What better way to gather smiles than taking a couple days to adventure with a friend in northern Michigan? I can’t think of a better way to grin for two days, and I’ve been meaning to share some of our smiles with you but time and events sent me off on a detour or two.

A couple weeks ago a friend from college and I took off to do some fun stuff. Stuff you always say you’re going to do but usually don’t get around to.

Like flying down a mountain on a plastic sled at Crystal Mountain Resort. You’ve always wanted to do that, right?

Haven’t you secretly yearned to be on that bobsled when you watched the winter Olympics? No? Really?

Well let me assure you that I was going much slower than an Olympic athlete on ice, and it was perfectly safe.

And oh it was such a blast! It was so much fun that we each rode down four times! (4 rides for $30 each)

We would have gone again, but we had other things to fit into our short two day adventure. Like visit one of our favorite places, Pt. Betsie.

You all know that I try to get out there, even if it’s only for a few minutes, whenever I’m in the area. I’m not usually there in beach season, so it’s fun to see the sand filled with sun bathers and rock pickers.

We didn’t stay at the beach long, we were hungry and it was getting late. We checked into our hotel and then went to dinner at The Cherry Hut.

We had a nice dinner and more importantly bought a cherry pie to take with us.

Which we ate at the hotel. YUMMY!

The next day it was on to Boyne Mountain, further north, which has a relatively new Sky Bridge, built between a couple of ski mountains.

The ski lift here was longer and slower, giving us lots of time to enjoy the beautiful summer day.

The bridge is pretty long, and moves a bit with the people walking on it.

Handrails are handy.

In the middle of the bridge are a couple of sections of plexiglass so you can see below.

That was weird, but not too scary. Mostly I imagined how beautiful this will be in the fall.

And then we rode the lift back down, found our car and headed home. Well. Not directly home.

We did stop for a couple photogenic barns.

And a house.

Wouldn’t be an adventure without barns.

Or without friends. Thanks for the great time, adventure friend. You know who you are.