Wayne W Walls

 Coffee is an acquired taste. When I was in my late teens and early twenties, I hated coffee. I thought it smelled good, but it tasted horrible. It was like drinking dirt. But over time, I came to really enjoy coffee. I definitely like coffee because of the caffeine and the energy I get from it, but even if it contained no caffeine, I would still drink it. And for something as simple as ground-up roasted beans, there is a very wide variety in coffee flavors and quality. It sort of seems like it would all be about the same, but there are definitely brands I prefer and brands I won't buy. I drink coffee nearly every day. I think in the last 5 years I might have had 10 days where I didn't drink coffee. For something I have that often, I want to get the stuff that tastes good. I like to get some variety in by buying different brands of coffee and trying out different roasts. And I like trying to buy coffees that are produced by worker cooperatives or those that are Fair Trade cert...

 I love ice cream! It is so delicious and it can really hit the spot when you are craving it. Grocery store ice cream definitely has some benefits. You can find just about any flavor you are interested in. There are lots of brands to choose from. And you can keep the ice cream in your freezer at home so that you've got ice cream ready when the mood strikes you. But sometimes ice cream from a restaurant or ice cream parlor is what you really want. If you are currently in that mood and are in Apple Valley, Lakeville , or Rosemount, MN, I have got some suggestions for you! Related:  List of Restaurants in the Lakeville and Apple Valley MN Area Culver's I think Culver's has the best ice cream, period. It is hands down the best. It is ultra smooth and creamy. The chocolate and the vanilla have the perfect flavor. And, while I don't tend to order many flavors other than vanilla and chocolate, they are well known for their "Flavor of the Day", so there is always some...

 I like to check the stats for my blog pretty regularly to see how I'm doing, and I get those stats from a few different websites. One of the sites I look to for info about how I'm doing is Alexa.com.  Alexa is a company which collects info about most of the websites on the internet . It tries to provide people with info about the amount of traffic websites get, what keywords they rank in search engines for, and what other websites cover similar topics. Alexa provides even more than that, but generally, it can be categorized as a website competitive analysis and keyword research tool. Alexa is the company which puts out the famous "Alexa Rank". The Alexa Rank is a number which is assigned to websites based on how popular their website is - which is based on the amount of traffic each site gets. A site ranked #1 is the most popular website in the world, and the larger the number of your score, the less popular and visited your site. It gives website owners an idea h...

Craft breweries are a fun destination when travelling and a great way to get out of the house a little closer to home. Minnesota has a ton of craft breweries scattered all over the state.  I have been to a lot of them because I've tried to make it to all of the Minnesota breweries in the Minnesota Hop Passport .  The Hop Passport is a small book which is filled with 100 craft breweries all throughout the state. Each brewery will stamp their page in the book when you go there and that will get you one free beer with your first beer purchase (a Buy One, Get One Free deal, but just on your first round). If you are in the Lakeville, Minnesota area and seeking a great brewery nearby, then this article is just what you are looking for.  The below list is a collection of the best breweries in the area. And below that is a second list of breweries and bars that serve food.  Lakeville Brewing Company Lakeville Brewing Company is my favorite craft brewery in Lakeville and the...

 Wine slushies are awesome! They are good anytime, but especially on a hot summer day out on a patio. The first time I ever had a wine slushie was at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival in Shakopee, MN. It was wine in a bag or a pouch that looked like a Capri Sun juice pouch that they kept frozen.  I'm not sure if it had to do with a special ingredient or maybe it had something to do with the alcohol, but it wasn't a frozen block of solid wine.  It was a fluffy, slushie consistency. It was great, and I was hooked! I wanted to order them whenever I went out to bars and restaurants, but unfortunately, most places do not sell wine slushies. I had them once at a small winery in Wisconsin. Theirs was delicious. But in the suburbs south of the Twin Cities, it was a struggle to find somewhere that served them. I did eventually find somewhere. Where To Get Wine Slushies in Apple Valley / Lakeville Barley & Vine Kitchen/Bar is a restaurant and bar that is technically located i...

Lakeville Brewing Company is a both a craft brewery and a restaurant located in downtown Lakeville, Minnesota . They are located right across the parking lot from Angry Inch Brewing . They offer many beers on tap that were brewed right there on-site. Their beer menu has many staples that never change, and there are usually a couple new experimental batches available on rotation. Lakeville Brewing Company has a sister brewery in Inver Grove Heights, MN called Inver Grover Brewing Company, and sometimes they will have beers available in Lakeville that were brewed in Inver Grove's facilities. You can view their current beer selection on the Untappd page for the brewery .  If you are already at the brewery, either in their taproom or their backyard patio area (which is dog-friendly) , you can check out what is available on tap on their beer list chalkboards. Lakeville Brewery is one of my favorite area craft breweries and I have been there enough to have tried all of their beers. The...

 Kentucky certainly has a lot of bourbon distilleries. Lots of the big names in American whiskey that you would recognize from your local liquor store shelves are distilled in Kentucky. In fact, that is what drew me and my wife to Kentucky for vacation in the first place. We traveled to Kentucky for 5 days specifically to go to the distilleries on the famous Kentucky Bourbon Trail. In addition to the big, nationally recognizable names in bourbon that you surely will find in Kentucky, there are also smaller craft operations. Bardstown Bourbon Company falls into that category. It is by no means a small operation. It had a campus and equipment big enough to impress anyone. Sure, it wasn't as big as Buffalo Trace or Maker's Mark, but it still had a "factory" size to it. Not being from the area (and not being over-the-top obsessed with liquor), we had never heard of Bardstown Bourbon Company before. We actually had BBC recommended to us by a local tour guide. We were han...