Category Archives: 2015

The movie, Somewhere in Time, is responsible for most people’s general knowledge of Mackinac Island but this 22 square mile island has been popular for some people for hundreds of years.   This once quaint village is invaded by 1.2 million tourists every summer season and has become a major economic force for Michigan.

Interesting question:  Why is Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island pronounced the same but not spelled the same?

Answer:  Blame it on the French language and pronounciations.

The only way to get to the island is by ferry, and there are no less than three companies providing the trip.  The dock area on the island is several blocks long filled with restaurants, fudge shops, and souvenir shops selling t-shirts publicizing the island.  There are no motorized vehicles permitted and only bicycles and horse drawn carriages are used to transport people and supplies.

Downtown Mackinac Island

While we stood at the station waiting for a carriage, we saw men on bicycles taking unbelievable loads of luggage to various hotels and we marveled at their balance and strength.

Of course with all the horses, comes some negatives when it rains.  While on the island tour we were warned by our guide not to step in any puddles because it usually includes something in addition to rain water.  I  have to say, once you leave the port area, Mackinaw Island is beautiful with huge summer homes owned by wealthy people from Chicago and other areas, uncut forest, clear clean water surrounding the island, and old buildings meticulously maintained over the years by the 600 full time residents.

Private Home on Island

Flowers around the island

Little Stone Church – Mackinac Island

Like the rest of western Michigan that we have explored during this first month, Mackinac Island is filled with stunning flowers in baskets and gardens.

Walkway at Carriage House Restaurant

Flowers around Carriage House Rest looking out at Lighthouse

We splurged one night and had dinner at the Grand Hotel dining room that seats 800 people.   When we walked in I was taken back by a buffet table nearby and was thinking we must be in the wrong place.  It was explained to us that the buffet is for children and then I noticed there were quite a few young families with younger children eating in the Main Dining room.  I guess they found young families to be a good market demographic to pursue.

Grand Hotel – Mackinac Island

View of Grounds of Grand Hotel

The adult meal was quite elaborate with a menu of multiple choices of appetizer, soup, salad, entree, and dessert.  Jim and Carol had an appetizer of Roasted chicken-avocado egg roll and I had Norwegian smoked salmon with goat cheese and truffle aioli.  Soup for Jim and Carol were Cream of five onion and I had Tuscan white bean with Chorizo sausage and mustard greens.  We all had a Caprese salad.  Can you tell that Jim and Carol were raised in the same household?

Jim had Rainbow Trout Almondine with Herbed Golden Quinoa,  Cipollini Onions, Cassis-Butter Sauce.

Trout Almondine – Grand Hotel

Carol had Sea Salt Crusted Prime Rib of Beef with Horseradish Puffs, Twice Baked Potato, and Beef Jus.

Prime Rib entry Grand Hotel

I had Colorado Loin of Lamb with Artichoke Fritters, Baked Parmesan Polenta and Tasso Ham Gravy.

Lamb entree at Grand Hotel

I assure you the food was fabulous!  For dessert we had Flourless Hazelnut Torte, Creme Brulee with a Pistacho cookie and Red Velvet Cheesecake with Popcorn flavored ice cream and sea salt caramel sauce.

Desserts at Grand Hotel – Creme Brulee, Red Velvet Cheesecake w/Popcorn Ice cream & Sea Salt Caramel Glaze & Flourless Hazelnut Cake

After dinner we waddled out to the grand porch and spent time sitting in the rockers and watching the people.

By the way, contrary to what we were told, there is no charge for sitting on the porch.  They do have a sign posted as you come up the hill to the hotel that says there is a $10.00 fee for entering the hotel if you are not a registered guest.  I guess we qualified as “residents” since we had just spent 2 hours eating dinner because no one asked us for any money.

One of the many sitting areas in the lobby of Grand Hotel

We had a once-in-a-lifetime experience at the Grand Hotel. I think once is enough.

