Episode 68: July – December 2014
Highlights:
- Weekends in Chicago, New York, Traverse City, Houston,
and Grand Rapids;
- Summer vacation in Douglas/Saugatuck, Michigan;
- Girls’ mini-getaway to Las Vegas;
- Cycling weekend in South Carolina;
- Thanksgiving in Oklahoma;
- Christmas vacation in Australia and Oklahoma.
It’s been a hectic year to say the least. In addition to a busy work schedule, we made
time for plenty of adventures in and out of the state. We joined our friends, Stephanie and Luis,
for our annual summer vacation in Michigan.
Stephanie and Luis still live in Brazil, so they made the long trip up
to our neck of the woods. This year, we
deviated from Frankfort, Michigan, where we had vacationed for the past two years,
and instead rented a place a little further south along Michigan’s west coast
in the quaint, artsy town of Douglas. Douglas
is best known for its proximity to two things: Lake Michigan and Saugatuck,
Michigan, another small town that explodes with people in the summer due to its
mix of restaurants, interesting shops, and closeness to Chicago.
Given the brutally cold winter we had, we were certain that Lake
Michigan would be too cold this year for swimming, so we opted for a location
where there were many interesting things to do in the town and nearby. And we were not disappointed. The week was fantastically relaxing – a good
mix of some activity and a lot of down time.
One of the highlights was a farm tour that took us to some of the local
farms where we got to see, taste, and purchase their produce, which included wine,
fresh vegetables, fruits, and goat cheese.
We did not think Michigan was that important a state for agriculture,
but on the tour, we found out that the state has the second most diverse
growing region in the U.S. after California.
As a result, the west side of the state pumps out an amazing amount of
produce. The tour ended with a late chef’s
table lunch at a farm-to-table restaurant in Fennville called Salt of the
Earth. The lunch was so good that we visited
the restaurant again during the week!
Later in the summer, I visited Australia again to spend time with Mum
and be there for one of her last chemotherapy treatments. Despite the ups and downs, she is taking it
all in stride, remaining optimistic and full of bounce – a testament to her
strength and will. She is truly an
inspiration. During the trip, we had an
unexpected visit from my friend, Nat, who flew to Australia on short notice
after learning her Dad, who had been ill for a few weeks, had taken a turn for
the worse. It was such a random thing to
be in Australia at the same time as Nat, but I was so glad that I could be
there for her with our other dear friends when her Dad passed.
On the way home from Australia, I stopped for a few days in L.A. to see
Dad and Julie’s fabulous new home and spend a few days with them exploring
their local neighborhood, as well as taking a tour of the Getty Museum.
Still in August, four girlfriends and I headed to Las Vegas for a long
weekend getaway. We were slightly
disappointed when Celine Dion cancelled her shows for the weekend due to her
husband’s health issues, but were still able to see two great shows: Absinthe
and La Reve. The highlight of the
weekend, though, was our evening at the Wynn nightclub where we lived like rock
stars and saw the amazing DJ skills of Will.I.Am.
As we got into fall, we took another long weekend getaway to South
Carolina with our friends, Ed and Michelle.
This trip was inspired by Ed and Neal’s love for cycling. They had researched and found an amazing
hotel that is owned by one of America’s best known professional riders – George
Hincapie. The hotel was gorgeous –
located at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, and complete with great
food, fantastic views, and challenging bike rides. In between burning lots of calories on the
bikes, we visited the nearby cities of Asheville, North Carolina, and
Greenville, South Carolina, and took in the sites along the way.
Later in the year, Dad and Julie met us for a culinary weekend in New
York City. We celebrated Dad’s birthday
with a much-anticipated dinner at the three-Michelin star restaurant, Eleven
Madison Park. As you would expect, the
food was creative and delicious, making for an amazing five-hour dining experience. The following evening, we savored the tasting
menu of another amazing restaurant called Atera. The rest of the weekend was spent exploring
some of the sights, including our first visit to MOMA, the Museum of Modern
Art, where we saw some really interesting modern art that challenged what we
would call art!
There were several other weekend adventures sprinkled across the
months, including a weekend I spent with Stephanie and her Mum in Houston; the
amazing Art Prize festival in Grand Rapids; and a weekend in Traverse City with
Ed and Michelle where we made the most of the bad weather (and our foiled plans
to bike ride around the Leelanau peninsula) by discovering some great new
restaurants, our new favorite bar in the city (The Low Bar), taking a couple of
classes at a great yoga studio, and seeing the movie “Boyhood”. The weather interrupted our plans once again during
a weekend trip to Chicago, where the annual Taste of Chicago food festival was
canceled for half of the weekend due to damage caused by a storm, allowing us
to spend the weekend enjoying some of the city’s indoors sights instead. Neal also made a few trips back to Oklahoma
to spend some time with his Mum, and we both headed there for Thanksgiving.
Christmas break came quickly, and we headed back to Australia. After a few days in Melbourne through
Christmas, we headed to the beach and spent a wonderful week in Sorrento on
Victoria’s southern coast, where we rented a house for the whole family to be
able to spend some down time together.
We headed back to Melbourne for a day to see Dad and Julie, who had come
to the city to see us and my sisters, Carol and Candace. We spent the day with them exploring the city
and capped off the evening with dinner at a cool Spanish restaurant called Movida. The next day, Neal flew back to the U.S. to
spend a week in Oklahoma, while I stayed in Australia to soak up as much sun as
possible in preparation for the return to a long, cold winter in Michigan.
The year was obviously a difficult one with the loss of Neal’s Dad and my
Mum’s health issues. But from these adverse
times, we found the opportunity to spend a lot of time with family and friends,
and were graced with the gift of reflection.
Our New Year’s resolutions will most certainly be centered around
family, friends, and filling in that fun calendar!
