A Wintry Wine Tour in Traverse City

A benefit of working in the automotive industry is we get all sorts of weird holidays off… It has something to do with union negotiations (even though engineers don’t have a union, we still get all their holidays off. Pretty sweet deal!)

So we all get MLK day off, which means three day weekend, which means a visit to wine capital of Michigan! Yea, you heard that right. When you think wine, you think France, California, Italy, but not Michigan. Well let me show you what a wine tour looks like in the mitten state.

P.S. I will not be commenting on how the wine actually tastes because it all pretty much tastes like grapes, alcohol, and maybe oak if I’m smelling really hard.

Winery #1: Bonobo Winery

Our first stop was Bonobo winery, and probably my favorite of them all. We rented a bus to drive us to the different wineries (don’t drink and drive!), and our amazing driver set us up to have a room all to ourselves (about 14 of us in total). We were taken to this beautiful white room with huge windows overlooking the vineyard. Our waitress brought us a tasting menu with explanations of all the wines, and we got to tasting. The full tasting cost about $10, and we got to sample about 5 different wines.

Cheers! Our first tasting of the tour.

Bonobo winery had a piano in the main room, so Corinn played us a song!

Winery #2: Chateau Grand Traverse

I think we must have come on a bad day. There was an event going on, called Winter Warmup I believe. This meant there were A TON of people trying wine, and we weren’t able to do a tasting with such a large group. However, they opened up the patio for us (which was covered thank goodness!!), and we were able to order a glass out there and enjoy the sunshine and snow while covered in some snuggly blankets.

Cheesin’ because we have this patio all to ourselves!

Here’s me warming up with a good glass of wine and a warm blanket.

 

Winery #3: Brys Estate Vineyard and Winery

This wasn’t our last stop, but this is the last one I clearly remember so it’ll be the last for this post. We went to Brys, and they were also participating in the Winter Warmup event so they were incredibly crowded. The crowds were handled a bit better. In order to do the tasting, you had to walk in line around the winery to different stations. It felt like waiting in line at an amusement park. We were able to see some barrels and how the wine is fermented, but the waiting in line kind of dampened the experience. Still a cute place though!

Some wine barrels at Brys Estate Vineyard and Winery.

 

All in all, it was a fun day with friends. To rent a bus with ~14 people, it cost $40/person. At each winery I spent about $10 on glasses/tastings. It’s a great way to see some popular wineries in Traverse City, and I’m sure you could ask the driver to go elsewhere if you had other wineries in mind. My only recommendation is to not go when they are having large events. I think I enjoyed Bonobo Winery so much more because they were the only place not participating. I can’t wait to visit Traverse City again in the summer, and to try some more wine!

-Nina

Bruce Peninsula – Lion’s Head, Ontario

Summer is here, and I feel guilty for every second I spend that’s not outside, enjoying this gorgeous weather. Instead of hanging around Detroit this weekend, I decided to head off to the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario.

The Bruce Peninsula is flanked by the Georgian Bay to the east, and Lake Huron to the west. It’s a designated UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, and once you enter you can absolutely see why. The blue waters of the Georgian Bay make you feel like you’re in the Caribbean (the temperature quickly brings your mind back to Canada), and the forests and cliffs along the water feel like a whole other world.

Admiring the blue waters of the Georgian Bay.

For accommodation, we decided to get an Airbnb in Wiarton, which is at the base of the Bruce Peninsula. From there, you can make your way up to the numerous National and Provincial Parks along the Peninsula. If I could do it again, I would stay somewhere in the middle. It takes around an hour to drive from Wiarton to the tip of the peninsula (Tobermory), which meant we couldn’t do as much as we wanted to on Sunday.

We decided to spend our Saturday up in Lion’s Head. This is a small town that has an access point to the Bruce Trail. The Bruce Trail runs along the Georgian Bay all the way up the peninsula. Lion’s Head is a great place to get a feel for the trail with a 10-mile loop that goes along the coast, and comes back in through the forest.

The trail was absolutely beautiful. We started off going through the forest first. The trees were tall, and so wonderfully green. We started off this way so we could save the best for last. After about an hour in the forest, we broke out and were able to catch a first glimpse of the Georgian Bay. As we walked along the coast, the views kept getting better and better from the multitude of lookout points. Seriously, it felt like every 100 feet there was another cliff to stand on and admire the water. We walked for another few hours along the coast, and eventually made it back to the car.

The start of our hike led us through this beautiful forest. Beware of the bugs, however!

One of the many pit stops we took along the Bruce trail. It was hard to resist those views!

Cliffs everywhere! 

The loop itself takes around 6 hours to finish, and the trail head is located on Moore street in Lion’s Head. It’s not very difficult (minimal elevation gain), but you definitely spend a lot of time admiring the views. The rocks can get slippery, so make sure to bring shoes with good grips! There were also so many bugs in the forest, and we instantly regretted not bringing bug spray. There’s nowhere to stop and refill water bottles along the way, so make sure you bring enough to last you the six hours. I would also recommend long pants, as there was so much poison ivy along the path.

