Our second day of vacation was especially rewarding and fulfilling because we got to spend it with my California Sister, Gabby!
As you may know, she is 1/3 of the triplets that I will forever refer to as my California Siblings. My time living in that state was defined by a lot of people and places, but none more so than those three. Since I saw her brothers last month, it was simply the best getting to see her now and Gabby being here was a HUGE part of why we took this trip when we did!
I ALWAYS do my research before going anywhere and site after site listed the Dexter Cider Mill as being the best around! Well, the Dexter Cider Store would’ve been a more appropriate name for this place as that’s essentially all it was, BUT if we didn’t come here, we wouldn’t have discovered all the absolutely amazingness that Dexter had to offer. I can assure you, no regrets were had.
This picture cracks me up. No, we don’t know the lady behind us and clearly Gabby wasn’t ready to take the shot, so its haphazardness just makes me smile.
“Where My Girls At?”
We all got super excited when the Amtrak train drove by. It really amplified the cuteness of the moment.
Gabby’s earning her Master’s Degree up at University of Michigan and is truly living her best life there. I couldn’t be more proud of and happy for her. She finished her Bachelor’s Degree of University of California Merced in THREE YEARS! For those doing the math, that’s literally HALF the time it took for me and Melissa to do the same thing! There are no boundaries to Gabby’s extraordinary.
The Dexter River Cafe was just great. They were super busy, so it took us forever to eat, but I mean that in the best way. We were in no rush, so we told our wonderful server, Julian, to just take care of everyone else and get us when he had time. This allowed us to catch up with Gabby and hear and share story after story. Best lunch I’d had in ages.
Again, give me all the reflection shots.
We about died when we saw this cute little A&W Restaurant! Edwardsville used to have one pretty much just like this that both Melissa and I would go to as children, so seeing this put us in a tailspin of memories! Even though we had just had lunch and plenty of tea and water to drink during it, there was no way we were leaving Dexter without some A&W root beers from this enchanting establishment!
The University of Michigan had these lovely botanical gardens on campus that we explored together and loved every single second of it. You all know how much I love a good garden.
They even had a tropical plant house! This place was great!
The desert house was attached to the tropical one. I’d be spending a lot of time in these two places December through February if I was a student up there!
This was such a genuinely proud campus and I loved seeing all the “M’s” and fanfare it offered up. No wonder Melissa fell so hard in love with it up there.
Living our best lives.
This is for all my Scream fans out there! If you’ve seen Scream 4, you know exactly which houses these are. We couldn’t leave town without seeing them.
The campus was massive, but every part of it we saw was just wonderful. Loved it so much and made me yearn for a college experience I never had going to that junk school I did, SIUE.
The art museum on campus was INCREDIBLE! We figured it’d be lowkey art by like local artists and students, but NO! This place had artworks from all kinds of internationally recognized artists! Plus, it was WAY bigger than we suspected! Definitely a 10/10! Highly Recommend!
Ann Arbor is one of the best big small towns out there. Everything about this city is simply the best.
We had dinner at this phenomenal restaurant, the Gandy Dancer. We were doing a generic Google search of places to eat and it’s cute name caught my attention and thank goodness it did! This fine dining establishment was second to none! If we lived there, it’d be in our regular rotation.
My Seared Scallops & Risotto were top notch! I ate this right up! Give me ALL the seafood!
The Gandy Dancer is held in the city’s former train station and train’s still pass by regularly – two did so when we were dining – and when they did, the entire restaurant clapped. It was just enchanting. The best part about this place was when it came time to pay the bill, the check notified me it was part of the Landry’s Select Dining Club – OF WHICH I’M A VIP MEMBER! This was just a wonderful revelation! Needless to say, it took our already perfect experience and kicked it up another notch.
Ann Arbor is a city I felt like I could’ve happily spent several more days in! There is so much to see and do and we didn’t even scratch the surface! Not to mention its only about forty-five minutes from Detroit, which in and of itself is a phenomenal city, but more on that in the coming days! Literally if you have never been up to Ann Arbor I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND a visit! You’ll LOVE it! We couldn’t stay any longer than we did because we were headed to Mackinac Island, which we loved and I know you all will too when you see all the photos from our three phenomenal days there!
As always, THANK YOU so much for viewing! I appreciate you greatly! Please feel free to leave a comment below as I LOVE reading and responding to them! I’ll return soon with day three, so until then, I wish you all, all the best!
Working hard everyday towards achieving my goal of becoming an international best-selling author. Wrote the book, just need the agent and publisher. Received the ultimate endorsement when Britney Spears wrote me saying she'd be one of the first in line to buy my book! #FreeBritney
Always nice to see family. Looks like a neat city there!
We absolutely loved every moment of that day! Ann Arbor is second to none!