The Blustering Baker: Smitten with the Mitten - Laura & BT's Christmas Vacation

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone! Here's a recap of BT and I's trip up to Michigan. We had a wonderful time and I was so glad to finally meet all of his family.

We hammered through on the drive up and made it in about 13 hours. On the return trip, we stopped for the night in West Virginia and got to see some pretty cool stuff along the way!

Unfortunately, we've both been fighting pretty nasty colds since we got back. My cold has drained me of my creative juices, so this blog post is mostly pictures. We took a ton of them though, so hopefully they tell a pretty good story!

SATURDAY

Up and at 'em! We were on the road by 0630.

BT actually let me drive some!

SUNDAY

Went to visit BT's mom & step dad in Orleans. This is the road they live on...queue the banjos...

MONDAY

A trip to the post office in Ionia (home to the world's largest free fair) and of course I made him stop for this!

Coffee at Biggby before heading to Grand Rapids for a fun filled day of shopping!

We shopped 'til we dropped, and then stopped for lunch for at the Pita House. It was fantastic!

After some more shopping, we decided to stop at Founder's. The place was massive! We tried a few different things. Most notable was the Backwoods Bastard (left) and Big Lushious (right...we only had a taste and that was more than enough!)

BT sipping on Dark Penance. We ended up with a growler of Red's Rye for his brother's birthday gift, and Black Rye for us.

TUESDAY

Back out for some more shopping before meeting one his brothers for dinner.

After dinner, we hit up the Gallery Brewery in Portland (where we were staying). *AND* I can now cross another item off of my life list! ~~Try 100 different types of beer~~. Something to be proud of, huh?

CHRISTMAS EVE

We donned are ~~gay apparel~~ ugly sweaters and headed to his brother's for a family get together.

BT attempting to provide some order to the present opening craziness.

CHRISTMAS DAY

After a leisurely start to the day, we found ourselves here....

We mostly played the penny and nickel slots, but I got sucked into video blackjack towards the end. Wished I would've played that the whole time.

You gotta know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.

Back at the house, I opened and tried on my secret Santa present (Jeff had me again this year!).

And we played Monopoly until we were ready to gouge our eyes out. (He won.)

FRIDAY

BT took me to breakfast at the Bluewater Cafe where I had the world's biggest omelet. After that, we checked out some of the little shops in Ionia and I found this vintage gem!

BT visiting his Dad. I hope he doesn't mind that I took this picture. It's a very pretty cemetery in Belding.

Lake Michigan! Just kidding...it's Long Lake.

Us at his mom & step dad's to visit with/meet his step sister and her family.

BT snapped an awesome picture of downtown Ionia on our way to meet his step mom, half-sister and her husband for dinner.

Found me a souvenir at McCord's!

SATURDAY

I was feeling like hell come Saturday...apparently BT thought it was funny.

I didn't let that deter me from visiting the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market though!

After visiting (and being disappointed by) the market, we stopped for breakfast at the Broken Egg and tried to clear up our congestion with this stuff.