Vacation UP!

As a leader at work, it’s very difficult to go on a relaxing and stress free vacation without being bothered by constant phone calls and text messages – I’m sure most of you can relate. Some of you may think that it’s a choice we need to make as parents. But to be honest, at least for me it’s easier said than done (I’m working on it). But this year, I’ve come very close 🙂

We planned to have an active vacation this year! What that meant was, we wanted to hike, see waterfalls and pick up unique rocks along the great lakes. For my 8yrs old daughter, this was an adventure! For my 4yrs old daughter, this was torture. She’s very similar to myself – we will never ever enjoy camping in the woods, have dirty fingernails and not be able to use the restroom comfortably. So how do you balance nature and comfort?

First, when do we want to go on vacation? This is very important if you don’t like crowds and waiting in line for dinner reservations. Some parents, like us, have a strict curfew because our children turns into Gremlins after 7:30pm – and as all parents do during vacation we want to be as calm and relax as possible. We’re so accustomed to sleeping early (Take into account bath and bed time story time) and rising early so the kids naturally gets too cranky after this time. It is also as important if you’re prone to seasonal allergies or do not like “hot & humid” type of weather. The last thing you want to do as parents is to take boxes of tissues for runny noses and teary eyes. That being said, August through September is the best time for our family 🙂

Secondly, where do we want to go on vacation? Around August and September is when most mommy’s prepare for the upcoming school year. School supply shopping, uniform shopping, calendar update are just some of the things in our to do list. So, if you plan on going on vacation during this time, you need to calculate the number of days you want to be off line – for us it was 5days. So how exactly do you balance nature and comfort? Where should we go? After doing a few research of what we wanted to accomplish within 5days, we’ve decided to visit The Grand Hotel again and try this wonderful Bed and Breakfast in Marquette, Michigan called Nestledown . It’s a 3yrs old Bed and Breakfast located in the middle of Marquette. You can cross the street and walk on the clear Lake Superior beach (Or watch the sunrise/sunset) and only a few blocks off of downtown where we ate our dinner + pie (It was important for me to capture the pie). This location also allows us to visit several waterfalls around UP (Upper Peninsula). And let me tell you the amazing experience we’ve had with Mr. Ken and Mrs. Sue (Nestledown’s Owner and Innkeepers):

VERY VERY CLEAN – My mom had always taught us benefits of a clean and uncluttered home. Having a clean home not only decrease the chances for sickness, it also gives us a clean mental space to work on – which means you can get a lot of things done and be productive. This is how we felt in this bed and breakfast. We woke up everyday refreshed looking at clean white walls and minimalist décor. You just have to tidy up your sheets and you’re ready for the day’s adventure. We also felt that the bathroom is even cleaner that a 4-star hotel room and they are very generous with clean towels 🙂
DELICIOUS HOME-MADE BREAKFAST – Amazingly enough, we didn’t smell the food in our bedroom – which I appreciated. But as soon as you hit the stairs going down the living room, all bets are off. Breakfast is ready around 8:30am on the buffet. If you ever visit this place (Which I recommend highly), I would try Mrs. Sue’s amazing Finnish Oven Pancake with berries (Pannukkaku). It’s so so fluffy! And her eggs in a basket were delish too! We met the other guest and were able to share stories about our plans for the day. In fact, one of the sweetest couple we’ve met suggested for us to visit Oswald Bear Ranch (Another topic for later) which was not too far away. It seriously was very warm and homie in Nestledown.
THERE’S SO MUCH THINGS TO DO INSIDE THE HOME! There’s very few bed & breakfast that offers Sauna. An article I’ve read states that being in a Sauna gets rid of your body’s toxins, and the exposure of your skin to heat stimulates the production of white blood cells and strengthens the immune system 🙂 To be fair, I’m no expert in the benefits of Saunda but after some chili days in the UP, it was pretty nice to end the day in the Sauna.