Discover St. Joseph

It's not like you need to search for water fun outside of St Joseph. After all, St Joseph has 3 beaches on Lake Michigan within the city limits. And it has the Whirlpool Fountain for those who are so inclined. And of course you can learn to surf and kite board at the Third Coast Surf Shop . And let's not forget that you can rent a kayak at Outpost Sports and play in Lake Michigan's waves. So there are lots of options for water play right in St Joseph. But let's just say you wanted to try something different... ... like white water rafting! Where would you go... Colorado? Kentucky? Virginia? What about South Bend, Indiana? Now I'm not saying that the rafting in South Bend is equal to what you'd find in Colorado, or Kentucky, or Virginia, but I'm suggesting that you can have a lot of run rafting much closer to Michigan. South Bend, Indiana has a rafting/kayaking course called the East Race Waterway. It's right in the heart of downtown South Bend w...

Thanks to the very warm and sunny weather we've been having this spring, the tulips are blooming early in Holland. I've never had the opportunity to visit Holland during tulip-time and neither has D. So last Saturday, after our hunt for fruit tree blossoms in the St. Joseph and Coloma area , we made the 1 hr. drive from St. Joseph to Holland in search of blooming tulips. It didn't take us long to find tulips. They were right there under the city's welcome sign. I'd printed out the official Tulip Time Festival  brochure before we left for Holland so we had a map of the downtown area with us. We found the tulip-route in short order and discovered it had some nice blooming tulips. If I'm being honest here, I have to admit I was a bit underwhelmed. I guess I'd seen one too many promos for the Tulip Time Festival showing what looks like acres of multi-colored tulips. The tulip route was certainly not that. It's just a row of tulips planted at the foot of...

So I've had a home 90 minutes from Chicago for 10 months now and haven't made it to the windy city yet. That is until Thanksgiving weekend. D, DJ, and I made the drive over to have dinner and see the holiday lights on Saturday, Nov. 28th. Here's what we did... We left St. Joseph about 4pm. The sun was getting low in the sky and the shadows were long but the weather was clear. We took I-94 south and opted for the toll road, I-90, when we got to Indiana. That was a mistake as the road is under construction with reduced lanes, shifting lanes, and lots of rough surfaces. Being from Michigan, I'm used to rough roads but not when I have pay a toll to drive on them. :- 7 Driving into Chicago was the traffic nightmare I remembered. Even on a Saturday evening it was bumper to bumper traffic going 70+ mph in a 55mph zone. We knew this would likely be the case but taking the train was not an option. My ability to walk long distances or stand for any length of time has been severel...

Saturday was Sweetest Day. D and I started the day off with breakfast at Sophia's and returned home in time to watch the pregame show before the U of M vs Delaware State football game. The game was fun to watch just for the shear joy of seeing so many touchdowns. Wow! Go Blue! When the game was over, we headed out in search of fall colors and Sweetest Day treats. Our first stop was the Karma Vista Vineyards in Coloma. We'd been there before and remembered the beautiful vistas. I also wanted to get some pictures of the mature grape vines and pick up some wine for gifts. :-) The sun was playing peek-a-boo behind the clouds so we had to be patient to get the pics. But it was worth it! Then we ducked inside and grabbed a few bottles of wine before moving on. The place was really crowded! Next stop was the Chocolate Garden , also in Coloma. We hadn't been to the Chocolate Garden before but we'd seen plenty of signs for it and heard good things from friends too. It's an...

Today is just the kind of day we saw too little of this summer, sunny, bright blue cloudless sky, and the temperature near 80F. A perfect late summer day. So rather than spending the day inside on the computer I decided to play hooky. K was totally up for the idea. And lucky for you, I took my camera along ;-) My first stop was at Culver's for a chicken Caesar salad to-go. They really do make a great chicken Caesar salad... my favorite of the fast food places. Next stop was Lookout Park in St. Joseph. Lookout Park is located on Lakeshore Drive just south of Hilltop Rd. It's one of my favorite parks in the area. At lunch time, it's lots of people's favorite spot. The parking lot is often full with folks who like to eat lunch while looking out at beautiful Lake Michigan. During the summer there's a hot dog cart parked there during the weekday lunch hour but the cart wasn't there today, hence my stop at Culver's. I must tell you that this is no ordinary hot dog...