The Start of our Annual Birthday Trip, Destination: Saugatuck, Michigan!

Hey, it's podcast Tuesday! We've got all kinds of stories from our week of speaking and our vacation...and below you'll find some pictures from our vacation, too! :) ENJOY!

 Listen here!

In case you're new to the old blogaroo, allow me to catch you up on our birthday trips! Ryan and I have birthdays that are just about three weeks apart, so when we first got married, we elected to begin a tradition of taking a trip near our birthdays as sort of a gift to each other. (We still give gifts to each other, of course, but this is a fun thing we've enjoyed doing. You can see all our trip recap here, if you're looking for vacation ideas!)

So three years ago, we headed to Holland, Michigan, for the tulip festival, and there were SO MANY THINGS about that trip that were hilarious disasters. Heading the list was the lack of tulips, which didn't bloom because of the Polar Vortex that winter. We said we didn't want to go back to Michigan for a birthday trip again, because it was too risky if we wanted warm weather. Wellllllllllll, then we decided to try it again this year, and wouldn't you know it. Freezing cold and rainy the entire weekend. Isn't it so funny?

So here is a peek at the start of our trip. Annual photo:

Also. Can we pause to ask how we are into FIFTH annual anything? Sorry we both look a little blah in this picture. It was early, we were tired, and clearly under-caffeinated.

It was cold and rainy the morning we left, we couldn't get our GPS to take our destination address, and we were laughing already about the mess this was turning out to be. So it came as no surprise that a semi blocked my view of the Welcome to Michigan sign and now our scrapbook memory of entering Michigan looks like this:

Sigh.

We had to switch up some plans immediately because of the weather, so our first stop was in the lovely town of South Haven, Michigan. Neither of us had ever been there before, but I really wanted to see the lighthouse I'm always seeing in pictures!

So we went right out there on that beach, where the temp was in the 30's, it was starting to rain, and we were layered up in hats, coats, and we would have added gloves if we'd brought them!

First glimpse!! See it out there at the end of the pier? (Ryan wanted to climb on the rocks.)

 So. Cold.

 I have to confess it was much smaller in real life than it always looks in the pictures I see online. But it's still a lighthouse, and I love them!

 How glad was I that I was NOT on that sailboat out there?

Found a coffee shop on the beach. Closed. Because of course.

We decided to go ahead and have lunch there in South Haven, so Ryan read some reviews quickly and decided on a little restaurant called Clementine's. Our food was really good! (Ryan got some sandwich that had seafood on it and I had a salad with really flavorful chicken!)

After lunch, we decided to walk around for a while, check out some of the shops, and maybe hit up the local coffee shop. You know. Maybe.

 We found this cute little coffee shop called The Living Room, and it really felt like one! (So much so that someone took a nap during his coffee. Yes, you read that right. DURING!) Good coffee, great atmosphere, and a nice warm-up break on a chilly day!

(Sorry about the lighting. I'd call it my halo, but we both know better.)

 One of our favorite stores on our little tour around town was this shop that had a HUGE third floor that used to be a ballroom. Original wood floors, exposed brick walls, huge wall of windows: our Fixer Upper minds were spinning!

So that was our visit to South Haven! We left there about mid-afternoon and drove to our home base for the weekend. A bed and breakfast, or more specifically, boat and breakfast, that I can't wait to show you tomorrow!