Off we go to Charlevoix!

After a day of doing pretty much nothing, we were ready to head out.  We heard about a little town further north on the lake that had houses made of stone with cedar shingled roofs that look like mushrooms.  Gotta see this right?

On arrival in

we had to find a restroom and then a restaurant...in that order.  After looking around a bit, we decided on

this one.  They had wall-eye and perch on the menu so we both ordered the wall-eye dinner.  The place was really noisy.  We happened to be seated in an area with 8 men golfers who liked to all talk at once.  One just turned 59, he was the oldest, another was 57, then several were 55 and the youngest was 52.  They didn't like hole #17.  Nor did they like pillows on the bed at home.  One of them actually knew he had 10....  I learned more about these complete strangers than I wanted too, that's for sure.  We were also lucky to have 6 kids and 4 adults in the same area.  We had to shout to hear each other.  Good Grief!

The fish finally came and when the men were served a bit later, the noise level dropped noticeably.  The wall-eye was good and I took a piece home with a pile of fries.  Don't know if its edible as it sat in the truck as we wandered the downtown.

There is a beautiful harbor and marina, where we tried taking a picture of ourselves.  An art fair happened to be harbor side, so I had to check it out.  I found a pretty silver bracelet that I couldn't live without :-)

There was also an outdoor amphitheater where we sat and had some MooMers ice cream that advertises itself as the world's best.  Not true, but good.

Neat old clock, one of those details I like.
The downtown main street, aptly named Bridge St, was busy.  Lots and lots of people having a good time.  It was nice.

Taken from the bridge on Bridge St.

 We wanted to see the mushroom houses, so went on the search.  Earl Young was the mastermind behind these houses and many more built with local stone.

Pretty cool, eh?  You can click on any of these photos to enlarge them.

Some beautiful homes in the neighborhood.  After we high tailed it back to the truck, we headed back 'home'. 
I've been taking these pics with my phone camera and transferring to my computer for the blog.  Today however, they wouldn't transfer.  I had to upload them to Picasa and then download them to the blog!  So next time I'll haul out my real camera to make life easier.

The National Cherry Festival started today in Traverse City, that's why we headed out of town.  We might check it out mid-week when hopefully it won't be so crowded.

That's it for today.  Nice day with my beau in Charlevoix :-)

Grand Traverse Distillery. Drinking Again

On Thursday:

After lunch at a Mexican restaurant:

Agave Mexican Restaurant,  I had a nice roasted pork fajita quesidilla and Cary had a Fajita del Casa which was a chicken, beef & shrimp fajita.

Cary's fajita

we then headed to the Grand Traverse Distillery, where they make several vodkas and whiskeys.

Its a small batch distillery making rye vodka, wheat vodka, cherry vodka and chocolate vodka.  Also rye whiskey, bourbon whiskey, cherry whiskey and regular whiskey as well as pure corn whiskey (moonshine).

We took a short tour, since it's only one big room.

Mash tanks where grains are cooked

Still

Aging whiskey

We then moved back out front and tasted some of their wares.  You could taste one for free and then a buck a taste after that.  I tried the rye vodka, the wheat vodka, the cherry vodka and the rye whiskey.  I thought I would like the rye vodka, but it was a bit too sharp for me.  The wheat vodka was OK and the cherry vodka wasn't anything special.  The rye whiskey was pretty good so I bought that and some glasses with the distillery name on them.  Cary didn't think the cherry whiskey wasn't near as good as Red Stag, but since he's not hardly ever drinking anymore it really didn't matter.

Hmmmm.....

 

Not a big day.  Just chillin in Michigan :-)

Sleeping Bear Dunes & Fishtown

 It is the 2013 Annual Porsche Parade in Traverse City.  We wondered why we kept seeing them all over the place!  Apparently the owner of Porsche came over for to the PP to talk to the owners of the 400 cars.

Well that's one mystery solved.

Today we scampered to the truck and went touring.  Our first stop was the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. 

There's a story behind the name, something about a mama bear and her 2 cubs swimming across Lake Michigan to escape a fire in WI.  The mama bear kept her cubs going and then lost them in the fog/smoke.  She made it to the shore and called to her cubs for days.  And stayed there on the lakeshore broken hearted.
Or something to that effect.

So this is where you can climb the dune.  I didn't think it looked too bad, so I started up.  I had worn a pair of Birkenstocks which I took off for the jaunt.
Well I went about 1/3 rd of the way and my feet were on fire.  The sand was hot, hot, hot!  So I turned around and headed back with burning feet.

I certainly didn't expect the sand to be HOT!  So I wasn't prepared and had to forgo the dune climb.



We meandered back to the truck, where I put the soles of my feet in front of the air conditioner vent for awhile.

As we drove on down the road, we came across the Coast Guard station which housed a maritime museum.  A couple of Lifesaving Service boats....with oars.  Good thing drowning is not an emergency.

Early Lifesaving Service boat.

