Are the winter blues setting in? Are you ready for an inexpensive romantic
winter getaway? Do you enjoy wine and
good food? Thinking about something to
do over Valentine’s Day Weekend? How
‘bout spending the weekend in a cozy Northern Michigan cabin located in the
middle of the Leelanau Peninsula wine country and only 15 miles from Traverse
City? All our cabins are totally
remodeled with new beds, new furniture, Wi-Fi, TV’s and a fully stocked
kitchen. Is it sounding good, well it
gets better…
There are 23 wineries, a hard cider tasting
room and a distillery that are members of the Leelanau Peninsula Vintners
Association and most these tasting rooms are within a 30 minute drive from Sleeping Bear Resort. The wintertime is a great time of year to
visit the area wineries because there aren’t any crowds. Most the wineries are open Saturday and
Sunday too.
I’ve put together a sample itinerary I think you’ll really enjoy...
Friday Evening – If you can make it to Lake Ann by dinner time, have dinner at
The Little Traverse Inn
just north of Maple City. The Little Traverse Inn is a bed
and breakfast located 12 miles north of Sleeping
Bear Resort and is one of our favorite places to have dinner and a libation. They are open for dinner on Thursday, Friday
and Saturdays during the winter months.
They often have weekend live entertainment and dinner specials. You will enjoy talking to the owner Graeme
from Ireland. Make sure you tell him
that Randy & Doreen from Sleeping
Bear Resort sent you and you’ll be well taken care of. Graeme’s full dinner menu includes Irish
favorites like Shepherd’s Pie and on Fridays their special is fish &
chips. They have a good selection of
craft beers on draft as well.
Saturday Morning – Relax and have leisurely breakfast in the cabin before heading
out for your winery tour. Our kitchens
are fully stocked with utensils, so you’ll only need to bring a cooler with some
breakfast food. If you’re ambitious and
want to showshoe or cross country ski, you can take a snowshoe hike over the
covered bridge and discover Herendeene Lake in the wintertime or you can drive
about 3 miles to Lake Ann Pathway
and snowshoe their 1 mile loop adjacent to the Platte River and Lake Ann.
If you’re a cross country skier, I would
recommend Lost
Lake Pathway near Interlochen. This
is about a 10 mile drive from Sleeping
Bear Resort and the shortest loop would be about a 45 minute to one hour
ski.
Saturday Afternoon - It’s now time to head up into the peninsula for some lunch and
a few tasting rooms. Your first stop
will be at Gabe’s Market
for lunch and/or some cheese and crackers for the trip and in between
stops. Gabe’s is located three miles
north of the resort and is on the way to your first destination.
Start your venture by driving to the town of
Glen Arbor and visiting Cherry Republic.
Cherry
Republic has everything cherries and also has a tasting room with some very
good cherry wines. There are also some
very good restaurants in Glen Arbor if you would like to have a sit down lunch
somewhere.
After Glen Arbor, take M-22 north to M-204 to
the town of Lake Leelanau. Visit the Boathouse Vineyards in Lake
Leelanau. Most of the tasting rooms charge
about $5/person for 5 tastes but many will not charge if you purchase a bottle
or two of their wine. Make sure you ask about
their specials. Also, tell them that you
are staying at Sleeping Bear Resort
and we recommended the Boathouse.
After Boathouse Vineyards, go to Northern Latitudes Distillery
in Lake Leelanau. They have a really
good Lemoncello and very good horseradish vodka. If you want to get wild and crazy, stay a
while and try one of their Bloody Mary’s with their horseradish vodka.
From Northern Latitudes, find
your way to Tandem Ciders where you
can try several different flavors of hard cider. Tandem
Ciders is a very small place off the beaten path and you’ll really enjoy
the atmosphere there. There are usually
several locals bellied up to the tasting bar.
After leaving Tandem Ciders, work your way east to
M-22 and head south to Black Star Farms. Black
Star Farms is a large working farm with a very large selection of
wines. My personal favorites are the
dessert wines. Black Star Farms also makes their own
cheeses and they are excellent.
Saturday Evening
For Saturday night dinner, there are several
choices depending on your energy and your budget.
Relax and stay at the cabin and order take
out from The
Stone Oven in Lake Ann. Make sure
you like the Stone
Oven’s facebook page and you will see their daily specials posted about 5 o’clock every day. The Stone
Oven makes an excellent pizza too. They
have excellent food and the owners, Sam and Brian, do a fantastic job with their
specials. They only have about 4 or 5
tables in the restaurant so you can eat there or bring it back to the cabin.
If you feel like a very special dinner, make
reservations at LaBecasse or Funistrada in Burdickville. These are two fabulous restaurants located
not too far from each other and located about 15 miles from Sleeping Bear
Resort. Entrées at these two places will
run about $15 - $25/person. Make sure
you make reservations well in advance at LaBecasse or Funistrada.
For a less expensive evening, go downtown
Traverse City to Mackinaw Brewing
Company or Little Bohemia. Mackinaw
Brewing Company is known for their smoked ribs & chicken. All their food is very good though. Little Bohemia
also has excellent food and they are a little more of a bar atmosphere and
usually have live entertainment on Friday and Saturday nights.
Sunday Morning – On your way home you can stop for breakfast or lunch at Dilbert’s
near Interlochen which is a family restaurant that has fast service if you're anxious to get on the road.
If you have more time and want to explore a
little more, I would recommend going back to downtown Traverse City to do a
little shopping and/or have brunch at The Omelette Shoppe.
This is a full weekend but I think you’ll
really enjoy your time while staying at Sleeping
Bear Resort.
