Traverse City Weekend

G and I took a long weekend to Traverse City last weekend and we had an absolute blast! Cheers to vacay!

We went to Amical downtown because we like to try at least one new restaurant every time we go. This was such a winner in my book. It is the cutest French restaurant with great cocktails and these yummy olive twists (feta and tapenade in puff pastry). But the salmon. Oh my goodness. It was on another level. Incredible! Probably the best salmon I've ever had. 

After lunch we walked around downtown and explored the shops. 

It was a lovely fall day with the leaves in all their glory and 50 degrees. 

A perfect day for wine tasting! We started at Black Star on Old Mission Peninsula. It's tradition for us to go their first when we wine taste on Old Mission. And fun fact? We wine tasted here for our very first time ten years ago! Ahh memories.

Our next stop was Mari which is a really cool castle type building. Rumor has it the owners own a top energy company and this winery is just a fun hobby. They imported everything from Michigan, except the floors are from Italy. It's so gorgeous and their wine is pretty delicious. I love their Gewurztraminer!

It looks like we turned a corner into Italy, right?!

I can't get over the architecture. So good!

Our next stop was Bonobo. I loved that we went tasting on a random Thursday because we were the only ones everywhere we went. We could take our time. Relax and have good conversation. We just had the best time. The Sauvignon Blanc was so good here. I may have been talked into buying a bottle. :)

We went to Peninsula Cellars Winery. It's a cute winery in an old school house and we had a lot of fun talking favorite TC restaurants. The wine wasn't too bad either.

The last stop of the day was Two Lads. It's always a favorite because of the views and they have a great sparkling wine.

After all that tasting it was time for dinner.

The views at Jolly Pumpkin are just quintessential Northern Michigan.

Creamy, cheese, hot mac and cheese hit the spot after lots of wine tasting.

After dinner we headed to our hotel. We stayed at Grand Beach Resort because Expedia had a great deal (that was even better than Groupon!). It was great. Friendly staff, clean, comfortable, convenient. And how cute is this towel turtle?!

We didn't get a sunset this night, but the view is still pretty epic. 

Stay tuned for part 2!