I hope that everyone is doing great as the end of August rolls on by. The past week the family and I went on our annual vacation Up North, where we stayed in a cottage with Mimi (my MIL) and her parents (my husband’s grandparents, Banner and Cuk). I had all my posts scheduled so that I could really try to disconnect for the time. Until two years ago, there wasn’t even internet up there, so I’ve been use to have a pretty media free time. Today is going to be a photo dump all about our vacation, so I hope you are ready! 🙂
We left Thursday morning. After a turn around because we forgot something it we were on our way. After a stop 1/2 way at McDonald’s and we were back on the road.
During the week we took some pictures on the dock.
We tried to spend as much time outside as possible.
Rode in the kayak with dad.
Ate some smores (obviously)
I tried taking some pictures during the “golden hour”. It was hard since I wanted the lake in the background, but that meant the sun was to the side.
On Saturday we went to Mass, then headed out to eat in town. If you are ever in Gaylord, then check out the Alpine Tavern. I love it! After an extra long Mass the girl were a bit… restless… so I took them out to play in the game area the restaurant has.
It’s never to early to learn how to play corn hole right?
On Sunday we headed to a beach on Lake Michigan. What’s super cool about this beach is that it has a river that runs into the lake. The river is shallow, and a great place for the kids to play. Do you see the sandbar in the picture below? The river is closest to you you, then over the sand bar is Lake Michigan. In the distance you can see Sleeping Bear Dunes. We took the kids to the lake for a bit, but spent most of our time at the river.
Matt and I went on a wine tour in Traverse City. If you are ever in Northern Michigan, and like wine I highly suggest going on a wine tour. We are by no means “wine people”. I mean we drink wine from jug (where my Carlo Rossi people at), but I love trying new varieties. Most of the wine we buy is the fruit wine (made with cherries, grapes and so on), or dessert wines that you can’t find in stores here. I prefer the Leelanau Peninsula (since it has more wineries) but I know some like the Old Mission Peninsula. We bought at least a bottle at every place we visited, but most places we bought more.
We started at Verterra which was right on the lake. We got to sample five wines, and they were all delicious.
The main reason I wanted to go to this one was because it was so close to the lake. So after tasting, we went down to the lake to take some pictures. This also makes me realize how much shorter I am than Matt. Notice where the post comes up to me, and where it comes up to Matt.
To Matt’s dismay, I made him take a selfie. He was not thrilled.
Next up is my favorite winery. The view is beautiful, as it is right on the water. The tasting is free (most places it costs $5). The wine is yummy, and not super expensive. If you’ve ever had Witches Brew, it’s from here.
I got made fun of for all the “Instagram pictures” I was taking for my blog. Please tell me my hubs isn’t the only one.
Another forced selfie! 🙂
Another winery on the water. I love that they had an outdoor tasting room.
We hit up a few other wineries, plus we went to Tandem Ciders, which sells… hard ciders. I think total we went to 6 places. I did most of the tasting as Matt was driving, but he got to try a few. In the end we got about three cases of wine. Yes. Three cases. When in Rome right? After trying the wineries we went out to eat at a restaurant (on the water… noticing a theme), and headed home. It was a long but fun (at least for me) day.
On a separate day Matt and I headed to Petoskey for a few hours. Matt and I both had a Cherry Cordial Beer which was so good. More like an ale or cider, and I knew I had to have more. We searched near but could not find any. So we headed to the source (Petoskey Brewing) but alas, they had none. That didn’t stop us from trying a flight of beer though. We then headed into Downtown Petoskey, and browsed a bit before heading back to the cottage.
Other than that, most of our time was spent at the cottage. I finally finished Autumn’s Christmas Stocking (two years later).
And Autumn refused to sleep in the crib (with so many grand babies, they bought a crib as the pack and play was getting to small for my nephew), so the floor it was.
As you can tell, we had a fantastic time! And, if you stayed with me this far, thanks! 🙂