If you talked to us before we left, you know we had the mushroom houses of Charlevoix on our “must do” list in Michigan.  Sunday was the day and we were not disappointed.  If we did not tell you about our plans, these are houses designed by Architect Earl Young with natural materials used on the roofs and exterior walls with natural curves and rounded corners that make them resemble a mushroom.  He designed 37 in all but there are 7 immediately available on a walking tour to see from the road.  I’m sure these homeowners get tired of all the attention some days, but I guess they knew what they were signing up for when they bought the house.  Here are some pictures.

Stone Fence at Mushroom House

Then we saw this one still under construction.

Mushroom House under construction with thatched roof

The amazing thing about this one is the roof is actually a 7-8 inch thick thatched roof.  Jim and I both thought it was concrete made to look like thatch until we got out of the car and actually touched it.  We peeked in the windows and this is going to be one beautiful home.

We walked the town and visited some of the shops,

Downtown Charlevoix

stopping at the Weather Vane Restaurant for an early dinner.  This building is one of the mushroom houses listed on the tour but I think it is more popular for having a outdoor eating deck that overlooks the channel between Lake Michigan and Round Lake.

Weathervane Restaurant in Charlevoix

There is a drawbridge on the road leading into town and it opened every 1/2 hour to allow the large yachts and sailboats under the bridge.  While we ate this fabulous meal, we had an endless parade of boats and ships, and near-perfect weather.

Drawbridge at Charlevoix

Great way to end the day.

We moved from storm-torn Traverse City to Petoskey, Michigan looking forward to seeing an area not effected by the recent severe storm.  We found multiple small lake side towns with shops and restaurants; pleasant temperatures and a good KOA RV park filled to capacity.

Office at Petoskey KOA

Flowers all around town in Petoskey

It was the night of the debates so it was important to arrange our plans to make watching both the 5 pm and the 9 pm debates in total.  Although we have not actually decided who our primary candidate is yet, we do have a short list and each one of our members of that list did well in the debates.  It’s comforting to see a majority of the people watching the debates saw the same competency that we did.

On Friday, we did some scouting around to prepare for Carol’s arrival.  We found a wonderful restaurant called the Twisted Olive and I had a grilled peach brushed honey and thyme, with salad of arugula and goat cheese with lemon vinaigrette dressing.  Jim had a ham sandwich with brie, granny smith apple and fig preserves on sour dough bread.  This lunch was just as delicious as it was beautiful. Check out the dessert.

Grilled Peach Salad w/Goat Cheese

Ham Sandwich with Brie Cheese, Fig Jam and Apple on Sourdough Bread

Cinamon Brioche

Then came Saturday and Carol arrived on time at the Capital City Airport in Traverse City.

Carol arriving at Traverse City Airport

After showing her some of the damage in Traverse City and the downtown area we drove to the Mission Table Restaurant for some al fresco dining that lived up to her expectations.

Dinner at Mission Table, Traverse City overlooking Lake Michigan

Carol and I had roast duck, with duck sausage and lentil, carrot and spinach side, while Jim had pork tenderloin with red potatoes with flower scallions.  Jim’s first question was “are the flowers edible?”  You’ll have to ask him about the taste.

Roast Duck and Duck Sausage

Pork Tenderloin blue flowers are scallions

Back to the RV where we all crashed from shear exhaustion and glad to be settled in for the night.

We woke up in the morning and the power was still out.  No shower, no blow dryer, no curling iron, no coffee, no morning news and we had to throw out the food in the freezer.    Jim tried to call the office and power company and got nowhere fast.  He found some other residents who indicated the damage was severe and it could be several days before the electricity could be restored.  UGH!

One of the many things I love about Jim is he does not merely live life; he experiences it to its fullest.  He was not going to let a little power outage stop him and we left to find an adventure for the day.  In the Grand Traverse Bay there is the second larger peninsula called the Leelanau Peninsula and that was our destination for today including Sleeping Bear Dunes.   We didn’t have to go too far to realize this storm had done a great deal of damage and we had been very fortunate not to have been hurt or sustained damage.  The local radio station said that the officials were trying to have the storm declared a national emergency to get help with the clean-up and damage.  The power was still out all over the city and large trees were being removed from some of the major streets.  It reminded me of when Frances hit Ocala after so many years of no direct hits by a hurricane.  All those trees that needed attention but didn’t get it were now getting lots of attention.

