Empire Asparagus and Old Mission wine

It's hard to believe Girl's Weekend rolled around these parts already. Every year I plan a little weekend, usually someplace around Michigan for "just us girls" to get some time away catching up. This year's plan was a wine trip through the Old Mission peninsula (recall Leelanau peninsula tour of 2008), and it just so happened to coincide with something I've been trying to catch for the last several years; the asparagus festival in Empire! It is such my luck that Empire and Old Mission are so close. :-)
So off Sarah, Kristal and I went for a weekend of good old girly fun. We drove north on Friday night with a dinnertime detour at Sonic (the cherry limeade IS worth stopping for) before arriving to Beulah just after 10pm. Early enough to still bust out the wine glasses, but just late enough that we didn't feel the need to get dressed up and go out. We talked, we imbibed, and most of all, we relaxed! Just what these ladies needed after a long stress-filled week.
Saturday morning, we were up and at em for the Asparagus festival. The drive to Empire from Beulah is only about 25 minutes, and we stopped on the way to grab some breakfast at Phoenix Cafe, and some chocolates at the Grocer's Daughter. Two of my local favorites. We were a bit disappointed that we would have to miss the asparagus parade in order to make all the vineyards on our winery tour, but at least we got to hit the food tent! Clearly the most important part.

Pretty ladies and a food tent spearAsparagus beerAnd Asparagus bratsAnd fish with Asparagus tarter sauce

After leaving Empire, we got to Old Mission at just about 1:30. We went straight to 2 Lads winery, the first stop on our tour. I'm actually really glad that we hit this place first, because in hindsight, it wasn't one of my favorites. Way too high up on the "pretentious wine snob" list. It did have pretty views though.

2 Lads3 Ladies @ 2 Lads

The rest of the wine tour I'll admit started to be a bit of a blur, but the standouts were the views at Chateau Chantel and the cute quirkiness of the Old Peninsula Schoolhouse winery. Oddly, their wines were really good at the schoolhouse. They had cute names like "Detention" and "Homework," and had I not been so intent on getting rid of stuff in preparation for moving, I totally would have purchased a few bottles. Instead, I just made the ladies promise to have me over when they drink their bottles. :-)

View @ Chateau ChantelOld Peninsula SchoolhouseThe ladies during the Brys Estate tasting

We capped off wine tour with a tasty dinner at Poppycocks. I think we were all feeling a little worn out, and the tasty vegetarian cuisine was just what we needed to settle down for the night. I didn't capture my dinner in images, but the portabella mushroom/risotto stack I ordered was SO good. I think the tomato cream sauce and sauteed zucchini bits was my favorite part. The ladies thought their dishes were equally as good (Sarah got the mango polenta points special, and Kristal went with mushroom & shrimp ravioli), and once we were stuffed, we had a plan for the rest of our evening. Girl time! We hit up both the Walgreens and Target in Traverse City, and $150, a hair coloring kit, lots of makeup, and some clay mask later, we were on our way back to the cottage to paint our nails and be girly. Sometimes Old fashion fun is the best kind.
Sunday morning turned out to be pretty low key, and after some sleeping in, some laundry, and some packing up, we hit up the Crescent bakery in Frankfurt for a breakfast to-go enjoyed at the beach. I made these ladies indulge me in one last photo before we headed back on the road.

Angels on the beachJust us