Michigan Trip

We both love to travel and we are very fortunate that we are able to do what we are doing. One thing that we have not done at all of our locations is explore a little outside the region of where we are. This time Amy had expressed interest in seeing Michigan. It only being a 3 hour drive to the border, we figured it would be a great time to explore. Work has been a little hectic, so we decided a nice relaxing weekend in Northern Michigan, more specifically the wineries and vineyards in the Leelanau Peninsula and Old Mission Peninsula, and a trip to Mackinac Island. We started our trip on Thursday morning at the crack of dawn, and made our way through Indiana and up the eastern border of Lake Michigan to the Sleeping Bear Dunes. After 5 hours in the car, we needed to get out and walk around a bit. We first stopped at the Sleeping Bear Dunes visitors center, bought our car pass, and proceeded to drive the scenic route. We stopped at the scenic lookouts high above the lake on top of the dunes and had a breathtaking view of the lakeshore. The water was oddly crystal clear, the breeze was cool, the weather crisp, the sun was bright and shining.......Michigan is Beautiful!! We drove through the other 9 stops on the scenic route, stopping at the lookout points for picture opportunities and carved our initials somewhere in the boardwalk amongst the others. We got a picture of the actual "Sleeping Bear Dune" but it no longer resembled a bear. It has however, stood for over 2000 years. The name of the dune comes from old Native American lore as follows: Long ago, along the Wisconsin shoreline, a mother bear and her two cubs were driven into Lake Michigan by a raging forest fire. The bears swam for many hours, but eventually the cubs tried and lagged behind. Mother bear reached the shore and climbed to the top of a high bluff to watch and wait for her cubs. Too tired to continue, the cubs drowned within sight of the shore. The Great Spirit Manitou created two islands to mark the spot where the cubs disappeared and then created a solitary dune to represent the faithful mother bear.

Afterwards, we drove over to some of the bigger dunes that you can climb. I had thought that the dunes in Kill Devil Hills, NC were large, but this one seemed much bigger! Also, remembering the difficulty it is to climb these dunes, I was hesitant, but convinced Amy that this may be the only time we get to visit this place, so we should experience all we can. So, on we went, traversing up this enormous sand dune. Once we got to the top (after a few breaks) we looked ahead and saw nothing but more sand and more dunes. This was much bigger than the dunes in the Outer Banks. Determined for a great payoff in views at the top, we continued up the next dune....only to see....more sand. We sat at the top of the next dune, and decided that we had seen enough views for that day. There were no longer any visible trails leading towards the shore, so we ran down the dune faces, emptied our shoes/socks/pants of sand, and headed towards some wineries. 

The first "winery" we hit, wasn't an actual winery at all, but is called Cherry Republic Wineries. This part of northern Michigan is renowned for their cherries, and this place sells everything cherry related. Me, who once ate so many cherries as a kid I gave myself a nosebleed (antioxidant), was in heaven. First, we went to taste their cherry/grape wine blends. We usually never buy fruit wines, but this place was really good, and refined their use of cherries in their wine to make some very nice sipping wines that we will bring to Thanksgiving dinner. We made our way out of there with a few bottles of wine and a few bottles of their Boom Chugga Lugga cherry soda and cherry ginger ale. Then, we went into their store where they sold everything from cherry salsa, cherry bbq sauce, cherry peanut butter, chocolate cherries, cherry pancake batter, dried cherries...etc. Then we went to their cafe where Amy could try some of their homemade cherry ice cream, and I had some cherry Chili, which sounds gross, but was actually delicious. We then drove to our next winery and our next winery and our next winery. 

