A white Christmas, part 3

I know these are long posts about our wonderfully white Christmas, but I sure hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Even though I treasure the family photos and memories from the last two posts, this one is my favorite. All the pictures in this post are from after Christmas, but they are still part of our "Christmas vacation".

Above is a photo from our drive up North on US-27. There was plenty of snow on the ground and fresh snow coming all around. Possibly even more than the snow, Matt and I love the trees! There are few trees here in Texas and they are certainly something we miss. The drive up North, as many of you know, brings more and more trees, and then more and more pines (my personal favorite!).



This is more of our drive to our anniversary destination: Traverse City.

We splurged and got a room at the Grand Traverse Resort. It had a beautiful view of the bay, which is why we splurged, but it was a little tricky getting what we asked for. When we first arrived, we were a little early for check-in, but asked if there our room was ready just in case. Lucky for us, they had one on the 3rd floor and we dashed up the glass elevator to see what was in store for us. We walked into a beautiful room with huge windows and a huge bed and a huge tub, and a view of the parking lot! (Oh, there's the Jeep right there...)

So Matt went back to the front desk and asked if they possibly had a room with a bay view (pretty please) because we would love it if they did! And truly, that was the whole reason we paid what we did. They had a bay-view room, and said it would be about an hour before it was ready. Yay! We wandered around the hotel while we waited. Later they called and gave us our new room keys. We ventured upstairs, now to the 5th floor, and walked into a beautiful bay-view room that smelled so much like smoke, you couldn't even get over it. We tried to see if we would get used to it or if there was a fan of some kind... At this point we thought, wow, we had no idea we could be so picky. We felt sort of bad. We think the room used to be smoking and wasn't anymore, but clearly a carpet replacement was in order. Nonetheless, not only had we paid for bay-view, but also non-smoking.

So this time I went to the desk to give Matt a break. I explained about the smoking and without an instant of hesitation, she assigned us a brand sparkling new room, now on the 11th floor! We're moving up! Again we ventured upstairs and found just the right room.

With a terrific view of Grand Traverse Bay. Happy two years!

The next day we drove to the cottage in Elk Rapids. Along the way, we stopped on Bayshore Drive for these beautiful views of the bay.



These might be cherry trees, but I'm not sure. Does anyone out there know? The red foilage is gorgeous against the white snow.

The land you see on the opposite side of the bay is the peninsula that runs between the West and East arms of the bay.

We are so enthralled with the beauty in this area of the country and while we were there we imagined a day when we may own a place here. Until then, Mike and Cindy will always have visitors at the cottage. In fact, next year we will forego the hotel altogether and just enjoy Birch Lake.

If you like the distant views of the bay, you will love these. These photos are taken near the water's edge. Can you believe it, turquoise waters in the middle of a freezing winter! It was frigid that day and a strong winter storm was blowing in. You can see it on the horizon.



The piece of land you see is Old Mission Point, which is the tip of that peninsula.

The storm moves in further and the surf against the icy beach is sooo captivating. There are literally mini icebergs floating in the water in front of us. It's stunning! (Nice work, God!)



Here you can really see the floating ice.



And here's more of the splashing surf.

One of these will definitely be going on our wall soon. Let me know if you have a favorite. Feel free to cast your vote in a response:)

Here are Matt and I in front of the bay at the harbor in Elk Rapids.



The snowy beach.

There were seagulls sunning themselves on the concrete. You need all the warmth you can get when it's zero degrees outside. As Grandpa Clare would say, "Damn seagulls!"





Eventually we made it to the cottage. This is the front (lakeside) of the cottage. It took me the longest time to get used to the "front" of the house being on the opposite side of which you enter the house, but that's how those Keilen-folk say it when they're up North. The reason, I realized, is because then you get to open your front door to beautiful Birch Lake.

There was just a touch of snow in the back, about a 3-4 foot drift across the backyard.

Perhaps this summer we will post some pictures of the inside of the cottage. Mike and Cindy have spent the last few years renovating and it looks phenomenal. Renovating isn't quite the right word though because the changes they have made have not redone the cottage, but truly enhanced it's original charm and character. Rita and Clare would love to see it and be so proud!