Road trip

We recently went to Milwaukee for a short getaway. We try to make it up there a few times a year, and one of our traditions while in town is to hit the Alterra Coffee, on Lincoln Memorial Drive along the lakefront.
Alterra is a local coffee roaster, and this location utilizes an old river flushing station to house a neat coffee shop and storefront.
Alterra roasts some varieties of Fair Trade Certified coffee, on top of working in an eco-friendly manner. Using recycled materials, geothermal climate control, and renewable energy, Alterra stands out for its conservation efforts. They have also recently become part of a local business alliance, which you can find out more about here.
I've enjoyed things like baked oatmeal, granola, breakfast burritos and fresh squeezed orange juice here, in addition to great coffee.
This time I was thinking they needed to speed up the coffee serving production line, but when I was served this artistic cuppa joe, I changed my mind. Very nice.

On our way back through Illinois, we stopped to look for some lunch. We took an exit into Rochelle and passed up the Iron Skillet. We ended up stopping at an older place called The Country School restaurant, which featured a red school house sign. The food was standard fast food fare, and our server informed us that they are known for the chicken and cole slaw, but we had already ordered burgers and onion rings.
The burgers were good, and as I sat and enjoyed mine, I started out the window at the new McDonalds next door and was pleased to see several cars drive in to The Country School drive-thru lane, even at 2:30 in the afternoon on a week day.

On our way back to the Interstate, I spotted Vince the chef of Vince's Pizza, and we drove by to check him out. Old Vince looked a little scared on this cloudy day, but looks like he serves up a big pizza pie.