I think I have a problem. It's not a huge problem. In fact, it is probably a good problem. I certainly can't see any problem with this problem I have. Whenever I start something long term, I always love the first iteration of it. I'm a slave to nostalgia. That's why I love obscure, long-past memories of my favorites sports teams (why I can remember random events from the 2008 NFL Season). That's why I love the first season of shows far more than I probably should (The Wire is a classic example). That's why I always love the first stop in trips, and that brings me to today.
Actually, let's go back to a year ago. Almost to the day. On February 25th, 2013, I arrived in Cape Town. I went to myriad amazing places on my Round the World Trip in 2013, but Cape Town remained my favorite. Over time, when asked again and again to explain what made Cape Town so special, I started wondering whether my love of the Western Cape had more to do with me going there first on the trip. There are an array of qualities that make Cape Town amazing, but the fact I went there first, when I was a young, green, traveller, yet to be jaded by different currencies, climates and languages, probably played some role in making it my favorite place.
On February 27th, 2014, I will say goodbye to Battle Creek, Michigan. I've been travelling here weekly since December the 4th. I've experienced countless delays, three flight cancellations, some hellish trips here and back, and the worst winter in the country (and in Battle Creek, Michigan) in decades. I was here when the temperature, before wind chill, reached -11. I used to think temperatures under 0 degrees were a myth, an intangible construct only partially reached when wind was factored in. I realized that naive vision was just that, that temperatures do exist under zero. That real cold exists and it is worse than I would have imagined. Yet, through all that, I grew to enjoy this little hamlet in rural, central Michigan. I'll miss Cereal City. It will forever be the first place I was on client site, and the first home I had outside of the Tri-State Area, or India.
I was born in New Brunswick, lived my formative years in Edison, and then in 1993, my family moved themselves and me to Plainsboro. I still live in that house. I went to college in New York. I've made countless trips back home to India but always stayed with family in Mumbai, Bangalore or Mangalore. The longest time I spent in any one place last year during my Round the World trip was eight days in Melbourne. This was, as odd as it may seem, the longest I've spent on my own in a foreign land (metaphorically, not physically, as Michigan as far as I know, is still in the USA). I came back most weekends, but for four days a week I was a Michigander, a Battle Creek-ian. I grew to accept it, if not enjoy it.
My first night in Battle Creek, after I was made to drive four-and-a-half hours because my flight was diverted last minute to Milwaukee, I went to a place a block down from my client's office, called Griffin's Pub and Grill. I ordered a tall beer. What came was basically a giant container of beer, a glass larger than any I have seen holding that sweet liquid. It cost $5.00. I quickly learned that despite the weather, there are some really good qualities about the midwest.
After two weeks in Michigan, I went back home for two weeks straight for Christmas/New Years. I returned at the height of the polar vortex. That first week in January it hit below zero. Then, below zero became the norm. It became a daily occurance. I woke up, entered my rental car, and saw that glaring temperature reading with a '-' in front of the number. I didn't know those raw temperatures existed. Until that day, I saw the '-3' temperature during the 2007 NFC Championship Game as one of the defining factors of that game, a description that made Green Bay, Wisconsin a magical place that night. That Polar Vortex week, I realized that Battle Creek was just as 'magical'.
Battle Creek is about as nice a midwest town as I could imagine. It's essentially run on cereal corporations and the stores that can run off the people that work at the cereal corporations. Therefore, the town is both doing better than most places in Michigan, and pretty heavily middle class. It's a nice town that espouses all of the Midwest values that have become rather cliche, while still being small and isolated enough for everyone to seemingly know each other. There are too few restaurant options in the town, but the ones that are there have made their mark and are really good.
Arcadia Brewery was its name. My first day in Battle Creek I was a little hesitant to go there as I didn't know how it would look to go to a 'brewery'. My second day there I went to Arcadia, and I fell in love instantly. Not only do they serve their own large collection of beer that they brew in house, but they have good food. Really good food. They have interesting choices, gourmet choices like braised pork belly, seared lamb curry, many gourmet pizzas. It is a true 'gastropub.' Actually, that might be low praise. It is better than most gastropubs. That restuarant, on food alone, could work in New York. However, their limited group of waiters and familial feel wouldn't work in New York. That was distinctly Michigan.
Over the weeks I expanded my range of post-work hangouts. I tried the surprisingly wide array of Battle Creek cuisines, like a surprisingly good and authentic Sushi place, or countless Mexican places, or a really upscale Mediterranean place. Battle Creek's food offerings may not be many, but they are quality.
I'll try to stop writing a guidebook for Battle Creek, but instead just talk about the town. I've never been anywhere in the US apart from the East Coast. There is a certain energy in the East Coast that is apparent even outside New York. It's there in Jersey, in Boston, in DC, in Philly. It isn't there in Michigan, and I can only assume the rest of the Midwest. There's a different mentality. A more true, a more congenial mentality. Everyone's polite, seeing each person as a potential friend. It's just a different lifestyle. I don't know if its better, but it definitely isn't bad.
The main area of Battle Creek, which also happens to house the offices where I worked in, reminds me of Princeton's Nassau Street, a lane of nice shops and restaurants. I stayed at an aparment and then a hotel on what is essentially Battle Creek's Route I, with all the stores you can possibly imagine (24 hour Target, Walmart and Meijer - a grocery store). It kind of felt like home, but also felt like a completely different place.
I might have had a different reaction had I lived outside New Jersey and New York in my life. I wasn't ever outside that environment until now, so everything just felt different. When I got my Starbucks Coffee at Barnes and Noble from the cute barista, it felt different than when I did that exact same thing off of Route 1. Everything was different, but nice. It was a calm environment. It wasn't a big city. It wasn't rushed and it didn't move too fast. Battle Creek did everything right. There might be countless other towns in the midwest that are exactly the same, but I haven't been to them and I wouldn't have gone to them first. I went to Battle Creek first, and I'll miss it.
