Michigan

Michigan Recap Part 3

Posted on July 23, 2025July 22, 2025 by jgalvinwhite

Hello and happy Wednesday!

Well, it’s really getting real around here. Yesterday, I spent a few hours in my classroom just getting it set up and organized. Today, we have a professional development day. After today, I don’t have to think about school for a bit and can savor the remaining days of summer.

So far, I’ve shared parts one and two of our trip to the Lake Michigan area. We started in South Haven, visited St. Joseph, and then moved on to Saugatuck. I’m picking up where I left off to finish sharing about this trip.

Also, I’m sorry about the number of times I used the word “cute” in my part 2 post…I will try to do better. haha

Friday morning, we had our breakfast delivered around 8:30. Hazelnut waffles and sausage hit the spot.

Then, we got ready and headed into town …

…for our couples massage. Why does the time go so quickly when you get to relax?!

The massage was great, and then we went to Boardwalk to get…

…a smoothie for Trav and juice for me. It hit the spot.

After that, we walked around a bit. I had seen the Christmas store the day before, and I’m trying to get better about picking up ornaments on our travels, so we headed that way.

There are ornament options for everyone!

I loved seeing the Nutcrackers…those always remind me of my Gma.

Some of the cute ornaments I spotted:

I kept it simple with the Saugatuck chair with wreath. I can’t wait to hang it on the tree in December.

After that, we drove back to the hotel to shower and get ready for the day. After a bit, we walked back to town to grab a bite to eat. First, we stopped by the farmer’s market…

…and then we walked down by the water for a bit. It was overcast for most of the day. Of course, I would have loved sunshine and another beach day, but days like this give us time to walk around, shop, and just see where the day takes us…

…apparently, the day took us to The Mitten Brewing Co. haha

Trav had a beer, and we split a pizza. Another lunch, another pizza! I guess we didn’t plan out our lunches very well, but the pizza hit the spot.

We walked around a bit more and then headed back to the hotel. Since it was kind of rainy, we just relaxed and then Trav went for a run.

Another fun aspect of this hotel is that they deliver a little dessert around 5:30! These cheesecake squares hit the spot!

We got ready for our evening. We did have a reservation for a nice steak dinner in Holland, but we canceled it once we realized we were pretty full from lunch. We still drove about twenty minutes to Holland…another town we wanted to check out.

Downtown Holland seemed to be the biggest downtown we saw. We walked around for a bit and then drove around too…

Too bad the tulips weren’t in bloom with the pretty windmill.

We drove past a couple of beaches

So pretty!

…then, it was around 8:00, so we headed back to Saugatuck. We drove back a different way and Trav spotted The Southerner which was one restaurant he’d had on this list. There was a little bit of a wait, but it was worth it. We got to sit on the water, have a drink, and we both had a light dinner.

Then, we headed back to the hotel. I started packing up a bit before bed.

For Saturday’s breakfast, I had eggs, toast, fresh fruit and apple juice.

We had a little bit of time, so I walked for about twenty minutes to get some steps in. I loved seeing these Adirondack chairs that looked like the shape of Michigan.

The water looked pretty too!

Then, it was time to pack up and leave. We drove around the small town of Douglas, and I spotted the library.

We usually just get up and leave when we’re on vacay, but this time, we took our time. We stopped back in St Joseph once more to have lunch. We walked around…

…and walked through another farmer’s market.

Trav went and got us some sandwiches and drinks while I stopped for a crepe.

The campfire crepe was the perfect way to end our vacay.

So, that’s a look at our little trip. Now that we’ve been there, we definitely want to go back; I see why people “summer” a little farther north!

Let me know if you have any questions about our trip.

Travel

Michigan Recap Part 2

Posted on July 22, 2025July 21, 2025 by jgalvinwhite

Hello!

I hope your week is off to a great start. I’m still recovering from our busy weekend in Louisville. Our nephew got married on Friday and then the reception was on Saturday. So, we had two busy and full days. I will share more about all that later!

Anyway, I shared part 1 of our trip to Michigan last week, and today I’m sharing part 2.

I’d left off on mid-day Thursday when we left South Haven and drove about a half an hour to Saugatuck. We’d heard the Saugatuck was a bit more “artsy,” and I’d say the by the paint palette as we entered the cute town was saying the same thing!

