Puppies and Pumpkins

This past weekend Paul and I had an opportunity to head up north and spend some time with my family and enjoy the fall colors. Going up north in the summer is nice because it's great to enjoy swimming in the lake and spending time at the beach. Going up in the winter, well, is also nice sometimes because its hard to beat seeing huge snow flakes piling up on a forest full of pine trees and viewing this all from your couch being cozy under a warm blanket with a hot ovaltine (I am obsessed with ovaltine!). But lets face it, there is nothing better than being up north when you can enjoy the peak of the fall colors. Because I have limited time to go see my family, sometimes the visits are touch-and-go because the weather is not dependable. However, this past visit was perfect. The weather was gorgeous and the colors were stunning. Oh, and did I mention my parents got a puppy?

Weekend Trip: Northern Michigan

One of the benefits of being married to Katie is a free place to stay in Northern Michigan and a reason to head up there whenever the mood strikes. As I've touched on before, all of my early vacation memories center around the area and I love getting to go back. One of highlights of visiting in the fall is the beautiful colors you get to see and even if it was a bit early in the season, we were not to be disappointed.

No trip up north can begin without a stop at Dingman's. Dingman's has been our go to bar for a few years now for many reasons. 1) It's generally pretty late by the time we get up there and 2) It's really the only place to stop on the way.  It's exactly the kind of hole in the wall spot you'd expect to find in the middle of nowhere. Immediately upon entering on a Friday evening, you're greeted with terrible karaoke renditions of country songs made better/worse depending on your level of intoxication. The bartenders/wait staff are generally as drunk as the patrons to the point that it can sometimes be difficult to actually tell who works there as everyone seems to freely roam in and out of the kitchen area.

Interlochen or Why You Should Never Go Back

As I've mentioned before, my family wasn't much for traveling great distances when I was younger. Almost all of my childhood vacations were spent in Northern Michigan, specifically Interlochen State Park. Interlochen is probably most known for the Center for the Arts/music camp which has hosted several notable alumni like Josh Groban, Norah Jones, and Sufjan Stevens. Our summers were mostly spent tenting it up within the campground.

Looking back, I wish my travel experience had been more robust, but in my younger years, I loved getting to sleep in a tent, ride my bike throughout the campground, making friendships on the playground that would last an entire week, and swimming in waters that were very much lacking in any sort of creature with the capability to kill you. 

A big logging wheel. I used to climb the shit out of this thing.