Memorial Day Weekend, 2009
We had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend in St. Joseph, Michigan! Mother nature gave us lovely weather... sunny and highs in the low to mid 70s. I don't know that it's reasonable to expect 3 days in a row in late May to be any better than that. :-)
This was our first non-work weekend. Up until now, we've spent every weekend working on the condo. We managed to get the ceilings and every room on the main floor (5) painted, installed a new toilet in the 1/2 bath, replaced the garage door opener, had new countertops, sink and faucet installed, painted the master bedroom, got all new kitchen appliances installed, bought some new furniture and moved a houseful of our old furniture in, and did a LOT of cleaning. All that in just 10 weekends!
The last 3 months have been very intense. We were focused and didn't allow ourselves to get distracted by exploring the city and surrounding area. As a consequence, this weekend was our first chance to really relax and enjoy St. Joseph.
We arrived Friday evening and immediately went grocery shopping. Up until this point we'd been eating out every meal, mostly fast food :-( Now it was time to stock the refrigerator and cupboards. We shopped at Martin's and found everything we were looking for. It's a very nice grocery store :-)
Saturday morning we headed down to Mishawaka, IN to do a little shopping. I'd never been to Mishawaka before. It looked to be quite the shopping mecca. We picked up a new TV at Best Buy and headed back home.
Our daughter, L, and her boyfriend, Jo, arrived early afternoon. We took them on a driving tour around the city of St. Joe including the downtown area and Silver and Lion's Park beaches. We had a late lunch at Schu's on Lake Street and stopped at the Chocolate Cafe for dessert. Yum!
When we got back to the condo, L & Jo got out the bicycles and rode the bike trail into town. They enjoyed it but lost the trail near Silver Beach.
Our son, C, arrived early evening. We had our first home cooked meal at the condo, burgers on the grill (gotta have a bar b que on Memorial Weekend!), fresh fruit, a tossed salad, and birthday cake (cheese cake, actually) for dessert. It was my husband, D's, birthday.
The weather was warm and the pool was inviting. We headed on over to check it out. Nice pool! Heated too :-) The kids went swimming, D and I just stuck our toes in.
We ended the evening with a movie. We rented the video, "Yes Man" staring Jim Carey, and all of us sat around the new TV laughing out loud a good bit of the time.
Sunday morning D and I went to Mass at St. Joseph Catholic Church. The kids were up by the time we got home and D and I cooked a pancake breakfast. The weather was still sunny but not as warm. L & Jo went on another bike ride and this time followed the trail to the end. They loved it.
We spent a lazy afternoon around the condo playing video games and watching the Indy 500 and the Red Wings/Hawks playoff game on TV. L and Jo went down to Lion's Park beach just to sit in the sun and read a while.
Dinner was pizza from Passero's. I'm not a huge pizza fan but I liked it. Everyone else loved it. They're all pizza fans ;-) C was kind of bored, not having a friend there, so he headed home after dinner. L and Jo swam in the pool again. D and I cleaned up the kitchen and then the 4 of us headed over to Tiscornia Beach to watch the sunset. The wind was blowing which made for very hearty waves. There were just enough clouds in the sky to make for an interesting sunset. L and Jo walked out to the lighthouses. D and I stayed on the beach taking lots of pictures, trying to capture Lake Michigan's mood.
We spent the evening playing Euchre with L and Jo. We won the first game, they won the second.
Monday morning we slept in then went to Sophia's House of pancakes for breakfast at lunchtime. I'm a big fan of breakfasts and Sophia's does breakfasts proud! It's the restaurant we've visited the most since becoming residents of St. Joe. D and I always share a ham and cheese omelet with pancakes... makes my mouth water just thinking about it!
After breakfast, we headed over to the Karma Vista Vineyard in Coloma. It was our first time to the vineyard and the city. We taste-sampled several varieties and bought several bottles to bring home. Delicious!
When we got back to the condo, we unpacked the many boxes of kitchen stuff (pots, pans, utensils) that were stacked in the living room then sent the boxes home with L and Jo who will be moving this week. They left about 3:30 pm. Then D unpacked our new kitchen table and chair set that had been sitting in the garage for a couple of months.
D and I went to dinner at Cozumel's on Lakeshore Drive. It was our fist time there. The view of the lake was magnificent! All too soon the weekend had come to an end. It was a wonderful weekend and we are looking forward to many more happily spent in St. Joseph. I'll be writing up separate reviews of the places we visited in the days to come.
