One Last Taste of Summer: Part 1
As I mentioned earlier in the week, my wife and I headed up north this past weekend to take our last camping trip before the school year started. It isn't our last camping trip of the year, but the two we have left will be one day/night shorter and relatively closer to home. I also mentioned in my post on Monday how hard it was to get back to the grind after having been gone for the weekend.
It's not that I haven't come back to work after camping before, but this time just felt a bit different. I'm guessing it mostly had to do with students being back in the building and another school year officially starting.
Oddly enough, our next camping trip will technically still be in "summer", but in the US, the unofficial end of summer is usually the Labor Day holiday weekend which starts in just a couple days here.
This wasn't the first time we have visited William Mitchell State Park in Cadillac, Michigan. A quick glance at Worldmappin will show you that I have four (now five) separate posts from this area. It's one of our favorite campgrounds despite the fact that it kind of sits right in the middle of the city. While we enjoy those parks that totally immerse you in nature, sometimes it is nice to still be close to those modern conveniences.
After we got our campsite set up on Thursday evening we decided to head around Lake Cadillac into town to run a couple errands. @mrsbozz needed to stop at a thrift store to get some clothes for some kids in need at school, and we wanted to grab some food. I ended up stopping at a local liquor store that had a really decent selection of whisky's. In fact, they actually had a bottle of Wild Turkey 101 Aged 8 Year that I have been trying to get my hands on for a while now.
Lot's of places have the regular Wild Turkey 101, but this 8 year aged bourbon was something really special. It had a rich buttery caramel flavor and at only $50 USD per bottle, it is easily one of my new favorites. Assuming I can ever find it again!
After hitting the thrift shops and the liquor store, we stopped at a restaurant called Raven Social to get some drinks and an appetizer. My wife got a vodka with tea and lemonade (A John Daly) and I got an old fashioned with Maker's Mark bourbon. It wasn't the best old fashioned I have ever had, but it wasn't the worst either.
@mrsbozz said that I mix her particular drink better, but she still enjoyed it. We also got an order of hush puppies to share and they were quite delicious.
After that we headed to a BBQ joint called Primos to get a proper meal which we took back to our trailer and ate. Sorry, I didn't get any photos of that.
After dinner we started a fire and settled in to watch the sunset over Lake Mitchell to the west. There are two lakes in Cadillac and they are connected by a canal. The prime sites in the campground are right on the canal, but some of them (like the one we were on) are quite close to the major highway, so the road noise is a bit much.
We didn't let that stop us from having a good time though.
As the sun started to get lower on the horizon, we decided to take a walk under the bridge that carries all the traffic on highway 115 over the canal. Anyone in the park can take this path, but having a site right on the canal just means you have less far to walk after you have had a couple adult beverages...
I got some of my best photos of the weekend on Thursday night. I've shared a few of them already in my post on Monday and here are some more for you. In fact these are so good I will probably be sharing them over and over again in the future for various posts. Sorry, not sorry. I already can't remember which ones I have used already and which ones I haven't.
Despite being so close to the city of Cadillac, it is still possible to see some stars. In fact, Thursday night I was able to snag these great shots of the big dipper using night mode on my Pixel 8 Pro cell phone.
Believe it or not, all that was just the first seven hours of our trip. Crazy right? Check back tomorrow for what we did the rest of the weekend. It wasn't quite as exciting as the first day, but sometimes it's more about relaxing than excitement right?
My Sports Account - @bozz.sports
Looks like a lovely place to camp out and ride some bikes. Its really quite amazing when you have a vibrant sunset like this and water for it to reflect off of, its like its painting the whole landscape. Its also a cool effect with the darkened figures of the fisherman. I hope the rest of your weekend went well!
Thank you! I really liked how it turned out with the strangers in the photo just being silhouettes.
It sounds like you had a really fun start to your trip. I like how you mentioned the balance between being close to town but still enjoying the outdoors. Some of the best campgrounds I’ve visited have been like that too, where you can enjoy nature but still grab a good meal nearby. The photos you took by the canal turned out great, especially the ones at sunset. Looking forward to reading about the rest of your weekend.
Yes, this is a really special place if you are okay with the atmosphere. Honestly, the views more than make up for the road noise.
It looks like a great weekend, and bittersweet. We're already seeing signs of autumn here. The maples have started to show their colors, which is not a good sign for what is to come. That Wild Turkey looks interesting. I bought a couple of bottles with a Total Wine gift card I had left over from my birthday. I went with recommendations of one of the employees there.
The Michter's is really nice, balanced and flavorful. The Still Austin is a little harsher but will be good for those cold winter nights.
Michter's is one of my favorites. I have a shirt from their distillery down on the main street in Louisville. Their higher end stuff is supposed to be really good, but way out of my price range. Did you enjoy it?
Oh nice! I really enjoyed it. I usually have it in sparkling water in the summer but have it neat in the cooler weather.
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