We stayed at the Hotel Saugatuck, and it was so cute. We arrived a couple of hours before we could check in, but we stopped in to let them know if the room was ready a little earlier, that would be great.

After that, we drove about half a mile into town, parked the car and started walking around.

How cute?!

I spotted so many pretty flowers, especially hydrangeas that had me oohhing and ahhing…

We settled on Scooters Pizza, and each got a slice of pizza.

Then, we walked around more. Cuteness at every corner…

You know I found the book store!

I thought this chalkboard was so cute…

We walked around a bit more, and then we were able to check into hotel about an hour early. Our room was “Oval Beach,” and it was so cute.

The hotel has a view of the Kalamazoo River, and we spent lots of time in this cute sun room.

One thing I loved about this place was that they let you choose your breakfast the night before, and then a delivery time between 8-10. For our first morning, I chose the hazelnut waffles and have zero regrets!

We unpacked and then took a quick nap. Trav needed to do some work and wasn’t super motivated to go to the beach, but I was. We’d driven past Douglas Beach, so I headed that way for a couple of hours. Look at this view…

All the steps were fine on the way down, but they were a beast on the way up! At least they were shaded.

There were probably twenty people on the beach, and the weather was perfect. I actually got pretty hot! I almost got in the water, but just got in to my knees to cool off a bit.

I spent two hours reading which was perfect.

As I drove back to the hotel, I spotted these deer…

I had just enough time to shower and get ready for our 7:00 reservation at Coast. Travis was very excited about eating here.

I meant to take a picture of the six course tasting menu…this is the nine course, but it was all so good.

We sat outside, and it was lovely.

This was my first course…it was actually my favorite, and I don’t typically love tuna. This was the tuna crudo, and it was so refreshing.

The other courses:

Australian beef tartare
Risotto
Salmon
Beef tenderloin
Creme Brulee (if creme brulee is on the menu, I will order it!)

They gave us bread in the beginning and suggested Trav’s course come out with my fourth course. He ordered the lamb from the menu. I had a couple of bites, and it was delish.

We left there pretty full, and it was a great dining experience.

After that, we walked over to the Butler for a drink.

Then, it was back to the hotel!

The next morning, we woke up to some rain which was actually so nice and soothing. Our breakfast arrived…

The little juice jars were too cute.

We had about an hour to eat before starting our day.

I hope to wrap up our trip in a blog post tomorrow, but this was our first day in Saugatuck, and it didn’t disappoint.

Friday Favorites, Travel

Friday Favorites {#266}

Posted on July 11, 2025July 10, 2025 by jgalvinwhite

Hello and happy Friday!

I’m officially at the part of summer where I really need the weeks to slow down. I still have things to cross off my list, and I guess I will need to start reading school emails soon.

As always, I’m linking up with Andrea and Erika for this week’s Friday Favorites.

Here are some favorites from the week:

I’m really loving this romper from SSYS. I love that it’s forgiving, has a flutter sleeve and is easy to dress up or down. I wore it last week when we went out to dinner.

The runners had to “carb load” before the Bluegrass 10k on the 4th of July, and we went to a fun pasta place. If gnocchi is on the menu, I usually order it! This definitely hit the spot.

I had some pool time over the 4th, and that was nice and relaxing.

Fireworks are always a fave, and the ones at our usual spot were 10/10 this year!

Hadley arriving home from camp is always a fave, but this year, given the devastation and loss of lives in Texas, I was just ready for her to be home. I think she was ready too. She had fun, but I know she was happy to sleep in her own bed.

Last weekend, I took a stroll through my favorite book. I went there to buy Kristy Woodson Harvey’s newest book since it’s on my summer reading list.

While I was there, I picked up a birthday gift for my Gma. Also, I spotted a few cute finds like this “book lovers journal”…

…and these cute playing cards that look like the book check out cards from the library. I resisted the urge to buy both.

Travis and I have been watching The Waterfront. To me, it’s Outer Banks meets Ozark, and we’ve really enjoyed it.

On Monday, we celebrated Trav’s birthday. We went out to dinner, gave him a few gifts, and had some Bundt cakes for dessert. Since Hadley was gone, and then Hayden went to camp, Monday was the one day we could all have dinner together…and it was Trav’s actual birthday.

The past few days, Trav and I have been in Michigan. We wanted to take some time away to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary, and neither of us have been to Michigan. I’m sure I will do a recap, but here are a few favorite photos from our few days here: