trip to western Michigan

Matt and I took a quick overnight trip to western Michigan for our mini baby moon. Having a whole day and half to ourselves to just talk was so nice and so needed. Of course, I kept seeing toddlers Jacob's age everywhere we went - at lunch, at the rest area, at dinner, at the beach, etc...it was like a little reminder and it made me miss him.

We stayed in Holland to take advantage of a free hotel stay at the Hampton Inn thanks to all of Matt's travels. (FYI, This was probably one of the worst Hamptons I've stayed in, but it wasn't bad, just not good.) Holland is actually where Matt and I took our first overnight trip together about 8 weeks after we started dating back in 2003. I can't believe it's been that long since we've been there! As soon as we got to Holland, we headed right away for a quick pub lunch at the Holland Brewing Company. Matt got yummy beer and was very happy. I didn't plan our trip too hard and I just wanted somewhere easy to eat. We really like walking through all the little shops in Holland and this definitely the best West Michigan town for strolling and shopping.

Next we checked in the hotel and headed to Saugatuck. I knew right away from Kathy that I wanted to get ice cream at Kilwin's. It brought back memories from being in Ann Arbor and going out on Saturday night for a date. After Kilwin's we browsed more shops in Saugatuck and then checked out the waterfront. There were some people with chairs watching the boats pass by while drinking wine. Not Matt and I!!

After checking out the Saugatuck scene and not seeing anything for dinner that really caught our eye, we decided to check out the city of Douglas nearby. I had seen a few ads for restaurants there and heard about a children's bookstore there I needed to check out. I was thinking it would be easier to get a good table if we weren't in Saugatuck where it seemed very busy. After buying some books for Jake, we passed by the Wild Dog Grille. I saw some shaded patio tables and decided we needed to get one of those tables (you can actually see where we sat in the picture on the website). The menu was perfect for us, cool but accessible gourmet. I had a wasabi crusted salmon with a lime coconut risotto cake. Delish! Probably one of the better meals we've had in a long time, score!!!

After dinner we headed to Mt Baldy to scope it out for hiking the next day. We decided to climb the stairs (all 302) to top rather than waiting until Sunday. The climb was hard, but I can never turn down a climb for a view. The view was just OK, but I was glad we worked off our dinner anyway. Then we headed off to Oval beach (which you can see from Mt Baldy) since it's supposed to be one of the top 25 beaches in the world (don't really get that). We ended up finding a nice bench and watching the sun set. It was hard to sit still that long actually, after going all day, lol!!

Today, we just slept in. I definitely sleep well knowing I dont have to get up for jake at 7am... We went to Saugatuck State Park and hiked to the beach. It was such a pretty, but hot day. Instead of sitting on the beach, we opted for more hiking in the shade and checked out a 3 mile loop. After 2 hours hiking (I hiked just as much on my last babymoon and also our honeymoon. We are crazy...) We checked out South Haven on our way back home. South Haven is really cute and I wished I had more time to see the waterfront and browse the stores. We did get another Kilwin's cone on our way out of town.

I am exhausted and will post pictures tomorrow... Glad to be home with Jake too :-)