We are back in L.A.!!! We just spent the past week in Northern MI with my parents! Although I grew up in MI, we've really never explored the state. I remember a few times visiting Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw) Island once or twice, but that's it.

Northern MI was gorgeous!!! We went to Petoskey, Traverse City and Mackinac, stopping at little shopping areas and lakes in between!

Here's our trip to Mackinac. This is a historical island with tons of history, a lot of fudge and no cars! There are no cars allowed on the island, only horse and buggy and bikes. They actually shot Somewhere in Time here. The water (below) is gorgeous!!! We got this shot when we were on our 8.6 mile bike ride around the island!



The rest of Northern MI was just as beautiful. So many gorgeous lakes! The National Cherry Festival was going on while we were in Traverse City, so we checked that out one day. We also ate at a great Polish restaurant (thanks Josh!) called Legs Inn, stopped by a light house in Charlevoix, saw a GORGEOUS Sunset at the tip of the Old Mission Peninsula, stood at the 45th Parallel, half way between the Equator and the North Pole (also at the Old Mission Peninsula), ate at the BEST cheese shanty (thanks Kathy!), went to Sleeping Bear Dunes (voted most beautiful place in America by Good Morning America!!), and went to an amazing winery, Chateau Chantal.


Because most of this trip was spent traveling around MI, instead of visiting in the area I grew up, I didn't get to spend time with any of my friends like I would have liked. However! We lucked out, and one of my best friends Ginger was doing the same trip we were, only a few days ahead of us! We crossed paths at one point and we got to see Ginger and her adorable daughter Cali! It was for a short 20 minutes, but I was so glad we met up!



Josh, Suzy, Gram and Gimmy weren't able to come on the trip, but we did get to spend a few days with them at home! Josh's b-day was in June, so we did a late celebration at Kruse & Muer and my mom made some amazing mint chocolate chip cupcakes for dessert! We gave Josh a grilling cook book, which he later made all of us an amazing meal from!

It was such a fun trip!!!