Marvelous Michigan
July 17th-30th 2017
To begin this, I must say, Michigan people are some of the nicest people on Earth.
Michigan has some of the prettiest rocks!
The only downside is that Michigan calls food spicy, but
that just means it has seasoning on it-lol
- my husband missed his spicy food
We flew into
CIU (a super small airport 18 miles south of Sault Saint Marie USA side) You
need to have pre-booked your car, because there is only one rental company and they
have no extra cars!
(also note- mileage was not unlimited- 100 miles a day
limit- for 14 days we came in at 1325 miles-whew- close call).
Our first stop
was Petosky (3 nights)..…We were off to a bad start… I had booked an Air
B&B. It was not what I expected- I had not read all the reviews..I ended up
cancelling it and actually got a refund because the place was moldy, really
stinky moldy…so now we were without a place to stay during high season. We found a motel on Lake Michigan
in Petosky. It was great, but expensive ($180 a night- but the beds were comfy
and location was outstanding)
That evening we
walked through town, down to the Harbor and out to the lighthouse. Petosky is a
great little walking town.
The next day we
rented electric bikes (totally awesome) and set off on The Little Traverse
Wheelway.
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| Doesn't the water look like the Caribbean? |
We rode north to Petosky State Park (to look for Petosky stones-fossilized
coral) and out to Harbor Springs and had a picnic, supplemented with farmer’s
market fruit. We returned to Petosky and then we rode south to the Inn at Bay
Harbor for a well deserved beer.
The Wheelway is fantastic and a must do- and
the electric bikes enabled us to ride 30 miles comfortably in one day.
My favorite
event of the vacation happened during the bike ride; I was getting sad because
I hadn’t been able to find any Petosky stones. As we were on the Wheelway, Sid
spotted a sign that said “I sell Petosky stones”…we followed the sign to a
workshop behind a tiny house and met a man named Raymond. He had a huge collection of Petosky stones.
He made custom pieces, like knife handles, from these stones. I picked out a small stone that was mostly
polished and asked him the price- he said $10.
I said okay and before I could pull out my money, he took the stone over
to his work seat and polished and smoothed the rest of it for me and then
drilled a hole in it, so I could wear it as a necklace. His price after 20
minutes of labor…still $10…unbelievable (they wanted $85 for a Petosky stone
necklace in Harbor Springs). As Raymond
worked on my necklace, we chatted away with him. We gave him $20 and he said he
would donate the extra $10 to charity.
Meeting people like Raymond is what travel is ALL about.
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| Raymond |
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| Petosky stone |
The next day north of
Petosky, we did the Tunnel of Trees drive and went to look at Leggs Inn
Restaurant- a great place built from beautiful twisted logs. Unfortunately the
weather was drippy so all the patio seating was closed and the wait for food
was over an hour, so we just peeked inside to see the gnarly wood and left.
The day was
clearing up so we headed south towards Charlevoix to do the Mt McSauba/North
Point Nature Preserve hike. It was a wonderful hike to the beach and through
the woods. I loved collecting pretty water worn rocks.
On the way home from the
hike we stopped at The Lilac Farm
and The Burnt Marshmallow Brewing Company.
We had a great beer tasting and played
bocci…we even got some marshmallows and toasted them over the fire in the fire
pit.(They have hot dogs-you can roast- for sale as well) It was a fun brewery that I would highly
recommend.
Our next stop was
Traverse City(3 nights). We stopped along the way at Torch Lake, which is famed
for its Caribbean blue water. It was very blue- but I think you need a boat to
really enjoy this lake. We checked into
our Air B&B on the outskirts of town.
It was a king bed with private bathroom in the lower floor of a house.
At $70 a night, it was a good deal-(hotels in town were $185 and up).
We drove up the
Mission Peninsula and stopped at The Jolly Pumpkin Brewery
we continued on to
the lighthouse
and took a 2 mile hike through the woods, ate a picnic lunch and
then made a stop at Chateau Chantal Vineyard for a glass of wine with a great
view.
I must say, I preferred the white
wines to the reds(which is never like me). The Michigan reds were leaning sweet
and thin, but the dry rieslings were delicious.
I was looking
forward to more vineyards, but Sid couldn’t wait to swim in Lake Michigan, so
we went to the local city park in Traverse City-great place to swim.
I watched as he went into the cool water (65
degrees)- too cool for me-lol. He said it was awesome. It was crystal clear…
super, super clear…it did look inviting- but I was happy reading under a shade
tree.
That night we ate dinner with some friends who used to
live in Fort Worth but now live in Traverse City.
