A Week in St. Joe’s

The first two days we were here I didn’t leave the room.  My back was hurting so badly that I could barely move.  I took lots of ibuprofen and naproxen and stayed in bed most of the time.  Once it started feeling a little bit better I went down to the lobby and relaxed there for a bit.  By the fourth day I was feeling much better and Kirk and I decided to go down to the hotel restaurant, Bistro On The Boulevard,  to eat dinner.  Let me tell you, that restaurant is amazing.  We loved every bite.  So much so that we ended up eating there 3 nights in an row just to be able to try new things on the menu.

The desserts were amazing as well.  We loved them so much that we would eat a dessert at the restaurant after dinner, then go up to the room and order dessert again from room service (and we always had the same thing, over and over).  I know, we don’t need that much dessert, but it was so so delicious.  Kirk would have the caramel brownie and I would get this thing called a yellow submarine.  His was a chocolate brownie, with chocolate sauce drizzle, a scoop of caramel ice cream, crumbled peanut brittle and caramel corn.  Mine was a bit different.  It was a half circle, with a banana bread bottom, a mashed banana filling, surrounded by a coconut marshmallowy type stuff and then covered in white chocolate, with a piece of sugar glass and meringue shapes.  Sounds weird, but it was awesome!!

Saint Joseph is a quaint little beach town.  For my friends that have never been to a great lake (like myself, until now), the beach is comparable to an ocean beach.  There is beautiful sand, volleyball, shops, kayaking and much more.  You can’t see across the lake so it feels like an ocean without the big waves.  I am told that when there is a storm coming that it makes big waves, occasionally large enough to surf.  Unlike an ocean beach, there are also shade trees, which is nice.  In St. Joseph, at Silver Beach park, there is a nice splash pad for the kids to play in and an indoor carousel, the Silver Beach Carousel.

There are several wineries in the area. Who knew? There are several wine tasting rooms in downtown St. Joe, walking distance from the beach, along with lots of little stores and restaurants.  Right next to our hotel is a children’s museum.  We didn’t go but it seemed like a busy place full of energy we would like to take our grandson, Leon, to some day.

We did take a ride along the coast a little bit and then spent an afternoon doing some wine tasting at the wineries in the area.  The wine was ok, not as good as Napa or Temecula, but not bad. I found some I liked enough to buy, of course. I did get pictures of some really pretty old houses, as well as the local hang out on a hot day, the Dairy Korner.  That place gets super crowded in the late afternoon/early evening.

All in all it was a very good and relaxing week in St. Joseph.