We had Thanksgiving at my parents' house this year. Eric, Jess, the kids, G and I came over a few hours early to celebrate my dad's birthday. It was fun spending time with everyone and just relaxing, eating appetizers and talking.
Jess and I drank beer out of these glasses from the restaurant my parents' had their very first date. How fun is that?!
Bennett was getting cranky so I played the Hamilton soundtrack for him and he LOVED it. He was just memorized by me as I sang along to the soundtrack. This went on for a good 45 minutes when I saw he was fighting sleep and I turned the soundtrack off and he fell fast asleep. So sweet. I got hours of sweet cuddle time with him. LOVE.
After he woke up I did a few puzzles with Ella and we cracked open this fun wine while extended family came over and we chatted, laughed and hung out.
Bennett was awake and happy! It was fun to see family I have not seen in a while and catch up.
Then we ate! My mom made the most beautiful turkey. We had green bean casserole, mac and cheese (Martha Stewart's Jess makes every year and it's the BEST!), mashed potatoes (with Borsin cheese, amaze!), cranberries and sweet potato casserole. Everything was so good!
Friday we drove up to Petoskey for a little getaway. We stopped at Barrel Back on Walloon Lake which is a gorgeous lake and also the lake Ernest Hemingway summered on.
I had the chicken sandwich with pesto aioli, avocado bacon and a side of fries. It was nothing to write home about, but it was good. It actually tasted even better leftover, isn't that funny?
It was a rainy, cloudy day but Northern Michigan was still gorgeous.
We stopped at Walloon Lake Winery for a tasting. The owner was pouring the wine and I always love hearing the story of how a winery started. He started as a builder and actually built the winery from the ground up. He retired from building and already had the land and decided to grow grapes. He was planning on selling the grapes to wineries, but soon found out to make money you need to open a winery and sell your own grapes. So he called his sons to ask if they would go in on the winery with him and the rest is history. I really liked their dry red.
Then we went to check into our hotel. This has never happened, but I booked on Expedia and when we got to the hotel they didn't have our reservation! We ended up getting moved to a nicer room for the same rate at their sister hotel. Score! This was our view and it was so relaxing.
We walked around downtown Petoskey for a bit and then headed for drinks and dinner at Twisted Olive. The views of Lake Michigan were great. It was a tiny place and the service, food and drinks were all meh. We should have gone to our old favorite Palette.
Saturday we did some exploring. We hiked a bit and enjoyed the gorgeousness that is Lake Michigan.
Lake Michigan is for lovers.
We headed to Charlevoix which is one of my favorite cities. We did some shopping at the cute shops.
Then we did a little wine tasting at Cherry Republic.
The main reason we headed to Charlevoix was to eat lobster mac and cheese at Weathervane. It was the best mac and cheese of my life I ate two summers ago. Well, it is only a summer menu item so I'll have to head back next summer! We shared fish and chips and a brew on the water. Perfection.
Sunday we headed to City Park Grille for lunch. Hemingway used to write at this bar, how cool is that?!
We are such nerds, ha!
I had the fried zucchini because vacation tradition.
As we drove home I finally got my sunset. It was so cloudy this trip, but still so fun and relaxing.
And per tradition, we stopped at our favorite restaurant for dinner before we got home. Their gin and bear it martini is BOMB.
We shared the smoked salmon dip and it was seriously the best. I would get this again! Probably the best thing I ate all weekend. I did not make great food choices this weekend, but this was a good one! Such a fun, long weekend. The perfect balance of family time and quality time with G.
And now we are ready for Christmas!
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