Lions Game

Last night we went to the Lions pre-season game...and believe it or not, they actual beat the Patriots. Go Lions! Can I just say, it's pretty fun watching the games when they actually win!

We have casino club cards (or whatever you call them) because we stayed at the Greektown Casino Hotel when our basement was being worked on two years ago, so we get to park for free in their parking structure. It's nice saving $20 whenever we go downtown for an event. I told Gil yesterday that the free parking might be the only silver lining to that whole basement fiasco!

We were planning to eat at Pegasus in Greektown but ended up running kind of late and the wait was too long. We ended up eating at Bistro 555 in the Greektown Hotel. It was pretty good and ended up being cheaper than we expected, too.

Today we're hanging around the house getting things done (aside from me writing this post!). Gil's mowing the lawn and I'm about to go vacuum and steam the floors, do a couple loads of laundry and plan meals for the week. Better get going!

Small Progress...

I worked in my room for a few hours yesterday & while the room doesn't look very finished, I got tons organized. I basically took everything out of my closet and organized supplies into labeled tubs so I could actually see what I have in there. I only got paper up on a couple of walls and I haven't even bought border yet, so I still have tons to do! But at least the student tables are cleared off!

Pardon the bad iPhone pics!!

My classroom looks like this...

I went in to school yesterday to work on my classroom. It's funny how "working in my classroom" usually equates to creating a disaster area for me. People kept coming in my room yesterday with raised eyebrows which secretly said "Wow, your room looks terrible & you probably won't get it done in time. Glad this isn't my problem!!" But in the end I don't stress out too much because I know this is how I work. I like to reorganize pretty much everything and rearrange my room. Last year I really didn't have much set up time and I had moved to a new room, so this year I really needed to get things organized!

One change I'm pretty excited about this year is that I'm getting rid of my teacher desk! The thing was a huge clunker that took up a huge chunk of the room. Instead, I'm going to use my reading table and the counter & shelves behind it to organize my desk supplies. I think my room will look so much bigger without the desk.

But here's how I left my room last night:

Here's my former big ol' desk. It used to be in that corner. Now it's waiting to be removed from my room...yay! My student computers are now set up along the wall, under the blue bulletin board. If you notice, all my alphabet charts were still up in the room because my class had summer school. Luckily, I had some help taking everything off the walls yesterday!

Organized chaos? Nope, just chaos for now.

My room has to be ready for parents by tomorrow. Hahaha. No really. I foresee a long day of work ahead of me...Wish me luck!

Charlevoix & Mackinac Island

On our way from Traverse City to Mackinac Island, we made a stop in Charlevoix. I had never been there before and it was quite gorgeous! We totally randomly ran into one of my friends and her family while we were walking around (Hi, Jill!).

On the way over to Mackinac!

Houses up on the hill

I liked the color of the library...right on the water. Pretty!

Mission Point Resort where we stayed

View from Arch Rock

Arch Rock

Pretending to climb at Sugar Loaf

At Fort Holmes, the highest point of the island

View from Fort Holmes

Mackinac Bridge

Rock Cairns along the island perimeter

Cairns out in the water

Mackinac Island was really fun. We stayed for two nights & it was the perfect amount of time. I'm not big on the shops and Main Street was always sooo congested with people so we didn't spend tons of time there because it's overwhelming during the day! My favorite part was biking around and throughout the island. There are some gorgeous houses along the perimeter...probably pretty pricey too!

In summary, Michigan is beautiful & the best state!

Day 2: Leelanau Peninsula Wineries

This year we decided to do the vineyards along the Leelanau Peninsula since we did Old Mission Peninsula last year. I'm the type of person who finds something good at a restaurant and then proceeds to order the same thing for life.

So I was tempted to do Old Mission Peninsula again this year just because we had so much fun last year. But I'm glad I decided to get ca-razy and try something new. Leelanau Peninsula is just as beautiful! We used this wine trail map to guide us. We picked wineries to visit kinda randomly and found one or two along the way that weren't on the map.

