Travel | Saint Andrews Hall | Detroit, Michigan

I love living in Michigan, being from Michigan and pretty much everything about my home state. My husband and I love to explore all the outdoor things along with some really cool cities. Obviously, Detroit is one of them. Don't listen to what people say about Detroit - Detroit is great. The city is full of people who are fighters and who are not giving up and it shows. There are SO many cool things happening in Detroit now, so you should probably give it a whirl.

photo courtesy of detroityes.com

Anyway, one of the things we love to do as a couple is attend concerts. One of our favorite venues to do this at is Saint Andrews Hall in Detroit. Built in 1907, Saint Andrews was originally the meeting place for the St. Andrew's Scottish Society of Detroit. This venue has three different meeting sites in one building; the Main Ballroom, The Shelter and The Burns Room.



The Main Ballroom, photo credit to saintandrewsdetroit.com

The Main Ballroom features a hardwood dance floor, a large bar and in-house sound and lighting. The Shelter has a private bar area, a stage, cabaret seating, DJ booth, red curtains and private rooms. The Burns Room includes hardwood floors, chandeliers, lounge furniture, a small raised stage and floor to ceiling windows overlooking Congress Street and the RenCen.

We absolutely love this site and it's one of Detroit's many historic buildings. If you ever get the chance to check it out, we couldn't recommend it more. Go Detroit!

Saint Andrews Hall has no idea who I am. I just love the historic building and genuinely enjoy attending concerts there. All thoughts and opinions are my own and I was not compensated in any way for writing this post.

Travel | Blackrocks Brewery | Marquette, Michigan

When we travel we try to visit only local places to eat, drink and hang out. I personally don't see the point in visiting a place and going to a chain restaurant. We want to experience the local flavor, so to speak. So for the next few Thursdays I am going to expound on the places we visited while in Marquette, Michigan. Starting first with the breweries we went to.

 

First up, is Blackrocks Brewery. First off, Black Rocks are a well known Marquette "attraction" located on Presque Isle State Park and you can jump off the cliff into freezing cold Lake Superior. You can view some pictures of people doing just that at this webpage. So already, the brewery has a kick ass name. To learn a little bit more about the founders spirit, I highly recommend watching this video.

 

Anyway, these guys are located right in downtown Marquette and they even have a patio. I am making it a mission to get back there this summer and enjoy a beautiful Marquette night on the patio. They are open Monday-Friday and on Friday and Saturday nights, according to their website, the Dia de des Tacos truck is available in the parking lot. That is a really awesome thing to provide, because they don't offer food in the establishment. We were there on a Saturday morning/early afternoon so we didn't get to try the food truck...maybe next time. Blackrocks also offers local music Sunday-Thursday. So, once again, another thing we missed. Just more and more reasons to go back, eh?

Now onto the real reason we went there: the beers. Blackrocks brews their beers on 3 different systems so they are able to make a larger variety. They put some into cans and the rest go on tap. The cans are sold in most of Michigan, with the exception of the southeastern corner (Detroit + burbs). They have 3 regular beers that they sell in cans year-round: 51K IPA, Grand Rabbits Dry Hopped Cream Ale and Coconut Brown. The IPA is an earthy grapefruit and apricot flavor with pine flavored hops and a nice dry finish. Grand Rabbits is a lemon/orange flavor with a grainy sweetness and Coconut Brown is a chocolate flavored brown ale with a creamy coconut finish. They also have some seasonal beers as well; North Third Stout (winter) and Honey Lav (summer). Then there are the limited ones that kind of flow through and out. The beer I had when I was there was the Kortne Belgian Blonde. 

 

 

 

I had two since I liked it so much. It went down great and was delicious with my pasty. All in all I really loved the casual, friendly vibe of this place and it is definitely a place I will visit every time I go to Marquette. Which is never as often as I want it to be.

Pure Michigan Travel | Eaglemonk Pub & Brewery

So I turned 30 a few weeks ago and it seemed appropriate to go get some drinks and a brewery. A nice classy way to maybe have some giggles with some friends. The brewery options in Lansing, Michigan are few and far between, but luckily we have EagleMonk Pub and Brewery.

The first thing we did was order a sampler. It comes with 8 sample sized beers, and in this case it happened to contain every beer they had on tap. They placed it on this tray with a laminated paper stating what beer was what. I assumed I was going to enjoy the lighter beers only, but I was wrong. They were all delicious!

