up north

another great weekend! we started off thursday night by driving north after work and stopping in a town called marinette. we stayed in the green room at the lauerman house there which is the best-decorated b&b i’ve ever found. our room had funky, square-ish chairs and throw pillows that were very west elm-like. we also had a window seat, a tiny little desk area, and a bathroom with a giant, clawfoot tub as well as a walk-in shower. i happily took a bath and remembered why i like really good tubs–they fit! you don’t have to scrunch up or have cold knees or bonk your head or have your neck at a weird angle. it was quite lovely. plus, the faucets were super funky and ancient. the water came out of a flat, disk thing about a third of the way from the bottom of the tub, so pretty soon after i’d begun running the water, the ” faucet” was completely submerged. here’s a picture:

for breakfast, we seemed to have the place to ourselves. the proprietor brought us plates of pancakes with strawberries (it was weird not to have a menu, but i kind of liked not having to make any decisions in the morning. plus, i like pancakes with strawberries.) we found out later that they’d recently lost their chef and were having to get by without one in the meantime. after breakfast, we packed up and left (after i got a mini-tour of a few other rooms from the proprietor–on my bold request. they were really cool!) and headed north. we decided that since we had all day before our hosts at our next destination would arrive that we’d take the long way through the upper peninsula. we’ve never really done that kind of trip, and i wasn’t sure if we’d be any good at that sort of meandering, but it turns out that, when we have plenty of time, we can meander with the best of them! we parked near and walked to see three different waterfalls, ate pasties (“voted #1 in the u.p.!”), and dipped our toes into lake superior (brrr…). then, we hopped back into the car and drove for awhile until we got to the mackinac bridge. we crossed that, then checked in with our hosts to get their arrival status. discovering that we still had plenty of time until they would arrive, we happily drove to petosky–which is a cute little town that was having their annual sidewalk sale that weekend. there are some reallllly nice houses near petosky! we drove past them on our way to downtown to find some dinner. wow. very cute. we wandered all over town, to see what our dinner options were, then decided on a sub and pizza shop where mr. happy stuff got a grinder and i got a gyro–both quite delicious. when we were done eating, we thought we’d explore downtown a bit more and discovered (to our dismay) that apparently 8:00 is quittin’ time for most of the downtown establishments (including restaurants!) and the end of the day for the sidewalk days entertainment. we were baffled. it was a beautiful evening, still completely light out and everyone was heading home. luckily, the ice cream and fudge shop was still open, so we shared a fantastic waffle cone at a picnic table in the park (mmmmm….. toasted coconut ice cream with chocolate fudge chunks and almonds…) then, we headed over to our final destination for the day.

after getting lost and calling for additional directions (“um…. we’re on a dirt road–is that right?”) we finally found the right place and i got to meet her youngest kid (last time i saw him was three weeks before he was born, now he’s almost a year old) and tour the cabin i’d heard so many stories about. it’s more of a vacation home than a cabin, but it is in the woods and there is a stuffed pheasant on the wall and it is decorated with plaid and grizzly bears, so…. i suppose you could call it a cabin. we slept in the basement in a very nice room, with a bathroom all to ourselves. very cozy.

the next day, the whole group decided to explore mackinac island. all day long, i found myself comparing it to washington island and basically… it’s a lot more touristy. it is cool that no motorized vehicles are allowed on the island, and it’s true that there’s a lot more to “do” at mackinac, but… you know that feeling when you’re visiting some place new and you look around and get the distinct feeling that everyone who’s not working there is a tourist? and that all of the shops are just full of junky stuff that no one really needs (or really wants by the time they get home)? yeah. i will say that i had two *happy* moments while visiting mackinac (the kind where i thought, “ooh, i should blog about this!”). the first was in the butterfly house. one of the places on the island where you can drop a few dollars is a place called the butterfly house. it’s a greenhouse, full of the plants that butterflies love and they’ve imported a bunch of different kinds of butterflies from all over the world that flit around inside the greenhouse, so thickly that you have to check yourself in a mirror on your way out to make sure you’re not carrying any butterflies with you. here’s my favorite photos:

