Wow just got back into the burbs from a magical weekend in Mackinaw Island. Two friends of mine Madeline & Jake chose to celebrate their love and marriage in Mackinaw Island.  I haven’t been to Mackinaw for quite a few years, maybe the last time I was there was 07 or 08 !

Growing up, my summer Camp Walden would have a “special day” activity where each age group would venture off to Mackinaw for the day. I think i’ve been there about 12 times now. I started going to Camp Walden of Cheyboygan when I was 9 years old!  Cheboygan is one of the closest cities to Mackinaw. The bus ride over to the ferry dock never felt so long.

This time around was different my honey love and I drove from the suburbs up to Mackinaw City.  We purchased Ferry Tickets for Shelpers in advance and paid for parking on site ($15 for 3 nights! not bad).  The ferry ride is about 20 minutes and you have awesome views of the Mackinaw Bridge, the Grand Hotel & the fort.

It is so funny how this island takes you on a trip back in time as there are basically no cars on the island ! everyone bikes, walks, or rides horse drawn carriages. The only cars on the island are emergency vehicles.  There are 4 fire trucks, 2 police cars and 1 emergency car(kinda like an ambulance).

This trip was different as I was in town for 2 friends wedding vs running to the local pay phones to call and talk to my parents for the first time in a few weeks.  It is funny to think kids at camp now probably don’t even know what pay phones are! we used to dial our parents on a collect call to get ahold of them.

The fudge shops are just as i remembered them  – Murdocks, Ryba’s and Joanne’s ! There is always of course Sanders too. I don’t really love it as much I used to but the smells are just as pungent and delicious.

It really felt like a Pure Michigan weekend – we got to explore in nature on the first morning with a 2 hour bike ride around the island which was organized by the Grand Hotel and the 2nd morning we kayaked to Arch Rock for 2 hours. I loved being able to just be in the present moment and embrace the beauty around me. I have to admit i did bring my cell on the kayak as its really cool new and water proof !! my life jacket happened to have a zip pocket so why not  – right?!

We rode in horse drawn carriages all around the island. It’s a little immature but I couldn’t help but laughing when the horses start pooping while walking and driving us around !! The 1st night we went off to the Pinky Pony Bar. Honestly it felt like a right of passage for me – this was always the cool place the counselors went to drink . It was like i learned about alcohol from camp and this was the place to have some – and now here i am 28 years old doing it !  The live music was fabulous and lively. We went over to Island Pizza for a late night snack after.

The 2nd night we took the carriages “into the woods” which is on the property of the Grand Hotel. Btw we stayed at the Grand Hotel – like OMG !! this place is so cool and really takes you back in time. Each room is individually designed and funky! Our room was bright and pineapple themed.  I was out of my mind as I love Pineapple vibes !  The Grand Hotel is home to the world’s largest porch about 660 FT long!

Pics to come in the next post with more to the story !!

xo Linz

Halo! reporting Live from Berlin!! I just got back from dinner with my childhood BFF caroline her beau and a group of lovely intelligent friends. the conversation at dinner took towards “the power of now” a book that was written by a german man Eckhart Tolle. He is widely popular in the US and it seems to be a somewhat unfamiliar book to many germans. After doing a little post dinner “google-ing” or “bing-ing” i have found that this book has been translated into 33 languages and in the late 90s was in Oprahs Book club…. !! a friend at the table was truly enlightened by this book and has for the last 14 days taken the time to write down 3 things he is grateful for each day.  this has helped him bring his focus to the present time and created an increased awareness of self and self motivation. he feels that at the end of it all  – all we are trying to do is be happy and how do you best achieve this happiness ? by being aware of your level of gratitude in the present moment.

What are we truly grateful for ? Take the time to think about it….

Today I will note that I am grateful for 1) the opportunity for being able to have a dinner with local germans 2) growing up with a fabulous friend caroline who moved from Germany to the US in elementary school 3) to share with them my story and the story of Detroit ; its revitalization and current movement driven by young people like ourselves.

I do believe 1-3 + of them plus their fellow PHD peers will come to Detroit before year’s end.

Prost,

Lindsey

Felt good to have the sun shining on my face for the first time in 2018 it feels. Stroopwafels ! Walked over canals lined with bikers and walkers. Yes those are dreadlocks out the bottom of that man’s sweatshirt. Visited the historic house of Van Loon, Grey Area and Original dampkring, stopped at the french fry stand and tried Havalah! #Amsterdam is just simply the best place to buy presents. Sept 2016 I shopped at a store called presents! But did not make it this time around. Off to TXL!! Starbucks in hand 🙂 Happy Camper, Linz

We are obsessed with social media and brands. We are bombarded by and influenced all day long. Shawn Kolodny is using art to take this message to the next level ! During Art Basel he did a pop up venue to explore a ” Fake Fulfillment Center ”

it was located next to Bagatelle in South Beach. You’re welcome by the receptionist who greets you with a hand full of pills … fake pills of course they were like jelly beans ! Then you are to put on your Lab Coat. at the Fake Fulfillment center we are to explore a few rooms. The first was a minute spent in the room named ” a single dose of Prada “. it’s a mirrored room with vaccine viles labeled Prada. after we found our way over to spinning the dial for a Twister board filled with social media logos.

