Comic Sans Bar and Pinball

Pinball in Brussels Belgium!  

Today we went to Comic Sans in Brussels. They have board games, video game, darts, pool, and most importantly, Pinball!

Take note that Comic Sans is closed Monday and Tuesday. They have a good beer and Mead selection and they make cocktails. They also have nachos. We arrived early Sunday evening and it was comfortably busy. People were playing pinball, darts, board games, RPGs and also just hanging. You do need Euros for pinball but the bartender gave us change for our 50 Euro notes. He also sold us some beer and Mead. 

There is a coin machine that sells you Euro coins for larger bills and games are 1.5 Euros so 3 coins gets you 2 games. 

The machines are a bit odd because some of them start a 1 player game as soon as you put coins in. All of the games are 5 ball and the machines played great. 

Comic Sans is worth a stop if you are in the area and want a nerdtastic time. 

We Have Landed in Minneapolis!

 Minneapolis, MN

Minnesota don't you know.

Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey

On Saturday we left Bismarck, ND, passed through Fargo, ND, and entered Minnesota for the first time this year.  Our "final" destination is Minneapolis!  We arrived at our new apartment in Minneapolis at around 1:15pm, got our keys, and began unloading our camping gear.  We have a giant list of things to do but most of this will have to wait until Monday, when we get internet (hopefully) and final instructions on how to actually move our stuff in.  Our POD storage unit is waiting just outside the city for us.  We have a rental truck reserved for Tuesday and our POD will be accessible to us at the PODs storage facility for the day.  The plan is to empty the POD, move the stuff into our apartment, and return the truck on Tuesday.  It will be fun seeing our stuff again after 2 years and wondering why we kept so much of it.  Hopefully we can lighten our load a bit for the next move whenever that is (probably next year).

Francis found the sunny spot right away.

Exploring the Area and Our Building

After getting settled a bit, we headed out to a brand new brewery that just opened just steps away from our apartment.  BruHaven Craft House opened last week and it's going to be nice having a dog friendly, solid brewery so close to us.  There are even 2 pinball machines!

It's a large space and there was even live music going on.

We tried 3 of their beers and they were all very good.

We have even had good Mexican food here already.

The Roxy is right around the corner and they have free Movie Nights on Sunday nights.  We will probably take advantage soon.

Our building has its summer holiday tree up already.  We are ready for The 4th of July!

There is an indoor heated pool that we used yesterday.  It's going to be great!

There is also a Sauna, because this is the Scandinavia of the US.

We also went to the roof of our 35 floor building to see the sights. Our apartment is on the 9th floor so the views aren't quite as good but the rent is cheaper.

There is also an indoor dog area that Francis currently HATES!

We have had 1 and a half days of living in a large apartment with just our camping gear.  It's working out pretty well.  We are looking forward to getting our stuff though.  

Camping chairs work great indoors too!

"Table" for two!

We even splurged on an electric kettle.  It's one of the things we figured out we like while on the road.

That's it for today.  Hopefully things going smoothly and we will be settled in a few days.  If you missed, Mermaids in Montana, check it out.

2nd Longest "Sandwich" of the Trip So Far

Sharonville, OH

Safety First!

3rd Time Was  A Charm

This morning we decided to walk over to Ziegler Park and swim in the public pool.  We tried once before, here, but it wasn't open for the season yet.  It costs $4 each so I took enough cash to get us in and we walked over.  When we got there we were told it is credit only so we walked back to drop off the cash and get a credit card.  On our 3rd attempt we got in.  We changed plans a little bit today because noticed kids and parents holding balloons at the school and that led us to believe that today might be the last day of school so we wanted to check it out before it was filled with kids. The water was the perfect temperature once you got used to it and both Donna and I used their diving board.  I don't recall the last time I used a diving board.  After our short-ish swim we continued on with our normal plan for the day. 

The Root Beer Stand

Today we took a drive up US 42 to The Root Beer Stand.  It's an institution for the area and a place Cincinnatians travel to from time to time.  It was hopping at lunch time so we had to park across the street.  We went to have more Coneys.  The Root Beer Stand boasts a Foot Long Coney so that is what we each got.  I also got a Root Beer and we split a chili cheese fries.

There were a bunch of hats.  Not sure where they come from.

My Root Beer didn't seem as sweet as the Root Beer from Carl's Drive In.

I couldn't wait for my food to come so my Root Beer is almost gone.

This is my foot long. It is 12 inches and not as long as my 36 inch Po Boy in Baton Rouge.

It has a great neon sign.

Caesar Creek State Park

After lunch we continued up US 42 until we got to Caesar Creek State Park.  Our trip took us through 2 new counties and saw a few good birds.  By the time we got there it was pretty hot and we were pretty tired so we didn't spend a lot of time there.  Swimming kind of took it out of both of us.  

The Visitor Center seemed to be closed so we just walked a trail that went around it.

Thrifting

We also stopped by a Goodwill on our drive.  We were both looking for clothes.  I wanted to find some local T-Shirts and Donna likes to rotate out her clothes but we didn't find anything clothing wise.  I did find one thing that I was going to buy new so cool!  I bought Roller Blades.  The reason will become more clear next month.  It will make for a good blog post so keep checking back.

This shirt is far away from home.  It says Spokane WA on it.

Did an orthopedic shoe store go out of business?

My skates that are well loved and 1 size too big.

BUT, they were only $4.99!!!!  I think they will do the trick for what we have planned.

That was it for today.  We have a few more things planned for Cincinnati and we have just over a week to do them.  If you missed Cincinnati Union Terminal check it out.  It's a cool old train terminal with museums in it now.