Pleasantly buzzed, we made our way to Suttons Bay to Black Star Farms, our home for the night. We pulled up to this beautiful house that laid on acres and acres of grape vines growing over rolling hills. We checked in, and hurriedly went to their tasting room before they closed. We tried this incredible cheese, one of the best i've ever had, that is made in their creamery on location. We bought a few bottles of wine to add to our collection, and retired to our room to get ready for dinner. The lady that I had booked the room from said that the chef at the farms had a famous fan in celebrity chef Mario Batali. True or not, we booked a reservation for dinner. We showered, dressed, made it down to the bar where they had complimentary hors d'oeuvres and wine and continued to slowly kill my liver. We arrived for dinner in an empty dining room. We were seated, and soon found out that we were the only people who had reservations for the night. Freshly cut flowers, candlelight, and a table by the window overlooking the vineyards made for a perfect dinner. We were able to speak candidly with the chef as we were the only ones in the dining room, and he did not disappoint. The meal was delicious. The scallops were perfectly cooked and seasoned, and the rack of lamb melted in your mouth. Next, we took a stroll around the grounds, taking in the beautiful, crisp fall weather. It was refreshing to look up and see a sky filled with stars and hear nothing but crickets chirping at night, without the ambient city sounds of car horns, ambulance sirens, and hotel doorman whistles. We retired to our room with another bottle of wine, to what was already an incredible start to our mini vacation. We awoke the next morning to breakfast in the dining room. The smell of fresh flowers that littered the dining room filled the air. We sat down, had some coffee, and were shortly given a beautifully arranged breakfast of eggs benedict on top of root vegetable pancakes. Breakfast was delicious! We walked through the vineyards one last time, packed our things, packed the car, and left the wonderful Black Star Farms. 


We continued to drive through Traverse City to Mackinac, eventually ending on Mackinac Island. The drive took a little over 2.5 hours and Amy slept most of the way. Soon enough we came upon the town of Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw). We drove to the harbor where we had already bought ferry tickets, valeted the car, and were efficiently escorted onto the boat. Soon enough, the cold air was running through our hair as we sped across Lake Huron towards Mackinac Island. It was the Victorians who made Mackinac Island one of the nation's most favored summer resorts. In the post-Civil War industrial age and before automobiles, vacationers traveled by large lake excursion boats from Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago and Detroit to the cooler climes of Mackinac Island. To accommodate overnight guests, boat and railroad companies built summer hotels, such as the Grand Hotel in the late 19th century. Mackinac Island is the truly "all natural" theme park of America. Limited to transportation of horse and buggy, bicycle or foot, surrounded by water, it has escaped the vast changes of time. As we approached the island, we saw the famous Grand Hotel lying high on the island. We docked on the island, and walked to our hotel where our bags were brought to our room from the ferry. Then, we went for a walk to explore our surroundings. We stopped for a quick lunch, and then took a horse driven tour of the island. It is very odd to walk around the streets with only bicycles and horses occupying the road, but the clip clop of the horses makes for a more peaceful trip. The tour guide was.....horrible and boring. But, she merely was the escort to the top of the hill where another tour would commence around the national parks of mackinac island. This tour guide was much more entertaining, and his dry, quick wit made him much more fun. We toured around the national park, we saw Fort Mackinac, Arch Rock, and back to the grand hotel. We went back to the main street and walked around the little shops spread throughout the town. We made our way to the west side of the island to catch the sunset on lake huron/michigan, and then walked back to town for dinner. Also, on a side note, there is more fudge shops per capita on this island than in the entire city of Boston. Every other shop sells, makes, cooks, fudge. 

