Honeymooning in Michigan: Exploring the Local Eateries

After all that wine, we needed a break...and food!

The Stray Dog Bar and Grill.  Right down the street from the hotel.

We sat on their roof top patio, nice view but hot!
Frozen strawberry vodka lemonade. 

Back at the hotel, enjoying drinks and a cigar by the water.
Our usual drinks....Godfather for Cody.  Rossini for me.

Whoops, my food post is turning back into a drink post!
We checked out the local hot spot, Redamak's.  Apparently they served the best burgers, the burger to end all burgers, the burger that put New Buffalo on the map!

That would be the menu.  It was bigger than my head.

Our verdict? Good.  But not as good as they made them sound.  Plus they were kinda pricey for burgers.   Now if they had been as awesome as they were suppose to be I wouldn't have minded as much.  Subpar expensive burgers? Just sad.  They really got you by charging you separately for everything.  Plus, you couldn't even order lettuce and tomato.   We weren't sure how they could claim to be so good with out those.  

Rosie's Diner.  YUM  We stopped in here one morning to have a hot breakfast instead of our muffin, fruit and yogurt basket from the hotel.  

So good we ended up eating breakfast here for the rest of our stay.  Wish we had discovered it on day one!  (although the hotel basket to our room was awesome too) Basically everyone working at the restaurant was somehow related to the original owner, current owners, or friends of the family.  I got the belgian waffle everyday, it was so good.  Best part? Their service was crazy quick!  Like after ordering we had our food in 5 minutes.  We thought it was a fluke the first day....nope they are that good everyday!

Oinks!  We found this place the first day I think.  Within walking distance from the hotel....although really what wasn't within walking distance?  I had found this ice cream place online, and knew we needed to check it out!  Once there we found it packed.  We weren't sure we really wanted to stand in line, but hey it was late and I wanted ice cream!  They literally had you take a number and then step off to the side and wait until you were called.  Worked out because it gave you time to check out the massive menu, and actually went fairly quick.  I got peach ice cream in a waffle cone, and I think Cody's was just chocolate waffle cone.  Both were very good!  Wish we had gone back again to try more flavors. 

Up next...I'll work on a post that doesn't involve food and drinks...maybe. ;)

Honeymooning in Michigan: Wine Trail

The hotel gave us a list of events going on around town during our stay so our first full day there we started exploring.  First stop was a farmers market.  It was kinda small, but actually had a good variety of produce, art and bakery items.  Everything looked awesome, but we settled for just trying a whoopie pie with buttercream filling. Yum!  

The area we were at in Michigan had a wine trail with many different types of wineries to visit.   We planned our first visit in time for lunch.  The Round Barn Winery was having a festival of sorts.  I was expecting lots of people, craft booths, wine, music.  Kinda like the Marigold or Pumpkin Festival from back home.  Not so much.  They had someone singing and were serving lunch.  Not what I was expecting but still a good time. The also had a brewery, distillery, and winery all on site so we got to try wine, beer, and their vodka made from grapes. All awesome.

Ceiling inside the round barn

We followed the trail for the next few days.  I'm not sure how many wineries we went to, but we averaged about 4 or 5 a day I would say.  We liked the estate wineries best, meaning the wineries that used all their own local grapes, versus making it with some Michigan grapes, some California grapes and shipping the blend in.  Of course, each winery we stopped at we bought a few bottles of wine.  Or half a case at each. Same thing.  :) I was a little worried about getting all 22 bottles back to Texas but with the help of Mom and Jamie we packed it all in!

Driving from winery to winery

Lots of grape vines.

Wine in the making.
The lids floated...not sure why now...something to do with the process I'm sure! 

We must have been too busy drinking our wine to take pictures of any. This is the only picture we seem to have that has wine in it, and the glass looks close to empty!  Actually...I think this was the vodka.  Oh well, it was really good vodka!

