Trip to Traverse City

Brian has been doing a lot of work up in Traverse City, Michigan recently and this past weekend, Connor and I joined him for a little family vacation. (He was "on-call" but didn't have to work, YAY!)

Connor and I got up there Thursday evening. Brian worked all day Friday while I did my best to entertain Connor in our hotel room, at the mall, and in the pool. We even spent over half and hour walking up and down the halls of the hotel (I took his little push-walker with us).

Saturday was the eventful day. We found the only orchard in the area still doing "u-pick" cherries. Mid-August is VERY late to still be picking, but Rennie's still had a ton of cherries. We picked the dark, sweet ones. I was shocked at how dark they really were....basically a very dark purple. We didn't actually pick that many, but could have. It was just tough to be toting a munchkin at the same time. Connor LOVED the cherries. Brian and I would bite the cherry in half, taking the pit for ourselves and then give him the other half. This worked most of the time until Connor picked them for himself and stuck the whole thing in his mouth! We tried to fish the pit out of his mouth, but the little guy just sucked it right down. So, he took in at least 3! (oops) The only bad thing about cherries is that the juice stains so bad. Thank goodness Connor had a bib, but I will still be stain-treating his outfit and Brian's shirt. :) Overall, it was a lot of fun. I know Connor is a little young, but still a great experience. It will be fun to do it again when he gets older.

We ate a little Burger King lunch after cherry picking and changed into our beach wear, then headed to the Bay...the Grand Traverse Bay to be exact. There are obviously beaches all along the coast and it really looks like Caribbean waters with sailboats sprinkled along the water. If I hadn't been there myself, I never would have believed I was in Michigan! We got to the beach and hauled all our stuff out onto the sand. Connor was so excited and couldn't get to the water fast enough. People were amazed that he was completely unphased by the chilly water....Brian said it was probably in the 50s or 60s (so you know I'm not exaggerating :)). He was just crawling along the shoreline, letting mom and dad chase after him. Brian swam out further and took Connor with him. I got in, but never went under. I just couldn't get passed some of the sensitive water temperature spots on my body. He swam and swam, with the ducks and everything. :) Then he crawled all over the beach, inspecting every little thing he came across, but actually didn't put anything in his mouth. He is going through a cute little stage of "sharing" with us....food, twigs, grass, sand, etc. So he'd crawl along and then hand me whatever crossed his path.

After all this cherry picking and beach fun (notice I never said anything about a nap), we knew he was going to be zonked out. He fell asleep in the car before we'd even finished loading it up with all of our beach stuff. I carefully carried him into the hotel and he woke up when we were in the lobby. By the time we got to the room, it was circus time again. We couldn't believe it. This child doesn't sleep!!! Brian and I were both laying down on the bed with our eyes closed trying to lead by example, but he pretty much thought that was funny. At 4:45 I gave in and suggested going to an early dinner so maybe we wouldn't have to wait so long.

Off to Apache Trout. The earlier dinner did work like a charm. We waited less than half and hour (compared to two hours like we were quoted the night before) and we just enjoyed a drink at the tiki bar on the water and watched the swan, ducks and all the boats. Again, Connor wanted to crawl everywhere, but was very good at dinner.

After dinner we needed to pick up some cherry wine for a few people and I needed to taste some of the famous fudge. The downtown area is very cute and has all things cherry. We got wine from the Cherry Stop (festival wine) and The Cherry Republic. We ended up with 7 bottles and next time I want to get a sampler of all the cherry sodas. Considering I'm not a big cherry-flavored girl, I really like the real stuff. :)

We can't believe that Connor was still awake...and happy. He finally crashed at about 8:45 after having a total of 30 minutes of napping the whole day: 15 minutes on the way to the orchard and 15 minutes coming back to the hotel from the beach. And then he proceeded to wake up about 5 times, ending up in bed with us (still waking up). I thought his bad sleeping was just because we were in a strange place and the hotel was all out of cribs/pack 'n plays, so he was just in his little tent. However, on Saturday Brian spotted another reason....he's getting his 2 top teeth! The left one has broken through completely and the right one is well on its way. No wonder he's been drooling up a storm! :)

Anyway, Sunday was pretty low-key. We drove up further north into the peninsula and met up with one of Brian's doctors at Metro (right down the street from our house in B.C.) for lunch. He and his family have a cottage up north and invited us to lunch and to check out the cottage. I didn't know it was another 45 minutes north, but Connor slept in the car and it was a beautiful drive. We even crossed the 45th parallel. We were closer to the NORTH POLE than the equator! Lunch was at a little hole-in-the-wall place called "The Eat Spot" and their cottage was a very cute, quaint place. It was nice to meet Dr. Lown, his wife, and 3 daughters too. I asked what it looked like in the winter, and the oldest daughter, Marissa quickly chimed in and said it looked like Antarctica! Their cottage is on the Bay, but only about 300 yards from where the bay meets Lake Michigan. It was really beautiful, but I can just imagine what it looks like all covered in snow! I was pretty much exhausted from chasing Connor around trying to make sure he didn't get into anything he shouldn't. I gave up and let him crawl in the water (in this diaper). Crawling over all the Zebra Mussel shells didn't bother him at all. At times like those I am SO glad he doesn't put everything in his mouth!

Anyway, Brian drove us back to the hotel, I jumped into the driver's seat and Connor and I headed back home. Brian is still working up there, but I had some things I needed to do at home and honestly it is just so much easier taking care of a baby at home. Although we miss Brian dearly, I think Connor was glad to be back in his bed. :)

B will be back home tomorrow!

(I'll add pictures soon. Munchkin is talking to himself [or to his animals???] in his bed. I'll grab him before he gets upset.)