Weekend Away

We pulled Annie out of school on Friday and spirited the girls away for a weekend on the Leelanau Penninsula, one of our very favorite places in the world (it's a close second to Hawaii, and oh-so-much easier to get to . . .).  Jason and I have been spending weekends there since the summer after we were married, when we first met up with friends whose parents have a place at The Homestead.  We've camped at DH Day campground, spent a romantic pre-baby weekend at Black Star Farms just before Jemma was born, and try to get up there at least every year or so.  But this time was the first (except for one winter weekend we stayed with friends when Jemma was a 3-week-old baby) that we've brought the girls.  We were a lot hopeful and a little nervous.  We wanted them to love it, the way they loved South Haven and being at their up-north grandparents'.  And we wanted to love it WITH them, so we crossed fingers that they'd be up for a few adventures and we got in the car at 7:40 a.m. on Friday, destination a Homestead condo we'd rented on vrbo.com for two nights.

It.  Was.  Glorious.

I want to include almost every one of the (264) pictures we took over the three-day span, though that would be obnoxious.  But really, everything - from kayaking to hiking, from Funistrada to Art's, from doing puzzles at the coffee table to building a fairy house on the beach, from watching the sunset on our deck to seeing three (!) rainbows at once from the height of the overlook on Pierce Stocking Drive - was pretty magical.  And even though the girls continue their highly questionable vacation tradition of waking up pre-6:00 a.m. (ugh), and even though I had a weird, debilitating neck issue caused by a pinched nerve, and even though Saturday was chilly and drizzly, we are so glad we spent the time and the money to share one of our favorite places with them.  They did us proud.

Oh, and one of the best parts?  Stopping into The Cottage Book Shop, buying a copy of The Legend of Sleeping Bear, reading it to them on a bench outside, then walking to the end of the street to show them the two "baby bears" in the story in the form of North and South Manitou Islands.  I think that teachable moment makes up for all the Little Bear DVD they watched the whole way home yesterday.