I had last Friday off because New Year’s Eve fell on a Saturday, and I had Monday off as well, so Mer and I decided to take a trip out to Michigan to see Mom and Marc, whom we had not seen since last July. We headed out around one on Friday, and we made very good time since we ate before we left; we got to Mom and Marc’s place a little after 5:00. We did not have any extravagant plans that evening – we ate with Mom and Marc, and we visited, and Marc beat me in three straight games of chess. It was a pleasant and mellow evening.

We decided that Mer could be in charge of Saturday. We slept in, and I walked down to the beach and then into town with Mom for about an hour-long walk. Late in the morning, Mer and I headed out to the small town of Dowagiac. Dowagiac has a decent three-block-long downtown that has some nice restaurants and shops along it. Being that it was New Year’s Eve, most shops were closed, but the restaurants were still open. Mer had wanted to eat at a classic ice cream parlor, Caruso’s, but they had a very limited “real food” menu, and they had no public restrooms. We had wandered the downtown before going into the ice cream place, so we popped over to the nearby Italian restaurant, Woodfire. What a great find. It was a classic old building with high, tin-covered ceilings, and the place smelled great. They were playing fun swing music and 40s-era songs, and the booths were comfortable and pretty private. The food was fantastic. We certainly need to go back there again. We had a wonderful lunch, and then we headed over to Caruso’s for dessert. The place reminded me a lot of Taggart’s, a local ice cream place we have in Canton. Caruso’s also had a very good-looking candy counter, but we did not try any on this trip.

After dessert, we headed over to the town of Paw Paw, where we toured a winery. While we do not drink wine, the tours of how they make wine are interesting, and in this winery (St. Julian), they bottled fruit juices. We picked up a bottle of carbonated raspberry juice, which later proved to be excellent; Mer even liked it, and she usually only drinks water.

After the winery tour, we wandered the very cute downtown area of Paw Paw. They have a lot of water in and around the town, so we wandered to the lake and then followed a river partway back to our car. It looks like a great town to go explore when it is warmer.

We headed back to Mom and Marc’s place, but made a detour on the way home. We stopped at the Chocolate Garden, where they make truffles. Mer tried the pick-three sampler, twice, so she sampled very small amounts of six different truffles. She was very pleased with that. I passed, as I was getting hungry again for real food. We drove back home, passing though St. Joseph’s, one of our favorite Michigan towns. They have a high bluff that overlooks the lake, and the bluff was heavily decorated with lights for the Christmas season. The lights were not on yet, as it was still daylight out, but we talked about coming back to see them.

Back at home, Marc had made his excellent burgers. Mom and Marc had to make an appearance at a friend’s house, but told us we could eat if we wanted. I was quite hungry, so I ate, but Mer waited for Mom and Marc to get back later in the evening. Once they were back, and everyone had eaten, we talked about going to see the lights on the bluff in St. Joe’s. Mom and Marc said they would be happy to go along, so we piled in Marc’s car and headed north.

The night was fairly cool, and the wind was quite biting when it blew, but the bluff was beautiful. The entire bluff was decked out in lights, and we got there in time to see the synchronized-to-music light show that happens once an hour. The entire walk was probably over a half-mile long, and was magical (if a bit cold at times). What a great way for a town to show itself off. Even with the cold, there were a good number of people out on the bluff looking at the lights and enjoying the music.

We went back home, and Mom and Marc dashed off to another party. I tried to stay up for the new year, but gave up at 11:30. I told Mer she could wake me, and she did. So, we wished each other a very happy new year, and I went back to sleep. Despite being lame about going to sleep early, I had wrapped up the year in a fine fashion.