We had a nice meal and great
conversation, as we caught up with each other’s lives. They really love the
pace and the quality of life in Traverse City and we can see why they feel that way.
Scheduled for
this day was a bike ride to the vineyards of Sutton’s Bay (Leelanau Wine
Trail), but I cancelled the night before because the morning weather was predicted to be nasty. Instead
we drove to Sutton’s Bay, did a little window shopping in town, stopped at
Ciccone Vineyard (owned by Madonna’s family) and Black Star Farms
Vineyard where the weather cleared for an hour or so.
We ate in Traverse City at
Scalawags White Fish restaurant- good fish, nice counter help. We strolled
along the marina park after dinner. Everyday can’t be bright and sunny!
The next day cleared
up so we drove out to Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes National Recreation Area. It was crowded so we didn't do this dune!
We chose the Pyramid Point hike. It was a great 45 minute hike up the path to a
huge sand dune (which we did NOT climb down- to get to the water- because it is
supposed to take an hour and half to climb back up-straight up- no
thanks).
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| not hiking down this- or I would have to come back up |
The view from the top of the
dune overlooking Lake Michigan was outstanding.
We took the long path back to car.
It was a great 2 hour hike.
Hungry for our picnic lunch we stopped at Cherry Republic
which sells many things cherry flavored- we loved the cherry hard cider
and the
dried chocolate cherries. They had wonderful shaded picnic tables for you to
eat your picnic food, or eat food from their restaurants and snack bars.
After lunch we found the beautiful Pierce Stocking Scenic
Drive and saw more dunes
and stopped at scenic overlooks and points of
interest.
The next morning we packed up again. We were excited to
get to our next stop…Mackinac Island (pronounced Mackinaw- I don’t know
why..) Mackinac Island has no cars- only
bicycles and horse drawn carriages. We prepaid online for parking in Mackinaw City
using Starline Ferries. We finally figured out where the pre-paid gated parking
was (across the street from the dock behind the hotel in the fenced area). A
shuttle came and got us from the fenced area and took us to the dock area. We carried our luggage on board the ferry.
We
found out later that if you are staying on the island, you can check your
luggage and a”bicycle porter” will take it to your hotel.
Anyway, we boarded the ferry for the 20
minute ride to the island and wheeled our luggage to our hotel.
Getting off the
ferry, is like stepping back in time. No car noises, just a clip clop of horse
hooves (and the smell of horse poop)
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| If you could read the shop signs they would all say FUDGE |
However , the main part of town it is crazy crowded midday . Many people are on
the island just for the day. We were relieved, because at night, most people
leave and then the island is very peaceful. Our hotel was $215 a night, we
stayed 2 nights.
The funniest
thing about the downtown Mackinac Island was that every other store was a fudge
shop. NOT KIDDING….you could watch fudge being made, you could see people
eating fudge, you could smell fudge…it was everywhere. My friends in Traverse City said that they
call tourists “Fudgies” lol. I love
chocolate, but fudge isn’t my thing- thank goodness.
While on the
island we visited The Grand Hotel- it cost $10 to get into the hotel- they want
to keep the riff-raff out.
We paid the
money and strolled the gardens, looked through the museum, had a beer on the
grand porch and had a cocktail in the Cupola Bar.
The cost to stay at The Grand
Hotel starts at $585 including dinner…at dinner women are required to be in
dresses or pant suits and men in jackets, slacks and ties. There is high tea
served as well. It is a beautiful hotel, but I was glad we just visited for the
afternoon.
We also rented
bicycles. There is a paved bike path the circles the island. We read that the
west lower path wasn’t that scenic, so we decided to take the aggressive route-(meaning
I had to get off and walk my bike up several hills-lol) We rode/walked up the
hill to the center of the island and
then picked up the bike path. Once I was at the top, I was glad we did this
route. We got to ride through the woods,
saw the Arch Rock,
saw a great cemetery,
and passed military
posts. We stopped for a picnic lunch along the circle bike path and enjoyed the
breezes off Lake Huron.
We did not do a carriage ride- but it looked fun and
informative..and we did not visit the Fort.
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| fort on the ridge |
We did have good wine at The Wine Cellar (though the bar
tender/owner was a bit braggadocious) and then had a great , reasonably priced meal at
The Ice House.
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| Ice House Patio |
We caught the
ferry the next morning, picked up our car from the gated lot and headed to the
Upper Peninsula (where people are called Yoopers).
Our first stop
was Palms Book State Park to see the , Kitch-iti-kip lagoon. It is a spring fed, crystal clear-naturally
iridescent green lagoon with big fish.
