Anyway, Jack and I enjoyed a LOVELY long weekend away these past five days. We left Wednesday morning and after battling scary Chi traffic, ended up on the backroads of southwestern Michigan. While we had plans of visiting Maui for our 10 year anniversary, it just made more sense to return to our roots and spend time at a B&B in Michigan, on the coast. We did that for our honeymoon; being penniless and young. Everyone thought we were "so cute" back then, when we scraped together enough money to pay for a few expensive nights at a kitschy B&B on the coast of Lake Michigan.
Oddly enough, we were *still* the youngest in the B&B and everyone *still* thought we were on our honeymoon! When approached by a few fellow B&B mates, Jack laughed when asked how our honeymoon was going. He explained that we have been married ten years and this was just a quick getaway from our frantic lives in Chicagoland. But, apparently, we still give off that honeymooner vibe, which I think is so very neat.
***These are the food-related stories from our trip!***
So we ambled up the coast highway to New Buffalo and realizing we were too early to check into our B&B, the Inn at Union Pier, we hit the nearest wine trail. Forgetting the close proximity of all the SW Michigan wineries, we made an afternoon out of wine tasting and eating. This was the view inside Round Barn Winery:
After tasting and purchasing our requisite bottle of wine, we headed for more familiar grounds, Tabor Hill:
Tabor Hill is my mother ship. It was the first kind of wine I ever loved and it ushered me into a whole world of demi-sec, Riesling, and chardonnay. Again, ironically, Jack and I visited Tabor Hill for our fourth anniversary. So we *had* to stay for some vino:
The glass on the left is Valvin Muscat and the glass on the right is Red Arrow Red. Both were excellent and served as wonderful precursors to the all-important dinner entrees:
Gourmet chocolates and tirimisu!
Taking home another few bottles of souvenir wine, we departed for our B&B. It was very cute, welcoming, warm, and inviting. But we decided to fight the fog and dreary day and head out to New Buffalo harbor. I grew up climbing the half mile of massive boulders marking the boat channel. This was even more fun as adults, having spent the afternoon sipping wine! But we made it to the end and no one pitched head-first into the churning waters below:
That night, we grabbed a quick burger at the New Buffalo hotspot, Redamaks. We retired to our B&B and dreamt of the gourmet breakfast that was to soon follow. That was the highlight of our B&B...the gourmet breakfasts every morning. We woke up to a fruit parfait and lemon and cream cheese-stuffed pancakes. The second day was an egg quiche with feta and sun dried tomatoes. It was just crazy- how do you even burn off that many calories from breakfast? Nonetheless, we took one for the team and polished off our wonderful eats.
For dinner on Night #2, we ate at Bentwood Tavern. We considered going to the steakhouse inside Four Winds Casino, but who wants to pay $85 for a steak?! Anyway, we split a seafood extravaganza and a single-person pizza topped with fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, and basil. Who *wouldn't* want pizza for their 10-year anniversary!? We kept it real!
Then on Friday night, we tried out the new GreenBush Brewery and neighboring Fitzgerald's. The brewery was good, but not as good as Bell's or Three Floyds.
As one last tribute to great food on the beach, Jack and I decided to forego the fancy dinners and pricey tabs on our last night. We instead opted to sit on the beach all the way through sunset. We quickly ordered a pizza from a nearby pizzeria and noshed during sunset, eliciting jealous stares from other beach goers ogling our oozing cheese and sausage pie. It was great- we were *those* people who sat on the beach all day and made it through until sunset. It's an accomplishment, after all.
I have a few more stories from our getaway, but Jack is back with our Sunday sushi and I will add another post soon.
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