Wine Tasting in Northern Michigan

Yesterday, it was a little overcast, so we drove to Traverse City for wine tasting. We stopped briefly at the Congregational Summer Assembly for a game of fooseball.Our first winery was L. Mawby where they are known for their bubbles.My sister-in-law and her fiance obliged me in taking several fun photos. We loved the cat weathervane. Mr. F was not as excited to take photos,  but he made up for it in the grape fields!We picked our favorite bubbles and  had fish pate and crackers on the patio. We saw a neat, yellow, furry caterpillar near us.I love self portraits, can you tell?!Our second stop was the Peninsula Winery in an old schoolhouse. We enjoyed their riesling!The 2 Lads winery was the last stop.It was a neat corrugated, modern building with an amazing view of Grand Traverse Bay.Of course, Mr. F and I took more pictures outside!We had so much fun.Check out the view from inside the tasting room!KJ and my sister helped pick out a few fun wines for dinner too.My favorite was the Cab Franc rose and not just because it matched my Land's End Canvas shirt!

Our first few days of vacation in Michigan

We drove up to Michigan on Saturday morning with my in laws for a week long vacation. We're also celebrating my sister-in-law and her fiance too! The weather was absolutely perfect, Saturday afternoon with 70 degree weather. Unfortunately, the water was in the upper 40s! Apparently the North winds have been blowing a colder water into the area, but it should improve in temperature later this week. 

Sunday morning, we took a walk to Point Betsie lighthouse! 

It was a nice hour long walk, around a mile and a half. 

After lunch, we got more exercise by playing tennis! This morning, it's raining so I'm catching up on my blogging but we're going to Traverse City later to check out the wineries!

My office 80s themed bowling party!

On Friday, my office had an 80s themed bowling party for our company picnic. My department really got into the dressing up part. I really enjoyed backcombing my hair for the part.It was a cosmic bowling alley too, with lots of black light and neon colors.The kids especially enjoyed the glow-in-the-dark jewelry! Yay for office parties!

My sister came for an impromptu visit!

My middle sister was in the Midwest for a long weekend and drove down from Milwaukee to visit for a night. It was such a nice, quick visit!She picked me up from work and we went for a walk in River North. We even got frozen yogurt. After dinner, Janie suggested we do an intense but quick workout of lunges and a short run. It was tiring! We did have a nice cool down by taking pictures on the bridge near my house. It was a great sister bonding time. 

The next morning, Janie took me to work in her cute red rental Fiat.Before she dropped me off at work in Park Ridge, we stopped one block away at my grandmother's old high school!

Of all the suburbs in Chicago, I happen to work in the one that my grandmother grew up in! Thus, my sister and I had take lots of pictures documenting our visit to our grandmother's high school! It was so wonderful to spend time with my sister!!! 

Foodie weekend in San Francisco

This was our view from our San Francisco hotel,the Westin St. Francis, over the weekend. It was sunny Friday afternoon so we walked towards the Yerba Buena Gardens  and the Mission neighborhood after my conference was done for the day. The Foreign Cinema was recommended to us, by a friend,  and we were delighted that we had dinner there! We had delicious West Coast oysters, a fresh salad with cucumber and goat cheese, fancy fried chicken, and also salmon and green beans.For dessert, we had peach pavlova! On Saturday, I was in a conference for most of the day but they did have wonderful desserts in the lunch buffet! Late Saturday afternoon, we took a trip the Golden Gate Bridge. Unfortunately, it was soo foggy that you couldn't really see the bright orange bridge! It was refreshing to be on the Pacific Ocean again! For dinner, we had another great dinner recommendation. At Barbacco, we had yummy beet salad, delectablepasta with lemon olive oil cake with strawberries. 

On Sunday morning, we got breakfast at a cute diner called, Cozy Cable Car Cafe!We loved getting sweet and savory crepes before going to the airport.We stopped by a few statues in Union Square before checking out of the hotel. Kuky even made the trip to San Francisco.We felt so pampered and really enjoyed all this wonderful food for our anniversary weekend!