Undaunted, we headed north on the peninsula seeing debris and fallen trees everywhere.  The further north we drove the less the damage seemed to be and we were finally in an area that had minimal effects from the storm.  We stopped for coffee and gas and found many others doing the same thing.  The jiffy store employee told me they have been hard pressed to keep up with the coffee demand this morning because of all the folks who had no power.  We experienced the same thing when we stopped for lunch.  This little shop we chose was overwhelmed with more people to serve than they had experienced before and it took a very long time.

We drove on to Leelanau State Park and Grand Traverse Lighthouse.

Charming and much like the other lighthouses in the area.

In the gift shop, we found out that half of the lighthouse building is converted into living quarters with a modernized kitchen and bath and they accept people for one or two week intervals to live there and work on the property as volunteers.  Now who does that sound like might be interested in doing that?

Grand Traverse Lighthouse

View from top of lighthouse

We drove down the west coast of the peninsula and stopped at Leland to a small section that connects N. Lake Leelanau and Lake Michigan called Fishtown and Jim got some really good pictures.

Leland, MI

We were headed to Sleeping Bear Dunes when suddenly we were stopped by someone in the road telling us that the road was closed.  As we were driving south, you could tell the damage was getting more severe and concentrated.  It looked more like a tornado or two had touched down and there were huge trees with tops torn off or major branches  twisted and ripped off.  Every direction we went we ran into roads blocked off waiting for crews to remove trees and replace hanging wires.

Trees downed from storm in Traverse City

Time to give up and get back to Traverse City.

One of the things we were told we had to do was to experience the Grand Traverse Pie Company.  Even our waitress at the Peninsula Grill the first night had said to go there for cherry pie with crumb topping.  What a perfect afternoon snack; homemade cherry pie with crumb topping and black cherry coffee!

Traverse City was slowly recuperating but it was going to be a while before they were up to normal.  We ran some errands and decided we were still too full from our snack to care about dinner.  We would just eat some cereal later if we got hungry back at the RV.  What a glorious sight awaited us back at the RV park.  As we drove in, we first noticed the fountains were running again and then we heard someone running an air conditioner.  We had power.

Break out the crown; the queen is back!

We both agree, the stories about our stay at Traverse City will be told over and over and over again for years to come.

We had time on Saturday morning before checkout in Ludington, so we went to the North Breakwall Lighthouse to take some pictures.  Lake Michigan was very rough and the wind was really strong.  In fact, the waves kept breaking against the walkway keeping it wet and maybe even wetting your shoes as you walked by.  In spite of it all, our intrepid photographer got his pictures and I think they are really good.

North Brakewater Lighthouse – Ludington, MI

The drive to Traverse City was just a few hours and we were very pleased what we saw as we drove into the park, down a long winding driveway flanked on both sides by ponds with fountains and beautiful landscaping.  Jim said, “You are going to be living like a Queen this week.”  This park is rated one of the best in the country and only takes Class A & C motor homes and fifth wheels over 29 feet long.  No travel trailers, no pop-ups and no tents.  We registered and for the first time in all the trips we taken, the hostess asked for my first name as well as Jim’s.  It took her about 1/2 hour to tell us about all the things to see and do and I was sure we would never get it all done.  After getting settled on our lot, we took off for our first sightseeing trip because after all, it stays light until 9:30 p.m. and we had a lot to do.

Traverse City has an East Grand Traverse Bay and a West Grand Traverse Bay separated by the Old Mission Peninsula and at the end is the Old Mission Lighthouse.  We stopped along the way for an early dinner at the Peninsula Grill and ate outside in perfect weather.

