Weekend Trip to Traverse City, Michigan
At the end of October 2022, my husband and I travelled six and a half hours up to Traverse City, Michigan to hang out with his college friends. One of his friends was celebrating her golden birthday. She was turning thirty years old on October 30!
I had been to Traverse City before when I had taken my solo road trip around the state of Michigan years ago, so I knew the area was pretty. I was looking forward to returning! We drove up on a Friday afternoon; the next day, we went on a winery tour. A short party bus took us around to four different wineries near Traverse City. Each of the wineries had gorgeous views of their vineyards, and some even had beautiful views of Lake Michigan!
The winery with my favorite wine was Chateau Grand Traverse. I had a wine slushie, but they called it something else. I think they called it a frozen wine. Anyway, it was really good! The winery with my favorite views was Bonobo Winery. They had a porch that you could walk out onto that overlooked their vineyards and Lake Michigan! We ended up not purchasing any bottles of wine. We prefer sweet wines and did not taste any that we wanted a whole bottle of.
On Sunday, we ate brunch at Sugar2Salt, which had delicious hot chocolate with a homemade marshmallow! I ordered the duck, which came with duck leg confit, duck ham, duck sausage, a duck egg, and cut up apples. It was absolutely delicious! I love duck, and not many restaurants serve it, so when I find it being offered, I usually order it.
Later, we drove to the Grand Traverse Lighthouse, which is located in Northport, Michigan at the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula. My husband looked it up, and Leelanau is a Native American phrase meaning, “delight of life.” We went on a self-guided tour of the lighthouse. I did not go up to the top because I can sometimes get claustrophobic. Also, I would have had to go up and down a ladder, which I am not a fan of, since I also do not really like heights. My husband went up though! What I found interesting during the tour was that the U.S. Navy held training exercises on Lake Michigan near the lighthouse during World War II. After our tour, we walked down to the shore, and we skipped rocks out on the lake. My husband’s arm even got sore from skipping a bunch of rocks! Some of his went pretty far!
We then had lunch in Leland, Michigan at The Cove. Since it was at the end of the fishing season, they were low on supplies and fish. We still had a good meal though. My husband and I each ordered the walleye fish and chips. The Cove is located in historic Fishtown! We walked around the area to see a dam and the coast. We also tasted various flavors of vodka, whiskey, and rum at the Grand Traverse Distillery.
Overall, we had a wonderful time in Traverse City, Michigan, and I recommend going to see this town. It was especially gorgeous in autumn since you could see the leaves turning yellow, orange, and red! And if you know me well, then you know that I love looking out onto water. It was calming to look out onto Lake Michigan. If you are planning a trip to Michigan, I recommend you look into adding Traverse City to your itinerary.
