What are some of your favorite places in the Albert Lea area? Here are some of mine:

Bancroft Bay Park.

Readers of this column know by now that I am severely addicted to disc golf. I visited the 18-hole Bancroft Bay Park Disc Golf Course as much as possible until the wintry weather set in to stay during the Thanksgiving weekend. If January ends up being brown instead of white, you likely will find me out there again. My love for this sport started last August a few weeks after the course was installed. It’s been good for my mental and physical health.

All that said, the park is an all around good place for many reasons. It is the unofficial dog park. It has plenty of places to walk dogs or to go for a solo walk. There are upper and lower parts of the park and each has areas to explore. The upper area is a peninsula that really is more like an island connected by a thin isthmus.

One of the neatest spots in the upper park is near the old silo. There is a picnic table under a small shelter that juts out over the water. It is a good place for a meal in the spring or fall because the mosquitos keep people away in the summer. It has a good view of the sunset, too.

The lower park is adjacent to the Albert Lea Municipal Airport, so it a great place for children to see aircraft landing.

Worth Brewing Co.

All things in moderation is a good way to live. So when I drink beer, I don’t drink it for the quantity, I drink it for the quality. Life is too short for cheap, watered-down beer. Give your taste buds something to taste.

So from time to time Lisa and I and some of our friends will carpool to the Worth Brewing Co. in downtown Northwood, Iowa, and hoist a few pints. The price is nice, and the beer is worth savoring. The atmosphere in the brewery’s tap room is charming, too.

It’s been since last summer that we made a trip, but we need to make another soon because Pete Ausenhus at the brewery has crafted winter brews. I’ll have to refill my growler.

Don’t know what a growler is? Go find out.

You got to love the motto: “If it’s not hand-crafted, it’s not Worth Brewing.”

Myre-Big Island State Park

I really enjoy how this park accommodates so many varieties of activities. Some state parks seem geared for two or three things, and that’s it. Our 2,038-acre Myre-Big Island State Park offers a bounty of stuff to do. The Myre-Big Island page on the Web site for Minnesota Department of Natural Resources even starts off by saying, “This park has something for everyone.”

Instead of saying it like this: cycling, hiking, outdoor camping, cabin camping, group camping, canoeing, picnicking, birdwatching, skiing, snowmobiling, let’s explain it like this:

The state park offers invididual campsites, group campsites, small cabins or even an entire meeting facility, all on three campgrounds. There is the White Fox Campground, the Big Island Campground and the New York Point Group Center. White Fox accommodates recreational vehicles. The park has canoes to rent on Little Island. The park is adjacent to the 2,654-acre Albert Lea Lake. The park has 8.25 miles of self-guided trails and 16 miles of hiking trails. The trails are divided among skiers and snowmobilers in the winter. There is the seven-mile Blazing Star Trail, so people can road bike on a hard surface or take a mountain bike on a grassy surface. The park has landscapes from tallgrass prairie to marsh to hardwood forest, and it is a popular stop for many migrating birds.

Albert Lea Public Library

OK, I admit that I don’t hang out at the library as much as I should. But when I am there, I really enjoy the place. I love how people can sit peacefully and look out over Fountain Lake while reading a book. Albert Lea has a special library. Don’t take it for granted. In fact, Albert Lea City Hall is a neat building, and the renovations of the past year have only made it better. I hope residents realize city officials did a good job in building and then renovating that structure.

Albert Lea High School

Whenever I bring people to town, I show them the exterior of the high school. They marvel at it. The building sends a strong message about how great this community is and how it values education and knowledge. I am proud that Albert Lea has such a grand high school.

A few businesses

OK, this is not an endorsement, just my speculation. There are few places I enjoy because of the atmosphere — the place. Most of them are restaurants. They are Crescendo, Taco King, China Restaurant, Plaza Morena, The Elbow Room, Jake’s Pizza, K&K Bakery, B&B Cafe, Green Lea Golf Course, American Legion Hall, Marion Ross Performing Arts Center, Lakeside Cafe, Green Mill Restaurant, Martin’s Cycling & Fitness, Leuthold’s, Main Street Grill, Calico Hutch, Nick’s Meats, Conger Meats, almost all of the churches, Turtle Dove Tea House and Trail’s Travel Center.

Why Trail’s? The place reminds me of when I used to stop there on freeway trips between Ames, Iowa, and Minneapolis; plus, I like the hustle and bustle of the travelers. It has the same melting-pot quality of a train station or an airport.

One place that had a nice, rustic interior was the bar in Walters. Alas, the local hangout has gone out of business. The dullness of its exterior belied the charm of its interior. People tell me I need to visit some small-town theaters and add them to the list, such as the Kiester Kee.

The Nasty Habit, of course, isn’t on the list, but it seems most people agree the bar — the kind you lean on to order — at that drinking establishment does have appeal. That place could be turned into a classy joint if the right person had a true vision.

Of course, my favorite place in town is at home with my family.

Tribune Managing Editor Tim Engstrom’s column appears every Tuesday.