Early dinner Saturday 8-1 near Traverse City

We saw an interesting appetizer on the menu and, of course, had to try it; Quinoa cakes with guacamole.

Quinoa cake – appetizer at Peninsula Grill

They were made with a mixture of quinoa, roasted corn and black beans and very delicious.  In fact, they looked so good, we each ate one before we remembered to take the picture for you.  Jim’s main meal was a cherry chicken salad and I had tuna nicoise made with fresh ahi tuna.

Ahi Tuna Salad at Peninsula Grill

On to the lighthouse for some pictures but it was too late to get into the lighthouse.

Old Mission Lighthouse

They closed at 5 p.m. so we came back down the peninsula and pulled off to take this picture

Scenic view of Lake Michigan and grape vineyards in foreground

then tracked down a church for the next morning and a restaurant for lunch.  The weather was predicting rain for Sunday afternoon so we decided to just stay at the park and do laundry and read and relax.

By 5 p.m. we were in the middle of the most severe storm I ever remember that was not called a hurricane.  The wind blew with 70-75 mph gusts and shook the RV.  We heard hail on the roof and hitting against the windows while the trees were being bent like paper.  It was extremely frightening and then the electricity went off.  In case you didn’t know this, in an RV park (no matter how beautiful) when the electricity goes off, you have no water because the pump does not work, no air or heat, no lights and only your battery power which you need to conserve and some water in your tank.  It was not a good situation.  The worst part of the storm passed by so we decided we needed to get something to eat and left for downtown Traverse City.  Unfortunately, the RV park was not the only place with no electricity.  As we drove into the city, we noticed tree tops snapped off, and large trees blown over.  All the traffic lights were out making traffic very slow at all the intersections.  There was a lot of damage sustained in the area between the park and downtown.

We decided to turn back and I remembered there was a casino in the opposite direction from Traverse City so we headed there, thinking they might be in better shape.  We were right, but everyone else in he area thought the same thing and they were not prepared for the onslaught of people.  We actually shared a table with a 17 year long resident who said he has never experienced a storm like this in Traverse City.  Needless to say, the food was not good and the service was worse.

We learned that night that our past lives came in handy because we could relax without all the electronic games and conveniences.  We actually played an old fashioned game of Uno by the light of a battery lantern and had fun.

That perfect Michigan weather we have been hearing about has finally arrived.  The high temperature was 78 degrees with sunny skies and nice cool breeze.  What a beautiful day to explore the area south of Ludington.

First stop was a small coastal town called Shelby and the Shelby Gem Factory.

With nothing to go by but a name on a list; not even an address to put into the GPS, we set off looking for this place.  It turned out to be hard to find but interesting to see and fun.  The owner actually makes gems out of crystals and chemistry that goes beyond my understanding and then cuts and facets them like real gems and mounts them in 14k gold and platinum jewelry.  The gems are actually flawless and make beautiful pieces of jewelry.

While we were there, they offered to clean my wedding ring but noticed that one of the prongs holding my diamond was missing.  This had originally happened many years ago and we had it repaired but the repair obviously did not hold.  They said their jeweler could fix it for $15.00 right then and asked if we wanted to have it done.  My first thought was here is where they really get their diamonds by switching out my diamond for a synthetic stone so I did not agree.  Then she offered to let me watch the jeweler as he did the repair and we agreed it would be good to do rather than take the chance of the stone falling out.  The jeweler introduced himself as Lauro and was a delight to watch and listen to.  He had a philosophy on everything and expressed it while working on the ring.Lauro and MG in his workshop

From Shelby we traveled to Pentwater for lunch.

Lunch on Thursday 7/30 right on Lake Pentwater

 This entire area on the coast seems to be an endless collection of small towns with vibrant summer communities.  Years ago when the communities were started, the primary industry was lumber and the trees were over cut leaving nothing to hold the sand.  The sandy beaches and dunes were the results. We discovered there are many jeep rides through the dunes all along this coast as well as beaches filled with sunbathers.  The water temperatures are not that high so the number of people in the water is much less than you see in Florida.  We saw one woman standing in knee high water with her arms folded across her chest like she was cold and I bet she was.

