DH and I went to Saugatuck, MI last weekend to get away from it all. It has been a difficult year for a number of reasons, some of you know them, some don’t. No marital problems – just life and its twists and turns. To start with the trip, DH bought a pocket digital camera for me from my BIL so I can take pictures more easily while traveling.A friend recommended her friend’s Bed and Breakfast – Spruce Cutter’s Cottage Bed & Breakfast in Fennville, MI near Saugatuck. Did I take pictures? One, of the cute labrador mix the guys who own the place had.

We stayed in the Tiffany Suite and it had a lovely jacuzzi bath tub that I took advantage of while DH spent his time playing with the DishTV. (We don’t have cable or Dish at home. Netflix is where our entertainment comes from, and lots of reading.)

We could only get the room for one night because we did this at the last minute. But Saturday morning, the breakfast Mike, the inn keeper fixed an awesome breakfast – and was great about handling my allergies! No small feat! We spent the day in Douglas and Saugatuck, MI. These are the art communities in Western Michigan. We spent the time going into various antique stores and art galleries.

Most of the art we saw was not to our tastes – but we were very tempted by a hot air balloon shaped Tiffany lamp. Since we aren’t about to spend approximately $1900(USD) on a single fragile table lamp, we passed it up.

Saturday afternoon we found Timberline Motel with a vacancy and outdoor hot tub. It was raining, without any lightning, so we decided to take advantage of it. The cool rain and the hot, hot tub was just the way to get the aches from walking around shopping and seeing sites all day out. It also had cable with FoodTV and Discovery, so there was something to watch once you were tired of doing stuff, but not tired enough to sleep.

Reading the reviews, I have to wonder how many people understood they were staying at a MOTEL in a TOURIST town! The Timberline was clean and reasonably priced for the area – 5 minutes from downtown.

Of course, it continued to rain through Sunday. So, we decided to meander back to Metro Detroit via the back roads. We stopped at a couple of antique places along the way – without finding anything exciting. We also stopped at a cider mill selling peaches. I bought a peck but got so busy with some sudden opportunities which made my schedule even more hectic than normal, they went bad before I could do anything with them. <sigh>. The entire drive home it rained – but I did manage to finish the toe-up socks I started in December ’06 for my mom. Here are some pictures of them from the car trip home:

So, no Virtual World Tour for me.

Of course, SMR was not happy with us when we got home. He had a top rated pekinese/house sitter, who, I know, spoiled him while we were gone because she is a dog lover. (And she has told me what a wonderful host SMR was.)