Our first stop was Shady Lanes Cellars, which had a quaint little tasting room. I think we left with a bottle of Coop de Rouge.

The pictures are not really in order. But that's okay, you can't tell anyways.

This was Willow Vineyard, if I remember correctly. I think this was my favorite view of the day. Vineyards, with views of the bay. Can't be beat.

Everywhere we went, Gil declared that he was going to take a panorama. Cracked me up.

Figuring out where to go next.

Leelanau Cellars has amazing views of Grand Traverse bay. This was a fun winery to stop by because the tastings are free (plus!) and they kept recommending delicious things to try. They have a lot of delicious dessert and fruity type wines. We got a bottle of the white sangria and the raspberry dessert wine. I think we might have also gotten the pomegranate wine. Yum.

We had lunch in Suttons Bay at the 45th Parallel Cafe. Food was alright, but it was really nice to sit outside and enjoy the day. We were expecting stormy weather all day, but it ended up being quite nice outside!

45 North was a fun winery to visit. The tasting room had a nice, relaxed vibe. A little kid was selling fresh raspberries outside and they had a bocce ball court. Fun!

I believe this was the tasting room at Circa Estate Winery. This one wasn't on the map, but we saw a sign as we were turning out of 45 North and decided to stop. This tasting room was a bit more fancy shmancy than some of the others. There was only one other couple and we felt like we had to be quiet. Good wine though. We got a bottle of Improvisation here.

We stopped some other places too, but I got bored of taking pictures. Good Neighbor Organics had lots of yummy fruity wines. We got a bottle of peach and a bottle of cherry pie here. We sat and chatted with the owner and a newlywed couple from Nebraska.

We also stopped by L. Mawby winery. This place was hopping and busy and to be honest, a bit overwhelming after all the wine samples I'd had that day! But it was pretty funny because one of our old teachers from our high school served us our wine samples. I had him for geometry and then Gil and I both had his wife for french class. They both retired last year and moved to Traverse City, work at the winery part-time, and then live in Florida for the winter. Sounds good to me! We bought a bottle of the Detroit Sparkling Wine. I don't even know if we taste-tested this, but we thought we'd represent.

We ended the day by heading over to Leland, like we did last year. It was evening and we were hungry so we headed to the Village Cheese Shanty. The pretzel bread left an impression last year!

We decided to head to the beach to eat.

So delish and such a great view...I love the lake!!

I could've sat their all evening. Of course I was assuming Gil was thinking the same thing. We should've brought towels down to sit on because two seconds after we were done eating, Gil declared that he didn't like sitting in the sand. But I got enough beach goodness to satiate me for the evening.

Day 1: Sleeping Bear Dunes

Last year we stayed at Grand Beach Resort during our Traverse City trip. It was okay. One of the perks is that it's right on the water with a nice little beach. The room was so-so and we didn't get a waterview because we booked too late. So this year we decided to save a little money in TC since we were staying on Mackinac Island (which is a little pricey) and stayed at the Hampton Inn instead. Downside, it is not on the water but it is directly across from the public beach. The room was nicer than at Grand Beach, although pretty small.

Our first day we headed over to Sleeping Bear Dunes. We spent the day hiking around. Last year we did the Alligator Trail and this year we did the Bay View hiking trail. We had lunch in Glen Arbor and then headed over to the dune climb and the scenic drive.

We got out to do a dune hiking trail during the scenic drive, which was pretty strenuous. When we got done, we were pretty sure we had gone two or three miles but it turned out to be only 1.5. Our legs were burning from walking in the sand and from going up hills.

That night, we headed to Jolly Pumpkin on Old Mission Peninsula for dinner. I really like that place! I had an awesome dish of summer squash "linguine" with charred tomatoes and fresh mozzarella and a side of asparagus. It was delish!

Back From a Great Vacation!

We had tons of fun in Northern Michigan this past week going to the wineries, hiking, biking, and we also made a trip out to Mackinac Island.

More pictures to come later...but can I just say, Northern Michigan is so so beautiful!