In Traverse City on Lake Michigan
My mom nicknamed Charlie "Mr. Popularity" because we were stopped constantly because everyone wanted to meet him :)
Best buds
We walked around Traverse City enjoying the beautiful weather and visiting Cherry Republic, a store that specializes in cherry products like cherry wine, cherry butter, cherry salsa, etc. because northern Michigan is known for producing cherries - they have a Cherry Festival (like a state fair with food and rides) at the fourth of July and for New Years they have a "cherry drop" like the ball drop in NYC. After a bit of shopping we went to a Trattoria Stella, a restaurant that had been recommended to me by my junior league friends, and we LOVED it!! They don't have a very large menu but its all local ingredients and the menu changes based on what's freshly available, and not unreasonably priced either. Such a memorable experience!
some of the delicious food
mozzarella, tomato, prosciutto
asparagus over toast with a poached egg and hollandaise sauce
After dinner we drove about 40 minutes northwest to Leland, a small little town on the Leelenau Peninsula, right on Lake Michigan. We fell in love with it after Reed & Meredith took us there the last fourth of July and convinced mom that she had to experience it too. We stayed in the Falling Waters Lodge and our room was tucked away literally right next to the river that runs through town so we enjoyed the sound of rushing waters day and night :) We spent Saturday morning walking around Leland, getting coffee at the local coffee shop, window shopping and then later getting lunch down in Fishtown right on the water.
We saw this sign and decided to check it out - interesting experience, haha. Basically lots of elderly church members and an even more elderly man playing the keyboard - very cute though!
Beautiful roses
Downtown Leland
Good sport while mom and I shopped :)
Shops in Leland
After lunch we had a day of wine tasting - it's not a well known fact outside of Michigan that there are tons of amazing winerys in northern Michigan. It was so much fun! We probably went to about 5 or 6 and the deal most of them had was that if you bought your tasting glass, always less than $5, you got about 6 tastings and sometimes chocolate or crackers. I would love to go back next summer!
This was at L. Mawby - they make only sparkling wines (just like champagne) and this was probably my favorite because I loved the wine and we got 3 glasses of wine with crackers and a specialty cheese spread for $8!
This was at the last winetasting we went to
When we got back to Leland we walked down to the beach to show mom how beautiful the Great Lakes are:
John carrying Charlie to keep him dry!
We spent the afternoon in Leland enjoying the beautiful weather and swaying in the locally made chairs - a great way to enjoy Leland :)
We enjoyed dinner on the outside patio of the Bluebird Cafe, right on the river, and then headed over to set up our chairs for the fireworks. We brought one of the bottle of wines we'd bought during our tasting and sipped some wine all night :)
Back in bed at the Falling Waters
Sunday was the Fourth of July Parade in Leland and it was another gorgeous day - this is the River with the Falling Waters Lodge on the left:
Set up and ready for the parade
Big crowd for the parade
Lots of old-timey cars and fire trucks
After the parade we drove about 2 hours to Cadillac, MI to visit Pat & Nancy and check our their new lake house - we had some sleepy passengers on the way.
Lake house
On Tuesday we had to go back to work but mom and I got lunch and then that evening we went to downtown Royal Oak for dinner at Tom's Oyster Bar and it was delish.
After dinner we drove downtown to Coach Insignia for dessert and drinks and mom really enjoyed it.
I had the BEST time with my mom and miss her tons already!
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