Living on Cloud Nine: Vacation without kids

Happy Friday friends! So today, I’m sharing our vacation recap after the kids left when it was just my sweet Mr. Nine and I! On Wednesday, I shared some more of my vacation outfits. I took some dressier things but truly it is just so laid-back. We were sad they left, but we definitely enjoyed our time together without any place to be footloose and fancy free, lol!

1. Carefree Day & Fireworks

On the day the kids left, we were Out and About.

We went for a walk to our traditional conundrum Café for a crème Brulé frappe for me and beer for Mr. Nine. We had the best french fries in the state of Michigan at Frankz hot dog place, had a ball talking to the owner Joe, Got silly in the Grocery Store, met Mike who is a big Instagram star and works for the Harbor Lights Resort up there while he was helping wrangle a snake that was in the water that wasn’t even a water snake, lol. ( I won't show you the photo of the snake)

My View when getting ready...

Like I mentioned last week, the fireworks got rained out on the 4th so Mr. Nine and I watched them from the deck of our place of the lake the following evening and I have to say, they were spectacular!

2. Sutton's Bay

Every year when we go on a vacation, we take a day trip somewhere! Up north Michigan is literally a plethora for fabulous little lake towns and Sutton’s Bay did not disappoint! It was so darling! We did a little shopping, had a little lunch, and found with us now our favorite brewery that’s far in our years of brewery hopping, lol….

3. Hop Lot

OK, whoever created this place north of Traverse City is absolutely genius! I just wanted to stay there and camp out, LOL! You can get Smore‘s kits for all the open fire pits, they have the most wonderful food that we didn’t know about so we just after for drinks but we will definitely be headed back up there sometime. It is just cooler that I can even note. I think all of you whether you like breweries or not would love this place there were a lot of kids there and they had cute little areas like this one that I got for the web for kids to play.

In fact, before we got the photo, a little boy told me that this was “his” restaurant, lol

4. Kayaking

We literally have the most beautiful day for kayaking the two-hour truck down the Platte River! It was the perfect temperature, and we went early enough that it had not gotten too busy yet! Talk about true serenity!

Then we sat and had some snacks and found a neat little beach area that we had not known about. Our plan was to go back the next morning but unfortunately it rained. Next we were headed to...

5. Sleeping Bear Dunes Climb

We have not climbed the sand dune in years and in fact, it has been even longer for me because one year when the boys wanted to do it, I refused because it was 95° and the sand was scorching. Needless to say, they didn’t go very far but this time Mr. Nine and I made it up to the peak and what a view! Sleeping bear dunes has been noted as one of the most beautiful places in the United States. It is truly a sight to behold.

Side-note, the kayaking, and dune climb were done in the same day and by the time we were done at the dunes I truly looked my absolute worst but Mr. Nine decided it would be nice to have an early bird dinner so we could chill in the condo the rest of the night. I had no make-up with me, but we went to our favorite hole in the wall called Joe’s Friendly Tavern and I didn’t even care, now that is relaxed and vacationing, lol!

Wrapping it up..

There wasn’t much to report on our last day, like I said we got rained out for our original plans in the morning, so we just had a nice little lunch at the storm cloud, sat on the beach for a couple hours, ate our traditional Friday Fish from the Port house in the park, ate ice cream and got to enjoy a Friday evening concert in the park as well! Then it was a beautiful sunset night and a running game of rummy on the porch.