Happy Monday!!
I had an amazing weekend with My Best Love!
He took Friday off, and we went up to Traverse City Thursday afternoon!
It was wonderful relaxation–and we had a lot of FIRSTS!
(And we ate HORRIBLY/wonderfully. 😀 )
I'm a pretty good cook and baker, and I love to do both sometimes.
I'd consider it a "love language" of mine.
But I'm sorry…I LOVE GOING OUT TO EAT!!
And this getaway was full of it!
So we chose a condo on the water.
It was a nice view!
But we didn't sit on the patio at all–kinda chilly.
We were starving when we got there and had a specific restaurant in mind, but decided we weren't interested in what they had on the menu.
Todd had in mind a good burger and beer, and it sounded good to me!
Well, we chose burgers and shakes instead!
…and onion rings…and sweet potato fries. 🙂
Perfect old style diner with AMAZING shakes–at Don's Drive-in
The pink and turquoise building and sign cracked me up.
Sorry–but Todd took most of the food pics, and I'm not bothering him for most of them.
He wanted to taunt his co-workers. 😉
I chose the sweet cherry (real fruit, as opposed to just syrup) shake.
OH MY WORD!!!
It was DELICIOUS!!! But oh so sweet!!
Todd chose (real fruit–you had a choice) strawberry.
Our bellies were full, and we were happy!
We decided to walk off our supper, shopping at Sam's and walking around the mall.
The next morning was our first FIRST.
(I guess supper the night before was a first, since we hadn't been there before.)
We've been up to Traverse City several times over the years, but we usually end up staying at a hotel with breakfast included. That means, we eat breakfast AT the hotel. Why waste the money, right???
So we'd always seen the Original Flapjack Shack–and finally went there.
It was really good–definitely very old decor of a family style restaurant.
I had the "pancake version" of the shake I had the night before:
Oh boy was it sweet!!! And delicious!!
Before our next FIRST, we did a little more shopping….
We have a kitchen, bathroom remodel coming up.
(Cabinets are expected mid/end-January.)
But if you've seen our upstairs bathroom, you know it's ridiculously narrow [currently housing a pedestal vanity], and Standale Home Studio couldn't find a small enough replacement. Our designer suggested Lowe's.
We have no idea how much supply chain problems affect what items, so we took a little time to shop for it.
It was fun, and we were happy to have a few options.
Still need to do a little research, but stuff was in stock. Yay.
Our next FIRST was going to a lavender farm (https://harborviewlavender.com/).
It was the off season; they were closing Saturday.
So we could just wander around the farm, instead of getting a "formal" tour.
But we still got to see some plants that weren't giving up (and they had to be chopped before the frost)!
Most of these are already chopped.
And they had a cute little shop–including lavender honey ice cream–with all sorts of lavender and cherry products. (They own Cherry Stop, too.) The farm owner, Sonya, was very friendly and helpful. She told us we need to come up in the last week in June through the 2nd or 3rd week in July, when they are in full bloom or harvesting them.
Like I said, we've been to TVC many times over the years–and always have to drive up the peninsula–but we had no idea they're there!
(We were GONNA try visiting a lavender farm in Maui, but didn't have time or something.)
Oh–I took this pic especially for our nieces, because I know they dry their herbs, too.
I thought this was really cool to see.
Clearly, their barn is FULL!
As I mentioned, we always have to drive up the peninsula–to the point.
It's always interesting to see the water level.
Last year we took a day trip up the coast and ended at the point.
The water was almost up to the steps from the beach to the lighthouse.
Friday there was a "normal" size beach.
You can sort of see it here:
But now I have to show you what always comes back to OUR minds when we think of the water level at the point.
This was from 2010:
This was down in front of the same lighthouse!!
We have another pic [Todd couldn't find for me] where we were way out "in the water" on dry ground [Todd says a couple 100 yards–"easily a football field plus"] turned around taking a pic of the lighthouse way back at "shore."
Crazy how much it has changed!
Ok, on to our next FIRST….
We stopped at Bad Dog Deli for lunch.
It was good. Again, passed by it many times and heard about it…finally stopped.
I'm not sure I'd choose it again; it wasn't anything special for me.
Our next FIRST….
We did a wine tasting!
I know that's BIG for many people.
But we don't drink much.
And Todd doesn't really drink wine, but he had the idea for me.
And he was happy to have the option of hard ciders.
We chose Peninsula Cellars–at the suggestion of the lavender farm owner, Sonya.
She said they were perfect–and not stuffy–for newbies like us!
I'm a sweet wine girl, and they helped me with my choices:
Oh, my fave was called Hot Rod Cherry!
It was a "cherry weekend" for me! 😉
Todd enjoyed his as well, but his fave was their homemade ROOT BEER!
He had to take some of that home.
The experience was fun–perfect!
And we even met a couple from Wayland there. 🙂
They were younger, and on a wine-tasting adventure to expand her horizon BEYOND sweet wines, per her husband's suggestion. 🙂
They were cute.
The rest of our weekend wasn't full of TOO many more FIRSTS.
Oh! I tried chicken and waffles for the first time!
We went to Blue Tractor Friday night for dinner.
We'd been there before, but Todd had something in mind there.
The crazy "rush" of dinner hour was funny in TVC.
We walked out of Don's Diner around maybe 6, and it was kinda empty!
We got to Blue Tractor shortly after 5:30pm and had to wait 15-30 min to get in.
We walked out around 7(?), and there was barely anyone waiting!
TOTALLY not how Grand Rapids rolls!
We did try another new [to us] place for breakfast–The Cottage.
Probably the best biscuits and gravy I've ever had!
The biscuits were so tender!!
It was a wonderful weekend to get away!!
We're going into a really busy month for me, so this was a nice slowdown. 🙂
I hope you had a fabulous weekend, too!
Have a spectacular week!!
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