St. Joseph Getaway

If there's one town the Gwynnes love to visit, it's St. Joseph, Michigan. Since we honeymooned there three years ago, we've managed to visit each summer. Sometimes, it's been for a day. Other years, we've spent a weekend. This year, we were able to take our first mini-vacation of the year with 3 days in the area. We drove up after church last Sunday and arrived in time for dinner.

One thing I love about staying in downtown St. Joe is the ability to walk everywhere. We were within walking distance of many restaurants, cute shops, and, most important, the beach.

Every year, the town has a different theme and displays various sculptures around downtown. This year, we enjoyed their Barnyard at the Beach!

Dinner our first night in town was at a new favorite (for us), Clementine's. It's right on the river and provided a great view of the boats coming in from a day on the lake.

After strong thunderstorms came through on Monday morning and postponed our plans for the beach, we drove an hour north to Holland, where we enjoyed lunch (and a slice of Snickers pie for dessert) at Russ'.

The Silver Beach carousel opened last year, but we enjoyed our first ride this year. We shared our ride on the peacock, which is a bench that rocks back and forth (think of it as an extreme rocking chair). I felt like the thing was going to launch me off the ride! It was super fun. We'd received an extra token, so I made sure to spend my second ride on the University of Michigan horse. I was the only person on the ride, so I had fun being the VIP, as the announcer referred to me.

We stayed on the seventh floor of the hotel, so this was our view from the room. Beautiful!

On the way home on Tuesday, we stopped for lunch at The Stray Dog in New Buffalo. Our favorite part is the patio on the rooftop. My favorite part of this particular visit was being asked if I was 21. This was music to my ears, considering I'm mere months away from a big birthday (and it's not 21).