I do not understand the affinity for fudge, or of that much fudge, but anyway, if you like fudge...come to Mackinac Island. The next morning we awoke, and headed straight to the grand hotel for breakfast. They charge a fee just to visit the grounds of the hotel, but we walked a round about way and found our way on the longest porch in the World!! We walked into the hotel lobby and into the dining room. We were escorted to our table by tuxedoed hosts and were seated in the main dining room. The breakfast was buffet style and it was........well......you could have gotten the same breakfast at a Shoney's. Scrambled eggs, corned beef hash, bacon, all your normal breakfast fare was mediocre at best. At $30 per person I figured there would be something special about this meal. I may not truly understand or appreciate the victorian style architecture of the hotel, however, in all honestly, we sat in a grand dining room that seemed decorated by a color blind decorator. Green and pink striped patterns were hideously splattered on the fabric of the chairs, the service was sub-par, and the food was mess hall esque. I feel that the popularity of this hotel lies only in its history; the grounds are beautiful, the flowers and gardens well kept, but it's overrated. To me, the actual novelty of staying at a hotel with poor food,service,decor only because it houses nice grounds, the longest porch in the world, and it being the only true "hotel" on the island for $400 a night is ridiculous. I'm glad we were able to see this sight, but i'm glad we didn't stay there, and I don't feel like we ever need to go back. We walked the grounds, saw the pool, and walked back to the main street. We checked out of the hotel and found our way back to the dock where the ferry awaited. We sat in line and waited and were immediately confronted by 2 elderly twins. They immediate identified themselves as the Madel twins and made the trip to Mackinac just to see Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs. Apparently, the TV show had been filming on Mackinac the last couple days and we had just missed him. The twins were huge fans and we sat there while they recounted their favorite episodes. I too, like the show, and find Mike Rowe very funny, but I wouldn't think that he would have groupies. Anyway, we took the ferry back to Mackinac city on the lower peninsula, and walked around the city for a little bit. Overall Mackinac Island was a beautiful place. Devoid of cars, it is quite the throwback to see horse drawn carts and carriages as the main transportation. Other than the charm of the city streets and horses, i'm happy that we only stayed one night on the island. It's a great place to see, but there is no need for us to revisit the island.

We then started the drive back towards Traverse City, turned onto the old mission peninsula and made our way north on the peninsula through grand traverse bay. We went first for the wineries. We visited 4-5 vineyards, some more interesting than the others. I think we came out of every winery with at least 1 bottle. We eventually made it back to Chauteau Grand Traverse Winery where we would be staying for the next couple nights. Upon entering we had a nice bottle of wine waiting for us. Our room was gorgeous, with a private balcony overlooking the vineyards and the water of Grand Traverse Bay. We went to a the Jolly Pumpkin microbrewery for dinner and had a surprisingly good pizza and nice beer. We went back to the Chauteau Grand Traverse and took a walk to view the sunset, then went back to our private balcony, enjoyed some of that great Black Star Farm Raqluette Cheese and some Pinot Noir and turned in early for our Salmon Fishing Trip!!!

The next AM we awoke early at 5AM and met our guide in Traverse City. We drove in the dark for 20 miles deeper into remote parts of michigan as Amy asks, "where did you find this guy?". We finally made it to our destination, we dropped off my car downstream where we would eventually end up, and rode with Jon, our guide, to the top of the Betsie River. We drove off road a bit and eventually made it to our take off point. The sun was just rising breaking the cold morning chill, and there was a calm fog that hovered over the water. We got into the boat and started our day. Our guide was really great, he was a young guy that we were able to joke around with, and he taught us well. Neither of us had fly fished before, and he was a great person to show us how. He expected the river to be packed, but we lucked out and had the whole river to ourselves. 
The entire trip was amazing, and Amy ended up catching 2 salmon, and I caught one. I hooked about 10, but these salmon just start running wild once their hooked. Jon said that we would only catch 1 out of every 10 we hooked, so I figured I was on par. The fight on these fish was incredible, and I had not fought anything like these fish. The entire day was relaxing and exciting all in one. We were incredibly lucky to hook and catch those fish, and to have such a great guide. Afterwards, we went back to the Chateau, showered, and went into Traverse city on front street to find dinner. We ate at another microbrewery restaurant called Northpeak that had an awesome cheese soup. Then we walked around downtown Traverse City and went back to the chauteau once again. The next AM we awoke a little late from our exciting day, had breakfast, checked out, did some wine tasting at 10AM, and then drove back to Chicago. 
This trip, by far, was probably one of my favorite trips. The relaxing ambience of staying at vineyards, the excitement of salmon fishing, and the thrill of exploring more parts of this incredible country made this trip truly successful. I hope you enjoyed the blog. I know we are not updating it as much at all. To update everyone on our current status, we will be leaving Chicago at the end of October, from there, we will return to Pennsylvania where Amy and I will take a month off and travel around South America. We have plans to visit Lima, Arequipa, Culco, Cuzco, Machu Picchu, Santiago Chile, Easter Island, Buenos Aires Argentina, and Calafate in Patagonia to explore the glaciers. All in all it will take us on a 23 day adventure, just in time to be back for Thanksgiving. Then? Hoping for Arizona or Hawaii. Until next time all!