Art Basel 2017

Are you ready for your soul to pour out of your body and have one of the most unreal experiences ever ?  Here is the scoop from my experience in Mykonos, Greece in August 2016.

How to get there? We took a quick flight on Aegean Air from Athens, Greece to Mykonos,Greece.  It is always best to use a site like skyscanner.net in order to get the best price possible on a flight.  The flight is about an hour ish.

Note to self when booking the flight into Mykonos –  no need to arrive first thing in the morning on the 7 AM flight.   We thought o Yay we will have the day and morning yadda yadda – Absolute Rookie Move !! 7:30 AM to 10:30/ 11 AM is the time when people actually sleep in Mykonos.

Where to stay? we stayed at Cavo Tagoo which is right outside of Mykonos Town. The proximity to town and the insanely gorgeous views were ideal.  This hotel came highly recommended to me by friend in the real estate industry.  

Here is a photo from the lobby when we arrived.  All white and crisp with dope art and sculpture in all directions.  If you are able to book the room with private pool! Very my vibe.

Hotel Stay options :   when planning a trip I always try to source as many options and trusted opinions as possible. Other friends recommended places such as Hotel Semeli & Hotel Belvedere.

How long to stay for?  We went from a Sunday morning to Wednesday afternoon.   Easily could have stayed longer but we had other islands to get to !

LOL – you will not find any saganaki like you eat back in Detroit at Leo’s coney island.

FYI – greek salads have no lettuce and are prodominately made up of cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, peppers, capers, and a fat piece of feta.

Must Do’s 

• Rent ATVs and ride around the island !  We took ours to my most favorite spot on the North Beach called Alemagou – we ended up drinking too much and left our ATV behind and called for a cab.   Alemagou is beachy restaurant that has outside lounges, day beds, a little boutique, and DJ.  We went for a “late lunch” and stayed until after sunset.
  

  Front entrance of Cavo Tagoo, Mykonos – when your dreams become reality

the menu provides inspo such as ” the soul is porous. it’s ever expanding. submerge yourself in mindfulness”  or “travel is the muse. the secret tonic of creativity”

Lunch views at Alemagou

• embrace and watch sunsets –  you can’t even make these up!! 
• walk around Mykonos town – during the day  and at night –  it is the classic white and blue doors you see in photos and where loads of action is going on.
  • this is the area where you are going to bop around in and out of little boutiques. i was unaware of what amazing leathers were available in mykonos! we purchases men’s and women’s leather shoes/sandals and i got a dope metallic leather clutch!
  • stop for a greek beer in little venice and look out at the sea and infamous windmills
• stop for a gyro at Jimmy’s in mykonos town !! we stopped in for lunch mid shopping some ppl prefer to go after partying at night. 
  

  Jason, Lindsey and the legendary Jimmy

• check out Jackie O’s – super gay area / gay bar
• scorpios – sneaky sundays !! make a late lunch reservation for around 4:30 or 5 PM at scorpios – there are certain days that are better than others so make sure you have got the right day !!  also be prepared to look super beach glam fabulous because you are about to be there for 8 to 12 hours.  you party until the sunsets and then some !

  

• drink an aperol spritz  – refreshing drink to ease into the partying

Dinner spots  1) Remezzo with views overlooking the water and you are able to smoke hookah at your table ! 2) Interni which is in the heart of mykonos town – uber lively open air restaurant with trees growing in the middle of the restaurant. This reservation was booked through our hotel concierge  – we were unable to do so on our own.

I can’t give away all the secrets please reach out with any questions! safe travels.

xx Linz

If this story doesn’t sound like the travel tales of a tr3ndey trina than idk what does …. !!

A few weeks ago my sister saw on Instagram a really dank looking breakfast burrito. Believe it or not Detroit does not house a breakfast burrito joint. We’re straight obsessed with this idea of the perfect breakfast burrito since we ate at Cofax in LA (May 2016). Searching high and wide , @Melshaw0 was able to find a good looking one only 4 hours drive away !

She took a spontaneous trip out to Chi 2 weeks ago , i totally would have gone but I already booked for a weekend in Maine. Melshaw said it was as kush as it looked so I obvs had to go asap.

I’m a strong believer in the action of ” You’ve got to make the most of your travels and your days ….!” Within less than 2 weeks I had a trip planned to Chicago for work and had my self set on getting to Leftcoast!

