At long-last, my Michigan return!
My college roommate Kendall FINALLY got married after postponing and rescheduling her wedding a million times due to COVID, which means I had an excuse to head back to Michigan to see friends and family — and to drag Ryan around my home state!
In a weird way, I’m actually really glad Kendall’s wedding was postponed. She was originally planning on holding her ceremony during my Peace Corps service in Eastern Europe… which means I wouldn’t have been able to attend.
Since COVID is allowing more and more remote work, I figured I would take the opportunity to spend about a week and a half back in the Midwest. I flew from Sacramento into Chicago on Dec. 6, met Ryan at O’Hare (he was flying in from Phoenix) and then drove from Chicago to Ypsilanti. My awesome friend Jake let us borrow his car since rental prices are currently RIDICULOUS.
We stopped in Kalamazoo on the drive so I could see my friend Caitlin‘s new (to me) house, stopped at my sister’s apartment so I could say hi to Duchess and then checked into our Ypsilanti hotel.
We’d bought tickets to a hockey game in Detroit weeks ago, so Ryan and I picked up my brother, and then went to Detroit to meet my sister and her friend Kayla at Little Caesar’s Arena.
Detroit lost, of course, but it was still really cool to spend the night with my brother and sister.
I had to work the next day, but because I was working on Pacific time and staying in Eastern time, I had later-than-usual shifts. Ryan and I met my friend Brian and his fiancée Heather for breakfast at Zingerman’s Roadhouse, and then Ryan and I spent a few hours wandering around downtown Ann Arbor.
Unsurprisingly, Ryan was obsessed with Bivouac, and we spent a good portion of our late morning there.
Ryan and I spent my lunch break at Arbor Brewing Company’s Corner Brewery, and then after my normal work shift, Ryan and I drove out to my mom’s apartment so Ryan could meet her, and so we could decorate Christmas cookies.
The next morning, we met my dad for breakfast in my hometown, my high school best friend Kim for lunch in Livonia, and then drove up north.
Like, UP NORTH up north.
Ryan loves nature, hates people. So as you can imagine, me dragging him through TEN FULL DAYS of hockey games, family introductions, weddings and big city walking tours is as close to his hell as you can get.
So, when we booked the trip, I made sure to include some low key outdoors time for just the two of us, so Ryan could recharge and hopefully remind himself that he doesn’t actually hate me.
I also, selfishly, wanted to show off how pretty Michigan actually is. I know that’s a hard ask in early December, but unfortunately, there is zero chance of getting my wildland firefighter boyfriend east of the Mississippi during Michigan’s glory months.
I had given Ryan the option of a few outdoor places in the state to spend our two days. He ended up picking Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
So, after a quick stop at REI so I could buy some new baselayers, we started our drive to the Upper Peninsula.
We ended up getting slammed with a crazy winter snow storm once we got north of Saginaw on I-75. What should have been a six-hour drive took us more than 10 hours. We stopped for beer along the way at Bière de Mac in Mackinaw City, then crossed the bridge and finished our journey to Munising.
We got in SO late that we just went straight to our hotel and went to sleep.
We woke up and were surprised with both fresh snow, and a really, really great view from our hotel room!
We packed our bags and layered up and then drove down the street to our chosen trailhead.
Most of the roads leading to the really great Pictured Rocks viewpoints close during the winters. And, it was a little too early in the season for the ice caves to have truly formed.
So, we decided to do a hike along the Lakeshore North Country Trail, which runs parallel to the northern coast of the Upper Peninsula.
Our goal was to make it out to Miners Castle Point, but sadly that didn’t happen because my back started acting up.
(Not sure if I mentioned it, but I fractured my spine a few months ago.)
However, it was still such a pretty hike! And it wasn’t too cold at all. We did get to see miles of coastline and a frozen waterfall, and it was super peaceful. We didn’t see a single soul on the trail.
After about six miles of hiking, we drove back to Munising and grabbed beer at ByGeorge Brewing.
We’d originally planned to spend another night in Munising, but due to an incoming snow storm, we decided to leave a day early so as not to risk getting snowed in and missing my roommate’s wedding… which was, yunno, the whole reason we were in Michigan to begin with.
We headed back over the bridge and decided to make our impromptu stop in… Mount Pleasant!
It was a fitting stop, given that I was back in Michigan for my college roommate’s wedding and all.
(If you didn’t know, I’m a two-time alumna of Central Michigan University. Fire up! I spent about eight years living in Mount Pleasant while going to school and working at the local newspaper.)
We went straight to The Cabin for pizza and then right to the Bird for beer.
The Bird is forever and always my happy place and I will never ever ever EVER love a bar as much as I love The Bird.
We went to our hotel, then woke up the next morning, checked out, grabbed breakfast at Stan’s and took a tour of Mount Pleasant.
I drove Ryan through CMU’s campus, pointing out my freshman and sophomore year dorms, as well as the library, the UC, Moore and all the other various places I spent my time.
I also took him off-campus to show him — aside from The Bird — where some of my favorite places were, or used to be. RIP to Kaya and the old 1018 S. Franklin house I lived in! But, I was excited to show Ryan some new-old places, like the brand new GreenTree Co-op location, and the Ponder coffeeshop downtown.
And… yes. DJ Greenup’s “Central Girls” was played on this excursion.
After our little tour around town, Ryan and I got back in the car and headed to Pontiac for Kendall’s wedding!
(Dress is Lulu’s, by the way. Affiliate link!)
I had SO much fun at Kendall’s wedding. It was so nice to see so many of my college friends and to make new friends as well. We were seated at a table with some of Kendall’s friends who I had mutual friends (other than Kendall) with, which was really cool!
After the wedding, Ryan and I woke up, grabbed Tim Horton’s (because OF COURSE), and then drove to Chicago for the next part of our trip. More on that later!
This post was originally published Jan. 13, 2022. Its timestamp has been updated.
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