Our Kaotic Life

Saturday, June 20, 2026

Our Koffee Trail: The Cloak and Wand

Date of Visit: June 20, 2026

Location: The Cloak and Wand, Myrtle Beach, SC

Rating: 👍 (Like for non-coffee drinks) 👎 (Never Again for coffee)

We didn't plan on do a coffee outing this weekend as we are about to hit the road again, but Nora, Mik, and I really wanted to check out The Cloak and Wand that opened earlier this month. The Cloak and Wand is a wizard theme store, but it also has a potions bar with a wide variety of drinks including coffee.

The coffee drinks cannot be done decaf, so only Dad got a coffee based drink. He got the Black Cat's Curse (raspberry, dark chocolate, griffin whipped cream, raspberry drizzle). He liked the flavor, but it is just coffee and not espresso and with the flavor you could not even tell there was coffee in the drink. Thus, we rated this place gets a rare Never Again rating for coffee, but we certainly plan to visit again for the other drinks, especially since they mentioned having ciders in the fall.

I got a Frozen Wizards Beer (butterscotch, vanilla, topped w/ caramel cold foam).

From the Summer Mocktails part of the menu, Mik got Rhyme & Coconut (key lime pie, coconut, vanilla, unicorn cream, griffin whipped cream, maraschino cherry). Nora got a Frosted Flame (frozen hot chocolate w/ griffin whipped cream and chocolate drizzle).

In keeping with the potion bar theme, each drink has magical properties, which are listed on the label. Dad's said it would give him good luck for 13 seconds. Mik's was a Bard's Spell that makes you speak in limericks. Nora's said it would make her magically toasty and slightly unstoppable. Mine gave icy courage.

See full list of Our Koffee Trail stops here and Our Koffee Trail Google Maps list here.

Check out some of our other Myrtle Beach area posts:

Tuesday, June 16, 2026

Mini Golf Adventures: City Mini Golf

Date of Visit: June 16, 2026

Location: City Mini Golf, Chicago, IL

Dad here …. Kathrin and I went on a mini golf adventure without Kjersti today. Thought we played a new course and would someday need to bring Kjersti. Alas, I found Kjersti played this course in 2022 with her cousins.

City Mini Golf is located in Maggie Daley Park a short walk from our Chicago condo. The view alone from the park is worth playing this course.

The course contains some rather challenging holes featuring iconic Chicago landmarks. I managed to shoot four hole-in-ones (holes 1-13-15-17) and Kathrin had one (hole 1), too!

Hole 1 - Chicago Theatre

Hole 2 - Sears Tower...Willis Tower?

Hole 3 - Chicago Cubs

Hole 4

Hole 5

Hole 6 - Chicago Bulls

Hole 7 - Chinatown

Hole 8

Hole 9

Hole 10 - Chicago White Sox

Hole 11

Hole 12

Hole 13

Hole 14

Hole 15

Hole 16

Hole 17

Hole 8 - Portillo's/Chicago Hot Dog

I did it! — Kathrin

Cravin’ a Chicago Dog

Final Scores (Par 45)

Kathrin - 50
Dad - 39

See full list of our Mini Golf Adventures here and Mini Golf Adventures on Google Maps.

Check out some of our other Chicago area posts:

Friday, June 12, 2026

Ranger Dan: 48.3 Indiana Dunes National Park

Date of Visit: May 4, 2026

We have visited the Indiana Dunes several times including when it used be a National Lakeshore and not a National Park. Thus, this visit was meant to just be a quick stop for the America 250 stamp. We discovered there was a Indigenous Cultural Trail at the Visitor Center that is new since our last visit and ended up exploring that, too.

Sign at Visitor Center

Buffalo Statue in front of Visitor Center

Indigenous Cultural Trail

Indigenous Cultural Trail - Miami Lunar Calendar

Indigenous Cultural Trail - American Elm

Indigenous Cultural Trail

Indigenous Cultural Trail - Potawatomi Lunar Calendar

America 250 stamp

Previous Visits to this Unit:

See full list of Ranger Dan's National Parks Visited here.

Our Route 66 Adventures: Cozy Dog Drive In

Date of Visit: May 4, 2026

On our way home from the Route 66 Centennial Kick Off in Springfield, MO, we didn't originally plan to do any Route 66 things, but we ended up going home via Michigan and decided to get off the interstate to at least eat an early lunch at Cozy Dog Drive IL. We ended up also driving a bit of Route 66 through Springfield, IL and visited the Lincoln Home National Historic Site.

Cozy Dog Drive In is the home of the original hot dog on a stick, which they call a Cozy Dog.

I had Cheese on a Stick.

I also had a Road Side Route 66 Root Beer.

See full list of Our Route 66 Adventures here and Google map here.

Destination Info:

Cozy Dog Drive In

2935 S 6th St

Springfield, IL 62703

Our Route 66 Adventures: Wally's, Pontiac, IL

Date of Visit: May 4, 2026

Stopping at Wally's was a last minute decision. I had heard about it and did not put it on our Route 66 plan for the fall mainly because it is a little bit off of Route 66 and I already have a lot of things on our schedule for when we are going through Pontiac. Thus, when we saw it as we were traveling the Interstate through this time, I decided we should stop.

Wally's is a lot like a Buc-ee's, although it did not seem to have quite as much variety of things and was not anywhere as crazy as most Buc-ee's locations are.

From the fresh popcorn area, I got the Flavor of the Week, which was Street Corn.

We also found some good Route 66 souvenirs here including a pair of pajama pants for Mik and a Centennial Route 66 Cola for my Route 66 bottle collection.

See full list of Our Route 66 Adventures here and Google map here.

Destination Info:

Wally's

1 Holiday Road

Pontiac, Illinois 61764

Wednesday, June 10, 2026

Our Route 66 Adventures: Homestead Rest Area Northbound I-55

Date of Visit: May 4, 2026

While doing Route 66 we mostly plan to avoid the I-55, but when we were heading from Springfield, MO, to Indiana, we stuck to the fastest route other than doing some Route 66 in Springfield, IL. We stopped at the first rest area in Illinois (Homestead Rest Area) because we had heard there was an Illinois Route 66 passport and thought maybe we would find it here since it is also a Welcome Center.

The Welcome Center part wasn't open, but we did grab some of the Route 66 information they had available and found some Route 66 murals on the walls.

See full list of Our Route 66 Adventures here and Google map here.

Destination Info:

Homestead Rest Area Northbound I-55

5905 I-55

Edwardsville, IL 62025

Our Koffee Trail: Ozarks Coffee Trail

While in Springfield, Missouri, for the Route 66 Centennial Kick Off, we discovered the Ozarks Coffee Trail. It is a digital passport that you earn points for checking in at participating coffeeshops. Most of the coffeeshops we visited during our time in Springfield were part of the trail.

We stopped checking in once we had enough points for the stickers as we did not want the t-shirt and it was also kind of a pain to ask for the code to get the check in sometimes. I did notice that some places have an extra check in deal, which is worth paying attention to such as 10% off a bag of coffee or Buy One, Get One, but none of the coffeeshops we visited this trip had any of those deals.

Towards the end of the weekend I realized there are exclusive drinks just for the trail at some (or maybe all?) of the locations. You have to click the Exclusive Menu at the top of the passport to find them instead of them being listed on the check in page for the location, so we never remembered to even check if we wanted to try them.