Dusty and I moved back to the Marquette area a couple of months ago and are so excited to be able to call it home again. There are so many restaurants, shops, and special places in the city that create a sense of familiarity and community for us. Marquette has that city feel but with a small town vibe – making it a great town to explore.

The Michigan Retailers Association has launched their year-round shop local campaign called Buy Nearby and Dusty and I are super excited to be a part of the action by showing you some of our favorite places to stop and visit in downtown Marquette. Be sure to participate in the Buy Nearby photo contest on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. Just use the hashtag #ibuynearby during the first weekend in October (Oct. 1 & 2) and you could win a $500 gift card!

Revisions: Our first stop was visiting Revisions, a designer/maker studio that specializes in custom interior finishes and handcrafted home goods. Owner, Michele Dupras designs and crafts numerous items that I always find so beautiful – such as; light fixtures, ceramics made of fine porcelain, and other lovely items. I made sure to snag a couple of porcelain honeycomb air plant holders for either our baby boys' nursery or in our living room (photos of that to come in a future blog post)!

Boomerang Retro & Relics: This shop is so very unique and is Marquette's first retro-chic boutique. The boutique carries an eclectic mix of new and vintage items. Retro items include men’s and women’s clothing, tin signs, jewelry, local hand-crafted soaps and hip flasks. Vintage items can range from clothing, lamps, bar ware, Pyrex and china to starburst clocks, go-go boots, radios, and furniture! Dusty and I enjoyed browsing all of the eclectic items and he especially liked the carefully curated vintage mens western shirts.

Downtown EyeCare: When it comes to the care of our eyes and the glasses/frames we love to wear – we always swing into Downtown EyeCare. The amount of different style frames for both prescription glasses and sunglasses are endless and the staff is always so very friendly! They love to help their clients and patients find the perfect frame, that fits your face and personal style. Not to mention, they rock at coming up with creative seasonal and festive themed window displays – their "Back to School" theme is pretty epic!

Steinhaus: After shopping most of the day, we were famished! We decided to grab dinner at one of our favorite Marquette restaurants, the Steinhaus! The Steinhaus is a German and European-inspired restaurant that has really great menu items inspired by fresh seasonal produce from local farms in the area. They have a fantastic drink menu too! Dusty and I enjoyed the cheese plate, Wiener Schnitzle and Grass-fed Flank Steak. Delicious, the entire meal was so tasty.

Other places we didn't get to visit but LOVE are listed below. 

Baby Cakes Muffin Co. – Muffins, quiche and lattes of course!
Sweet Water Cafe – Fresh squeezed orange juice and their strawberry jam amazing!
Third Street Bagel – I love their green smoothies and their Village Veg bagel sandwich!
Donckers – a candy counter, need I say more?
Landmark Inn – Piedmont Restaurant – Italian food and woodfire pizza!
Lagniappe – amazing creole/cajun food!
Garden Bouquet & Design – has beautiful floral arrangements and unique gift items!
Spice Merchants – hundreds of amazing rubs and spices to help bring out the chef in all of us!
Beth Millner Jewelry – beautiful handmade jewelry, made from recycled metals – it's gorgeous and so unique!
Casualties – a great shop for your year-round recreation needs – they also have some great clothing items.

The list goes on and on – there is so much to love about Marquette!

Be sure to participate in the Buy Nearby photo contest on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. Just use the hashtag #ibuynearby during the first weekend in October (Oct. 1 & 2) and you could win a $500 Discovery gift card!

A big thank you to the Michigan Retailers Association for sponsoring this post!