2009 Chicago Air and Water Show!!

Mid August marked the begining of back to back to back visitors.  Mr. and Mrs. Ward came to visit on one of my favorite weekends! This weekend, Chicago hosted the 2009 Air and Water Show!! The Chicago Air and Water Show launched in 1959 with modest fanfare. It has since grown into the largest free air and water show in the nation, and it's considered one of the world's largest spectator shows. It draws more than 2.2 million people ever year! We walked down Oak Street to the lake. We had tickets to the Oak Street Bistro which has a fenced in area, a buffet, chairs in the shade, and air conditioned bathrooms. These amenities come in handy when 2.2 million people are vying for prime lake front viewing areas. Two years ago when Amy and I went to see the show, I had surprised her with these tickets, but unfortunately, the show had been cancelled due to inclement weather. This year, we took the Wards and it was great. Aerial acrobatics of both military and private planes including the C-130, F-15, F-16, A-10 Demo, B-1B, Apache Helicopter, Black Hawk Helicopter, KC-135, KC-10, C-17, and the U.S. Coast Guard Air and Sea Rescue, choreographed shows of the U.S. Thunderbirds, the U.S. Army Parachute Team Golden Knights, the U.S. Navy Parachute Team Leap Frogs, and of course the Blue Angels!! It was one of the few warm/hot days of this Chicago summer, so we moved our table into the shade, but still had great views of the planes and their amazing maneuvering capabilities. It was a great day, the food was good, drinks were cold, weather was beautiful, and we got to see a terrific show. All weekend you could hear the military jets practicing and buzzing the skyscrapers of the city. It was a great time, and I'm glad I got to see the show, after being so disappointed two years ago. We had a great time with Amy's parents. Other highlights of that weekend were seeing Jason Mraz in concert at the Pavilion at Northerly Island where he filmed his DVD. Mr. and Mrs. Ward went to see Jersey Boys while we were at the concert.  We also did the hop on hop off bus tour around the city with them where they got to go up in the Willis Tower and Mr. Ward tried chicken feet at Dim Sum in Chinatown for the first time ever.  That weekend, we also went to Art Smith's Restaurant called Table 52. He's a relatively famous chef, known as being Oprah Winfrey's personal chef for many years. He specializes in southern style comfort food and is renowned for his fried chicken. Yes, we went to a upscale restaurant in downtown Chicago and 3 of us ordered fried chicken, and it was awesome. He only serves that chicken on certain days, and it was very difficult to get reservations, but we are glad that we did. After a very filling meal, we went back home. Overall, I hope the Wards had a great trip. We had a great time showing them around one of our favorite cities.

IC Reunion 2009

For the past few years the second weekend in August has been reserved for the annual gathering of my Ithaca College PT friends. For the first few years after college we were getting
together a few times a year for weddings, but as the weddings became few and far between we made a vow to each other to schedule one weekend a year where we would all plan to get together. This year the DeSombres hosted our reunion in Seymour, CT.

