Weekending | Grand Rapids

Just like that it's Monday again. The first one of February at that! Time continues to fly by. As always, we had a great weekend visiting our old stomping grounds in Grand Rapids.

Our first stop shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.. Founders. You can't go to Grand Rapids without stopping by Founders. This week they had an event called Cellar Raid so the boys were able to get beers they haven't had in a long time, including the coveted KBS. I, on the other hand, enjoyed my favorite BLT sandwich of all time. That alone was worth the two hour drive ;)

Saturday morning we decided to check out a new Donut shop in Eastown, D'Arts Donut Shop before the girls and I headed to the bridal shop to try on bridesmaid dresses. I'm not sure that was the best breakfast choice, but delicious none-the-less.

By the time we were done at the bridal salon everyone was hungry again so we met the boys at one of our favorite GR restaurants, Rockwell Republic. It just so happened to be happy hour, so I enjoyed two Spicy California Rolls. They are the best!

Later that afternoon we headed to Perrin Brewing Company, which is about twenty minutes North of town, for their Winter Festival. That's how Michiganders survive the brutal winters- outdoor beer festivals! The boys enjoyed the beer and I enjoyed the hot chocolate. Not a bad way to spend the day.

We ended our trip with a night at a new brewery; Creston Brewery. I'm not exaggerating when I say that every time we have visited since moving away there has been at least one new brewery to check out. This one did not disappoint. They have a Mexican style menu and Thomas enjoyed his beer.

Now it's back to the grind, but it's always nice to visit our favorite city. Until next time Grand Rapids!

Winter Break Recap | Week One

Let me tell you there is nothing better than working for the public school system. You just can't beat the schedule (...unless you get paid to travel for a living! #goals). I had seventeen days off for Winter Break. SEVENTEEN! So here's a little recap of what I did during the first half of that break...

Wigilia 2017 | Thomas' family is Polish and they celebrate the traditional Wigilia every year. Every year we look forward to this event. We can't believe that this year was my tenth time attending!

Christmas | We celebrated another amazing Christmas with both of our families. We squeezed in a lot of family time, which was wonderful.

Night in Downtown Detroit | We celebrated the holidays with my group of childhood friends by eating dinner at Bobcat Bonnies in Corktown and then heading to Campus Martius to ice skate. The weather was perfect and it was such a fun night. I'd love to go again before winter is over.

Late Nights | Quite a few games of Play Nine were played...

Great Lake Invitational | My brother and I headed to The Joe one last time for the Michigan college hockey tournament that we went to frequently growing up. I'm excited for the new arena, but The Joe holds a lot of childhood memories for us.

So that was week one of my Winter break. Week two took us to Arizona!

Traverse City Ale Trail | The Workshop Brewing Company

The next stop on the TC Ale Trail was The Workshop Brewing Company. It is hands down the strangest brewery I've ever been to. I guess we should've known walking in..

... what do you think they were going for with their decor? Despite the awkward atmosphere, the live band wasn't bad, they had a handful of fun "bar games", and the food wasn't bad. We all shared the nachos and a flight of beer. Neither were bad, but also nothing to write home about. To be honest this was probably my least favorite stop of the night.

Traverse City Ale Trail | Brewery Terra Firma

The next stop on the TC Ale Trail was Brewery Terra Firma, which is Michigan's first agricultural brewery. The boys ordered a flight of 8 beers here and were blown away. They couldn't stop talking about these beers for days! They said that the beers tasted so fresh and you could really taste the different ingredients. When you pull up you can see the hops growing behind the building and then for the rest of their ingredients they use local. This brewery also hosts Vinyl nights and has an entire room floor to ceiling with vinyl records, which would be awesome.

