Up North Weekend

Friday afternoon the Mr. and I headed up to our favorite northern Michigan town, Frankfort.  We’ve only ever spent just a couple of hours here, but this time we were spending the night.  We got there around 2:30 and were able to check in to our hotel right then, which was great, because we got one of the last parking spots in the lot, and did not have to worry about street parking!  We stayed at The Hotel Frankfort, which was conveniently located 3 blocks from the public beach and right next door to one of our favorite breweries, Stormcloud!

We took our stuff up to the room and then went to the hotel bar for a late lunch.  We shared their GLT, which is a take on the classic BLT.  It had guacamole, lettuce, tomato and we apparently got the bacon added on, which is an additional charge, but was still good.  My husband got to partake in the Ludington BayBrewing Company tasting they had going on and enjoyed the four he tried.  His favorite was the Tangelo Dream.  I had a sip, and agree it was delicious!  I had a strawberry lemonade, which was also yummy.

After our lunch we decided to walk around Main Street before we hit the beach.  We went through a few touristy shops and hit up the local bookstore.  Then my pregnant self was feeling the heat so we went back to the hotel for a bit and then headed to the beach.

We put our chairs right on the edge of the water because for once, Lake Michigan waves were not huge, which we hear was NOT the case down south.  So we sat with our feet in the water with a few dips to cool off until almost 9pm.  We were going to stay for sunset but we witnessed sunset around 8:15 when the sun went into a cloudy haze.

first we sat further back, but then we decided we watched our toes in the water!

We headed back to the hotel and washed off and hit up Stormcloud for dinner.  They had live music and we got the last table outside.  We shared the Stormchos (pulled pork nachos) and the Stormgarden (flat bread with arugula, tomatoes, mushrooms and mozzarella).  The Stormchos are literally my favorite pulled pork nachos anywhere, but they just did not live up to my previous experiences.  Which was sad because I was literally looking forward to them for months.

After dinner we went back to our room and read and watched TV before crashing.

Saturday we were up early and hit up the very light breakfast the hotel had set out.  I just had a yogurt and a cup of coffee.  My husband had coffee and raisin toast.  We MEANT to go to the farmers market and then completely forgot.  We grabbed coffees to go and had a relaxing morning of reading before we got ready to head to Traverse City.

Our first stop was the Point Betsie Lighthouse, which we had tried to stop at a few years ago with the kiddo but it was insanely busy and packed that day.  We got there just as it was opening and walked around the grounds.  We got a postcard to add to our postcard collection at home but did not pay for the lighthouse tour.

Then we headed up to Traverse City where we had lunch on the top floor of the Grand Traverse Resort.  The food was delicious.  We had salad, potatoes, green beans, cherry chicken, and a mushroom beef.  The mushroom crusted on the beef was the best part of the beef.  I am not a fan of mixing cherries with chicken ha.  The dessert was amazing.

After lunch, we walked around the resort and went into a few shops.  The weather was very cloudy and looked like rain so we decided not to hit up the private beach club.  We did head out to Torch Lake and visit some friends who had recently moved from the river to the lake. Such a gorgeous lake and a beautiful home.  Their view is amazing!

We headed back to the resort about 4:30 and checked into our room.  I read, he napped, and then we decided to go to one of our favorite Traverse City restaurants, Red Mesa Grill, for some dips.  We had a huge lunch and didn’t want a ton, so we split guacamole and queso.  Plus, the salsa/chips on the table.  We may have overdosed on chips!

We were going to stop at get fudge on our way back but it had just closed, so magically we made it out of the weekend with no dessert.

Back at the resort, we walked around and took a look at the pool/spa area and then decided to just relax.  He watched a movie on the moon landing and I read my book.

Sunday we hit up Meijer in TC to check out the booze (ha!).  I got a bottle chardonnay from a local winery that I enjoy and he got some local beer.  We also picked up some local cherries and donuts for breakfast.

It was a very relaxing, fun weekend.  It was nice to be up in our favorite area and really have no plans but to just do what we wanted! 

What’s your favorite local to your vacation area?