I flew out of Midway on Thursday morning with Jen Yohnka and her two boys Sam and Miles. Neither Brandon or Jen's husband Bill would be accompanying us for the weekend, so I got to play the surrogate parent (or maybe playmate is more like it) to Sam and Miles. The boys did great on the plane, but as we sat waiting for a gate at LaGuardia we all got a bit antsy. To keep Sam from swinging his feet and kicking the seat in front of him, I took his stocking feet and started rubbing them. Well that did it. For the rest of the weekend every time we got in a vehicle Sam's feet would be in my lap and he'd request a massage.

By late afternoon about half the group was gathered at the DeSombres with the adults catching up and the kids playing in the yard. Jake was a trooper and easily shared his toys including the hot commodity of Bakugans. These Transformer like spheres that opened into robotic creatures when placed on metal or "gently" knocked into another object were new to me, but apparently a very popular toy.

As dinnertime approached we packed up and headed downtown to eat at Hot Tamales, a Mexican restaurant. Dinner was good, and we were all entertained by the Mariachi Band that serenaded us with "La Cucaracha" and "Guantanamera" as well as the kids' requests for "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "The Wheels on the Bus." Luckily Aaron was able to help out the band with the lyrics to the last song. It was fun for all, and the Premores were ready to fiesta!

The next morning we headed south to the beach on the Long Island Sound. Our crew was complete as Rachel, the Burns and the Whiteheads met up with us. We spent the day in the cool water jumping waves and giving boogie board rides. We made castles in the sand and watched two horseshoe crabs in what should have been a private moment for them in the surf. We had lunch at the picnic tables then the troops headed back to the water. They were quickly lured back towards the parking lot when the ice cream man pulled up ringing those recognizable bells. Everyone came running for popsicles and ice cream for a sweet end to the beach day. Pictures show Wyatt, Tom, Sam and Aaron in the water; Maddie with her blue popsicle face; Miles sporting Wyatt's sunglasses; and Jason and Joe manning the grill. We headed back to the house/hotel for naps followed by a cookout at Jason and Kristin's.

The next morning we headed out to The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk. The aquarium is one of the largest attractions in CT with over 500,000 visitors a year. Located along the Long Island Sound, the aquarium strives to preserve and protect the local waters and their inhabitants. They have a harbor seal pool with scheduled shows for feeding, sand tiger shark tank, loggerhead turtle exhibit and an intertidal touch tank where we could ask questions about the horseshoe crabs we saw the day before. We also got to see their penguins and my favorite the river otters. There were 25 of us with a 1:1 ratio of adults to kids with one extra adult. We had plenty of room to explore and I think everyone enjoyed the experience.

After everyone had their fill of the aquarium we headed across the street to The Brewhouse to fill our bellies. Feeling maritime-y, but not the least bit sympathetic for our new aquatic friends, I opted for the chowder and lobster roll. It didn't measure up to the Lobster Shack experience we had in Maine on a previous reunion, but that was a given. After lunch, the kids weren't the only ones ready for a nap.

The rest of the weekend we spent hanging out at the DeSombres. The kids played in the blow up pool with water slide and ran through the sprinklers. Cathy organized an obstacle course, Jen led Simon Says and Jason created some games of his own and followed up with the classic Duck, Duck, Goose! The troops were entertained.

Long gone are the days of staying up late and closing the bars. What we have now is a more meaningful kind of fun. Most of us have been friends for almost 15 years, and it has been great getting to really know everyone and their families, to watch the kids grow and see their personalities surface and develop, and to really appreciate the people we all have become. This year we got to meet Maddie, Addison, Miles, Benjamin and Joel. We missed seeing Kimmy, Brandon and Bill and the Darters who were preparing for the birth of their son Tommy which occurred August 19th. Our initial core group was less than a dozen, but our family has grown almost three times in size.

Next year we hope to find a house big enough for all of us (by my count that should be 33 if all can attend) so we don't have to be segregated and retire when the kiddos do. Maybe we'll need two houses, but as long as the adults still out number the kids I think we'll be fine. Hope to see everyone again before another year passes, but if not see you next August!