Farewell to Michigan Dinner

Stafford Inn

For our last night in Petoskey, we treated ourselves to a dinner at the Stratford Inn.  It's an older inn on the bay, and it's truly lovely.  The reviews for the restaurant on TripAdvisor were very good, and it was close to our campground, so we made a reservation for 7:30.  The kids showered after their lake swim and cleaned up quite nicely.  

Our table had a view down to the lake, so we watched the sky change from bright blue to a dusky purple while we ate.  Our meals were delicious.  Jeff and I had the chef's special for the night, which was a combination of sautéed perch with tomatoes and capers along with a medallion of beef tenderloin.  The brandy cream sauce with the beef was unbelievably good.  Both were fantastic.  Henry ordered pork tenderloin with little potato pancakes, and Ruth chose a combination of a caesar salad and tomato basil bisque.  

As we were finishing our meal, Jeff noticed the sun, just as it was touching the horizon, was bright red.  It was a gorgeous sunset, and a special treat for our last night.  While Jeff waited to pay the bill, Ruth and I walked out to the beach to enjoy it.  The iPhone camera didn't come close to catching the color of the sun and the sky, but it will have to do for the purpose of the blog.

Earlier in the day, when I took Henry to Petoskey for his pie, we were disappointed to find out that Jesperson's closes at 4:00 p.m.  It's mainly a lunch and/or pie place.  So he opted for the orange cream ice cream instead.  As we turned down another street to head back to the campground, we saw the Traverse Pie Company store, and we three agreed we should stop to get some pie for dessert later.

This shop is a very dangerous place for pie lovers.  They have pot pies as well as fruit and cream pies.  It was very difficult to decide what to get - well at least for me.  Henry wanted apple pie.  Ruth wanted to try the strawberry rhubarb crumb pie.  We knew we had to get Jeff cherry pie.  At this store, you could pie whole regular size pies (baked or frozen so you can bake it at home), as well as smaller pies and individual slices.  After skimming the selection, I was tempted by the coconut cream pie, so I got a slice.  And for later in the trip, because it looked so good I couldn't leave it there in the case looking so delicious and so lonely, I bought a whole mountain berry pie.  It has blueberries, blackberries, strawberries and raspberries in it, with a crumb topping, and a little heart made of pie dough in the center.  It will keep for a few days, so that will be one way to remember Michigan after we've moved on to Ohio on the way home.

One of my favorite sunset pictures

Back at the campground, Ruth offered to run over to the campground cafe for some ice cream for Jeff and Henry, who prefer their pie a la mode.  Ruth is very good at running to the campground store for anything we need, and we all appreciate that.