Two of my favorite things - Travel and Wine

This was originally written in August of 2008, right after the hub and I had gone to Traverse City for our one year anniversary. I’ve edited some things.

The hub and I went up to the Leelanau Peninsula for our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY! It was a good time. We drove up Saturday morning and enjoyed the BEAUITFUL weather of the day. Not too hot, not too cold. Perfect northern Michigan day. We stopped at 4 different wineries and did wine tasting. My favorite was Shadylanes, where we started. They had a really good chardonnay that I liked, and we bought a bottle. We also got some kind of a Riesling because when you bought a bottle of chardonnay you could get that one for 4 bucks. :) (Yes, we may like our wine, but we are also cheap.) They also had a really good smoked salmon cheese spread we got with our wine. Yum.

At Shady Lane's

We also went to Chateau Leelanau, which was all right. We got a bottle of wine there as well but I can't seem to remember the name/kind. Our other stops were at Good Arbor and at the Cherry Republic winery. Ahh Cherry Republic was my second fave. All different kinds of cherry flavored wine! We bought a bottle called cherry red which was like 80 percent merlot and 20 percent cherry. It was soooo good and reminded me of a bottle of wine we had in Jamaica.

For lunch we stopped in Leland at Fishtown and had some yummy fish. Then we walked around for awhile and enjoyed the big boats and stuff. We had a hotel in Arcadia on Lake Michigan and our big plan was to watch the sunset on the lake. Well, we got down there at like 7:15 with our wine to drink, chairs and cameras and Mother Nature had a different plan. It started pouring on us a half hour before sunset! So that sucked, but we just ran back to our room and headed to the bar next door called The Big Apple to eat dinner. They had super yummy pizza. Then we hurred back to watch Phelps win Gold.

on the beach with our wine

after we got caught in the rain

Sunday we started the drive home taking scenic paths. We stopped in Bear Lake hoping to eat at a cafe there but it was closed but they had a beautiful lake to gaze at. We also stumbled upon a pretty cool campground we might want to check out sometime. We ate lunch in Mesick at Jeri's Family Restaurant, which was the PERFECT diner for hub so all was good with him. I think I forgot to mention I had us off roadin’ on a dirt road thru a HUGE hilly area and the hub was sure we were going to get stuck or he was never going to eat again. After that we continued on our way home with a quick stop at A&W for some root beer floats. All in all, a great northern Michigan weekend. :)

as we were driving our random travels home

In other trips to the Traverse City area, I have visited Left Foot Charley’s, Chateau Chantal, Chateau Grand Traverse, L. Mawby and other wineries whose names are escaping me at the moment. L.Mawby has a really cool atmosphere inside, with an excellent cheese spread and crackers and some awesome sparkling wine. Their wine has fun names like; Sex, Us, and Wet to name a few. J Left Foot Charley’s 2007 Red Drive is my favorite and is located in the old State Mental Hospital.

a view in early April from a top a hill on the Grand Traverse Peninsula outside a winery

Basically, Traverse City and wine go hand in hand. Traverse City alone, is a beautiful area to visit with lots of activities and if you do not check out a winery when you are there you are missing out!