Every year we try to go on a littl getaway not too far from home around the time of my birthday. Most of the time we go to the Grand Geneva resort in Lake Geneva, WI. That's where we went a couple of weeks ago. It was a nice long and relaxing weekend. We spent some time at the indoor water park at the neighboring resort and had 2 really excellent dinners - one at the Geneva Chop House and another at a quaint restaurant inside of an old house called Gilbert's. I would definitely recommend Gilbert's if you are ever in Lake Geneva. We ordered dinner off of the menu. However, one of the options there is to order a 4, 6 or 7 course surprise meal prepared by the chef. If we go again, we plan to do that. Everything was incredible and not only tasted good but also looked beautiful! The chef is very artistic!
The entrance to the Grand Geneva!
Gilbert's Restaurant. We ate on the front porch, right there behind the big glass windows! There was a big water fountain on the porch and beautiful tables with white linens and fantastic service. Everything was exquisitely prepared.
It's hard to see, but this stop sign lights up. It is powered by the sun. I thought it was cool, so I took a picture. You can see the solar panel at the top of the sign.
The wait staff at the Geneva Chop House, which is inside of the hotel, not only gave me this rose when we arrived for dinner, but also gave me a big beanpod candle for my birthday and a free dessert sample platter with creme brulee, chocolate cake, raspberry cheesecake and carrot cake.
Some of the ski slopes at the Grand Geneva.
Just about everywhere you looked, there were trees everywhere!
This one windmill was powering an entire energy station!
We took a 7 mile drive through the Sleeping Bear Dunes state park. Our first stop along the way was this covered bridge.
Our second stop we saw this crystal blue lake!
Here in the distance you can see Lake Michigan.
A nice lady offered to take a picture of us together.
Den at the top of the dune overlook. It is hard to see how steep this drop off was. From the edge of this picture, the drop off went straight down about 1/4 mile. There were warning signs about being careful about hiking all the way down there. We saw some people hike down. We didn't see anyone make it back up though.
Me looking out over the lake.
pretty deck walkway going up the dunes
Here you can see how steep the drop off is down to the lake.
Pure Michigan :)
Later on we headed north up the peninsula between East Traverse Bay and West Traverse Bay. A lighthouse and a log cabin were up in this area.
The lighthouse wasn't tall and skinny like I had expected, just attached to this house.
At this location we were halfway between the North Pole and the Equator.
Ahhhh! This eagle is going to carry Dennis away!
On Sunday we went to The Dennos Museum. It is an art museum which is part of Northwestern Michigan College. In the interactive wing there were some cool exhibits. This exhibit was pretty cool. You walked into a dark room and as you moved around, your movements were replayed on screen in slow and fast motion in different colors, etc.
Me
Den
Den and Me
Looking at some of the Native American Art
In this exhibit you could touch the different colored pieces of wood and each piece made a distanct musical sound, chord or type of music. By figuring out the correlation in colors and shapes you could play a song that went together.
Here is a virtual digital harp. There are no actual strings but as you move your hands you can play music.
McDonalds art in the Chinese/ Japanese wing
This exhibit took up an entire room. It is called "Carbon."
On Sunday we drove all the way up to Northport, MI on the western side of the bay between the bay and Lake Michigan. Can you tell, it was really sunny outside!
This was a very small state park.
Anotherbeautiful view.
a saliboat off in the distance
A lighthouse in northport.
Super comfy bed - really makes me want to get a King size bed.
Since I couldn't have any alcohol, Den sprung me some ginger ale from the mini bar. It looks kind of the same.
