Weekending on the East Coast

…of Lake Michigan!

We left for Two Rivers right after work on Friday. It was chilly! I swear, autumn arrived on Friday afternoon — it was great all day, then took a turn just as I left for home — windy & chilly. Brrr. Thankfully, the wind died down a little bit every day, and the sun was out most of the time.

We spent the weekend at the Lighthouse Inn in Two Rivers, right on the water. The room was a little dated and could use some fresh decor, but the location can’t be beat, and the restaurant was pretty good. These are views from our room.

The lights on the horizon in the photo above are the City of Manitowoc, about five miles south. (Kate & I rode our bikes from Two Rivers to Manitowoc & back a couple of months ago.) I happened to glance out the window on Friday night and saw fireworks being shot off down there! I have no idea what the occasion was, but it was neat to see.

We walked over to Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum on Saturday morning after breakfast to take the tour (and do a little shopping in the gift shop). In addition to being a working museum, they have a great collection of old printing equipment & presses — and other things. Hamilton built several types of furniture back in the day, too. They still cut type there, so it was fun to check out the pantographs (old & new) and just browse around at our leisure.

Rusty & I both have print shop experience in our past — he ran a small print shop in his Northern California hippy days, and I worked as a typesetter for my first real job (and for quite a few years… I loved that job). We met when he’d come & pick up “words” that I’d “set” (on a computer in those not-so-olden days) for the graphics work he was doing at the time.

We drove up the shore to Algoma in the afternoon. Rusty delivered some work to a gallery there and we visited with the owner for a while — they also have a couple of rooms with antiques, so I browsed a bit — and we stopped in at a couple of other galleries & shops before heading back.

On Saturday night we checked out Cool City Brewing for dinner. Two Rivers is known as “cool city” — naturally air conditioned because of their location on the lake. Cool City Brewing has expanded on the idea of “flights,” so not only did I have a flight of beer (IPAs, mostly), but Rusty & I shared a flight of Sliders and a flight of Meatballs! It was all really good and the place had a nice vibe… or should I say “cool”?!

We stopped by for a quick visit with Ali & her family on the way home on Sunday. The kiddos will all be coming for an overnight on Friday!!