Marshall

This weekend we drove east on I-94, but we didn't drive all the way to Chicago this time as we were spending the weekend in Marshall, MI with Ray and Abigail.  Ray and Abigail were taking a mini-vacation back to Abigail's old stomping grounds as she spent some of her earlier life in and around this town.

We ended up meeting them Saturday around lunch time at the National House Bed and Breakfast, where we stayed the night.  While there aren't a whole lot of options in Marshall, this place definitely sets the bar high.  For one, this house, built in 1835, has about 15 unique rooms with some offering a view of the Brooks Memorial Fountain.  They had some tasty afternoon snacks!  Lastly, it's located right downtown (not that Marshall is all that big) so you can walk/stumble to some of the hot spots like Dark Horse Brewery, Schuler's, and the Stagecoach Inn, but more on those places a little bit later.  The only disappointment of the B&B was the breakfast part as they didn't offer the traditional option of a plate of some sort of egg dish, french toast, waffles, or pancakes.  They did have oatmeal, toast, muffins, an egg casserole of sorts, and fruit, but just wasn't the same as a hot cooked meal.  

Anyway, our first adventure was a cultural tour of some of the John Bellairs, an American author, best known for his well-respected fantasy novel The Face in the Frost, sites.  Bellairs grew up in Marshall, which served as an inspirations for several of his novels.  We started the tour at the Oakridge Cemetary, then we passed the Oaklawn Hospital, and lastly, we found the Cronin House.  All either appeared in his novels or served as an inspiration for a place in his novels.  

Next it was off to the brewery as we ate a late lunch over at Dark Horse Brewery, then took a tour of the facility.  It was a pretty standard tour of the brewing kettles, the bottling/labeling equipment, the warehouse, and lastly, up to a private sampling lounge where we received four hearty samples plus our free logo pint glass!  

To round out the day, we picked up a lite dinner over at Schuler's.  While Abigail remembered going to this place as a child, Scottie and I have probably driven by this restaurant's advertisements over 20 times on our route to/from Chicago.  Thus, we were pretty excited to finally see what all the hype was about.  It was certainly a unique, German establishment; however, not sure it's necessarily worth a stop off the I-94.  Later that evening, we made our way to the Stagecoach Inn to hang with the locals.  And indeed we received more than we bargained for with an out-of-control post-wedding reception crew.  

The next morning, we took a quick driving tour of Abigail's childhood home, then it was off to Harvey's U-pick Farm to pick strawberries, a first for Scottie and I!  

We ended up picking 8 cartons worth of strawberries to take back with us!  What a fun getaway weekend and adventure in Michigan.