A title of a previous post was “Vacation….or Work?” Turns out our trip to Traverse City was a bit of both:
(to give you a bit of background info, Traverse City is in Upper Michigan on the west side. It’s the cherry capital of the world due to the lake breezes and the mild temps during the summer. In addition to cherries, TC is a great winery destination, there are fresh blueberries and peaches everywhere, and the lake is a fantastic place to just hang out and enjoy the mild summer.)
Vacation: Emily and I sitting on my grandma’s deck overlooking beautiful Lake Michigan with a beer and enjoying the 75 degree breezy weather. (we did this knowing that it was about 100 degrees back home…we had a giggle over that)
Work: Lugging 3 huge bags, one stroller/carseat combo, one breast pump, one diaper bag and one baby through the airport. Count how many hands that would take…
Vacation: Visiting 3 different wineries on Old Mission Peninsula while watching the sun set into the bay all around us. Heaven…
Work: Trying to keep baby quiet at 3am in our Grandma’s house so she wouldn’t wake everybody up.
Vacation: Riding my Uncle’s wave runner (Seadoo). It’s basically a jet ski and it’s SUPER fun. The bay where my grandma’s house is has no speed limit and is pretty calm so you could get the seadoo up to about 60mph.
Work: Trying to watch the sunset at Grandma’s house…a classic Traverse City activity. Mosquitos are out, so baby can’t watch too, so most nights we sat inside and watched from the windows. Nice, but not quite the same.
Vacation: We all went blueberry picking! Before I had Maelin, I’d be sleeping in during this activity, but because I was up early enough, I got to go pick pounds of blueberries! You have to go early in the morning before it gets too warm and we spent about an hour there (Great-Grandma Mimi babysat for Maelin) and we got over 16 POUNDS of blueberries for about $20. Pretty good deal. We ate blueberries in our cereal for the next 4 days and had serving after serving of grandma’s blueberry cobbler.
Work: Trying to help your 3 month old baby adjust to the 2 hour difference in the time change.
Vacation: Having lunch at a brewery downtown. We sat outside (Maelin slept for most of it…) and we had a lovely local beer and I had the Monte Crisco with cherry jam. Then we walked around and bought some local fudge, some chocolate-covered cherries and had a few scoops of Gelato. It was about 80 degrees with the lake breezes and I thought there was no better way to spend a summer afternoon.
Work: Sitting inside with the baby while everyone else was outside having a bonfire on the beach. I wouldn’t have been able to bring Maelin out there because of the mosquitos after dark. (one bonus though: my cousins made me a Smores and brought it in for me)
Vacation: Watching my grandma Mimi totally enjoy my baby. Maelin and Mimi hit it off…they are old friends now. They spent hours just sitting by the windows and talking and laughing to each other.
Work: Realizing that vacations will never be the same. In the old days, I spent my time in TC sunbathing with a good book, drinking lots of local wine and staying up really late next to the campfire. I was a bit sad at the change.
Vacation: Realizing that vacations will never be the same. We spent our days playing in the bath-like water, watching Maelin enjoy and play with her Aunts and Cousins, walking around the town, having fun cooking with the local foods, sitting and talking to each other and just relaxing.
So, decide for yourself if it was worth it for me to haul my baby over 2,000 miles to hang out with our family. Despite a few glitches, we had an amazing time. Vacations may never be the same, but that may be a good thing.
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