15th Anniversary

This week marks my handsome hubby Jake and my 15th wedding anniversary.

I have no idea how we ever got this old.

To mark our momentous occasion we did something we have not done since our first anniversary.

We went away.

My husband - who has this amazing full time job now at Midwest Industrial Lumber - took a vacation day (that he has never had before, vacation!) and used that first vacation day ever to drive us up to Traverse City.

I himmed and hawed about what to share with you so if you don't mind, I am just going to toss out some of our most favorite moments and share a bit about them.  We had WAY too much fun not to share with you....but knowing how much to share is tricky.  You could get bored.  I hope you don't.

And so I give you...our 15th wedding anniversary trip.

It began with me "helping" him deliver a load for work.  I think I was just there to look pretty in his truck though.  And to bring high heels to his semi.  

He did not seem to mind having me along for the ride.

When work was done, we picked up our rental car.

We have never rented a rental car before.  Jake opted for most economical.  We got this Hyundai Accent.  We bough 14 or so gallons of gas all weekend and put on over 700 miles.  The car was 118 dollars to rent.  My husband was giddy over the money saved.  But he never ever dreamed he would have ever drove a Hyundai.  We had so much fun with a rental we plan to rent a vehicle when we go somewhere again...but perhaps a Dodge Charger that time, and something with cruise control.

We stopped at Red Robin for lunch.  Jake has never been there before, I have been once with Sue.  He seemed pretty thrilled with his appetizer. 

And then we went to Starbucks.  Believe it or not (it's hard to comprehend), Jake has NEVER been to Starbucks before.  We both tried the new drinks they had (I thought the lime was icky but the berry was good).  Being a big Biggby fan, he walked in and said "I get Carmel Marvel at Biggy and it's my favorite drink.  What do you have comparable to that?"  He got a Caramel Macchito.  He wasn't as impressed.  And he thought the barista bore a striking resemblance to our rooster at home.

We drove on, fully caffeinated.

And stopped to get our picture taken as an asparagus spear.

Crack. Me. Up.

As we drove, I kept saying, "That's a big hill."

I gave up finally and just went, "Weeeeeeee!" when we headed down hill.

We arrived at our motel, the Sands Motel. 

Finding a place had been harder than tricky.  We were unaware that it was Cherry Festival that weekend, the BUSIEST weekend in TC.  I am standing at the door in the room taking this photo.  The room is called the Love Shack.  Seriously.

But, they were right on the beach.

And I am all about a beach day with my hubby so we went swimming and we spent every morning and evening at that beach, even borrowing the motel's kayak's one day which was a ton of fun!

We went sight seeing.

This is THE road for us and it was fun to see where it ended.  We keep joking now, "Do you know where M37 ends?"

This is the Mission Point Lighthouse.  It was closed so we just headed to the beach.

You can see where the water DID start but now it's a weird sort of rocky beach.

Smile!

Me being silly on a big rock.

The sweetest husband ever.

awwwwww!

I think this is one of my favorite pictures because you can just see us having fun in it.

Another shot of the lighthouse.

My new screen saver.  Amazing sunset on the lake.

And that was Day One.

Day Two had us out on the road before 8:30.  My husband was amazed at my timing in getting ready. i was ready to GO!  But we had to stop for some AMAZING coffee before my husband could share any of my enthusiasm for the day.  Usually he is all super happy morning person and I am the slant eyed give me coffee morning person.

We stopped for cherries.

On our first anniversary, we bought cherries and spit them out the window and that was my most favorite memory of our first anniversary.  I wanted to relive it.

It is very difficult to spit a cherry pit out the window.

When we returned the rental, there was cherry juice all down my side of the car.  Jake just shook his head as he cleaned it up.  We ate two quarts of cherries and spit the pits out the window this weekend. FUN!

We arrived at Jake's most favorite lighthouse.

I think he likes the Grand Traverse Lighthouse so much because a family lived here and those who lived here cared about it because it was home.

The rock work itself is worth seeing, but we paid the eight dollars to tour the inside of the lighthouse.

It's a dark photo but this is a touring library that went from lighthouse to lighthouse.  They would drop off a new box of books and pick these books up.  This, i'm sure you can all understand, I found fascinating.  Jake took the photo for me and said, "Everyone will know that was your idea to take a picture of."  He loves me.

The view from the light deck.

The stairs going down.

I really wish I had taken a photo of Jake cramming himself down this little hole.

In the gift shop they have this lego light house someone donated. 

On our way back, we passed this beautiful farm, Black Star Farm.

It is even more beautiful in person.  We stopped in...it has a cafe, winery, cheese tasting.  BEAUTIFUL.  Our "guide" there was a hoot and we appreciated him greatly.  I wish I had caught his name to share with you all. 

After traveling, we went to the beach again and then cleaned up and headed to Stella's for dinner.

The restaurant is located in the old Traverse City State Hospital.

AKA, insane asylum.

How could you NOT go there??

Stella's was dark, scrumptiously yummy and very expensive.

We wandered the shops (that were closed) and there was some sort of something going on in the hallways (open house maybe?) so we headed outside.

The architecture of these buildings is amazing.

They are eerily beautiful.

The landscaping, you can tell, was once amazing.  So we posed for a picture or ten.

It's hard to see, but this had a huge porch on it once.  

I peeked in as many windows and doors as I could.  If I could have gotten in, I so would have.  I would have been scared to death of what I would find, if I would be trapped in there and if I would be arrested for trespassing but inside some of these windows was more beautiful architecture.  And some were just hallways and stairs...like this door I looked in.  They are redoing the entire grounds.  It's very beautiful here.  And I want to read more on this place.

That night we sat on the dock and watched the fireworks from the Cherry Festival.

Day three was our last day, and we were a little sad about that all day.

But we started the day with coffee and a cinnamon roll.  So it started sweet.

I could not get over the rolling beauty of these peninsula's.

In our part of the state, crops are lost and all is dead.  Here it is green and rolling.  Where we normally see corn and soybeans, here you see vineyards.

Beautiful.

For lunch we stopped at a great restaurant I will highlight later.

Jake was very impressed with his lunch.

It was so beautiful.  Every where you looked, it was just beautiful.

This was my lat view of the water as we turned toward the south and headed home.

But for our anniversary?

It was grander than any other.

And a time we will not ever forget.

Thanks for an amazing celebration on our 15th anniversary, my husband.

How I love you so!