{"id":1489,"date":"2016-08-26T01:49:31","date_gmt":"2016-08-26T00:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/?p=1489"},"modified":"2016-09-12T04:58:35","modified_gmt":"2016-09-12T03:58:35","slug":"kalamazoo-is-real-and-theres-beer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/?p=1489","title":{"rendered":"Kalamazoo Is Real! And There’s Beer!"},"content":{"rendered":"

My original scheme for getting to Detroit would have involved arriving at 0030h, then catching a taxi to a hotel, and meeting up with the Detroit folks in the morning.
\nWhile the words ‘stupid and insane’ didn’t get used, there was a\u00a0vibe<\/em>, so we met up in Klamazoo instead.<\/p>\n

I should point out that, until recently, I didn’t know it was a real place. I’d heard the name, but it sounds like one of those names they make up for\u00a0children’s\u00a0books or to sound funny & interesting, like Timbuktu or Boise or Ottumwa or Te Hihi.
\nTurns out that I wasn’t the only one in NZ who thought this, thanks to the wonder of Facebook.<\/em>
\nAlso thanks to Facebook, Bell’s was recommended by Mikey Mason<\/a>, doubling the things I knew about the place in one easy step.<\/em><\/p>\n

This isn’t the Kalamazoo Station; It’s Niles, Michigan, but it has a similar feel to it.
\nAt the actual station I was too busy trying to lug Big Red around to take pictures.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160825_183115732\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160826_121731401_HDR\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The friends from Detroit had lined up a B&B, which turned out to be rather nice and quite historic. With a very friendly dog with an infinite supply of dog-slobber.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160829_195428443_HDR\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160829_195420714_HDR\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Dinner that night was at the\u00a0Olde Peninsula Brewpub & Restaurant.
\nThere’s a theme here, by the way, with brewpubs, because you don’t seem to be able to throw a rock in Kalamazoo without hitting one.<\/p>\n

Lunch the next day, after we wandered around and saw the various historic houses of Kalamazoo, was at a different brewpub, chosen on the basis of “which of the three we can see from here should we go to?”, and was\u00a0Gonzo’s Biggdogg Brewing Company.<\/p>\n

This thing was sitting in a park, by a wee river\/canal which they’re having a good go at gentrifying.
\nNo idea what it is, other than “One Of Those”.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160826_125720576_HDR\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There was also this classic, and probably original, piece of Americana.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160826_131000711_HDR\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And then there was Bell’s.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160826_171333105_HDR\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160826_162743400_HDR\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160826_162718056_HDR\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Somewhere along the way we stopped into the Kalamazoo public library, which had the whole community centre thing happening, with a secondhand bookstore & legal references & the like.
\nThere was also a copy of a book I’d not known existed, by an artist whose work I’ve seen around;\u00a0Simon St\u00e5lenhag<\/a>.
\nTales From The Loop<\/a> is the book, and it’s … a cross between an art book and an SF story. Maybe a bit like the old Terran Trade Authority<\/a> books?<\/p>\n

Along with driving & walking around Kalamazoo, we also took a trip to South Haven, via a side-of-the-road rib joint.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160826_181356325_HDR\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The odd thing about South Haven, for me, is that it looks like the sort of marina & breakwater & so on that I’m used to, but it’s subtly wrong because there’s no allowance for tides. Lake Michigan is sufficiently large that it resembles a calm blue ocean, or at least it did that day.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160826_191322614_HDR\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160826_191327926_HDR\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On the way out of town, there was a stop for Sweetwater’s Donuts, which we’d been told were the best donuts in town.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20160827_105130097_HDR\"<\/a><\/p>\n

They were pretty damn good, and well worth getting wet for.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My original scheme for getting to Detroit would have involved arriving at 0030h, then catching a taxi to a hotel, and meeting up with the Detroit folks in the morning. While the words ‘stupid and insane’ didn’t get used, there was a\u00a0vibe, so we met up in Klamazoo instead. I should point out that, until […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-it-can-be-fun-to-run-away"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3O6N9-o1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1489"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1687,"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1489\/revisions\/1687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}