This was our first non-work weekend. Up until now, we've spent every weekend working on the condo. We managed to get the ceilings and every room on the main floor (5) painted, installed a new toilet in the 1/2 bath, replaced the garage door opener, had new countertops, sink and faucet installed, painted the master bedroom, got all new kitchen appliances installed, bought some new furniture and moved a houseful of our old furniture in, and did a LOT of cleaning. All that in just 10 weekends!
The last 3 months have been very intense. We were focused and didn't allow ourselves to get distracted by exploring the city and surrounding area. As a consequence, this weekend was our first chance to really relax and enjoy St. Joseph.
We arrived Friday evening and immediately went grocery shopping. Up until this point we'd been eating out every meal, mostly fast food :-( Now it was time to stock the refrigerator and cupboards. We shopped at Martin's and found everything we were looking for. It's a very nice grocery store :-)
Saturday morning we headed down to Mishawaka, IN to do a little shopping. I'd never been to Mishawaka before. It looked to be quite the shopping mecca. We picked up a new TV at Best Buy and headed back home.
Our daughter, L, and her boyfriend, Jo, arrived early afternoon. We took them on a driving tour around the city of St. Joe including the downtown area and Silver and Lion's Park beaches. We had a late lunch at Schu's on Lake Street and stopped at the Chocolate Cafe for dessert. Yum!
When we got back to the condo, L & Jo got out the bicycles and rode the bike trail into town. They enjoyed it but lost the trail near Silver Beach.
Our son, C, arrived early evening. We had our first home cooked meal at the condo, burgers on the grill (gotta have a bar b que on Memorial Weekend!), fresh fruit, a tossed salad, and birthday cake (cheese cake, actually) for dessert. It was my husband, D's, birthday.
The weather was warm and the pool was inviting. We headed on over to check it out. Nice pool! Heated too :-) The kids went swimming, D and I just stuck our toes in.
We ended the evening with a movie. We rented the video, "Yes Man" staring Jim Carey, and all of us sat around the new TV laughing out loud a good bit of the time.
Sunday morning D and I went to Mass at St. Joseph Catholic Church. The kids were up by the time we got home and D and I cooked a pancake breakfast. The weather was still sunny but not as warm. L & Jo went on another bike ride and this time followed the trail to the end. They loved it.
We spent a lazy afternoon around the condo playing video games and watching the Indy 500 and the Red Wings/Hawks playoff game on TV. L and Jo went down to Lion's Park beach just to sit in the sun and read a while.
Dinner was pizza from Passero's. I'm not a huge pizza fan but I liked it. Everyone else loved it. They're all pizza fans ;-) C was kind of bored, not having a friend there, so he headed home after dinner. L and Jo swam in the pool again. D and I cleaned up the kitchen and then the 4 of us headed over to Tiscornia Beach to watch the sunset. The wind was blowing which made for very hearty waves. There were just enough clouds in the sky to make for an interesting sunset. L and Jo walked out to the lighthouses. D and I stayed on the beach taking lots of pictures, trying to capture Lake Michigan's mood.
We spent the evening playing Euchre with L and Jo. We won the first game, they won the second.
Monday morning we slept in then went to Sophia's House of pancakes for breakfast at lunchtime. I'm a big fan of breakfasts and Sophia's does breakfasts proud! It's the restaurant we've visited the most since becoming residents of St. Joe. D and I always share a ham and cheese omelet with pancakes... makes my mouth water just thinking about it!
After breakfast, we headed over to the Karma Vista Vineyard in Coloma. It was our first time to the vineyard and the city. We taste-sampled several varieties and bought several bottles to bring home. Delicious!
When we got back to the condo, we unpacked the many boxes of kitchen stuff (pots, pans, utensils) that were stacked in the living room then sent the boxes home with L and Jo who will be moving this week. They left about 3:30 pm. Then D unpacked our new kitchen table and chair set that had been sitting in the garage for a couple of months.
D and I went to dinner at Cozumel's on Lakeshore Drive. It was our fist time there. The view of the lake was magnificent! All too soon the weekend had come to an end. It was a wonderful weekend and we are looking forward to many more happily spent in St. Joseph. I'll be writing up separate reviews of the places we visited in the days to come.
