day trip to Michigan

Last month we took a quick day trip to Michigan. Neither of us had ever been to Michigan, so Drew and I thought it would be a fun day to get away with Alicia and enjoy the fall weather and the trip to somewhere new! Being so close to Chicagoland, we thought why not, and headed out earlier in the morning and set off to find an orchard for apple picking. We found a nice small orchard near Coloma, Michigan here http://www.jollayorchards.com/ It had such a great apple selection when we went there, plus it was a pick-u-own apple orchard which Alicia loved. We even tried to pick our own raspberries there too, but it became too much of a task, so we ended up buying a pre-picked pint from the farm stand near the orchard instead. :) oh well, it was still fun. At the orchard, you ride via a tractor/wagon hay ride into the fields and are dropped off at select locations and start grooming the trees for your perfect apples. I think we ate our fair share while we were picking our apples to take home as well, which was a nice tasty treat. For some reason, the apples you get to pick right from the tree are so much more enjoyable, not to mention tastier than the ones you get at the store. yummo. While we were in Michigan, on the way home from the orchards, we decided to find Lake Michigan and head to the lakeshore for a few minutes before we headed back home for the day. It was a bit chilly out there, but was still very pretty. Alicia called the water "cold and chilly" and did not want to put her toes anywhere near the water after the first quick dip. Plus near the lake, we found a great spot with a kids playground on the beach that Alicia thought was pretty cool. Check out the link below here that has a few more fun photos from our day trip. There was just way too many cute ones to post in one collage. Enjoy. http://picasaweb.google.com/heather.kluesner/MichiganDayTrip?authkey=Gv1sRgCKL1zcfU9Mf9tgE#