Actually, let's go back to a year ago. Almost to the day. On February 25th, 2013, I arrived in Cape Town. I went to myriad amazing places on my Round the World Trip in 2013, but Cape Town remained my favorite. Over time, when asked again and again to explain what made Cape Town so special, I started wondering whether my love of the Western Cape had more to do with me going there first on the trip. There are an array of qualities that make Cape Town amazing, but the fact I went there first, when I was a young, green, traveller, yet to be jaded by different currencies, climates and languages, probably played some role in making it my favorite place.
On February 27th, 2014, I will say goodbye to Battle Creek, Michigan. I've been travelling here weekly since December the 4th. I've experienced countless delays, three flight cancellations, some hellish trips here and back, and the worst winter in the country (and in Battle Creek, Michigan) in decades. I was here when the temperature, before wind chill, reached -11. I used to think temperatures under 0 degrees were a myth, an intangible construct only partially reached when wind was factored in. I realized that naive vision was just that, that temperatures do exist under zero. That real cold exists and it is worse than I would have imagined. Yet, through all that, I grew to enjoy this little hamlet in rural, central Michigan. I'll miss Cereal City. It will forever be the first place I was on client site, and the first home I had outside of the Tri-State Area, or India.
I was born in New Brunswick, lived my formative years in Edison, and then in 1993, my family moved themselves and me to Plainsboro. I still live in that house. I went to college in New York. I've made countless trips back home to India but always stayed with family in Mumbai, Bangalore or Mangalore. The longest time I spent in any one place last year during my Round the World trip was eight days in Melbourne. This was, as odd as it may seem, the longest I've spent on my own in a foreign land (metaphorically, not physically, as Michigan as far as I know, is still in the USA). I came back most weekends, but for four days a week I was a Michigander, a Battle Creek-ian. I grew to accept it, if not enjoy it.
My first night in Battle Creek, after I was made to drive four-and-a-half hours because my flight was diverted last minute to Milwaukee, I went to a place a block down from my client's office, called Griffin's Pub and Grill. I ordered a tall beer. What came was basically a giant container of beer, a glass larger than any I have seen holding that sweet liquid. It cost $5.00. I quickly learned that despite the weather, there are some really good qualities about the midwest.
After two weeks in Michigan, I went back home for two weeks straight for Christmas/New Years. I returned at the height of the polar vortex. That first week in January it hit below zero. Then, below zero became the norm. It became a daily occurance. I woke up, entered my rental car, and saw that glaring temperature reading with a '-' in front of the number. I didn't know those raw temperatures existed. Until that day, I saw the '-3' temperature during the 2007 NFC Championship Game as one of the defining factors of that game, a description that made Green Bay, Wisconsin a magical place that night. That Polar Vortex week, I realized that Battle Creek was just as 'magical'.
Battle Creek is about as nice a midwest town as I could imagine. It's essentially run on cereal corporations and the stores that can run off the people that work at the cereal corporations. Therefore, the town is both doing better than most places in Michigan, and pretty heavily middle class. It's a nice town that espouses all of the Midwest values that have become rather cliche, while still being small and isolated enough for everyone to seemingly know each other. There are too few restaurant options in the town, but the ones that are there have made their mark and are really good.
Arcadia Brewery was its name. My first day in Battle Creek I was a little hesitant to go there as I didn't know how it would look to go to a 'brewery'. My second day there I went to Arcadia, and I fell in love instantly. Not only do they serve their own large collection of beer that they brew in house, but they have good food. Really good food. They have interesting choices, gourmet choices like braised pork belly, seared lamb curry, many gourmet pizzas. It is a true 'gastropub.' Actually, that might be low praise. It is better than most gastropubs. That restuarant, on food alone, could work in New York. However, their limited group of waiters and familial feel wouldn't work in New York. That was distinctly Michigan.
Over the weeks I expanded my range of post-work hangouts. I tried the surprisingly wide array of Battle Creek cuisines, like a surprisingly good and authentic Sushi place, or countless Mexican places, or a really upscale Mediterranean place. Battle Creek's food offerings may not be many, but they are quality.
I'll try to stop writing a guidebook for Battle Creek, but instead just talk about the town. I've never been anywhere in the US apart from the East Coast. There is a certain energy in the East Coast that is apparent even outside New York. It's there in Jersey, in Boston, in DC, in Philly. It isn't there in Michigan, and I can only assume the rest of the Midwest. There's a different mentality. A more true, a more congenial mentality. Everyone's polite, seeing each person as a potential friend. It's just a different lifestyle. I don't know if its better, but it definitely isn't bad.
The main area of Battle Creek, which also happens to house the offices where I worked in, reminds me of Princeton's Nassau Street, a lane of nice shops and restaurants. I stayed at an aparment and then a hotel on what is essentially Battle Creek's Route I, with all the stores you can possibly imagine (24 hour Target, Walmart and Meijer - a grocery store). It kind of felt like home, but also felt like a completely different place.
I might have had a different reaction had I lived outside New Jersey and New York in my life. I wasn't ever outside that environment until now, so everything just felt different. When I got my Starbucks Coffee at Barnes and Noble from the cute barista, it felt different than when I did that exact same thing off of Route 1. Everything was different, but nice. It was a calm environment. It wasn't a big city. It wasn't rushed and it didn't move too fast. Battle Creek did everything right. There might be countless other towns in the midwest that are exactly the same, but I haven't been to them and I wouldn't have gone to them first. I went to Battle Creek first, and I'll miss it.
