Fall U.P. Retreat- Day 1

Coming at you today from the beautiful Upper Peninsula in Michigan!

Ethan and I are on our highly anticipated mother/son fall retreat, which I planned and booked back in June.

As in, before I realized I would have a new puppy in our house this week…… ha. Oh well, what is life without a little chaos sometimes. 😆

The reason for this trip is two-fold.

1. Ethan has no school Thursday/Friday this week, but Asher does have school. Therefore, it seemed like a good opportunity for some 1:1 with Ethan.
2. I love fall, and the U.P. is beautiful (all the time, but especially in fall when there are NO BUGS).

Ivan is not really “that” into the woods/ hiking/ lounging in a remote cabin, so I knew he’d be fine to sit it out, anyway. (Though I think he would have a lovely time here, too. Maybe next time.)

As mentioned above, the new dog threw a little wrench in things. Fortunately my parents were planning to be at our house anyway to help shuttle Asher around + so my dad could work more on the bathroom remodel. Between Asher, Ivan and my parents, it sounds like they are keeping Charlie alive. 😉 (I miss him!!! I feel bad being away. He was already my little shadow and I think he is probably confused as to where I went! 😥)

So far Ethan and I are having a wonderful time!! The wooden cabin I rented on Airbnb is just beautiful and in a gorgeous setting. I packed all the “cozy things” like fuzzy blankets, warm socks, apple cider and hot cocoa, pumpkin and apple tea, s’more ingredients, etc. We have board games along and books (and the cabin is outfitted with wifi and Netflix). We have a big bonfire pit and a wood burning stove inside. Oh! And a sauna in the bathroom, which I may go try after I publish this post.

Here’s a recap of what we’ve done so far:

Thursday, 10/5:

After getting Asher off to school at 7:30, I spent a couple hours packing up and showering while Ethan kept Charlie corralled in his bedroom with toys (while Ethan played on his Xbox…). I needed him out of the way but didn’t want to crate him the whole time, since I knew I’d be putting him in the crate when we hit the road.

After a gas station stop to grab ice for our cooler, we headed north. The drive was close to 5 hours. We stopped at a McDonald’s to use a “buy one, get one for 0.29 cents” double cheeseburger deal and then kept going. Ethan drove for the first ~3 1/2 hours before we switched after a bathroom stop.

Farther north we started to get some more leaf color, though in general it seems like the leaves are a little finnicky this year. Some are still very green, some are just… gone, and some are pretty colors. Our airbnb host said it’s been an odd year for leaf color in general. Oh well. It’s not easy to anticipate peak season in advance, and anyway, we picked these dates due to Ethan’s school schedule.

We arrived to our cabin in the woods, nestled along a river:

The weather was beautiful yesterday, though I knew some crummy weather was moving in (rainy and much colder). We poked around the property a bit to check things out. It’s so pretty!!

The interior of the cabin is perfect. The owner built this by hand, which is crazy! Apparently he was a logger in his working days, but is since retired. Small and cozy and just right for about 2 people.

After unpacking, we decided to just relax a while before dinner (which would be hot dogs over the campfire).

I made some pumpkin spice tea and caught up on reading some blogs upstairs, while Ethan hung out downstairs for a bit.

I’m just so thrilled with the vibe of this place! I feel like I am in a fall-themed Hallmark movie.

Eventually I built a bonfire. Another perk- the owners have remote controlled lighting outside, with a variety of accent lights we can turn on. I am glad about this, because otherwise it would be soooooo dark (and um, creepy). They have string lights on this little bridge and it’s so quaint and cute.

We roasted hot dogs and ate potato chips by the fire. Scrumptious. Might have more again tonight, actually! I rarely eat hot dogs but this is a perfect situation to enjoy one.

At one point when the fire died down a little, we turned off all the lights. The sky is AMAZING up here with no light pollution.

We ended up being too full to have s’mores. Darn. Will have to have some tonight.

After a while we got a little chilly (and to be honest, we were both a little jumpy sitting out by the fire in the dark alone… haha. There are BEARS in the U.P! (Though very rare to even see one, but still. And…wolves. And things. Granted, I am sure we would hear them (the woods were silent), and it’s not likely they’d want to bother us, anyway. But as we sat reading our books by flashlight, I kept glancing around…. lol. #chicken…)

We decided to go in and watch a movie. I had brought microwave popcorn so we made that and put on Fools Rush In, an oldie but goodie.

We ended up going to bed way too late but I slept amazing! The fresh air, maybe. 😉

The weather turned for the worse today (Friday), but we’ve made the best of it. Actually, the cooler temps and some on and off rain has made me feel VERY “cozy”.

I was going to keep going and recap our day so far today, too- we’ve done a little sightseeing, waterfall viewing and lunch out.

But this afternoon I am currently snuggled in here with tea, a blanket, light jazz music on the CD player and a fire in the wood stove….so I think I’m going to close this out and either take a little nap or read. 🙂

Stay tuned for Day 2! I can already see myself returning here. (It would be quite dreamy in the winter, too, as a total solo relaxation retreat! (Assuming the roads were passable….) Like just hole up, go nowhere, put a fire on, sleep, read, write, relax, watch movies…. ahhh. Wonderful! But I’m loving having Ethan’s company this time. 🙂