Even though we were now a solid half hour closer to today’s first destination than we’d originally planned, we still woke up pretty early today after the best night’s sleep of the trip so far. We both agreed that the bed here was REALLY comfortable. And let’s face it, after yesterday’s excitement, we’d been pretty exhausted.
We got up and got ready and headed down to breakfast. Despite Tru being one of Hilton’s budget brands, the breakfast spread was solid. I had a bagel. Nick had pancakes from a machine that you put your plate under, waved your hand, and it deposited mini pancakes on your plate. He immediately wanted to stay at a Tru whenever possible in the future.
Breakfast eaten, we rounded everything up and Nick loaded up the car while I prepped bags of ice for the cooler. Need to keep the candy from melting! We checked out and were on the road between 7 and 8.
The drive north was uneventful, and most of it was through relatively rural areas, which was a nice change of pace. As an added bonus, today the weather was beautiful!
We made it to our lunch stop, Shipwreck Cafe, in Empire, MI, shortly before noon. This is a small sandwich shop. I had a sandwich that had turkey, havarti, cucumber, bacon and garlic mayo on a pretzel roll. Nick had a sandwich that had roast beef, cheese and horseradish on a pretzel roll. The pretzel rolls were more like soft pretzel sub rolls, which were fantastic and we both agreed that these sandwiches were some of the best we’ve ever had. If you’re ever passing through Empire, MI and you like a good sandwich, go to the Shipwreck Cafe!
Lunch eaten, we drove just a couple minutes around the corner to the visitor center for Sleeping Bear Dunes. Here we got the park map and took a few minutes to learn about the area, before we headed out for the main attraction.
The trip over to the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive from the visitor center was about 10 minutes. Once here, we stopped at just a couple of view points, and the drive itself didn’t take all that long, but it was well worth it. These dunes are pretty mind blowing, and I totally understand why people are fined significant amounts of money if they go down to the water and can’t make the climb up the dunes. Bottom line, Sleeping Bear Dunes was well worth the stop on this road trip. We both enjoyed it.
From here we drove about 10 more minutes to a stop that was all for Nick: Cherry Republic in Glen Arbor, MI. Cherry Republic is a store of all cherry stuff…sauces, sodas, candies, queso. However, they’ve created their own little campus, essentially. On this campus are a wine tasting room, restaurant, beer garden, pie food truck, ice cream truck and pit spitting field. It was a unique place to visit. Nick did some shopping, got some ice cream, and we split a wine tasting. I don’t particularly like cherries, but we both enjoyed the wines enough to bring some home.
Nick’s wallet significantly lighter, we piled back into the car and made the 45ish minute drive to our next hotel, the Mitchell Creek Inn in Traverse City. Here, we checked in and settled in for a bit. This was an older but clean motel.
After settling in, we headed for dinner at Sleder’s. It’s the oldest continuously operating restaurant in Michigan, so it was a natural choice. It was about a 10 minute drive from the hotel and easy enough to find with the help of good old Google Maps.
Dinner here was very good. I had an apple blueberry cider and an excellent grilled chicken sandwich. Nick had a stout, I think, and fried shrimp (in Michigan?!). We split fried cheese curds as an appetizer. Food was good, service was good, beverages were good. We’d have no hesitation eating here again if we were in the area.
Once we finished dinner, we headed for another natural spot for us…ice cream! I’d seen Moomers mentioned a lot as a Traverse City institution, so obviously we had to go there. And…it lived up to the hype. Nick had some sort of cherry ice cream and he definitely had a moment eating it. I had raspberry white chocolate ice cream and loved mine too.
Ice cream consumed, it was time for one more stop for Nick. It was a short drive to Traverse City Whiskey and after parking, we headed inside, where we found a great bar/lounge set-up. We ended up splitting the cakeless fruitcake flight, plus Nick got an additional pour of a more standard whiskey. They had surprisingly decent whiskeys, so Nick ended up buying a few bottles after we had enjoyed our time sitting at the bar.
We then headed back to the hotel, where Nick chilled and I took a quick walk across the street to Lake Michigan. It was a pretty night. I also stopped in a tourist store on the way back to the hotel, but didn’t buy anything.
Back at the hotel, I think we crashed relatively early, and we slept better than we expected, given that they’d put us in the very end room, closest to the road.
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