Girls Weekend in Northern Michigan!

Last Thursday after work I drove out to Troy to meet up with my mom for a weekend in Traverse City.  We had planned this little getaway a few months ago after my grandma passed away.  Our choices had originally included Las Vegas, a 3 night cruise out of Miami, or a long weekend in Northern Michigan and after weighing all the options, opted to stay closer to home.  The drive was smooth all the way up and we stopped in Grayling for dinner and a beer at Paddle Hard Brewery.  We split a salad and a flatbread pizza that was delicious!

We arrived to our condo in Elk Rapids right on Lake Michigan around 8pm and even though it was very dark, we could hear the waves crashing in from our balcony.  The condo was adorable and had a great view in the morning.  We enjoyed a mug of coffee/tea with our feet up watching the sunrise each morning.  The first evening we watched Footloose on Amazon Prime and played Yahtzee on the iPad with some rum and diet cokes.  It was fun!

Friday morning we woke up, watched the sunrise and got ready for breakfast in Elk Rapids at a little restaurant called Harbor Cafe down the road.  It was delicious!  We split a pumpkin spice pancake and each had a dish with eggs.  We made the voyage from there into Suttons Bay to do some shopping for a while.  And then it was time for the wineries, ciders, and beers!  Yum!

Suttons Bay was really cute with the shops downtown.  Our first winery stop was at a place called French Valley Vineyard.  Apparently we just missed a huge bald eagle swooping down into the lake to steal a fish from a goose.  That seemed to be all the staff could talk about.  But, the place was very nice with a bonfire going outside and some tasty wines.

Tandem Ciders was our next stop and boy, were their ciders delicious!  I've had the Smackintosh before since they come to the beer festival we go to in Royal Oak annually.  But, it was much better in person!  My mom loved their pear cider that had a hint of cinnamon.  We definitely bought some to take home.  We then went to 45 North, which had a beautiful winery! 

At this point we knew it was a good time for a break from drinking.  We kept on driving out to Leland, as it was something I really wanted to see for the first time.  Even though the town was pretty quiet with the summer being over, it was still so adorable to see in person!  We saw a fisherman catch a pretty big fish and even though I didn't see a fish swim up stream like I had hoped, I still really enjoyed stopping there.  I can't wait to bring the boys back in the summer!

We stumbled around the little town for a bit going into shops and trying their winery, Verterra.  Verterra was actually really good!  And small world, one of the people working there grew up in Troy and the other woman working there has a daughter who taught at the high school I teach at for years.  Crazy!

We drove back towards Traverse City with a stop at Hop Lot, which was an awesome brewery!  The ambiance was the best part, in my opinion.  Although, the beer and soft pretzels were a close second and third.  We sat by the fire outside and enjoyed feeling like we were set back in the woods.

Back on M22 we headed back into Traverse City to do some shopping on Front Street and to catch dinner at the Mackinaw Brewing Company.  I enjoyed all the shops and bought a few small things.  Dinner was tasty, but I think we were both ready to head back to the condo and relax. 

We watched Life of the Party on Amazon and had some wine my mom brought up that evening.  We were both ready for bed by 11pm.  It had a long, but fun day!  Saturday morning we watched the sunrise again and even though the wind had picked up and it was 38 degrees, I toughed it out in my pajamas on the beach and searched for Petoskey stones to bring back for the boys, per their request.  I even Facetimed them on the beach to show them what I had found.  I think I did pretty good and we're still hard at work on sanding what we brought home to see how good our haul was.

We ventured into Elk Rapids again for breakfast and this time we ate at The Local, which was also really good!  We decided to drive up to Petoskey for the day to do some more shopping, some more wineries and breweries.  Our first stop after our hour drive was to stop at Petoskey Farms Vineyard, which out of all the wineries we went to that weekend was my favorite!  I even bought two wines to take home and a souvenir glass.  I loved the view from the heated porch. 

Our next stop was right down the road at the Maple Moon Sugarbush and Winery.  It's the first and only maple winery where some of their wines are actually fermented with the sugars in the maple syrup.  While it wasn't our thing, it was cool to try!

We went back towards Petoskey to stop at the Burnt Marshmallow Brewery, which was really fun!  It's also a winery too.  We split a flight and I discovered I liked their pumpkin ale.  My mom went with the Burnt Marshmallow Porter and we enjoyed a glass of them by their fire outside, where we met a pig and it started to snow.  It was really pretty!

We decided to drive into downtown Petoskey to do some shopping and give the drinking a break.  I bought quite a few things, which was fun.  For dinner we ate at The Beard Brewery, where I had one of the best pepperoni pizzas I've ever had!  It was soooo tasty!  We also drove to the Petoskey Brewing Company to try their beer and play some yahtzee on the iPad.  There might have also been a basket of onion rings...yum...

It was a relatively early bedtime that night.  An hour's drive back to the condo had us both pretty tired.  Sunday morning we woke up, watched the sunrise again, packed up and got breakfast at the Harbor Cafe before starting the drive home.  It was a smooth drive and I was excited to get home and see the boys!  It was a great weekend with my mom and I'm blessed that we get to spend that kind of time together!