My friend and I went on our first Winter Wonderland Weekend trip, as we now call it, to Petoskey right after Thanksgiving in 2023. Petoskey is a beautiful small town in Northern Michigan, with a good local shopping scene, nice restaurants, and a beautiful lakefront. We left her house on Saturday and spent the afternoon driving around the area, especially around the Little Traverse Bay, seeing the sights. We stayed at the Courtyard Hotel, enjoyed some shops, the beach, and a lovely dinner at the Beacon Bistro.
We first checked in at our hotel, dropping off our overnight bags, before going on a nice drive around the town and around the bay. We tried driving out onto the peninsula in Harbor Springs, but it’s a gated community and the gates were closed. I almost broke my car at one point; we were at a stop sign on a hill, and I took my foot off the brake and the car started sliding back before I could get my foot on the gas, and there a sudden horrible grinding noise, which I think was the car forcibly shifting into neutral without acknowledging that it was in neutral. I couldn’t get the brake or gas pedals to work, and shifting the car into neutral and back into drive didn’t work either. I ended up reversing into a parking lot as we rolled backwards, where the car finally stopped, and I was able to turn it off and back on, which fixed the problem, and we went back to Petoskey.
When we decided we were hungry for dinner, we looked around and settled on what appeared to be a nice little restaurant with brick walls on the outside, a place that looked as though it would have standard food, like an Applebee’s or Chili’s. When we walked in, the entryway contained a small bar, nothing fancy, a typical small town bar look. However, we were then led by the waitress down the hallway to a candlelit (fake candles though) room with white tablecloths and window-lined walls overlooking the bay. The food was relatively pricey, with my steak meal costing over $40. However, for the view and the vibes that the restaurant gave off, and how delicious the food was, I think it was well worth it.
After dinner, we headed back to the hotel, which is right next to a Meijer’s, where we got some things to make drinks, got some chocolate (caramel M&M’s, myself), and headed back to the hotel. We went swimming for a little while, though I found the pool to be quite cold (I usually do), so we spent most of our time in the hot tub. Once we had had our fair share of the pool, we went back up to our room and pretended our M&M’s and fruity drinks were really fancy wine and chocolates while we watched Bridgerton.
The next morning, we got up, got our things around, and, after watching the last bit of Bridgerton season one, packed up our things and headed in search of a beach to look for Petoskey stones. It had snowed overnight, and the beach looked absolutely stunning under the snow. It was a rather rocky beach, which made it all the easier to look for Petoskey stones. I found one rather good one, and one that had a partial Petoskey pattern. They’re easier to find when they’re wet, because that makes the Petoskey pattern really stand out.
Once we had satisfied our stone searching (aka when we got too cold), we decided to hit a few shops downtown before heading back home. Local shops tend to be a bit pricier than a Walmart T-shirt with a Petoskey stone on it, of course, but I think it’s worth it to support local economies and be able to find things you can’t find in a box store. I found an incredibly big, warm, fluffy cardigan at Grandpa Shorter’s, along with a very nice travel journal to help document my adventures. My friend and I saw Santa in one of the stores, where I bought some candy to satiate my unstoppable sweet tooth.
Unfortunately, it was about to start getting dark, and we had a few hours to drive, so we headed off. Overall, the trip was amazing, though the short time did solidify my decision to make future weekends a three day excursion rather than just two. My final reviews on the main places are that the hotel was wonderful, and the front desk was very helpful when I called down with a question. The Beacon Bistro is a little pricier than I prefer, but a good restaurant that makes up for that with the food and the views. You definitely get what you pay for there! Grandpa Shorter’s was my favorite shop, as it was the only one I really bought from, and I found it to be appropriately priced for the objects being sold there.