Pentwater is a small lake connected to Lake Michigan by a channel.  Some houses along the channel walkway are beautifully landscaped and just beg you to take their picture.

Channel from Lake Pentwater to Lake Michigan

There was also the Little Sable Point Lighthouse and we read that the water between the Big and Little Sable Points was the most destructive during early shipping and resulted in many ship wrecks.  The lighthouse was originally built in red brick but the ship captains complained it was hard to see it because of the trees.  The lighthouse was painted white, but when they refurbished the structure they took it back to its original brick.

Little Sable Lighthouse

Jim finished the day with another trip to the coast and more incredible pictures of the sunset.

Today we took off for the White Pine Village, an historic village of buildings dating back to the mid 1800’s here in Ludington.  They told us this village started with the first County Courthouse by a group of concerned citizens wanting to preserve the historic building and now has twenty-five other buildings to intrigue visitors.  Remember the current courthouse picture from July 27th?  Here is a picture of where it all started.

Old Court House from Mason County – Ludington, MI

The story is that Aaron Burr Caswell took his family to this area via ship.  The information said he and his wife came ashore in a small row boat from the ship but the livestock was just thrown in the water left to swim to shore.  Wonder if they all made it.  Anyway, over time the building that became their home was modified to be the county courthouse on the first floor and the Caswells moved upstairs to a small apartment up there and the basement became the jail.

Upstairs of Court House

Basement of Court House was the jail

The second most interesting building was the school room.  Jim went to a one-room school in Pennsylvania and he said it looked a lot like what he remembered.  Could he have lied to me about his age?  Actually it had a few things in it that I remembered in my elementary school back in New York.  Did you have a portrait of George Washington on the wall too?

School in White Pines Village

Check out the blackboard.  What do you think of the punishments and the length of the walk?

We roamed through all the buildings and discovered lots of interesting facts and information for about 2 hours.  Here’s one for you.  If you can accurately identify this display, we will buy you dinner when we get back.  Good luck.

More of the buildings in White Pine Village

General Store in White Pine Village

Old Doctor’s Office

Farm House in White Pine Village

Out House

We left the village and headed to the State Park to see the Big Sable Point Lighthouse.  Unfortunately we were told the only way to get to the lighthouse is walking 2 miles on the soft sand and another 2 miles back.  Being the ever optimistic travelers that we are, we put on our sneakers and headed off towards the lighthouse.  I made it about 1/2 mile and Jim said he got about 1/2 mile from the lighthouse which was close enough to get this picture.

Sable Lighthouse in Ludington State Park

To give you a hint of how hard the walk was, the whole time I was sitting and waiting for Jim to come back, (just under one hour), only one group of people walked by me and there were hundreds, if not thousands in the area on the beach and campground.

After that work out we decided to have dinner downtown at a place that seemed to have crowds every time we went by called the House of Flavors.  Very family friendly and we got there just before the masses arrived so we had no trouble getting in.  It reminded me of Friendly’s Ice Cream with better food because it started as a dairy back in 1948.  By 1956 the company decided to stop making other dairy products and concentrate on ice cream making 600 gallons an hour.  By 2002 they were producing 2.5 million gallons a year being sold in their locations (two by now) and wholesale.  We had a wonderful Wild Cherry Chicken salad with pecans and blue cheese and finished with dessert.

Today I learned one thing.  No matter how tired you are, its hard to fall asleep before it gets dark!  Sunset is 9:13 and not totally dark until after 10pm.

We left our country campground in Coopersville and moved to a larger, more metropolitan campground in Ludington, Michigan, Poncho’s Pond RV Park.     This place is a jewel among campgrounds.  Two swimming pools ( a family pool and an adult pool), large exercise room with at least 6 machines, concrete pads, landscaping, not to mention cable TV and a strong WiFi  are just a few things that give it this rating.  (I have to admit I have been really missing my cable TV.)  We are just a few miles away from the Lake Michigan beach and another lighthouse.

