This past weekend Julie and I headed up to Lakeside, Michigan to get away for a couple of days. We’ve talked about going up to Wisconsin or Michigan this summer and after doing a little research we decided to go with with Harbor Country Michigan. It seemed closer, less popular than most of the places in Wisconsin we’ve heard of and probably less traffic. Plus we’d get to drive through scenic Gary, Indiana.

The town we stayed in, Lakeside, was out of the way of the main tourist towns in the area. We stayed at the Lakeside Inn which sits above Lake Michigan and has direct access to a private beach on the lake via a staircase down a ravine. The Lakeside Inn is a restored inn dating back to around 1917 for it’s current structure of 31 rooms. The amenities are circa 1920’s plus Air Conditioning and WIFI which is about all I need to survive.

With the lake being so close we did about three trips to the beach. The water was perfect and it wasn’t crowded at all. If we go back I will be grilling there. We did try to some of the state parks to see their beaches but they’re all Pay to Play. So we never really went through with the paying and would just head back to our beach. At any one time there probably wasn’t 40 people within 300 yards us on the beach. There was a serious thunderstorm Saturday evening before we headed out to dinner but we were able to watch it pass with a couple of beers in hand while sitting on the 100 foot porch at the inn.

One of the stops we wanted to make on this trip was to hit Greenbush Brewing since I had their beer at this years Baconfest. In addition to Greenbush a coworker of mine recommended we stop at Shoreline Brewery in Michigan City on our way there. So nearly 50 minutes into our trip we stopped at for lunch at Bartlett’s and then spent a couple hours at Shoreline.  I really liked Shoreline’s beer selection.  The knock I’ve read is that their beers can be too easy drinking which I think is amusing.  Yes their Scottish Ale, Beltaine, was the lightest Scottish Ale I’ve ever experienced but their Pale Ales were both great (Benny’s and Don’t Panic English Ale).  Also, if you’re into blueberry ales their Stella Blue was perfect.

Greenbush I was a little disappointed in.  They didn’t have the two beers I really enjoyed at Baconfest: Anger and Rage.  I guess this is part of their deal where they’re always changing what is available and even the taste of each beer.  For example I had their Pale Ale Closure only to be told by a local that if I come back in three weeks the beer will be completely different.  I guess this is a good thing for your local brewpub which Greenbush is but it makes it difficult for me to get my head around the fact that I wanted the two beers I had and they just didn’t have them.  The more I think about this, it just seems that when they came to an event in Chicago they just showed up with three beers, a seasonal, a specialty and probably one of their flagship beers.  Which makes sense, I just happened to really like the specialty and seasonal which the brewery didn’t have the one time I was there.  Ok, I’m done complaining.

I really did enjoy their Brother Benjamin which is a double IPA and Distorter Porter.  In addition to this, Greenbush has an awesome Mug Club.  A one time payment of $40 gets you the following:

• A 20-ounce, numbered mug that hangs above our bar for your use only
• 50 cents off each and every imperial pint (yep, 4 more ounces!)
• Half off pints all day Monday
• $2 off growler fills all day Wednesday
• Invitations to members-only events (exclusive barrel-aged beer tastings, for example)

For $40 that’s a hell of a deal.  Shoreline had a great deal as well but it was an annual thing, though their mugs varied in size which I think is just amazing.  Greenbush also had some great looking food but alas we stopped there after dinner.

In addition to the two breweries we did some wine tasting at Round Barn Winery’s tasting room in Union Pier, Michigan. I’m not a big wine taster but lucky for me they also brew beer and they have a tasting room dedicated to beer as well. Their beer wasn’t anything to write home about, I think I liked their Cocoa Stout the most.  Their beer was really expensive for some odd reason.  It was much cheaper at the grocery store.  We ended up buying a couple of bottles of wine and passing on the beer.

One of the better meals we had all weekend was at Soe Cafe in Sawyer, Michigan. We also tried the Swedish bakery that will remain nameless. Probably the best idea we had all weekend was to stop at Oink’s Yogurt and Ice Cream Shop. The place was busy but efficient at getting a cone and it was great.

Side Notes:

* On our way back home we stopped at Shoreline for a growler fill and then had lunch at the Rolling Stonebaker pizza truck near the Indian Dunes. The pizza was perfect and I wish we stopped there on the way up as well.
** I used the June issue of Chicago Magazine to pick many of the destinations.