The park has a glass bottom raft that you and about 25 other people
board and you hand crank yourself across the lagoon. The problem was that everyone on our raft
wanted to look and no one wanted to crank the pulley..lol..so Sid, me and one other man
did all the work.
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| here is Sid cranking the boat pulley |
It was really fun though. I had never done anything like
this- I couldn’t believe there wasn’t a ranger, or rules about the number of
people on the raft etc…YAY for people being personally responsible!!
We continued on
that day to Christmas, Michigan, where we checked into a room at the Christmas
Motel- quaint, clean and cheap!!!(one night $67) We had wanted to kayak to the Pictured Rocks, the
Lake was rough and chilly- so I was glad the kayak companies were booked up
that day!!
We headed into Munising to
eat dinner at The Fish Basket food truck-yum (fresh fish caught that morning)- and to buy
tickets for the sunset cruise at Pictured Rocks. We read online that people start lining up 45
minutes to an hour before the cruise to get the seats on the right hand side of
the boat on the upper deck (closest to the Pictured Rocks). So we get there 40
minutes early and sure enough there were already people in line. Due to the popular time slot, the tour boat
company decided to take 2 boats- so we got 2 of the coveted seats. The Pictured Rocks were spectacular- the
colors of the rocks intensified as the evening light came.
But as the sun was
setting the temps were plunging quickly. We had worn our fleece jackets and had
hats and gloves, but had to finally go below decks for the last ½ hour of the
tour.
I would highly recommend this boat tour.
We hadn’t had
enough of the Pictured Rocks, so, the next morning we packed yet another picnic
lunch and headed out to do a 10 mile hike that went along the coast. We saw the Pictured Rocks from a boat last
night, and now we were seeing them from above during the day. It was a perfect day for hiking. The water
below was calm (I wished I was kayaking today) and so translucent.
The hike wandered through the woods for about
1.5 miles until it reached the coast.
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| The rock under the tree is eroding leaving the roots attached to the land that supports life. |
Then the trail followed the shores of Lake Superior for the next 7.5
miles and then went back inland for the last mile. The last mile was the longest mile EVER!!
This trail hit my trifecta for being a great trail: very little elevation
change, lots of shade, and because it is fairly heavily used trail, I didn’t
worry about bears!! (well maybe just a little bit of worry.)
But we should always worry about Sasquatch.(sorry had to throw this in)
After the hike
we piled our weary old bones into the car and drove to Paradise!
Paradise, Michigan is really tiny town in the NE corner
of the Upper Peninsula. I picked this town because it was close to many things
we wanted to see. We stayed in a cabin
right on the shore of Lake Superior (3 nights-$120 a night). The cabin was great.
It had 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, a full kitchen, living room, a BBQ grill and a fire
pit. I enjoyed grilling dinner , while
Sid built a roaring campfire for us.
We
popped open a bottle of wine and sat by the fire listening to the wind through
the trees and the splash of the waves hitting the beach. It was a wonderful
evening.
Over the next 2
full days we visited the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum (awesome)
Whitefish Point Light
house,
Tahquamenon Falls State Park- which has a brewery!
searched for agates on Agate Beach,
and climbed another lighthouse at Crisp
Point which was down a 20 mile dirt road.
LOVED this part of Michigan.
The vacation
was coming to an end. Our last night was
spent in Sault Ste. Marie. (1 night $87). We visited the Soo Locks- really interesting
and very well guarded. We saw a few freighters go through the locks.
There were
things to do in town like a tour boat ride through the locks- (or kayaking
through the locks-yikes). There is a house to house historical tour, a big ship
you can tour, and a strange looking tower that has some spiritual tour…but we
were kind of “toured” out, so we wandered around town, found a winery/brewery/pub
and hung out on the patio, and chatted with the locals and watched ships go by.
The next morning
we drove back to our little airport, turned in our rental car and waited for
our plane. We were totally amused by the
sign near the security checkpoint…it told you to take fudge out of your
carry-on, because it doesn’t x-ray well….
fudge bombs!! I was glad we didn’t live
up to the name “fudgies” because we didn’t have any fudge to declare.
Marvelous
Michigan- you gave us a great vacation!!
*Side note- it was a great vacation, but the hotels in the bigger towns were a budget busters. However if you eat a picnic breakfast and lunch most everyday, it helps offset that cost. . The Upper Peninsula had many more budget friendly options.
Thanks for reading my blog. See below for an added bonus!
Below are some pictures of the cute houses we saw during our stay in Michigan.
