The Friday Five, 7/12/24: 5 things I've been up to this week

Apologies for no Friday Five last week—this will be more of a two-weeks' version of a Friday Five, as I was in Traverse City last week for my bachelorette trip, which was a lot of fun. 

What I've been up to [these last two] weeks:

1. Bachelorette trip to Traverse City. This was a lot of fun, and I'm glad we did three nights instead of two, because Traverse City has a ton to explore. The last time I went to the area was in 2019, with friends, and that was more of a winery trip; this time, we had some nondrinkers in our group so it was a mix of good food and wineries, plus the beach and some other stuff. I went with two other Detroit-area friends, so we drove the 4-4.5 hours there together, plus a Birthright friend from the Chicago area, who drove separately, and my future sister-in-law, who lives in the Indianapolis area, who also drove separately. 
2. Dining out. TC had a lot of great restaurants but my favorites were Stella, for Italian fine dining, which is located in what used to be a mental hospital (read about it that on Wiki; it's a pretty fascinating story, and the hospital closed in 1989); and The Little Fleet, a food trucks restaurant, and The Filling Station, for their s'mores pizza, which is unsurprising because those were my favorites in 2019 too.
   For non-TC dining over the last week, we had Doordash from Taqueria San Juan, I believe it is, my favorite hole-in-the-wall in Waterford, and I also got Sonic takeout last night, which was pretty disappointing; I ordered the garlic bacon burger WITHOUT cheese and it came slathered in cheese, plus their drive-thru was kinda weird/complicated, so I won't be doing that again. I will say their pickle fries were good, though. 
3. Touring wineries. We ended up hitting up five wineries, I believe: Rove, Brengman Brothers (upon suggestion from a Rove staff member), Leelanau (one of my favorites! See pic below), Mawby, and Shady Lane. Rove was close to our Airbnb, which was technically in Empire, MI, and had a great patio. Brengman Brothers was okay—would be fun for a wedding but because it was July 4th, they weren't offering wine tastings/flights. Leelanau was one I hit up in 2019 and it's one of the most gorgeous ones, IMO, as it's right on the Grand Traverse Bay. Tasting-wise we also had the most fun there, and made some friends. Mawby, for sparkling wine, was actually my least-favorite of the bunch; I got their "Sweet" flight and only found one of the three wines to be sweet-tasting. And finally, Shade Lane was super nice and woodsy, but unfortunately it started to rain when we were there, so we went inside. 
4. Hanging out with good friends. It was especially nice to see my Birthright friend, since I only get to see her about once a year (we usually meet up on the west side of the state), but we had a great group for the bachelorette trip. The Airbnb was also awesome; it was in Empire, MI, which was about a 20-minute drive from Traverse City, and because of the Cherry Festival madness that week, I'm kinda glad we weren't staying directly downtown (which is what I did in 2019, in a smaller Airbnb house). This house was HUGE, too—it had four rooms, each with a king bed, and one person took the couch, so we all had our own rooms. It also had a hot tub and a gigantic backyard, and most of the house was made with old wood beams, which was also very cool. 
5. Yellowcard + Third Eye Blind concert at Pine Knob. I did make a mistake—I thought this was a Yellowcard concert with Third Eye Blind as the opener, and I was wrong, it was flip-flopped—but it was still an enjoyable concert. I've only seen Yellowcard once, in 2006 at the House of Blues in Orlando, but it was a fabulous concert; I do wish they had played more of their old stuff at this concert, but "Ocean Avenue" was great, and we stayed until the very end to see "Jumper, "Semi-charmed Life," and a few other Third Eye Blind "classics," haha.

Leelanau Cellars, near Traverse City (no photo editing needed!)