We recently took a trip to Glen Arbor, MI, near the Sleeping Bear Dunes. It was the most amazing weekend away ever, and was exactly the ‘recharge’ that we were looking for.

Anyway, we waited until Derek got home from work to leave, so we didn’t arrive to the cottage until late Thursday night. The drive up was beautiful. There’s a certain point on the way, where all of the lights from the major cities go away, and all you can see are millions of bright little stars in the darkness. So amazing.

When we pulled up to the cottage, a small family of deer eating in the driveway, darted off into the neighboring woods. We got situated, and forced ourselves to go to sleep, even though we were both way too excited to.

For those of you who know me, waking up before the sun comes up has literally NEVER happened willingly. But the next morning, I woke up and it was still dark. I looked out of our bedroom window right above the bed, to gauge whether I should have gone back to sleep or not. (Like I said, when we arrived the night before everything was pitch black, so we couldn’t tell what was surrounding the cottage.) I looked out the window to find Glen Lake, and the sun rising over it, as seen in the picture above. I jumped out of bed like an 8 year old on Christmas morning, hitting my shin against the rocking chair that was in our room, and ran outside with my camera to capture it all. That first morning set the tone for our entire trip. It was beautiful, calm, and quiet.

The weekend was filled with puzzle-ing, napping, relaxing, hiking the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes, enjoying the silence, exploring, and just enjoying each other’s company. Check out the slideshow below to see the photos!

 A few things worth mentioning:

• We both hit our shins on that rocking chair in the bedroom- every morning.
• Acorns falling from the tree in the middle of the night, is a really scary sound when it’s so dark that you can’t even see your hand in front of you.
• Don’t wear boots to hike the dunes, and DO bring water. Amateurs.
• Since completing that puzzle, we’re newly puzzle obsessed.
• The sand dunes were directly across the street from the cottage. It was beautiful.
• This trip really made me appreciate the life in life, not the things in life, and anything that gives you that kind of take away, automatically wins in my book.

 

 

If you’re looking to get away, I would recommend checking out this cottage rental. It was perfect and quaint, and we already plan on going back next year. Our cottage was called “Little Bear Cottage”, found on HomeAway. (You can find it here!)

Thanks for stopping by!