traverse city (not 2 b confused with adversity, or travesty ;-])

OK, here's the update that you're all dying to hear. no, not an adoption update, just the skinny on our weekend up in traverse city, MI. :-) (i will say, though, that our home study update draft is done and we'll be getting that back shortly. so at this point, we're just waiting for an updated I-171h approval with the updated fingerprinting that we had done last month. THEN, when we have that in hand, we can actually apply for the extension. sound complicated? i don't think so at this point, but, who knows. :-] )

so we got there around 8:30, sun had pretty well set already, so no watching the sunset over the water. i hadn't realized until i was looking at the map in the car, however, that Traverse City is actually tucked neatly at the south end of Grand Traverse Bay, which means the sun was setting over land rather than water. it's actually a really cool area, with bays and peninsulas...reminds me in some ways of the Puget Sound area, very nice. we hit the hot tub and pool immediately and enjoyed watching the antics of two unrelated groups of teenagers: four girls, and the other, a team of soccer player boys. teenagers of the opposite sex--trying hard not to interact--but very well aware of each other. very amusing. ;-)

true to the forecast, saturday was RAINY and cold. after eating our mediocre "complimentary breakfast" at the Baymont (hey, at least it was free. or "included" in the room rate. :-) we debated about taking our bikes out, hoping for an hour or so ride before the rain would set in, but by the time we had brought them down from our room, it was already raining. time for PLAN B.

we headed downtown and to the pier to buy our tickets for a schooner ride the next day because we just KNEW it would be nice and sunny. they had a neat little Schooner festival going on, complete with pirates, kids games, demonstrations of sword fights, you know, the usual kinda stuff rob and i do on our saturdays. ;-p we weren't really into the cold and wet scene though, so we decided to drive up the peninsula to the Leelanau Cheese factory near Sutton, MI.

Unfortunately they weren't making cheese today, so we took in a little of the wine-tasting instead. we always find it amusing to stand amidst these folks who actually know what they're talking about when they talk about wine. "oh this is amazing, so subtle, wouldn't that go wonderfully with duck or pasta?" and then there's us... "Ah, yeeeeeah, do ya have any sweet ones?" and rob's famous, "hmmm, yeah, that tastes OK, except for the ...alcohol part."  we're such posers. ;-]

i will say the cheese samples were fabulous though, so we bought a couple of expensive cheese wedges and have been nibbling on them this week. I should really melt them into some fondue, but who has the time, ya know?

from there we drove up another 15 miles or so intending to go to the lighthouse at the tip of the peninsula. well,turns out that was inside a state park, which we'd have had to pay to park in, and then we'd have had to pay some more to go inside the lighthouse. call us whimps, cheapos, or whatever, but with it still raining, it just didn't seem worth it. so we headed back back down to Sutton and found this EXCELLENT little restaurant called the 45th Parallel--the food was SO good...pumpkin pancakes, portabella/chicken quesadillas, and homemade tomato basil soup and creamy dill chicken soup for Rob (that soup was FABULOUS). if you're ever in the area, DON'T MISS this place. and it's easy to miss because the sign and design of the front of the building is pretty understated.

after that the rain let up and we headed down to a horse show. hmmm....this wasn't quite what we were expecting. let's just say, we were the ONLY ones there who didn't:
a) know someone who was competing
b) have a clue what "dressage" means
c) have decent, chunky-soled boots or shoes on (be both had nice new shoes from Kohl's. they'll never be quite the same)
but anyway, it turned out to be a fun learning experience! when we saw the rider take their horse around the ring the first time, we really thought they were doing the exact same thing for 9 minutes. not so. by the time we left three hours later, even we with our un-equine-trained eyes we were able to see the subtle changes in steps/rhythms of the horses. there is no jumping and barrel-racing in dressage, it's all about the steps and the rider's subtle guidance of the animal. it's really quite beautiful. the horses can even do this very interesting sideways step...i'd never seen that, and i totally wonder how they ever train them to do that.

 

rob loved the opportunity to take pictures and try out the video on his Nikon. 

we had a hankering for fish and chips and found this great little place downtown TC, called Scallawags. Great atmosphere, good f&c, but the CHOWDER, let's talk about the CHOWDER...

so, ever since eating the best seafood chowder in the WORLD at this great little hole-in-the-wall place outside Charlottetown, PEI on our honeymoon, we've been searching for it's equal, knowing, however that it can probably never be found. that stuff was heaven. we even went back multiple times on our honeymoon to keep eating it.

but, on saturday night, we may well have found the 2nd best chowder on the continent. if you go to TC, you must GET IT. if you have any love of all that's good, hot, creamy and true, you must.

 

these are the faces of happiness. (now, rob might have different feelings about the fish and chips, based upon certain other ensuing difficulties once we returned to our hotel. you can ask him.)

we were tired and up for games once we got back to the hotel, but did we play games? NO. we settled in instead to watch Couples Retreat on HBO. Big mistake. STUPID movie. low-point of the weekend as far as i was concerned...ah, well.

on Sunday, the weather was PERFECT...we could not have asked for a nicer day. we headed out on a two-hour schooner ride aboard the Inland Seas. we just loved it.

 

we're actually steering the ship here, not that you can tell. ;-p

 

we shared some AMAZING cherry ice cream at the schooner festival and then, on to my favorite part of the weekend...biking! rob was so pleased (proud would a better word?) with his new bike rack, which worked very well on the Rav, by the way. i was just excited to finally use my new bike on a real bike ride. the area has tons of great bike trails, some on railbeds. we actually prefer the ones that are not on the railbeds as the scenery tends to be a little more interesting. we only had a few hours to bike, but we definitely took note of many additional trails for future trips. 

our favorite ride was the Boardman Trail which wound around a lake. it was just beautiful, slight inclines but nothing strenuous. part paved, part boardwalk, and part aggregate--very manageable with hybrid tires. great ride.  

r

rob doing what rob does best (and most). we came upon a "flock"(??) of swans, very nice.

we topped it all off with a meander downtown TC in search of more ice cream, had to settle for cold stone as that was all that was open at 5:30 on a Sunday, ahh it's a tough life....mmmm. 

munched on cheetos on the way home (making up for all that healthy food saturday and all the ridiculous exercise Sunday) and listened to a Ted Dekker book (Blink of an Eye). this is my second book by him, i really like him. 

home at about 9:30 p.m. what a great, great day. very grateful. slept SOOOO good. :-)