Once you’re done, make sure to head over to Marydale’s Family Restaurant in Lion’s Head. The food is delicious, and the service is amazing!

If you want to spend some time exploring Lion’s Head, they have kayaks available for rent to go into the Georgian Bay, and  beach that you can relax on. They also have a lighthouse to see, and an observation deck. Lion’s Head is a dark sky reserve, so if you’re out at night and want to see the stars (including the Milky way), I would definitely check it out. We didn’t have the opportunity to go because it was cloudy, but we’ll be there next time!

This lighthouse is in the town of Lion’s head. It’s a small town, but definitely worth it to explore!

I would highly recommend this trail in the Bruce Peninsula! It’s a beautiful way to spend the day, and so so so worth the drive.

-nina

 

 

Icefields Parkway Road Trip

After we had our fill of Banff (okay not our fill, but we figured we should make it up to Jasper at some point), we took the Icefields Parkway up to Canada’s largest national park. The Icefields Parkway is a road that will take you from Banff all the way to the town of Jasper (which is in Jasper national park… yes, it’s all very confusing). It also happens to be one of the most beautiful roads in the world. There’s tons of place to stop along the way, so definitely make a day out of it. You can take some hikes, look at icefields, admire mountains, and even jump into some freezing lakes. For our trip down the parkway, we took the following stops.

Herbert Lake

Distance from Banff: 62.4 km

Distance from Jasper: 226 km

This is the first stop along the parkway. Lonely Planet said you would be able to see the reflection of some mountain in it if the water is still enough. Unfortunately, the water was not still enough. Fortunately, there were bathrooms there so we could begin the never-ending stream of people saying they needed to pee.

You can kind of see the reflection of the mountain!

Crowfoot Glacier

Distance from Banff: 91 km

Distance from Jasper: 198 km

After having just learned what a glacier was, I was intrigued in finding one that looked like the foot of a crow. The book said it was actually a two-toed crow because one of the glaciers had already melted (very sad, very sad). It was a nice stop off on the road, but we had to hurry back before the tour buses caught up and forced us to sit behind a caravan of cars desperately trying to pass.

You can see the remnants of the third toe that melted away.

Bow Lake

Distance from Banff: 93.6 km

Distance from Jasper: 194 km

We knew bow lake would be amazing because there were approximately 6,087 tour buses parked alongside it. We wanted to see what all of the fuss was about. Turns out, the light mist we passed through made a rainbow right over the lake! We snapped a few pictures, but didn’t make it out before the tour buses. Fortunately, our next stop wasn’t too far away, so we could endure the slow pace of the buses as we went on the Peyto Summit.

We had some amazing luck to see this rainbow! It only lasted for a few minutes.

Bow Lake / Peyto Summit

Distance from Banff: ~94 km

Distance from Jasper: 195 km

The summit was a short uphill walk from the parking lot (which was so full). It was a nice chance to stretch our legs. It was fairly steep, and I was pretty excited to see what was on top. The pictures mentioned beautiful mountains, but what I got was a sea of selfie sticks. Sure, if you can manage to find a higher vantage point, the view is absolutely amazing, but honestly it was just too crowded. There were people in the dirt part under the platform, so we ventured down there to get some space. A few minutes later, a park ranger yelled at everyone saying there were signs saying to not go off the main path. Woops (I really didn’t see any signs I swear!). We meandered back to the car, and someone pee’d in the bushes because it had been 10 minutes and that is apparently the theme of our trip.

The view is absolutely amazing. Not pictured: A sea of selfie sticks.

Parker Ridge

Distance from Banff: 173.4 km

Distance from Jasper: 115 km

Parker Ridge is a hike off the side of the parkway. It takes around 2 hours, and has an elevation gain of 250m. It’s definitely a great way to stretch your legs after a long day in the car. When we went, it was sort of drizzling by the parking lot. It wasn’t too bad, so we decided to zip up our raincoats and go for it, in the hopes of finding the dramatic glacier views we were promised.

Luck was not with us that day. The higher we went, the colder it got. It started to snow! The fog rolled in and we saw some hints of a glacier. Oh well, at least I burned off some of those granola bars I was eating in the car…

You can see a hint of glacier behind me…

Horseshoe Lake

Distance from Banff: 260 km

Distance from Jasper: 28 km

Okay, so we actually went here on the way back down to Banff from Jasper, but I just had to mention it. Horseshoe lake is full with beautiful blue/green/clear water. The sign for it isn’t too big, and many people just drive right by it. We stopped in, and decided to take a walk before making our way back. Much to our surprise, we saw some kids cliff jumping! I had never cliff jumped before, so couldn’t say no to the opportunity. I quickly changed into my bathing suit, stood on the edge, and dove right in. The water was FREEZING. Like knock the breath out of you freezing (it’s glacier water, this totally makes sense). It was a struggle to swim back, but absolutely worth it.

You can see people lined up along the cliff edge, ready to jump into the ice water.

The ice fields parkway is something you definitely want to take a day to explore. This is one of those things that feels more about the journey than the destination. There are so many amazing stops to make. It makes it so difficult to choose just a few!

-nina