I am going to consult their brewing list and try to recall which ones I tried...I make no promises as to whether I am accurate or not. It's been like 3 weeks. Also, EagleMonk also has wine, soda and food! We all had pizzas, and they were delightfully delicious. EagleMonk also sells a variety of souvenirs with their logo, including howlers and growlers. We purchased a howler and are looking forward to going back to refilling it. Alright beers sampled:
Red Eye Rye 
Instigator Doppelbock
Irish Red
Belgian Wit
Michigan White
Scottish 70
Delta Porter
And one other that I cannot recall...

EagleMonk also has an awesome program called the EagleMonk Mug Club. It costs $50 for life, and includes one free fill up. You get to chose a mug made by a local artist (mugs pictured above) and they are SUPER COOL. They hang from the ceiling and are super neat. You get a larger pour for the pint price, $10 growler fills on craft beer daily, $2 off any pizza on Tuesdays and $3 mugs on Sundays.

I am so happy that we have a great brewery like EagleMonk in our area, and I can definitely ensure that I will be going there again. With our howler in hand.

Pure Michigan Travel | Kayaking in Mt. Pleasant

For my 30th birthday, I wanted to do something that I love to do. I wanted to be outside, near/on the water, with my best friend/fiance celebrating entering the next phase of my life. So, we went kayaking. We had a groupon (we almost always have a groupon #dealsfordays) to Buckley's Mountainside Canoes in lovely Mt. Pleasant, Michigan (home to Central Michigan University). It's about an hour north of where we live, so we made a reservation for right when they opened @ 10 am. 

It was a chilly morning, but beautiful. Big puffy clouds, sun shining bright, the sky was a brilliant blue...pure michigan at it's finest. We got our kayaks without a hitch and we chose to do the 2-3 hour option (about 6.5 miles) figuring we would just take our time and enjoy the scenery. They drove us to our drop-off location, and off we went!

The river we were on is the Chippewa River, and it had a pretty decent current going. For the first 45 minutes or so all we really needed to do was steer, and make sure we didn't get stuck in the shallows. Naturally, we each got stuck in the shallows, but we managed to get out without any major problems. Even though we have had tons of rain this summer, the river was still pretty shallow in some spots.

We saw lots of fish, turtles and even a crane! It was sitting by the river, and we scared it so it flew ahead and hid in the brush. But of course, we were still going in that direction, so as we neared it it flew in front of us again. We played this game for awhile, until finally it gave up and flew off somewhere. It was super awesome, and I wish I had been able to capture a picture of it.

The temperature was perfection, it got a little steamy in the sun, but there was a great breeze and lots of trees. It couldn't have been an easier river to kayak and the entire process of renting and using the groupon was so simple. Buckley's also rents canoes, and stand up paddleboards for various trips. They have a variety of different routes, so if you're not comfortable with your ability they have a shorter route that you could do. They were super easy to work with, and they have so many options for the things.

*Buckley's & Groupon have no idea who I am or that I am singing their praises. All purchases and opinions are my own.

Pure Michigan Travel | Crunchy's East Lansing

So my beloved college town of East Lansing has many bars, a little something for everyone if you will. My college friends and I certainly had bars we preferred for every occasion and mood, and naturally our overall favorite. Crunchy's was certainly a favorite, and still is to this day. I just recently went for a friends birthday gathering, and we sat out on the patio and tried some beers and a wonderful time was had.




Crunchy's has 27 beers on tap, and is definitely deeply entrenched in the craft beer world. They often have nights dedicated to one brewery, and all taps will serve beers from that place. They are a big supported of Michigan made beer, which makes me happy. They are known in the area for having "the best burger in town" which is the Crunchy burger and it's a BEAST. I've never had it, I can't handle that much meat *ahem*. Moving on.

They have some sort of food special every day of the week, along with karaoke on thursday, friday and saturday. Back in the day I may have sang a little bit of Ace of Base.  Maybe. 

Crunchy's has even introduced their "secret society", the Burger and Beer Society card is full of perks if you use it frequently. I don't have one, but C does and he enjoys it.

Crunchy's is a great place to gather and hang out with friends, family or just to hang out solo and meet some new people. I will continue to frequent it and will be sure to tell my future Spartans to go there for some great Michigan brews!