Brandon's Birthday Blind Date

Near the beginning of our relationship, we started doing what we called "blind dates", where one person is blindfolded and the other gets to drag along the blindfolded one for a random adventure. Katie is especially good at these, both because she is super awesome and considerate as well as the fact she seems to have an endless supply of West Michigan insider information.. aka her former patients. And as you might expect, this year for my birthday she did not disappoint. She took me to Traverse City.

After just a little bit of headache due to 131
North being completely shut down, we arrived
at our first destination in Traverse City,
Right Brain Brewery.

I sorta guessed we were coming here once I
deduced we were heading up to Traverse City.
But it was still exciting.

Upon arrival we got a flight and a delicious
sandwich made with waffles instead of bread.

But then the real surprise of the day was that I
got to fulfill the bucket list item of getting my hair cut
at the Salon Saloon which is attached to the brewery.

The reason this is so special is because you're
allowed to bring in a drink while you get your hair cut.

Sporting my new fancy hair cut.

Next stop was The Filling Station.
A railroad themed pub put in an old train station.

They had a good variety of styles to try.

We tried the triple IPA and the bourbon porter.

Hanging out on a dock afterwards with my cool wife.

Here's the lake the dock overlooked.

We then drove up to the Leelanau State Park
which is at the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula.

We explored the park a bit.

Lake Michigan

She is the coolest.

We also camped there. So we
 made a fire to cook dinner.

A view of both the old and the new light houses.

My best attempt at a pose from one our
favorite movies, Moonrise Kingdom.

Katie's "Moonrise Kingdom" pose.

"This is our land..."

The next morning during breakfast we
met a very friendly chipmunk. We
named him "Chocolate".

So friendly he basically wandered right up
to me and let me feed him a piece of
my banana.

And then on our way back home we
stopped by Traverse City's Moomer's Creamery
for some ice cream for lunch.

And that was my awesome birthday blind date. So all that to say, Katie is the best! Thanks mi amor for being so fantastic and making my birthday so special.