Let the Burger Tour Begin!!!

It is day four of vacation and we finally went for our first burger on the West Michigan Burger Tour. My friend, Deb, joined my sister and I to kick off our burger tour. We decided to hit the joint that was claimed to be the best by the news anchor at WZZM TV. Like he said, they were all good but the station made him pick a winner. The first place winner was The Brown Bear Tavern in Shelby, MI. When we walked into the bar, the first thing you notice are all these different chandaliers hanging from the ceiling. So totally unexpected and out of place but yet they all looked like they belonged there. The Brown Bear is known for the Bear Burger which is a one pound burger. Lucky for us, they also have a Cub version which is a 1/2# and a Wimpy version which is a 1/4#. We all opted for the Wimpy burgers. Dianne and Deb both ordered the olive burger and I ordered a Pine-a-Pino burger which had ham, pineapple, lettuce, tomato, onion, and bleu cheese crumbles and jalapenos. I asked for it without jalapenos but unfortunately, they left the pineapple off as well. But the burger was delicious even without it. They claimed on the menu that they used top quality meat and it made all the difference and I have to agree the meat was excellent. They also had bakery buns which were yummy too. Like Deb pointed out the condiments did not take away from the flavor of the burger itself. We all agreed that the burgers at the Brown Bear were excellent. We would all highly recommend the trip to Shelby for a burger at the Brown Bear.

We decided since we drove all the way to Shelby we might as well walk thru town. (It's like a block or two long.) They had a nice Good Neighbor Pharmacy so we stopped in. The cashier was very friendly and greeted us and told us about the sales that were going on. Dianne and I both ended up buying a Tervis tumbler.

Our next stop was the Shelby Gem Factory. We were greeted by Larry Kelly who started the company. He ushered us into a theatre to watch a 10 minute video about how their synthetic gems are made. When the video was over we oohed and ahhed over the gems themselves in the showroom. The gems there are really beautiful at a fraction of the cost of the real thing. According to the guy we spoke to in the showroom some of the stones they produce are stronger than the real stones especially the softer stones like amythests and emeralds.

Our next stop was Country Dairy in New Era. We missed our exit to get off at New Era and had to take a 5 mile detour to get there. We especially wanted some cheese curds and ice cream. We knocked around the store and picked up some cheese curds, aspargus brats (can't wait to try them), and garlic chive cheddar cheese. Then of course, we ordered hot fudge sundaes. Gotta say, those sundaes were delicious. We decided not to go on the tour of the dairy because it was getting kind of late and we didn't know if we really wanted to spend $6 a piece for the tour. So we headed home however we some how ended up back in Shelby. We were going in the wrong direction and didn't even realize it. Plus it was only like a couple miles down the road to the dairy that we had gone at least 10 miles out of the way on the way there. We all burst into laughs when we realized where we were.

It was a really great day. The weather was perfect, the burger was perfect and the sundae was perfect. We had a great time.

Tomorrow it's off to the Gerald R. Ford Presidental Museum and the Choo Choo Grill for another burger. Stay tuned for updates.