Every year, near the end of the “official” summer, we try and take a trip, which we call, “road trip palooza.” This consists of a full day, possibly two, touring around northern Michigan, visiting places we’ve not visited, or not visited recently, often and/or at length. When the kids were still in school, we would go Labor Day weekend, a last hurrah, before school started. But now that they’re all out of school, we can go whenever it suits us. It just so happened that this year, we had tickets to see Joe Pera, one of our favorite comedians (the whole family loves him), in Marquette, Michigan, in Michigan’s lovely upper peninsula, which is just over a six hour drive from our home, minus stops. We discovered Joe Pera through his show, “Joe Pera Talks with You,” on Adult Swim, the after hours programming on the Cartoon Network, in case you want to check it out. The show is actually set in Marquette, Michigan, which made this show pretty special. We didn’t even realize it was a fundraiser for the Marquette Regional History Center. How cool is this guy? We had a great time, laughing almost non-stop. His comedy is very unique, what I like to think of as slow comedy, like slow TV, if you’re familiar with it. Hope we get to see him again sometime.

But we did more than see Joe Pera. On our way to Marquette, we stopped to stretch our legs in Munising, Michigan, a cool city on Lake Superior, known for boat tours of the Pictured Rocks, a National Lakeshore. We finally went on a tour a few years ago, after living in Michigan for more years than I care to share. Couldn’t believe it took us so long to see them. Every Michigander should see them at least once in their lifetime. Breathtaking, awe inspiring, and yes, spectacular, are all apt descriptions. Anyway, after walking along the break wall and a bit downtown, we piled back into the car, and continued on our way.

Once we checked into our motel in Marquette, we went to dinner at Steinhaus, a new German restaurant we hadn’t tried. My husband is almost 100% German, born in the USA. And…his grandfather owned a German restaurant in New York, way back when, where his father worked and learned to cook German food. This makes us really fussy about German food, though we are willing to try almost any German restaurant we stumble upon, since we love it. To our surprise and delight, it was some of the best German food we’ve had to date. My hubby had the Sauerbraten with spaetzle (little dumplings), while the rest of us had the pork Schnitzel with spaetzle and red cabbage. It was outstanding. We also had dessert, which was delicious, just not traditional German fare. We were just sad that we won’t be able to have it again until we are back in Marquette (or until I make it). After dinner, we went to see Joe do his thing.

This morning, we decided to try a new place for breakfast, Donckers. I’m an avid Yelp fan (and Elite), so we look up everything before we decide where to spend our dining out moolah. Four and a half stars and 271 reviews made us feel confident that it was a good option. And it was. Their specialty hashes were delicious, and my daughter loved her build-your-own omelette. We left as happy campers. Then, before heading back out on the road, we took a short walk to 231 West Patisserie, where we purchased six huge and gorgeous macarons! I am a sucker for macarons, let me just put that out there now. I almost never pass them up. And I’ve made them, but I have a long way to go before they turn out as yummy as those from professional bakeries. But I am willing to keep trying. More on that another day.

Then we were all loaded back in the car, and on the road again. However, we made a couple more stops. The first, in Mackinaw City, where we stopped to stretch our legs in a park under the “Mighty” Mackinaw Bridge, right on Lake Huron (I think it is Lake Huron on the right side of the bridge), it is always a great place for a little walk. Then we drove on to Charlevoix, where we stopped to have dinner at “My Grandmother’s Table,” a wonderful little place right downtown. Between us, we ordered Thai Orange Chicken, Polish sausage and Pierogi, and homemade tomato basil soup with a fabulous grilled cheese. A Lavender London Fog tea was a special treat (check out this recipe from the Gimme Some Oven blog, though you can use lavender syrup instead of dried lavender, as they did at the restaurant). After that, we focused on completing the homestretch of our return. It was one of the best road trip paloozas to date. Wonder where we’ll go next year!

P.S. I spent a lot of the drive time reading one of my cookbooks, “Arabesque, a taste of Morocco, Turkey, & Lebanon,” by Claudia Roden, that has been sitting on the shelf for a few years. What a lovely book, can’t believe I’ve just been sitting on it!!! I’ll be cooking from this in the next week or two, dying to try the preserved lemons.

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