First I have to share G and my packing styles. It makes me laugh because I'm usually the organized one, but not when it comes to packing. I pretty much just throw my entire summer wardrobe into my suitcase. Light packer I am not!
G, on the other hand, carefully lays out each item neatly folded on the bed. If we are gone for 7 days he will pack 7 shirts. 7 pairs of socks. 7 pairs of underwear. He is so organized that way. And his clothes stay neat and organized the entire vacation where my suitcase gets clothes thrown around and wrinkled. It drives him crazy.
But I digress. We left Wednesday morning to drive to our friends' lake house. We stopped and had lunch at Limberlost on Houghton Lake. The view was spectacular and the food was pretty good. The service wasn't great though. Our waitress was so funny. She would ask if we wanted something. Ketchup. A beer. But then she would never bring it out, ha! The view made up for it though.
We got to the lake house around 2:00, unpacked and hung out on the pontoon boat until we couldn't stand the heat any longer. We floated on the lake for a good few hours. It was a Wednesday afternoon and there was nobody around so we could float in the middle of the lake which was fun.
We came in for dinner around 7 and then hung out on the pontoon watching the sunset. We came in and watched a bit of Friends and called it a night.
Thursday morning we drank our coffee on the boat. We cleaned up and packed up and then took an hour paddle boat ride around half of the lake. It was such a beautiful morning and the water was like glass.
My parents picked us up at noon and we headed to Short's Brewing Company. My mom loves Soft Parade so she was excited to get it from the source!
I loved how the menus looked like old record covers.
We each got our own flight and it was fun to try each others' beers. I don't usually get a flight because I only like ales and usually the beers are limited when I only like certain beers. But Short's had almost 40 different beers to chose from so it was easy to chose five. My favorites were the Key Lime Pie (I know, it sounds weird. But seriously amazing!) and Soft Parade. My dad got this pine beer and it literally tasted like a pine tree!
Lets talk about the food. OMG. It was amazing!!! I had a grilled cheese with avocado and white cheddar. The chips were made in TC and were delish. The pickle was Detroit made (love!) and the sandwich had this sour dough bread that was so good. Great beer. Great food. Great atmosphere. I would definitely love to go here again.
After that yummy lunch we went to Boyne Mountain Resort. It is such a cool place! Just gorgeous. We stayed in the Grand Lodge and I highly recommend it. It overlooks a pond, the zip line and the ski hills. It would be fun in the winter to watch skiers all day. But it was just as fun watching zip liners. One girl even got stuck and it was interesting watch them climb out there to get it. Great entertainment!
We got there around 3:30 and went to my brother and SIL's room because our room wouldn't be ready for a half hour. We got some good time in with Ella. Isn't she adorable? My brother was still golfing, but we hung out and chatted.
We walked around the grounds. Jess showed us the water park and the cute little village with restaurants.
Funny story about this bear. It's in the lobby and I took a photo with it because I love taking goofy pictures with statues. I don't get it either. Anyway, when Jess and Ella were walking us around the resort Ella pointed at the bear and said "hop hop." I was confused, but Jess said she likes to see the bunny in the lobby. I had no idea there was a bunny in the lobby. Well, we went to the bear statue and sure enough there was the bunny that the bear had just killed. But Ella didn't know that. She just liked to look at the little bunny. Ha!
After touring the beautiful grounds we realized it was past five so we should definitely be able to check in. The room wasn't ready yet so we headed back to Jess and Eric's room to hang out some more. At 6:00 we still hadn't heard anything so my dad went back down to the front desk and we got our keys. BUT as soon as we walked in we saw luggage in the entrance so my dad went back downstairs and the poor staff had no idea what was going on. We went back to Eric and Jess' room. They went out to eat with the bride and groom and we poured a glass of wine and hung out.
Finally at 6:30 we found out everything had been worked out and we could get into our condo. It was beautiful! Three bedrooms. Three baths. Two fireplaces. Living room. Two bedrooms upstairs. Rain shower head. Kitchen.
We unpacked and then headed to dinner on the property. The Beach House is a fancy restaurant right on Deer Lake and we were just in time for a sunset dinner.
I had a peach bellini which may be my new favorite drink. YUM!!! So G had forgot his wallet at the lake house and he didn't get carded at Short's, but he did here. My dad vouched for him being 33 and the waiter eventually obliged and let him order a drink. Lucky guy!
We had a late lunch so we weren't super hungry. G and I shared a salad and this goat cheese and olive bread. Both were out of this world!!
And the view wasn't bad either.
Our waiter was super nice and funny. He never rushed us even though they were closing soon. Funnily enough, he was the same waiter my brother and SIL had the next day at the rehearsal dinner! Okay, this has never happened to me before but the waiter brought out free shots after our dinner. So fun! They were lemon cello and it was probably the best shot I ever had!
After dinner we went back to the room. Eric had passed out on the couch, but Jess came over and we all hung out and drank a glass of red wine before calling it a night.
This got super long. Kudos if you made it to the end. More to come tomorrow!
2 comments:
That seriously looks amazing. Your niece is adorable, I love how little kids are so smart! My little niece would point at my phone at a picture of my kitty and say meow. And when I would put my phone away she would say more meow? It was the cutest
Aw, sounds so great so far!!! We haven't spent nearly enough time in Northern Michigan. We love that Spruce Pilsner from Shorts, we always look forward to it's release!
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