Traverse City Ale Trail | Right Brain Brewery

I mentioned in our camping trip recap that the first day we had an ambitious goal of completing the TC Ale Trail in one evening. We were determined! This "trail" is comprised of 8 breweries in Traverse City. Unfortunately they're pretty spread out (one is 25 minutes up the peninsula!) and since we were doing it on a weeknight a few locations closed at 10pm. These two factors really put us on a time constraint, but like I said, we were determined and it paid off! With only minutes to spare we completed it :)

Our first stop was Right Brain Brewery. Right brain is the perfect name for this brewery, because it is weird! More of a warehouse with random, strange art everywhere. There were a few games to play, but we didn't have time to hang out. Not to mention there's a hair salon right next door with glass walls... They also sell a tank that says "beer bitch" if that suits your fancy ;) All of this to say that it was still a cool place and it'd be a great place for ! Everyone ordered a beer and we split a cheese board appetizer before heading to the next stop.

Camping Trip | Day 6

On the final day of our camping trip we woke up early to clean up the campsite and pack up the cars before saying adios to the Upper Peninsula! We decided to break up our drive home by stopping in Mackinaw City and then venturing over to the Island.

When we got to Mackinaw we were starving so we had lunch before hopping on the ferry. Our plan for the day was to ride bikes around the island (7 miles total) and check out the Arch Rock. The weather was noticeably muggier and hotter (it had just rained too), but we made the best of it! After riding around we stopped at one of the bars that was having a Short's Tap Takeover and cooled off. From there we headed back towards mainland and our ferry went under the Mackinac Bridge! I've never done that before, so that was cool. We stopped at the Mackinac TapHouse before hitting the road for home. 

And just like that our camping trip was over! It was a great trip and everyone had a great time. We're already talking about making it a yearly thing, but next time we'll probably stay in the Lower Peninsula. I'd like to spend more time on Mackinaw Island, and even stay at the famous Grand Hotel, one day too.

Camping Trip | Days 4 & 5

Days four and five of our camping trip were spent chasing waterfalls... literally! We drove all around the Munising area checking out waterfalls and hiking trails. We also got to see Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore from land. They were still spectacular even though we didn't get to see them by water (the water was MUCH calmer this day). We even got lost quite a few times... GPS does NOT work in the UP and half of the roads we ended up on weren't even on a paper map. It was an adventure that's for sure ;)

Camping Trip | Day 3

Days three and four of our camping trip focused on one thing: Michigan's natural beauty! After writing this post I decided to break these two days into their own posts since there are so many pictures :)

Thursday morning we had a pontoon boat reservation so we headed into Munising, which was only a 25 minute drive from our campground, for the day. Unfortunately when we got there we discovered that the waves on Lake Superior were too choppy and therefore we couldn't take the boat near Pictured Rocks. However, we still were able to go out and cruise around Lake Superior! Lake Superior is breathtaking and easily our favorite Great Lake now. We spent a few hours cruising around and even beached it so that we could get out in the water!

Camping Trip | Days 1 & 2

Last week we headed up north for a week of camping, hiking, and breweries. It was our first time to the Upper Peninsula and we had an awesome time! I'm going to break the trip up into four separate posts and today I'm recapping the first two days.

Thomas and I headed north Tuesday afternoon. Our first destination was our friend's family cabin on Torch Lake. As soon as we arrived we dropped our bags off and headed to Traverse City. That evening we completed the TC Ale Trail, which is 8 breweries, in just over four hours! It was crazy and I'll write a separate recap for that. Once we got back to Torch Lake we hung out for a few hours before calling it a night.

GR Beer City Ale Trail | New Holland Brewing Company

Last month while we were in Holland for the Tulip Time Festival we stopped at New Holland Brewing Company, another brewery on the GR Beer City Ale Trail, for an appetizer and drinks. Thomas got a flight with 6 beers and we shared the Pepperoni Pinwheels appetizer. The pinwheels were delicious, they're basically like pizza rolls, and way bigger than we were expecting. New Holland is expanding this fall and opening a location in Grand Rapids, which I'm sure will be awesome as well!

Weekend | Weekend in Grand Rapids

This weekend was exactly what we needed after so many weekends spent away! We relaxed, checked items off of our GR Bucket List, went to the beach, and enjoyed the hot weather.

Friday

- Started packing

- Had a phone interview (and scheduled the in person interview, ahh!)

- Watched season 1 of Bloodline (such a good show!)