Simple clean branding the perception of your experience is so true to their social media account. Leftcoast is a ground floor retail of a new building at Superior St and Wells St. It did look like they have a few other locations around town. This was a photo from the River North location. Perfect array of outdoor seating which is where I chose to sit.

Unreal natural selfie lighting! Its too funny… a friend from the detroit real estate industry (remember I’m here for a work conference And this is my last stop before the uber to the airport ) catches me sitting outside taking selfies waiting for my avocado toast!!

If you are wondering what I’m drinking it’s my Go-to! Matcha over ice . I’m not a Matcha latte girl because I avoid the milk thing. This is way more caffeinated anyways !! It’s like a straight up Matcha I love it.

Left coast has a variety of healthy clean eats! I would highly recommend it if you are in Chicago and want something fresh.

Much love from the back seat of my Uber to O’hare.

Peace and Love. Linz

Hey Everyone! i want to start focusing more on travel and eats and of course continue to share recipes and things happening in the D.

February 2017 – presidents weekend – my favorite travel partner and I went off to cuba !! yes we went just the two of us on our own with no issues upon entering or exiting. Here’s how we did it …
Pre – Travel Tips :

• FLIGHT:  Jet Blue offers flights to Havana  as well as Delta , if you feel like you want to fly through Canada or Mexico you can but you really don’t have to.
  • What did we do ? on a Friday morning we hopped on a JetBlue flight from Detroit to FLL to Havana. We made it to Havana mid afternoon.  FLL to Havana is only 45 minutes !  
• VISA:  technically you cannot travel from USA to Cuba for Tourism, however there are 12 offerings of a visa that are permissible.  When you get to the check in counter you pay $50 per person via credit card for a Visa – this is what is used when entering and exiting Cuba – your passport does not get stamped 😦
  • What did we do?  With paying the $50 fee we were given a piece of paper to fill out selecting the “Educational ” visa , there were two options one that was saying you were with a university and one that you were going there to learn about Cuba & its culture ! we saved museum tickets just in case, but no one asked us again about why we were going after checking that box.
• MONEY : exchange your money to Euros/ Canadian prior to entering Cuba. Cuba is a CASH COUNTRY, it’s not like we know and breath here in america with cc only places. you cannot use your american credit card or american debit card in the country. if you exchange from USD in CUBA then you will be charged with an additional tax of 10% + …. so not worth it !
  • What did we do? since we live in Detroit (Canada is close!!)  and Jason was going to be traveling to Montreal the following weekend we went with candian dollars & the exchange rate was better
  • Exchanging @ the Airport in Havana – there are two stations to cambio dollores – there are also places in town to do so but we were told the rate was best at the airport. the line is going to be long but moves kinda quick – we waited probably 25-30 minutes.
• AIRBNB vs HOTEL:  friends of ours had showed up to Cuba with no place to stay and just simply asked their cab driver to take them to one of the casa particulares they knew of with availability … a casa particular is a private home kinda like a bread and breakfast it is likely a room within someones home.  Hotels are owned by the government! if you are going there “to support the cuban people” then dont’ stay at a hotel. The hotels in Havana aren’t that that nice apparently anyways, or at least compared to american standards.
  • What did we do ? searched and searched for the most modern place to stay, we found a 2 bedroom apartment that is in the Edificio Fosca ! it is a centrally located pre-revolution bldg that has a door man and elevator. It is one of the tallest bldgs in Havana, easily identified by people/cabs/etc ,and very close to the Malecon!
• Baggage:   we were under the impression that the Havana airport was unorganized and a hot mess, so false.
  • What did we do? We both did carry out bags, but when getting to FLL they made us gate check the bags.  We waited a bit longer than we are used to on Delta Sky Priority but it was really NBD.  We both brought causal small backpacks to carry during the days for camera, selfie stick, snacks etc.

What to wear ? It is a very causal place and it was hot as balls !! we went in february and it was high 80s and humid, everyday is sun shiney !!  We each brought like 2/3 pairs of shoes  – sneakers for hiking and adventures, sandals for beach and walking tour, and then going out shoes.  If you are going to a club, you cannot wear flip flops – given.

Crime ?  much to my surprise there is no petty crime there, pick pocketing is not a thing, i’m not saying don’t be cautious and aware of your surroundings, but it is a whole different situation than being in Barcelona !

Tour Guides/ Drivers – highly recommend setting this up in advance.

Follow the next post on what to do while you are there  !

Our 4 day trip was memorable and we can’t wait to go back ! 

XX,

Linz

Library Street Collective kicks off Swoon exhibit on Saturday 7th of October 2016. SWOON’S Light After project is now live at 1234 Library St, Detroit and a magnificent piece of work hanging at the Detroit Institute of Arts. #DetroitArtscene