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. :-)