"where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, all the children are above average, and the dessert takes Paul to his happy place"

It's a magical place called Cafe Latte in St. Paul, Minnesota. It's not much to look at from the outside but large panels of glass and a neon sign and even once you step in for the first time you're a little confused as to why this place is THE place to go in St. Paul. As you walk in you're not quite sure where the line starts because it looks like you're in a big buffet line with a checkout hiding around the bend way down one side and some more buffet that bends around in the opposite direction and there are no signs directing you where to go and there are like 3 people behind the counter but none of them immediately are approaching you. I'm certain that if you want to go to this place you need to bring someone that's been here before. We managed to figure it out though.

The food was decent again not a wow factor, but good enough to frequent for lunch if I lived near by. However, the desserts were out of this world and after taking one bite of Classic Vanilla Cheesecake I knew what was up with this place and why people would wait in a very long and very inefficient line for the food here. There were so many options for dessert...multiple kinds of cheese cakes.... different torts.... decadent chocolate cakes drizzling with toppings.... cookies... truffles and of course cafe lattes. I'm not really much of a dessert guy, I'd rather actually have a second helping of meat, but dang this place was good and I was just ..... {PAUSE}......happy.

The day actually started off in Milwaukee, WI and we headed out to Madison, WI home of the badgers .... a lot of construction ... and an epic fail on their part to make the downtown a functional driving area where you don't want to bash your head into the stearing wheel. We eventually were able to park and find the beacon of beauty known as State Street Brats where we ordered a white basket and a red basket paired with some spotted cow brew (apparently only available in Wisconsin). Everything was excellent; the brats, the beer, the waffel fries, the goofy signs all over the place and we were able to relax after the frustrating drive into the city. On the way out we checked out Lake Mendota and then darted on the fastest "open" route out of the city and on to our next destination.

We then passed through southern Wisconsin into Dubuque, Iowa and did a driveby of the sights and sounds, but since it was going to be a pretty heavy day of driving we kept GOLF carting on till we got to the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa. We drove up to the house and field where all the magic had happened and took in a deep breath of air that was filled with the smell of corn. I get the feeling these people like corn out here...or at least there's somebody somewhere that really likes corn. I'm just sayin' we passed by a lot of corn today...A LOT of corn and I have a feeling we might see more tomorrow. After a quick stop in Dyersville to stretch our legs and swap out drivers from the fuel efficient Chip to the we need to get somewhere fast and I don't care how bad the MPG is Paul and we made our way 5 hours up to St. Paul and then on to our hotel in Minneapolis.

Tomorrow we break out the tent for the first time and sing kumbaya. Perhaps we'll stop at the Mall of America b/c the shorts I'm wearing are so old that they tore just from me trying to pull them down a little bit so I didn't get a red stripe car tan on my knees (there are just a couple pieces of clothing that I like wearing, I think I've had this pair almost 10 years).