Honeymooning in Michigan

We left the day after our wedding to head to Michigan!  

We stayed 5 days in New Buffalo at the Harbor Grand Hotel.

The hotel was fantastic.  Complimentary bike and dvd rentals, Ben and Jerry's available 24/7, and excellent restaurant, massage services, and complimentary breakfast delivered to your room.  We took advantage of everything!  We watched a movie I think every night, got massages which were fantastic, went swimming, and loved our room.  We had a fireplace, huge bathroom, and great view of the harbor:

 Also found a bottle of champagne in our room when we arrived! 

 I kept my bouquet all week fresh in an ice bucket.

We headed downstairs to the restaurant for supper.  Actually ate here twice, and we both got the same thing both times because it was sooo good!  I had their specialty, spinach ravioli with cream, tomato, and pesto sauce.  Fresh hand made pasta too!

I drank Rossini all week....champagne with strawberry puree and Cody found a new drink: the Godfather. (not pictured, that's of course a local beer)

and dinner was followed by complimentary...actually I'm not sure what they were called. Cookies? I do know they had ricotta cheese baked in them and were fantastically good.  First bite kinda tasted like licorice and then just followed by sweet yumminess. Plus, look how cute!

Coming up next: Exploring town!

Now that things are finally starting to settle down a little more, I realized I should get back to updating the blog.  After all, the whole point is to keep everyone updated while we are living so far away!  Seriously, send me reminder emails if you feel like I'm slacking!  

Our wedding week was crazy busy but wonderful.  We ran around finishing last minute errands, freaking out that we didn't have enough time to get it all done, and visiting with family and friends as well.  We really enjoyed having most of our family and friends staying in the same hotel.  Came in very handy! Plus, it made it a little easier to throw together a last minute margarita night!

We rehearsed. 

We ate BBQ and cake!

After the rehearsal dinner the guys went out for drinks and to shoot pool, while the girls in our hotel met up for margaritas in my parents room.  Mom was all set with her margarita machine, and my very tired Dad was awesome and went to wait out the party in my sister's hotel room.

The morning of the wedding, Mom and I left early to go get my hair done and then finish a couple last minute things at the reception location.  By the time we got back to the hotel the humidity had pretty much killed all my curls.  By the time it was time to go to the church the sky was scary dark and it had started lightning like crazy.  Mom and I didn't even make it to the church before it started down pouring. We waited in the car for a bit, then gave up and made a run for it. Jamie ended up having to almost completely re-curl my hair, but by the time we were ready to start pictures the rain had stopped and the sun was out in time for the ceremony to start.

They say rain on your wedding day is good luck, so we should be good for awhile since it poured!

Pretty much everything else went wonderfully.  My favorite moments of the ceremony (other than ya know, the getting married part) were when Father Jeff realized I had purple tennis shoes on, Ethan running across the front of the church with flowers, and Owen telling me "Auntie Kate, your dress is on the floor".  Those little guys know how to make everyone laugh, which was fun. 

The reception was so much fun. We did Dean Martin/Frank Sinatra type music during dinner, decorated with mostly candles with purple accents and green apples, and had rock candy favors that said "Love Rocks" on them.  The food was delicious, the last minute cafe lights were gorgeous, and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves! 

At the end of the night we headed for the car and found this:

Which was actually really funny watching Cody figure out how to get the doors open and all the cling wrap off!  He also got slimed by the goo on the door handles. Every single window had something written on it, and NONE of it came off in the rain!  It was kinda funny to have everyone wave at us on our way to Michigan and Texas.  We also got free happy meal toys and a wine bottle opener (I know odd combo) thanks to our window paint.  Plus, we met and chatted with a bunch of people at the wineries who would come in looking for the newlyweds. We finally hit a car wash in Texas and it still didn't all come off!  We need to scrape it off, especially since the guy who tinted my car windows asked me today "yo, what is this stuff all over your windows?"

