Thursday, July 25, 2013

Vacation!

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This year, for the first time since December 2006 (I think), Dwight and I took an honest-to-goodness vacation. Hooray for us! We decided to stay within driving distance, and fortunately for us, about 5 hours due north is one of the prettiest places I've been. Beautiful views of the always amazing Lake Michigan, more wineries than you would ever imagine were in one spot and the cutest little towns with nary a big-box store, national chain or fast food place in sight. Bliss.

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We stayed in Suttons Bay, Michigan, on the Leelanau peninsula. I found so many fantastic vacation rentals searching thorugh VRBO.com and other rental sites. I "narrowed" the list down to about 10 and had Dwight help me get serious about getting our short list to contact. We settled on White Fence, a husband and wife owned property right on the bay. They have two units available and we were able to the the stand-alone unit, the Carriage House Suite. LOVED IT. Beautifully decorated, everything you need including fantastic bath products, a kitchenette with goodies waiting for us, along with an outdoor grill and full-size fridge. The bed was insanely comfortable and the down comforter was a real treat. Even though it was late June, the evenings (and some of the days) were a bit nippy.

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We loved sitting down by the water even when it was chilly. There were a few times, though, that the wind coming off the water was a little TOO brisk and we headed back to our cozy cottage.

One night was calm enough that we got to make a fire in the pit. I think that was my favorite evening!
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It was the day before the super moon and we had a pretty clear look, if a bit small.
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When we weren't relaxing in the cottage or at the deck, we were driving all over the peninsula, tasting and buying wine. Lots and lots of wine. It was awesome.

Dwight was quite the sport and let me take his picture in front of tasting room after tasting room.

And he managed to get one of me. Yes, I'm a dork.


One day, we went all the way to the tip of the peninsula to the Grand Traverse lighthouse. The original building is still there, but I think that ugly tower thingie is now the actual lighthouse.
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The water has gone down so much over the years that the shore has receded and grass has taken over.
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While we were there, Dwight and I snapped a pic with his iPod, one of the few of both of us.



I got a few more on the trip.
p.s. It's kind of tricky taking a selfie with a DSLR!
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Unless! You have a mirror. Thank you, Ciccone Vineyard & Winery!
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Most of the time, I'm behind the camera (as shown below), so it's fun to have at least a few of the two of us, however dorky.


There was lots of this:
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Followed by a lot of empty these:
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Which translated into a lot of these:
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p.s. this was not all that we ended up buying. This was just one day's worth. Yeah, I know.

Between the wine, 
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the views, 
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beautiful sunrises,
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and sunsets...
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We had a wonderful time.
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How could you not, with that view. AmIright?



4 comments:

  1. You were in one of my favorite places!! I have been to each of those wineries and we always come back with more than three cases :) So glad you got away and what a beautiful place you had for your escape.

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  2. How lucky are we that we live so close to such a beautiful area?! Can't wait to go back. I think if my car were larger, we would have bankrupted ourselves buying wine. As it was, I think our final tally was 5 cases. :)

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  3. your photographs are beautiful!!!!

    ReplyDelete

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