Winery Tour: New Buffalo, Michigan

Last month we celebrated Tamara’s 30th Birthday with a winery tour in New Buffalo, Michigan. My first trip to Michigan (ever!) and where better to start than the wineries?  New Buffalo is just a short Amtrak ride from Chicago, but feels like a world apart. It’s the perfect day trip from the city!

First up on the tour was Free Run Cellars. The Birthday Girl!

You gotta watch out for Becca and Maria… troublemakers!

Next, we stopped at Gravity, for a tastings paired with cheese and chocolate, as well as a light lunch.  Note the outfit change! A fashion statement for sure, but mostly because it ended up being much hotter than I anticipated. Luckily, I’m prepared for any situation and had a sundress stashed in my purse just in case!

The third winery on our tour was Lemon Creek.

Of course we convinced Tamara to climb into the wine barrel. Seems appropriate on a birthday, after all!

Lemon Creek is situated on a sprawling property, complete with a barn and a fruit market. Beautiful!

The last stop on our tour for Round Barn, which you may notice is located in a round barn.  I would say that this was, by far, our favorite winery. Of course by this time, a day of wine tasting had caught up with us, which I’m sure influenced this decision. But this winery had a lovely outdoor area and live music, which on a gorgeous day such as this one, was pure heaven!

This was also when we actually started chatting with some of our other tour mates (why is it that everyone is always so shy until the end!). When they found out that it was T’s birthday, they insisted on buying us a round of drinks.  In addition to wine, Round Barn also makes beer and liqueur. The drink we were toasting with was made with their specialty, Walnut Liqueur, which can best be described as a cross between a mudslide and liquid crack. Of course moments after that photo was taken, our tour guide rounded us up to say that it was time to leave, so we had to drink them rather quickly. Needless to say, this made for quite the raucous van ride back into town!

Before our train ride back to Chicago, so we stopped at Stray Dog for dinner. This is one of those picturesque restaurants that  you’d find in many coastal towns, with a vibe to match.

Afterwards, we strolled through the town, stumbling upon a street fair. We also stopped for Mackinac Fudge ice cream, which is a Michigan specialty (or so I’m told). I will say that it was quite delicious!

A great way to celebrate with friends; I’m thinking we’ll have to make this an annual tradition! Happy Birthday Tamara!