Jim was having chicken wing withdrawal (back home he has wings for lunch once a week) so we found some wings for dinner last night.  The restaurant was in a downtown area not unlike some of the other towns we have seen lately, but this town does not appear to be as financially affluent as some of the others.  In fact, this was probably the least expensive dinner we have eaten out since we left Ocala.  The only grocery store is Save-a-Lot and there are lots of empty store fronts.Court House in Ludington, MI

We took our groceries back to the RV and then made the short trip back to the beach where Jim took some incredible sunset pictures.

North Brakewall Lighthouse – Ludington, MI
Sunset in Ludington, MI

What do you think?

Today we have a general plan but no rigid schedule to follow.  Remember, we are on vacation!

The highlight of the day was watching the Parade of Ships in Grand Haven provided by the US Coast Guard.  It is generally very well attended by visitors and residents alike and we wanted to be on north shore of the Grand River where there is a small park and maybe 30 parking spaces.  There is a walkway along the river that made a perfect spot to put our chairs to watch the ships.  To be sure we were one of the 30 with a parking spot, we stopped at a Subway and bought lunch and set up around 11:00 a.m.

MG waiting for Parade of Ships

The sun was already hot but my ingenious husband had a golf umbrella and bungee cords in the truck and before long we had a nice shady spot for boat watching.  We had lunch and watched the boats ride out of the channel to meet the Coast Guard and be part of the parade.  One observation I made is there are some really clever people who come up with the most interesting names for their boats.

By 1:00 pm the parking lot and seawall were filled with spectators and the Coast Guard was right on time.  It started with a 100 foot long buoy tender named Buckthorn,

Buckthorn

followed by 140 foot ice breaker named Biscayne Bay,

Biscayne Bay

225 foot long Alder

Coast Guard Ship – Alder

and the final ship was the monster ship named Mackinaw

Mackinaw

reported to be  a state-of-the-art heavy icebreaker in the Great Lakes.  Each ship had either a Coast Guard, Sheriff, or Auxilliary ship to escort it into the harbor.  It was heart warming to hear the crowds cheer the Coast Guard and hear the Coast Guard cheer back with their ship’s horns.

We left there to explore Muskegon just north of Grand Haven.  We found the chamber building (old train depot) and although the city appears to be trying to build up a tourist oriented downtown area, they are not there yet.

Train Depot – Muskigan, MI

We settled for a tour of the USS LST 393 carrier; one of two remaining of the 1,051 built and used during WWII.

US LST 393 in Muskegon, MI

These were the ships used to transport the tanks, trucks and troops to battle fields on foreign soil.  In fact, this particular ship was used at Omaha Beach in Normandy.  To see the enormity of the back gate and ramp where the equipment disembarked as contrasted by the cramped space of the berth deck and bathrooms for the men was stunning.  There was a video playing of a classified Navy training movie showing how everything worked so we sat down to watch it.  We were amazed at how manual every operation seemed to be compared to what we use in our private lives today.  Actually, at one point, I confess I may have closed my eyes for a few seconds and wondered how the sailors stayed awake during this film.

It was time to treat ourselves and we have gotten really good at it.  We found this marvelous restaurant on the lake with an outdoor deck under some shade trees and a wonderful menu to choose from.

Lake House Restaurant – Muskegon

We started with an appetizer called Duo Dip which was fresh made guacamole and mango, watermelon salsa with tortilla chips.  Just sitting there watching the marina and nibbling would have been enough but then we order the special of the evening; Caribbean Jerk Seared Uku Snapper.  I had never heard of uku snapper and found out it is from Hawaii.  It was topped with grilled pineapple, strawberry, and coconut chutney, served over red pepper wild rice and ginger/cardamom carrots.  Trust me.  To die for!

Nice way to end our trip to this southwestern part of Michigan.

Tomorrow we are on to Ludington, MI which is right up the coast.