHenry County, Illinois look no further than the Cherry Tree Inn Bed & Breakfast in Woodstock, IL. This is probably the best bed and breakfast you will ever stay at in your life. The owners are amazing, the breakfast is absolutely amazing, and the rooms are cozy and comfortable. The most exciting part of the Cherry Tree Inn though is that this is the house from the movie Groundhog Day! Not only is the house from the movie but the town of Woodstock, IL is where the movie was actually filmed. I recommend grabbing a Groundhog Day map in the entry of the Cherry Tree Inn and taking a self guided tour around town looking at all the spots that were included in…

In Food

5 of the Best Eats in Bismarck

June 22, 2022 No Comments

Whether you’re traveling to Bismarck, North Dakota or just passing through, these restaurants are something you definitely don’t want to miss. From fresh bread in a brick oven to heavenly desserts and formal dining, these are just 5 of the best eats in Bismarck you will find. Disclosure: The Bismarck-Mandan Convention & Visitors Bureau hosted me for my visit, but all opinions are mine. Laughing Sun Brewing BBQ Pork Nachos at Laughing Sun Brewing Company For a casual and fun evening head over to Laughing Sun Brewing Company. This place brews their own beer, makes incredible BBQ food, and even has axe throwing! Start your meal with the BBQ Pork Nachos or go straight to one of the BBQ plates to get a full taste of the flavors this place has to offer! Check out more from my visit to Laughing Sun Brewing Company here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cd8IzihAKwq/ Copper Dog Cafe Banana…

In Travel

Fargo Food Truck Festival

August 20, 2018 No Comments

After a jam packed weekend in Minneapolis we swung by the Fargo food truck festival on our way home. We went last year as well and this was the first food truck festival I had ever been too. This one is definitely on the smaller end with about a dozen trucks but I believe the only food truck festival in North Dakota. I honestly tried to stay open minded about it this time as the day before we had just went to the St Paul Food truck festival where there was 40+ food trucks but this year this one just felt like kind of a dud after the huge one the day before. It also didn’t help that it was a super gloomy and rainy day so turnout was low. The most disappointing part of this festival this year was that pretty much every single truck was the same(minus the…

In Travel

March in Minneapolis

August 6, 2018 1 Comment

Back in March we had a quick trip to Minneapolis for a weekend. Our furbaby Elsa always, ALWAYS knows when we are going out of town and literally jumps into the car as if we are going to leave her behind. I’m not sure why she links she will get left behind, we maybe left her with someone else twice back when she was a puppy and that was it. Otherwise she is ALWAYS with us but nonetheless she jumps in the car so we don’t forget her. This was a quick yet busy weekend in Minneapolis as my husband Tony was competing in his first powerlifting meet in Champlin, MN. He had formerly done a bodybuilding show back in October but decided to try out powerlifting instead and has been pretty hooked since then. We got to the high school around 7am and were there till about 5pm-ish I…

In Travel

Final Days in Florida & Heading Home

June 18, 2018 No Comments

As we wrap up the finals days in Florida from our 2 week trip we have a very important trip to make to the east coast of Florida. We stopped at a gas station right away and as someone who doesn’t have what I call all these “fancy” gas stations in North Dakota it always blows my mind when I can get a 52oz slushie for under $2(or get one from a gas station at all). It’s probably good we don’t have them here or I would have one every day because slushies are my weakness. So our drive to the east coast of the state was to surprise my grandma! She didn’t know we were there so we drove over to surprise her on our last full day. It was hilarious because she is basically a hermit so we kept knocking on the door and ringing the door bell…

In Travel

Universal Studios Day 3

June 11, 2018 No Comments

As we were coming up on our final days at the park I wanted to get in as much as I could. We typically only do about a half day in the park and just buy passes for more days because it’s seriously exhausting trying to run around and do all the things. Seriously when we tap out at about 2pm/3pm we already have a good 20,000 steps on our Fitbit each and our feet are killing us! My favorite part each morning when we get there is walking through the empty park. Sure there are people lined up to get in but during this very slow time of the year you kind of feel like you get the park to yourself. Plus it makes for much better photos when there aren’t a ton of people in the way. 🙂 I don’t normally stop for pictures with characters around the…

In Travel

Universal Studios Day 2

June 4, 2018 4 Comments

Back to Universal Studios we went to check out the other side this time! The “Studios” side is just that, more about the studio things and movies but there is a ton of fun to be had at this side as well although I will say Islands of Adventure if my favorite. Shrek 4-D is an awesome ride to check out really close to when you walk in. There was only about a 5 minute wait so we got in right away. However they have soooo much space for lines in there I can honestly say I never want to be in a line that long, it could seriously be a 6+ hour line with how much zig zagging they have going on. Back to the Harry Potter area we went and straight to Gringotts. The dragon on top the bank does breath fire about every 15 minutes so be…

In Travel

Universal Studios

May 28, 2018 No Comments

Finally it was time to hit up Universal Studios and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter aka my home. The whole reason we planned the trip for January is because after checking out some tourism sites they predicted this time to be the LEAST busy time of the entire year and holy crap it was so quiet and for someone who doesn’t love to be around people it was really freakin nice. We got there and Volcano Bay was closed(not that we planned to go) due to “weather”. I use that term loosely because I’ve really never laughed so hard in my entire life. People looked at us just bewildered that we were in shorts and it was 35 degrees out(just for an hour or so and then it was in the 60s/70s). We had literally just come from -70 degree weather in North Dakota, yes you read that right…

In Travel

Exploring Orlando

May 21, 2018 No Comments

The first few full days in Florida we caught up on some sleep from the drive, did some shopping, and some exploring before we started our days at Universal Studios. I always like to find a local donut place to check out because we have NO donut shops where I live. We have grocery stores that make fresh donuts but it just doesn’t give me the same vibe as a place that specializes in donuts and has the ability to get more creative with them. I found Valkyrie Donuts online and they looked amazing. Their square donuts are the size of 2-3 regular donuts so they are HUGE and absolutely phenomenal. They had that perfect mix of density while still being a fluffy donut so it was amazing. I had to go with the cookies and cream one to keep it simple for now, too much stuff on it and…