6-3 to 6-5-2018 Anniversary Trip to northern Michigan

We had finished work with our client in northern Indiana, and our anniversary was coming right up, so we decided to head
north to one of our favorite towns - Traverse City, Michigan. We found a good deal at the historic Park Place Hotel in the
heart of downtown, so we booked two nights.

The view of downtown and the bay from the rooftop bar of our hotel.

   

There was a cold spell going on, and it rained a lot one day (should have checked the weather before we came here, I guess), but we still enjoyed wandering around and seeing how things have changed in the five years since our last visit.

What had been a liquor store and parking lot is now a food truck court.

We looked at our lunch options and decided on Cordwood BBQ.

We tried jackfruit for the first time in the form of a "Sloppy Jack" sandwich with BBQ jackfruit, and we both loved it!

We also loved the waste disposal options at this food court.

We checked out the waterfront parks.

 

 

We had the $6 burger and beer special at Firefly restaurant (Cara was able to sub a nice veggie burger).

After checking our of our hotel we headed over to nearby Torch Lake to surprise some friends we met in Belize who own a
marina there. (Unfortunately, we failed to get a photo.) They were working, so we decided to drive around the lake and visit
the small towns. We stopped for lunch in Bellaire.

We had a nice lunch at Short's Brewing Company.

We drove on and stopped in Elk Rapids to walk around.

 

We stopped at the Short's Brewing Company production facility. We later met one of our friends for dinner at a nearby
restaurant, and again failed to get a photo. We decided to drive all night back to northern Indiana after that.