After what seemed like a particularly long ride (it really wasn't but felt that way), we arrived at the Park Place Hotel. What a beautiful, old building. We had a "bay view", and I guess you could call it that as we were on the 5th floor and could see the bay through the buildings in front of our window :-) The hotel is in a great location for hitting the strip. We walked to dinner at Bubba's, a burger and beer joint, just a few blocks away. Since the night was still young, we stopped by Poppycocks for drinks after dinner. Who knew that Cosmos were so delicious?!? After finishing off our drinks, we walked back to the hotel where we ended the night at a small piano bar at the top of the hotel. The place was packed, and we all had a lot of fun. So much fun, in fact, that we were even treated to some disco and robot dance moves by the dance master himself :-)
Saturday morning was a bit rough for some in the group, but nothing that a little bacon and eggs from the Omelette Shop couldn't fix. After a hearty breakfast, we headed to the Leelanau Peninsula to participate in the Toast the Season event at the local wineries. Upon our event check-in, we got a gift bag with several wine souvenirs, including the wine glasses that we used for tasting along the route. We started out at Leelanau Cellars and from there went to Good Neighbor Organics, Gills Pier, L. Mawby, Ciccone Vineyards, Black Star Farms (a group favorite!), Willow Vineyards, and Chateau de Leelanau. Of all of the wines we tasted, I actually liked the apple cherry hard cider from Black Star the best. They served it warm, which was perfect on such a cold, rainy day. After the first few wineries, we started slowing down on the wine tasting but each of them also had a sampling of some great food. Our favorites were the eggplant parmesan and apple and peach cobbler with vanilla fondue.
The whole group - Us, Jill, Eric, Brian, and Sara
Us at Ciccone Vineyards
After wine tasting and eating all afternoon, we headed back to our rooms for power naps and freshening up for dinner. We made reservations at Trattoria Stella, an Italian restaurant in the basement of a former mental hospital that is in the process of renovation. Actually, the restaurant has been there for over 4 years, but the place is absolutely massive. They're in the process of adding more shops and condos, but there are still some sections that haven't been touched. Literally looks like scenes from a horror movie! Our waiter even shared a couple of ghost stories with us. Creepy!
Eric and Brian walking through a construction zone outside part of the hospital.
Thankfully, dinner was absolutely the opposite of horrific. We had a wonderful meal. Let me just say that as strange as it sounds, pumpkin lasagna is amazing! Somehow, we managed to find room to eat birthday cake after dinner, courtesy of my mom. After all of that food, we pretty much went into a food coma and headed to our rooms early.
Anticipating the fantastic meal ahead.
To top the weekend off, we woke up to snow this morning. I must admit that although I'm hoping we don't have another rough winter like last year, it was a nice change to see the snow clinging to the trees. Here's hoping for a white Christmas (and then it can go away!).
We had a fantastic weekend with all of our friends, but we were definitely ready to get home to our little Miss Hannah. From the sound of it, she had a great time hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa. She tells me she's already looking forward to her next slumber party with them :-)
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