Once we get our CD of images from our photographer I'll post some more pictures from the wedding day.  I will also try to post about our honeymoon soon!

"Tut-tut, It Looks Like Rain"

A few months back I decided I needed purple rain boots. 

Ya know, just in case.

Actually more so for the cute wedding pictures if it rains. 

I even found the perfect pair:

(Target)

 

Seriously, how cute? Plus, they match my umbrella perfectly! On sale...but they are out of my size.

That means it's not going to rain right?

(Let's pretend this is centered, shall we?)

I seriously considered 2 day shipping the closest size available. I could squeeze in right? I mean, look how cute! They match my umbrella! Then I saw the estimated arrival of the 14-16th, and remembered how rubbery they smell when they are brand new.  Do I want to stress about them shipping in time?  Do I want a new rubber smell headache? Would I honestly stand in the rain, in a white dress and take pictures? 

No.

So my old cute boots that don't match and are slightly yellowed (due to living in my hot car all summer) will just have to do.  Maybe I'll order the too small purple ones after the wedding. There may be a slight drought in Texas now...but you never know...I might need them...just in case.

*Title quote from the lovely Winnie the Pooh.

Where you tend a rose...

A few days ago I touched base with our florist one last time before the big day.

No changes to the order, everything set, good to go.

Then my phone rang yesterday.  Not a good sign right?

 

Rannaculus

Apparently the rannaculus flowers I requested are coming into the flower market looking rather sad.

So not a horrible problem, but still not good to hear 9 days out. 

 

My florist remembered me mentioning that I'm not a big fan of roses and had been combing through her floral books looking for a similar fluffy white flower.

Garden Rose

Plan B: Garden Roses or David Austen Roses.  While it's still a rose, it has a more fluffy look to it.

Carnation

Plan C: The Queen of Flower Fluffiness (yes that's an official title) the carnation.  While carnations tend to get a bad rap, I think they are pretty. One or two in a small vase, yeah not a great effect.  Give them a chance in larger arrangements though and they really step it up!  We already plan to have purple and white carnations in my bouquet so these could easily replace the rannaculus.

So pretty!

  I've never been too worried about the flowers so this issue really isn't making my head spin. 

We have a plan, and I'm sure it will all work out! If not, oh well!

Finishing touches

We are getting married!

Next week! 

It's almost time!

I finished my job and moved back home so I've had the last month to work on wedding details.

I started out with a long list of little things to finish up and have slowly been checking them off! I finished Cody's ring box, the flower girl basket, the unity candle, and made a crazy fast trip with my parents to move my things to Texas.

I had looked at buying our unity candle, but once I saw that they were $40+ and none that I really liked, I decided to go the DIY route.  I spent less than $5 on the candles and everything else I found in the wedding closet and found the holders in mom's candle cabinet. Recognize anything? I have a bunch of the purple belly bands left over from the invitations, so they are making an appearance in a few other projects. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

I also made little emergency kits for the wedding day. After Cody popped a button off his uniform at a Military Ball, I learned to always carry a sewing kit at times like these! I went to pick up two (one for the girls room, one for the guys) and realized we don't need everything that comes in the sewing kits they sell. I wandered over to the travel aisle and grabbed a couple Johnson & Johnson first aid kits for $0.99 each. I raided mom's sewing room (Thanks Mom!) and came up with this:

• Band-aids & alcohol swabs
• Sewing kits - buttons/thread/needles/scissors/safety pins
• Ibuprofen
• Allergy Medicine
• Mini Tide Stick - also from the travel aisle.

Mom had a bunch of those little ziploc baggies that spare buttons come in on new clothes.  They worked out perfectly to hold the sewing kits and medicine!  I didn't include scissors in the boys, since I only had one small pair and figured they had pocket knives or muscles to break the thread anyway.  All together this project ended up costing about $5.

We are pretty much ready to go, and only have a few more small things left to finish up!

10 days to go!