the second happy moment was on a bike ride around the perimeter of the island. we stopped at one of the rocky pebble beaches and walked out into lake huron (second great lake wading of the weekend!). the water felt incredible and i sorely wished that i was wearing a swimsuit so that i could just swim around for awhile, enjoying the water and the smooth feel of the stones beneath my feet. the water was smooth and almost silky feeling. the rocks were hard to keep your balance on, but there were no jagged edges and no sand stuck between your toes. i picked a few stones to take with me. sadly, i didn’t have my camera with me at that point, so no pictures.

we also indulged in a large purchase of obligatory fudge. yum. then, completely exhausted, we headed back home on the ferry. we watched the sun set over the water, with the mackinac bridge between us and the horizon–beautiful.

the next day, mr. happy stuff and i decided we’d like to do as little driving as possible, so we all just lazed around the house all day long. we began with a yummy breakfast of biscuits and sausage gravy and then… i think i went and read a book? i dunno. the day is all sort of one big lazy haze for me. i do know that i got some good pictures of the baby:

(and yes, that is a giant rock that he’s eating. don’t worry, his momma washed it first.)
then, i decided to go for a run before dinner. i looked at a map of the area before i left and had a route picked out, but when i followed it, i found a dead end. so i sort of made something up and eventually stopped to ask a woman who was doing some yard work for directions…. and turning around to head back the way i’d come. mostly uphill. oh well. it was a longer run than i’d meant to take, but it felt good after so many days of not much more exercise than walking around at a leisurely pace. when i got back, i took a quick shower and we all headed out to a local brewpub for dinner. on the way, we stopped at an elk preserve and there were some elk standing right next to the fence. we got out to look more closely at them. the buck was huge! his antlers (fuzzy!) were at least as long as my arm. i can’t imagine balancing that kind of weight on my head all the time. once again, no camera.

dinner was pretty good, but the dessert i ordered was… distinctive. the waitress had recommended the peanut butter brownie and it sounded pretty good to me, so i ordered one. we waited and waited and waited and finally it arrived and holy goodness. it was e-nor-mous. there were two, triangular, two-layer pieces, arranged with one balanced on the other (in a “tumbled” looking fashion). between the layers of brownie were rich layers of peanut butter and cream cheese frosting. drizzled on top was some chocolate sauce and the whole thing was accompanied by a tiny scoop of vanilla ice cream. everyone at the table pitched in to help me eat it and we still had half of one of the slices leftover! my favorite part was when the waitress (who looked like she might have been 19 or maybe 20) told us that “back in the day” she used to take one of those home with her at the end of the day and eat the whole thing. back in the day.

that night, we packed up and the next morning, headed back home. what a great weekend with friends! we took the more direct hwy 2 on the way home and i wish i’d thought to start photographing the kitsch we passed. the friend we’d been visiting said that someday she wants to take a kitsch trip–stop at all of the most corny roadside attractions and restaurants. hwy 2 would be a fantastic place to start. even on hwy 75 on the way up north through michigan, we passed the “world’s largest oyster” and the “mystery spot” but, sadly, we didn’t choose to look more closely at these wonders of the world. i’ll save that for the kitsch tour someday. we did decide to stop at one more beach on the way home and walk out to a lighthouse.

then we dipped our toes in our third great lake of the weekend (lake michigan), and i picked up a few tiny pieces of driftwood (so smooth….) and we headed back home.

we did stop in one more small town on the way home where we searched for some good local food and discovered a sub shop where we ordered two sandwiches that ended up being so large that we both only ate about half and had the other half for dinner later that night. the shop was run by a husband and wife team and the walls of the (table-less) shop were decorated with photos of them in chef’s toques holding a giant party sub, a caricature drawing of the two of them, and a glamour shot of them (engagement photo perhaps?). i marked it on our atlas for future reference. next time, i’ll try the steak subs–those looked really good.

whew. what a weekend.