Mowat Madness: Retreat

On January 21-23 our district had a pastor and spouse retreat, and our church sent all three staff pastors and their spouses! It was a GREAT time to relax, have fun, connect with other people in the district, and connect as a staff. Both of our assistant pastors on staff are volunteers...and one of the two is brand new. So it was great to get to know Tara and her husband Chad!

I was looking forward to the weekend, but the hotel was not one of the things that was exciting me...but when I got there I was so impressed! It is a cheap hotel, but the inside was amazing! It had so much character and small touches. It was the nicer than some more expensive hotels I have been to! It had a rustic feel because the theme centered around logging in Michigan. They had old pictures everywhere and lots and lots of decorations and other decor throughout the whole place. The food was amazing, the staff friendly, and the rooms large and very clean. The common area closed at 10:30 and since we were playing games they opened up another area for us and even brought us free coffee!! The place was fantastic and I would highly recommend the Quality Inn in West Branch to anyone!

This was the view out our balcony.

Another view from our balcony, this time when the pool area was open :)

One of the neat touches throughout the building. And actually, you can see some of the photos I was talking about...

This was huge! I thought Stephen standing next to it would give perspective, but not even close. This was hanging in their entry way. This is what they stacked the logs on and then the horses pulled the cart. Some of the stacks were HUGE. Like probably 20-30 feet tall!!! The pictures of the logging camps and what these guys did were seriously amazing.

More of their decor all around the hotel that I thought was cool. I could have taken lots and lots more pictures, but thought that might be over the top :) :)

The pool area had a cool sleigh, so we got pictures :) This is Chad and Pastor Tara. We had fun staying up until 1-2 AM every morning playing games and talking :)