One of the best things about this stop, were the restrooms.  The boats were interesting, but the lakeshore was even more so.  There were stones all over the place!  I've never seen anything like it.

Lots of sizes and colors, all smooth and rounded and lots of them.  A sandy, stony beach.  Wouldn't be too comfortable on a beach blanket...

Cooling my feet in Lake Michigan

 Nice view of a dune from the lakeshore.  I picked up a few or more of the stones, trying to get a variety and traipsed back to the truck.  I needed them to add to my collection of rocks from other National Parks...

Back in the trusty truck, we headed north on M 22 to Boone Docks in Glen Arbor on Glen Lake of course.

We opted to eat outside, and got there just in time to beat the crowds that came when they saw our truck there.

I got the Provolone Pesto Burger, on a tomato ciabatta, which I cut in half and took half home...
It was delish.

Couldn't wait.

We continued on M-22 to the town of Leland, otherwise known as 'Fishtown'.  It's a quaint small town that used to rely on fishing and now is a touristy fishing town.

After buying a few souvenirs, we strolled on down to the harbor.  Where there were the remnants of the old fishing village.  Historic Fishtown.

 
There is a ferry that runs out to 2 little islands that used to be home to the Coast Guard.  Don't think it was running while we were there, but we didn't have time anyway.

Historic Fishtown

Docked Ferry

I saw some interesting jewelry made with Petosky Stone and Blue Stone.  Too pricey for me as they were designed and hand made.  That was the end of our Leland tour.  So we headed back to Traverse Bay where I finished off the first book, lent to me by my good friend Leta.  :-)

Traversing the City in Traverse City, Michigan

I am smitten with the Mitten.  ( You should be smiling Carol W. as I thought of you when I bought this!)

 Traverse City is an interesting town with an interesting history.
We went into town today to take a trolley tour, we got our tickets for 2pm and then walked downtown.

A nice looking main street, Front St. and very busy especially for a Monday.  There was not a single empty store front, and a lot of people were fueling the economy.

All sizes accommodated

There seemed to be something for everyone, even the four legged shoppers :-)


I stayed away from shopping....at least in the downtown area.  We did enjoy looking, let me rephrase that.  I did enjoy looking.  At not only the shops, but the people, the restaurants, the architecture.

of the

I love little details like these embedded street names.  It adds to the uniqueness of the town.

After walking and walking and walking, (I did buy the T shirt above, right after I told Cary I wasn't going to buy a destination T shirt) we were getting hungry so we stopped at The Dish Cafe, another restaurant I had read about.  They are known for their vegetarian an vegan dishes as well as 'regular' food.

I had the Scorpio Quesidilla which had shrimp, spinach, sun dried tomatoes and feta cheese.  It was so good.  Cary had the Asian Noodle Salad which he wasn't crazy about.  Said he felt like he was grazing... so I shared my quesidilla.


We headed back over the Broadman River, named after one of the original lumber barrens who donated a lot of land and money to the city.

Crossing the Union Street bridge back to the City Historical Center to load onto our bus for the

Magical History Tour.  It was supposed to be a 90 minute tour with a few stops.  Our guide is an 'actor' and liked to hear himself talk.  He went on and on and had the driver keep stopping so he could comment on so many details that it was quite overwhelming.  Since the trolley's air conditioner was affiliated with the diesel engine which was idling a lot, it was not cooling worth a crap.  We were in the very front and I was on the window side and it was hot!  I was sitting there sweating, my back was wet, my hair was drooping, my shorts were soaked and stuck to the seat.  It was ridiculous.  I was fanning myself with the flyer and looking at the time....we were supposed to be able to walk in the park by the bay, but that didn't happen.  We finally stopped at what used to be the state insane asylum complex and is now shops, restaurants, luxury condos....re-purposing project, and were able to get out into the cool air and then the air conditioning!  I'm not kidding, my seat was wet, my shorts were wet. 

Good grief!  I did not want to get back on that torture trolley. 
We went to a few more spots and saw some beautiful homes and finally the tour was over.  2 hrs in a sauna!!!!

This house is the largest in Traverse City, built by the original lumber barren Perry or Hanna or someone....I was getting delirious on the tour and he was throwing out so many names I couldn't keep them straight.  Anyway, whoever he was, built this for his retirement home.  It has a mere 40 rooms.  He owned a lot of property and anyone who wanted to build on this street had to use his architect and build a Victorian style home.

Sixth Street

Beautiful home, beautiful landscaping

Japanese Maple

There was a house directly across the street from the Historical Center that had a beautiful garden behind the house.  The garden was open to the public at certain times of the day.  We were lucky enough to get to see it.

Blue Garden

 Can you believe that someone would open their backyard garden for complete strangers to walk through?

We stopped for pizza, which I have been craving, on the way back to the trailer.  I made myself a Pina colada and cooled off.

It was a delightful day in Michigan, and I am smitten with the mitten. :-)