Birthday Weekend

In what has seemed to become a tradition, Eric and I headed north to celebrate my birthday. This year, in addition to making it to Redamak's, we headed further up the Michigan coastline to Saugatuck. Eric read an article about this little artisan type town, so we thought it'd be fun to check it out.

We left after breakfast on Saturday morning. Our first destination was Redamak's in New Buffalo for lunch. This was the first time we actually went during peak season. It was PACKED!! Line was out the door with people waiting for tables. Eric managed to snag a couple of seats as the counter, which was first come first serve... which he was lucky to do! But we had our Redamak's cheeseburgers and fries and enjoyed every morsel. It's one guilty vice we only enjoy once a year or so...

From there we headed to Saugatuck, MI, a little artisty beach town about an hour north. Eric had seen a short article about the town in a magazine, and that's all we really knew about it. So we had no idea what to expect! As we started to come into the town, we geared up for disappointment... but to our plea sent surprise, we found ourselves into a bustling little downtown area, full of shops and galleries along the Kalamazoo River.

We eventually found a parking space and started to walk around. There were so many little galleries and it ranged from free trade shops the scenic oil paintings. of course you had you tourists shops, too. I found myself a few birthday gifts and then we grabbed something to eat at what we thought was a pizza joint and turned out to be a very authentic Italian restaraunt.

We decided to take a sunset boat cruise on an authentic two level paddle boat, The Star of Saugatuck. It took us around the bay and then out onto Lake Michigan in time for the sunset. Along the way, they gave us the history of the town and how it came to be. But the end result - the sunset - was the reason the boat was packed. And we had a great sunset that evening!

By the time we got back to port, it was late. So we headed up the road to the hotel and just crashed. So far, for a trip we didn't really plan, it was great!

The next day, again, we didn't have much of an agenda. After breakfast, we went back into Saugatuck, just to check out the beach since we didn't get the the day before. The sand was amazingly soft from being so windblown! But it still wasn't 'the beach'... no waves!

From there we headed back into Indiana, just across the state line, to pick blueberries. Apparently, it was the thing to do that day cause the patch was packed! We planned to pick a lot more than we did (4 pounds), but it got so humid and unbearable, we had to give up early. But we still got enough to last us for awhile.

At this point, we we hungry, so initially, the thought was to eat at Eric's parent's old bar... but they were closed on Sundays. So we headed down to Garwood's market since Eric heard they had a cafe there now. Though the 'cafe' turned out to be a food trailer in the parking lot. but it was still good and kept us moving as opposed to getting held up in a sit down restaurant somewhere.

FInally, we got on the road to go home. And just in time... it started POURING just a few miles down the road! It rained off and on the whole way home. But we managed to get home when it was still light out. Not that that's saying much since the sun sets arounf 9:30pm here. But still...

So I have a very good birthday weekend! The getaway was much needed by both Eric and I and it was nice to just leave it all behind. Too bad is was such a short weekend!