Mini Vacation
Hey all. Yesterday, Tom and I got back from a four-day weekend up in Northern Michigan to see his parents (me, for the first time) and go to a wedding. It was GORGEOUS there.
This is Torch Lake. Tom tells me this is the place Kid Rock was talking about in "All Summer Long." The water is like, five different shades of blue.
The drive up there was nearly nearly 11 hours, but once you got in to Michigan, the leaves were starting to change color and the scenery made being in the car for that long much more bearable.
Michigan: "We've Got a Crap Load of Trees"
This picture was more accidental than anything, but I thought it turned out really cool:
And lines and lines of these:
Another pic at Torch Lake:
"I don't wanna wait..."
Just outside of Tom's parents' house, there's a bar that just installed this for some reason...
It has wheels!
Tom's parents were great. Very hospitable. His Dad is an awesome cook. He made us crepes the first morning which I don't think I've ever had and they were DELICIOUS. Their house sits out in the woods with trees so close to the windows, you could practically reach out and touch one. In the afternoon, we were playing UpWords by the window in the living room and a couple fawns walked in to the backyard and stared at us.
Friday night, we went to a small local bar where they were doing karaoke. While everyone there was singing slow country standards, Tom broke out a little Blood Hound Gang. You may not be able to see this video unless you are friends with me on Facebook...
Then we proceeded to dominate the karaoke stage with other out-of-the norm songs all night. People there thought we were crazy, but it was SO much fun. In a town where everyone knows each other, Tom's parents wondered if they'd ever be able to show their face at that bar again. But apparently good things were said to them about us the next day.
Saturday, it was off to Traverse City for a wedding. One of Tom's friends. We stopped by the water there too.
At the wedding, everyone got a Yooper Bar. This is apparently a thing.
People from the upper peninsula of Michigan are called, "Yoopers." The chocolate bar is in the shape of the peninsula and not, as I thought initially, a piece of poop.
The wedding was originally planned to be outdoors but it had gotten very cold and a little rainy that day and it was moved inside. It was pretty though. The bride had lavender in her dress and the bridesmaid dresses were the same color. These were on every table and I thought it was so pretty, it's now the background on my phone:
The bar was open for wine or beer. Tom was one of the first to belly up and he asked me if I wanted anything. I asked him to get me a beer on tap, so he brought me back a small plastic glass with a very light colored liquid in it. I said, "Is this wine? This looks an awful lot like wine." He said no. I drank it and said, "This beer really tastes like wine. Are you sure this isn't wine?" Nope, that's beer, he said. After I had almost finished the glass, he said, "How did you like your wine?" "What? You said that was beer." Apparently there was some confusion because every time I said this beer tastes like wine, he thought I was talking about HIS beer he let me try. Which must have been very confusing for him because his beer tasted like beer and nothing like wine at all. This mix up wouldn't have really been a problem except that I know certain kinds of wine make me very sick to my stomach. This just happened to be one of them. I spent the next couple of hours going back and forth to the bathroom, doubled over in pain. Tom felt really bad about poisoning me. So bad, I hate to even bring it up again. But this story has a happy ending. I downed Sprite for the rest of the evening and I was eventually able to stave off the pain. I didn't drink any more of anything that night which was okay, since I already agreed to be the designated driver. Leaving the wedding was challenging even still. It was dark and there was nothing but country roads and TREES. If I had relied on Tom's inebriated sense of direction rather than Google Maps on my iPhone, we would have been driving around for hours until someone with a chainsaw came along and ended it all.
The drive home was much shorter than we anticipated from Traverse City. We got in about 6:00 PM on Sunday evening and I took Monday off from work to get the laundry done. Tom started a new job Monday morning doing some campaign work until the elections. He seems to be enjoying it so far, so we're happy.
Overall it was a great trip. I think we're planning on going back for Thanksgiving and I would love to go in the summer next year to jump in the water.
This is Torch Lake. Tom tells me this is the place Kid Rock was talking about in "All Summer Long." The water is like, five different shades of blue.
The drive up there was nearly nearly 11 hours, but once you got in to Michigan, the leaves were starting to change color and the scenery made being in the car for that long much more bearable.
Michigan: "We've Got a Crap Load of Trees"
This picture was more accidental than anything, but I thought it turned out really cool:
And lines and lines of these:
Another pic at Torch Lake:
"I don't wanna wait..."
Just outside of Tom's parents' house, there's a bar that just installed this for some reason...
It has wheels!
Tom's parents were great. Very hospitable. His Dad is an awesome cook. He made us crepes the first morning which I don't think I've ever had and they were DELICIOUS. Their house sits out in the woods with trees so close to the windows, you could practically reach out and touch one. In the afternoon, we were playing UpWords by the window in the living room and a couple fawns walked in to the backyard and stared at us.
Friday night, we went to a small local bar where they were doing karaoke. While everyone there was singing slow country standards, Tom broke out a little Blood Hound Gang. You may not be able to see this video unless you are friends with me on Facebook...
Then we proceeded to dominate the karaoke stage with other out-of-the norm songs all night. People there thought we were crazy, but it was SO much fun. In a town where everyone knows each other, Tom's parents wondered if they'd ever be able to show their face at that bar again. But apparently good things were said to them about us the next day.
Saturday, it was off to Traverse City for a wedding. One of Tom's friends. We stopped by the water there too.
At the wedding, everyone got a Yooper Bar. This is apparently a thing.
People from the upper peninsula of Michigan are called, "Yoopers." The chocolate bar is in the shape of the peninsula and not, as I thought initially, a piece of poop.
The wedding was originally planned to be outdoors but it had gotten very cold and a little rainy that day and it was moved inside. It was pretty though. The bride had lavender in her dress and the bridesmaid dresses were the same color. These were on every table and I thought it was so pretty, it's now the background on my phone:
The bar was open for wine or beer. Tom was one of the first to belly up and he asked me if I wanted anything. I asked him to get me a beer on tap, so he brought me back a small plastic glass with a very light colored liquid in it. I said, "Is this wine? This looks an awful lot like wine." He said no. I drank it and said, "This beer really tastes like wine. Are you sure this isn't wine?" Nope, that's beer, he said. After I had almost finished the glass, he said, "How did you like your wine?" "What? You said that was beer." Apparently there was some confusion because every time I said this beer tastes like wine, he thought I was talking about HIS beer he let me try. Which must have been very confusing for him because his beer tasted like beer and nothing like wine at all. This mix up wouldn't have really been a problem except that I know certain kinds of wine make me very sick to my stomach. This just happened to be one of them. I spent the next couple of hours going back and forth to the bathroom, doubled over in pain. Tom felt really bad about poisoning me. So bad, I hate to even bring it up again. But this story has a happy ending. I downed Sprite for the rest of the evening and I was eventually able to stave off the pain. I didn't drink any more of anything that night which was okay, since I already agreed to be the designated driver. Leaving the wedding was challenging even still. It was dark and there was nothing but country roads and TREES. If I had relied on Tom's inebriated sense of direction rather than Google Maps on my iPhone, we would have been driving around for hours until someone with a chainsaw came along and ended it all.
The drive home was much shorter than we anticipated from Traverse City. We got in about 6:00 PM on Sunday evening and I took Monday off from work to get the laundry done. Tom started a new job Monday morning doing some campaign work until the elections. He seems to be enjoying it so far, so we're happy.
Overall it was a great trip. I think we're planning on going back for Thanksgiving and I would love to go in the summer next year to jump in the water.