Since the eclipse and Gwens last band competition were just 10 days apart, Asa and I decided to make a trip of the whole thing. However, no offense to anyone, we just can't fill 10 days in Ohio in April, so I thought about where we could go. Asa's been dying to visit the sand dunes in his home state of Michigan, but every summer we go up there, it's ridiculously expensive hotel rates (I'm talking I could basically stay in the Polynesian for that amount!) and we don't want to go THAT bad. But, since it was April, everything was ridiculously cheap up there. Now, we know that's because not everything was open- but we were willing to take the good with the bad, and scored an amazing AirBnb in downtown Traverse City for less than $100 a night. It was this super cool old firehouse, too, and we loved being that close to all the restaurants and shops in downtown.
The trip from my moms to Traverse City isn't terrible, especially since we had to go to the Detroit airport to drop off Calib and Olivia so they could fly home. Calib wanted to get back, and it was helpful for Hayden who had opted to stay behind if he didn't stay the whole time with us.
After saying our goodbyes and dropping the 'kids' off at the airport, Asa and I made our way north and stopped in Frankenmuth. If you don't know, it's an old German town, and home to the largest Christmas store in the world. We stopped at the Bavarian Inn for some lunch (which was good, not great- as the online reviews would have you believe), and walked around town, stopping at the Cheese Haus, the fire place, and of course a coffee shop. We also nosed around Bronner's Christmas store, and got ourselves our ornament for this year: a couple of sloths (a nod to our favorite day in Roatan that at this point was just about a week ago, where we held Patricia the Sloth).
After wandering around, we got back in the car and headed the rest of the way to Traverse City. We stopped at Meijer (which was totally weird shopping there) to pick up groceries for our time in Michigan, and an old school pizza hut, where there was a salad bar and they brought the deep dish pizza to your table. (We had lots of leftovers to bring back to the Airbnb too).
We arrived and were sufficiently happy with our accomodations for the next week. The location was great, and the apartment was just like in the pictures. We settled in, wandered around a bit, and enjoyed a nice quiet evening back to just the two of us.
It was easy to travel on Tuesdays, because thanks to chess club, Asa doesn't have that many student calls he misses if he takes off a Tuesday. Wednesday, however, he needed to catch up and do some work. It's nice to have AirBnbs where he can work from, and even nicer if that AirBnb is close to things, so when he's got a break we can wonder out and about.
That's why our little firehouse was the perfect airBnb, it was right around the corner from so many things, and just a couple blocks from the water. Even though it was a full workday for Asa, we were able to watch brunch at a breakfast place next door to us, wander some shops, head down to the water, and have some ciders at the nearby Taproot House (who also had the BEST Mac& Cheese ever!) We even made it down to the Cheese lady to stock up on picnicy items! (And the best Brie cheese I've ever had in all my life). All while Asa did his student calls. Win-win-win!
Next up: Traversing Traverse City!
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