Vacation 2014

For long as we’ve been married, we have taken a vacation every summer.

This summer is no different.

This year, we decided to go to Traverse City, MI area. I am a life-long Michigan resident, but have never actually toured, wine and dined in the area.

THIS.

Has to be one of the better vacations we’ve taken.

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I decided to write/review every place we stayed at and some places we visited and/or or ate at that are worth the recommendation.  I firmly believe that if you want to really get into vacationing up North, you must either camp and/or staying bed and breakfasts. There are some local hotels in Traverse City as well as chains, but come on! Save your pennies for a year and get a bed and breakfast. In fact, some b&bs cost the same as a hotel room per night.

We stayed in the area July 12-20: right as Cherry Festival was wrapping up. We did miss most of the Cherry Fest. activities, but that’s ok by me…we’re not crowd people. In fact, while the 4^th of July would be convenient (we both got 4^th of July off from work), but we wanted to avoid alllllll the extra-long lines.

July 12-15: Interlochen State Park

Interlochen has to be ONE of the cleanest state parks we’ve stayed at. Personally, I would recommend this State Park to family and friends.

This state park allows dogs, but everyone was really mindful and we never had a problem with barking or messy dogs. Since we tented, we just had a Coleman cooler and went to the near-by Tom’s grocery store to get whatever food we needed for the day—the prices at Toms were responsible, what you except from a small town market. It was sort of a drive to pretty much anything, but we expected that. We drove to Traverse City (1/2 hour) one day, Petoskey (about 1 hour) another day. In the town of Interlochen itself, there’s not a whole lot to do. But the academia (super fancy arts academy across the street) and the campground makes lodging in this small town fun and rather enjoyable.  By the way, there’s no good restaurants in Interlochen, so be a ware. Haufbrau may have a billion beers on tap, but not a whole lot of MI beers+my burger gave me ridiculous gas.

Unfortunately, it did rain 2.5/3 days we were at the park. The good part is there’s usually a free/nominal concert going on at the Art Academy/Camp across the street. We paid $10 each to see the World Youth Wind Symphony. On another rainy night, we walked over to hear an organ recital (yes, the church organ). There’s a nearby coffee shop, Bud’s, which is really great for sitting and laptopping on rainy days. Coffee is ok, but when you’re camping and its wet outside, all you really want to do is get OUT of the rain.

On the day it WASN’T raining, we decided to drive the 1 hour-ish drive to Chaloxvix (why are some Michigan cities so complicated to spell?) and bicycle the Little Traverse Wheelway to Harbor Springs—a total of 50 miles round trip. This trail was perfect if you aren’t really confident about biking (ie me) on high traffic roads…it is a rail-to-trail, so it’s really flat. It’s not really crowded as the near-by TART trails, so it was perfect for me (at least. A tad boring, but it helped me get into the whole “swing of things.”) Anyway, Harbor Springs has to be one of my favorite Michigan downtowns--second to Saugatuck. No trip to HS is complete without Cutlers and the cute little deli/small market.

 A note about the drive to Chaloxix, Harbor Springs and/or Petoskey: a far drive, but so worth it. Once you get up into “Cherry country,” there’s farm stands every couple of miles. We stopped at one and got some veggies to grill and a pint of cherries to eat on the rest of the drive. It’s so fun to spit cherries pits out the car window.

Night of July 15: Oviatt House, near downtown Traverse City

I believe this would be our second time staying in a bed and breakfast. This house was really old and could definitely use some updating. Our room was on the smaller side. But I quickly got over it. The conversations we had with the helpers and co-owners were excellent. Our breakfast included baked oatmeal, bacon, quinoa and smoke salmon.

From this b&b you can walk into downtown TC as well as a bike trail—which we did, but Andrew forgot to pack a sweatshirt and since this summer has been unusually cold, we drove into downtown. In downtown TC, drinking/eating at 7 Monks is a must. Amazing MI beer list and great brew bites (ie wings, pretzels). There’s a lot of little shops, stereotypical to any tourist town.

July 16-18: Traverse City State Park

First and foremost, DO NOT CAMP HERE.

It’s loud.

It’s noisy.

No one is really nice about being quiet.

Bathrooms are gross and dirty.

The good part?
There is an entrance to TART (Traverse Area Rec. Trails) within the park. So we just put on our bike gear and got on the trail from our campsite.

One day, we biked to our campsite to Suttons Bay, ate lunch and rode back “home” for a total of about 40 miles.

Another day, we want on a self-guided wine tour via bikes. This is something, you could do yourself. But we went on a tour provided by Suttons Bay Bikes. For $30 per person (add $15 if renting a bike from them), they provide a water bottle, lunch and wine bottle pickup. We were given a map and someone told us a little bit about each winery. If we bought a bottle of wine, we texted “our person”: Last name: 2 bottles at Black Star Farms. Within an hour, “our person” picks up the bottles. That way we don’t have to handle a bunch of glass bottles, all while trying to bike. And yes, we made our little dent in the local wine industry via 6 bottles of wine. Most of the tastings were free or maybe $5 for a glass and you get like 3 “free” pours. When we wanted lunch, we texted “our person” to meet us at winery X. The lunch and lunch itself makes this tour amazing. Hansen Foods of Suttons Bay has the best sandwiches. I had a ham sandwich with pesto mayo and red onions….Ah-maz-ing.

July 18-20: Sleeping Bear Bed and Breakfast, Empire, MI. This place was recommend to us by some friends of ours and I'm really glad we took his recommendation.

Check-in wasn’t until 3pm, but we were eager to get out of TC State Park. To kill time we drove to historic Fish Town, which is well, a fish town. While it is historic, it’s still a working fishing spot. There’s smokers smoking and fish mongers doing their job. We finished up our gift shopping here. There’s really cute shops that sell local pottery among other things.

 In Fish Town one place you CAN’T afford to miss out on is the Cheese Shanty—they sell cheese, beer and have this amazing deli. I had something called the South Shore sandwich.  I thought Hansen’s sandwiches are great, but no, this is better. Dill mayo, thick sliced meat and the bread is perfectly salted. So good.

Also during our “killing time” drive, we drove through Northport and stopped at a pottery shop. This shop really isn't even on any map, just out of somebody’s house—which I guess makes northern Michigan so much fun.

This place (Empire, that is) really is in the middle of nowhere. We would drive into nearby Glen Arbor and Glen Lake for a bit to eat. Art’s Tavern is a staple in Glen Lake, so don’t miss eating there. Another must-do is Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park.

About the b&b.

It’s pretty great. It’s almost in the middle of nowhere. But it’s so relaxing. I took a nap in the hammock, the bathroom (at least in The Sleeping Bear Room) is big and beautiful and everything I want my bathroom to be. I am working really hard to get my bedroom to smell like The Sleeping Bear Room. In fact, the night we got home, I immediately went to Meijer and got lavender linen spray (and a gallon of milk). The next day I got Costco-sized all-natural lavender detergent. And I shouldn't forget the other smells—breakfast cooking, generally country smells—are pretty great too.

 The breakfasts are amazing—homemade waffles with raspberries and orange bourbon syrup. Really recommend this place to family and friends.

All-in-all this was a fantastic vacation and one of the best ones we've had. There’s so much charm in Northern Michigan, it was hard to say “goodbye” to it. It may sound cheesy, but my heart will does belong up north. I mean, really, I got engaged up North, married up north and just had one of the best vacations up north. Until next time.

The Blue Tractor Cook Shop on Union St in TC is a definite must eat. Burger was fantastic and almost as good as Phil’s in Saugatuck J

Over all, this was a great vacation and it’s one I'd recreate.