Exploring Glen Arbor and Empire with friends

Friends of ours from our old hometown were going to be vacationing in the same area as us, so we made plans to meet up on Thursday when we arrived in Empire.

After getting set up on our site at Indigo Bluffs RV Resort in Empire,

we drove up the road to Glen Arbor to meet our friends.

The boys were all glad to see each other, and it’s amazing to see how they’ve all grown into such handsome young men!

We had some lunch while we caught up with what everyone has been doing and the new adventures coming up this year, and after sharing a pitcher of beer, Tom and Joe were both feeling pretty relaxed!

To wear off some of that lunch, we walked around town, browsing in some of the shops and enjoying the sights.

There are the usual T-shirt shops and ice cream stores, but there are also artist galleries, bookstores and even furniture shops.

We walked to the beach, admiring the pretty flowers along the way,

and checked out the water when we got there.  Not too much of a beach here, but the water was nice.

Headed back to town, we passed by some more interesting decorations,

 

 

on our way to our favorite destination in Glen Arbor – the Cherry Republic.         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked through the Cherry Republic complex, enjoying an assortment of samples – dried cherries, cherry salsa, cherry candies, cherry wine (for the adults), and cherry pop.

We left with plenty of our favorites, including a bottle of cherry sangria and cherry pop for the kids!

We’d pretty much exhausted town, but weren’t ready for dinner yet, so we drove back to the RV Resort to relax and visit some more, and let Casey out for awhile.

A few hours later, we decided to go into Empire for dinner.  IT’s a small town, without too many choices for dinner, but we’ve been to Joe’s Friendly Tavern before and have been impressed with the quality of the food and the prices.    

 

We had to wait “just a minute” for a table, so Krys and I walked to a little shop across the street that was really cute . . . we didn’t get to look for too long – it really was just a few minutes before our table was ready.

Joe at Joe’s Friendly Tavern . . .

 

Tom ordered the “gigantic burrito”, and the rest of us had hamburgers, which were excellent.  He said his burrito was delicious, too . . . and he actually finished the whole thing!!

 

 

After that dinner, we needed to wear it off, so we walked a few blocks to the beach.  Empire has a beautiful beach, and there were several groups of people enjoying the beautiful summer evening with campfires on the beach.

We took some family pictures on the beach,

The Gimmarro’s

The Kluck’s

and some more of the boys . . .

along with a couple of young girls who couldn’t resist getting in the picture with them!

We spent a little more time at the beach, enjoying the sights and the sunset . . .

 

and the boys had to get in a little play-time!!

We parted ways then, but we were glad we were able to meet up with our friends and spend a very enjoyable day with them!