Goooooooo Ken!

For his 33rd birthday and our seventh year anniversary Ken planned a surprise get-away for us. Don't ask me how that one works out! I knew that we were going somewhere, but I didn't know where and did NONE of the planning. Which was the best part... not having to do any of the planning. So we went to Traverse City and I only found out when we were like 40 mins away. We had to take an unplanned detour and Ken needed a navigator!

The weather was cold and rainy, but it was perfect for us because the first day we hopped wineries on Old Mission Peninsula and then on the second day we went to Sleeping Bear Dunes, which was nice that it was cool out because it made hiking much easier.

Here we are... the love birds!

I am standing at Two Lads Winery (no free samples here... so we didn't stay long) looking at Chateau Chantal (free samples and ice wine). It is a bed and breakfast and was by far the most beautiful winery and view.

So here we are enjoying some of the wineries. Most have free tastings of 5-8 wine samples and some you pay a few dollars for a "flight" of samples... that is a wine term. We went to Chateau Chantal, Two Lads (boo no free samples), Brys Estates, Black Star, Peninsula Winery, and another one, but I forgot the name. The day consisted of drinking wine and eating a few dry wine crackers to clean our pallet. Me, having the nonexistent alcohol tolerance enjoyed it a lot!This is mean of me, but I couldn't resist getting a picture of the perfection of this mullet... look at the perfect coils! I did some stealth photography to get this one!

We went on several hikes around Old Mission Peninsula as well. Here I am messing around with the macro function on my point and shoot camera... I can't even believe that I got a picture of this monster! Do you see it is eating something! I feel sick and dizzy just looking at this picture!

Ken loves skipping rocks, so whenever we come to big water and there are rocks, I usually have to stand around and wait for awhile... On the second day we went to Sleeping Bear Dunes. We did the scenic drive and stopped at one of the viewing areas on Lake Michigan. There were some (a lot) of crazy people hiking 450' down to Lake Michigan. Here is Ken standing on the first, shallower dune. I am at the top taking his picture... notice how it looks like it just ends behind him...

Well, this is what it looks like once you get to the edge of where Ken is standing...

We did not do this dune climb.

When Ken was little, his family went to Sleeping Bear Dunes. During that time his mom decided to run down one of the dunes. Of course, like everyone does, she fell. Apparently Ken thought it was hilarious because you could see her boob prints in the sand. Well, we just happen to stumble upon where she fell on one of our dune hikes. It even said "Carolyn was here". Amazing that it lasted all this time!

So it was great getting away, but of course we missed the kids! Thanks Grammy, Grampy, Nana and Papa for watching the girls!