- Grilled dinner and hung out outside

Saturday

- Slept in until 10am, which is unheard of for us

- Visited the farmer's market

- Stopped at another Brewery on GR Beer City Ale Trail, Elk

- Beat the heat by hanging out in Duke's kiddie pool in the backyard

- Enjoyed an ice cream truck Spongebob

Michigan | Holland Tulip Time Festival

Holland, Michigan is best known for two things: tulips and Dutch culture! It's an adorable town right off of Lake Michigan and every May they host the annual Tulip Time Festival where they showcase the millions of tulips that bloom. Yes, I said millions. Who knew there were so many varieties of tulips? I certainly didn't! Given that Holland is only a 30 minute drive from Grand Rapids it was a no brainer to check it out.

We drove into town, parked the car, and just started walking. We walked through the neighborhoods and then ended up on 8th Street, which has a ton of shops and restaurants. The Tulips were everywhere we looked! We stopped a New Holland Brewing Company for lunch and then walked around for another hour. Unfortunately, due to our lack of researching/planning, we never made it to the windmills. I guess that just means that we'll have to go again :) My favorite tulips were the neon pink ones!

Memorial Day Weekend | Frankenmuth, Wedding, Detroit

Our holiday weekend was quite a doozy. From the time we left Grand Rapids Friday morning until the time we arrived back home Monday evening we were go go go.

We drove the two hours East to drop Duke off at my in-laws and then headed two hours North to Frankenmuth for all of the wedding festivities. We stayed at the Bavarian Inn Lodge which is one of the most iconic locations in Frankenmuth and a place I stayed at frequently growing up. It's a must if you're going to stay overnight and want the full Frankenmuth experience ;) Not to mention it was within walking distance of the festivities!

Late Weekend Recap

It is now Thursday and I am just getting around to posting this past weekend's recap... oops! But it was a great weekend so I want to make sure I capture it ;)

I had a wonderful five day weekend last week due to Mid-Winter Break for the school district that I'm currently interning at. That break was just what I needed! Ever since I started this placement in January I have been sick, but I guess that comes with the territory of working in close proximity to Kindergarteners and First graders. So here's how I spent the long weekend....

On Thursday I ran errands: went to the mall and enjoyed a long overdue trip to LUSH ;), dropped a few packages off at UPS, and hit up Target.

I made some amazing comfort food for dinner (who doesn't love tomato soup & grilled cheese?!) and I even got to enjoy my #TGIT shows since I usually record them... #grandmastatus :)

I spent the entire day on Friday working on my Portfolio for graduation. It took hours. T & I then ventured downtown for dinner at a brand new restaurant, The Waldron Public House, which I'll write about later this week. We decided to walk back home (Uber prices were through the roof due to a Griffins hockey game) in the 40mph winds, but I stopped to snap the above picture. I just really love that blue bridge!

Sunday brought our normal weekly prep; lots of laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, etc. Since the weather was beautiful we took Duke for a long walk down town. There's that blue bridge again ;)

As I'm sure you all heard Kalamazoo MI was rocked by a mass shooting Saturday evening and my heart breaks for the victims' families and the entire community. I spent three wonderful years in Kzoo at Western and it holds such a special place in my heart <3

Valentine's Day Weekend

Whew, what a weekend! We managed to have a great weekend and Valentine's Day despite the bitter cold weather that Grand Rapids is experiencing.

We laid low Friday night, watching Shane Mauss' The Mating Season comedy show on Netflix and doing some online house searching. We're just starting the possible home buying process and I'm already overwhelmed.

We celebrated our Valentine's Day on Saturday, starting with reservations at The Melting Pot! The Melting Pot is my favorite restaurant and when I saw the special Valentine's Day menu I knew we had to go. Let me tell you, it did not disappoint! Thomas even said it was probably the best meal we've ever had there and we've been a handful of times.

Weekend Highlights

Who could use another weekend after this weekend? I certainly could! It's only Monday and I'm already pooped. Only four more days to get through, but first here's a look at a few weekend highlights.

On Friday I finally received my national boards exam score and I PASSED!! Now there are only two things left on my checklist; portfolio and graduation!!