101 in 1001 - Northport, MI

Northport, MI, a set on Flickr.

Everywhere you turn in Chicago you see Pure Michigan ads. Well, I went and saw it for myself and darn are they right!

On Friday we traveled from Chicago to Northport, MI which is about XX miles north of traverse city. It is a long drive (about 6 hours) but the road goes through lush forest scenery, wide open pastures and Grand Rapids which seemed like a nice, clean, midsized city.

This was my first time in lower Michigan (we skied every year in the UP when I was younger). It is my list so I'm counting this as a new state! It is also being counted as a new destination because I'd never been to Leelanau wine country before.

Friday night we grilled out, drank local wine and then made s'mores by the campfire! Saturday night was the same deal.

Saturday morning Danny and I took Moose, the 5 month old American Stratfordshire puppy for a nice long walk! He was adorable and rather well behaved and it was fun to pretend we had a puppy for 35 minutes.

Saturday afternoon we were driven around by Robert and we toured several local wineries for tastings. The wines were all pretty good but none of the vines are more than 20 years old which is young for grapes! My favorite was Shady Lane, the winery where we just nabbed two bottles (cue: a bottle of red, a bottle of white) and enjoyed our snacks at a picnic table. The best view goes to Willow and their tasting room with an expansive view of the bay. At 45 North we had a private tasting loft where we sampled basically everything and then took more bottles to the patio.

By the time we got back to the house we had sung the same songs 90 times but still wanted to hear them again.