Long Weekend in Michigan

We just got back from a long weekend spent in Michigan and had such a great time! We were there for a friend’s wedding in Northern Michigan near Traverse City. We had never been there before and could not get over how beautiful it is! After our time in Northern Michigan, we spent 24 hours in Detroit before heading home. Here’s a little recap of our trip with some recommendations if you are planning a trip to the area…

NORTHERN MICHIGAN

We started our trip by flying into Detroit and renting a car to drive up to Northern Michigan. Grant and I love a road trip (lots of opportunities to stop for antiques!) and we thought it would be a fun way to explore.

On our way to Frankfort (near Traverse City), we made a stop at Farm Club TC which was highly recommended when I asked for suggestions. It’s a restaurant / farm / brewery and was such a nice spot to spend the afternoon relaxing. The food was delicious and their beers were really good. I fell in love with the sunflower artwork by Katherine Corden that was displayed.

The wedding we attended was at the Crystal Lake Yacht Club—such a gorgeous setting. We could not get over how beautiful the lakes are in this region! They are so clear and the blue water is gorgeous—they almost look like the Caribbean! The towns around this area are laidback summer towns, each with their own main street of shops. I enjoyed checking them out while antiquing.

I was so excited to do some antiquing on this trip and sadly, it was not as good as I was hoping for. I had heard that from some Michigan friends and unfortunately they were right. I did really love stopping into Rolling Hills Antiques in Traverse City and Black Horse Antiques in Beulah. Wilson’s Antiques in Traverse City is also worth stopping in if you’re in the area—it’s a big antique mall with over 40 dealers to check out.

I also made a stop at Crystal Lake Alpaca Farm, which I recommend if you’re in the area! The alpacas were so cute and they had a really great shop full of clothing items and stuffed animals made from alpaca fibers.

DETROIT

With only about 24 hours to spend in Detroit, we tried to make the most of our short time there. One thing to note is to definitely plan ahead in terms of reservations and store / museum opening hours—many of the places we wanted to go were closed on Mondays (not sure if this is all the time, or just a pandemic thing).

We stayed at the Shinola Hotel and really enjoyed it. It’s a cool building with lots of history and it’s been designed to perfection by Gachot Studios. Lots of great details to check out and get inspired from. I couldn’t get enough of the color palette, the interesting materials and the furniture’s fabric pairings.

It’s in a cool area in downtown Detroit with lots of restaurants and shops in walking distance. We didn’t get to eat at the hotel’s restaurant, San Morello, but it looked delicious.

Another great hotel in the area is the Siren Hotel, designed by ASH NYC (they also did Hotel Peter and Paul in New Orleans). We had drinks at their lobby bar, Candy Bar, and highly recommend it. It was such a fun atmosphere and the drinks were delicious. We then had dinner at SheWolf—so many people recommended this spot to us that we figured we had to go. It was such an incredible meal, truly a spot you don’t want to miss!

bloomfield hills / cranbrook

Pretty much everything we wanted to see on Monday was unfortunately closed, so we shifted our plans for the day and headed north of Detroit to an area called Bloomfield Hills. On our way out of town we stopped for lunch at the original Buddy’s Pizza, where they invented Detroit style pizza. This was also a popular recommendation and I’m so glad we had time for it! As a pizza lover, it was incredible and definitely made it into the top 5 pizzas I’ve ever eaten.

As an architecture lover, I always look up buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright when we are traveling and there were a few in the Detroit area. One of them was in Bloomfield Hills, very close to the campus of Cranbrook, a distinguished art and architecture school. I had heard so much about Cranbrook while in design school that I was eager to check it out. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to do any tours or go inside any of the homes or buildings, but we really loved walking around and exploring on our own. In addition to the campus, we stopped at Cranbrook House and Gardens. All were definitely a must visit if you are into architecture and design and are in the area!