Pie! (And Other Highlights of Our First Day in Petoskey)

Since we arrived so early, we had plenty of time to enjoy our first day in this area of Michigan.  We looked through the local guides the campground gave us, and went to downtown Petoskey for lunch.  We figured after lunch we would go to the waterfront and check out the weekend festival.

Jespsersons

The historic district of Petoskey has two long streets and a few side streets with shops and restaurants.  They even have a little JC Penney store on a street corner.  There are some touristy shops, and some more upscale galleries, home design shops, and clothing stores.

We found a small family owned restaurant called Jesperson's that says it's been in business since 1903.  Ernest Hemingway, who spent his younger life in Michigan, is said to have eaten here with one of his friends.  It's a really cute place - white interior, long counter with stools and tables with blue tablecloths.  We chose a table in the back, and I'm pretty sure we were sitting next to at least two, possibly three generations of the Jesperson Family that have owned the restaurant since it opened.  They were reading the newspaper and having lunch, chatting with some of the servers who weren't busy.  We noticed that when someone ordered pie, the server would tell the Jesperson mother or father and they would go to the counter and cut and plate the pie.  The servers didn't do it themselves.

Our lunches were terrific.  Jeff a cup of chicken soup and said it was some of the best he's ever had.  The club sandwiches were really good, and Ruth enjoyed her first grilled cheese with tomato and onion.  Henry had the chef salad and liked it as well.  Since Jesperson's is known for their pies, we had to try some.  We shared a slice of the cherry-berry and a slice of the apple.  Both were delicious.

After lunch, we headed over to the festival by the bay.  It was your standard small town festival:  craft booths, funnel cakes, local musicians, etc.  The Petoskey waterfront is very nice - more turquoise and blue water that make you think you're in the Caribbean for a minute.

Petoskey waterfront

Before heading back to the campground, we went in search of a Walmart.  We needed some supplies, and Jeff was looking for a bathing suit because he forgot his.  This has conveniently kept him out of the pool for this trip, which I'm not sure he minded.

Stocked up, we headed back to the campground for the rest of the day.  The kids went to the pool, and we grilled flank steak and potatoes for dinner.  The weather was so nice, we ate outside, but after sunset, the mosquitoes came out.  Despite sprays, they were still attacking Jeff, so we headed inside to play rummy.  We're teaching the kids how to play, and they're starting to get it.

Great first day in this area of Michigan.

Henry's apple pie

 

We were tickled by the lady pushing
her dog in a stroller.

Bay Festival

Going Off Plan Again

I'm a firm believer in having a plan, whether it's for planning a Disney trip or a five week long RV trip.  There are people who just wing the whole thing and that does seem like an interesting adventure, but for a trip like this, the planning can be almost as fun as the trip itself.  But one of my rules for planning is that it's okay to go off the plan if something better or new pops up.  

In our original trip plan, we were supposed to spend three nights in Traverse City, Michigan.  We had never been, but it seemed like a good place to go.  It was on a bay attached to Lake Michigan, it is the cherry capital of the state (and Jeff loves cherries), it's near sand dunes and the city has museums and other things to do.

But while we were in Iron River, Wisconsin, we met a man from Virginia, and while talking about our future trip plans, he said he hoped we were staying at a KOA resort near Harbor Springs that was really nice.  He said it was near the water and some really nice small towns.  In doing some research, it wasn't the Traverse City KOA he was talking about - it was the Petoskey KOA.  I went online and the Petoskey KOA had available sites, so I switched our reservation.

View Larger Map

I'm sure Traverse City would have be fun, but Petoskey was a good choice.  It was a short drive from St. Ignace, less than an hour.  In theory, we could have just spent five nights here and driven up to Mackinaw City to take the ferry to Mackinac Island for the day, and if we felt like spending some time in the car, we could do a day trip to Traverse City as well.  But the kids loved the beach near St. Ignace as well as the miniature golf course, so I think it all worked out okay.

Petoskey is a small beach town on Little Traverse Bay, a small bay that's part of Lake Michigan.  It has a cute downtown gaslight historic district with shopping, restaurants, and fudge (of course) and ice cream shops. 

The campground is very nice, just as our fellow camper told us.  It's conveniently located near Petoskey, Petoskey State Park (with a beautiful beach) and Harbor Springs, another small beach town on the north end of the bay.  There are many scenic drives and beach towns to see in the area.  The county fair is this week, and Petoskey has a festival going on this weekend.  

Mackinac Island

On the ride to the island

This part of our trip was not originally in the plan, but I had it in mind in case we had time.  I left two nights open on the back end of the trip in case we found ourselves somewhere that we wanted to stay longer.

Back in 1999 or 2000, I came up to this area of Michigan on a business trip.  We didn't go to Mackinac Island, but a coworker had been a few times and said it was nice.  Since we had the extra days, I booked two nights at the St. Ignace KOA and today we took a boat to Mackinac Island.

Catamaran to the island

We took one of the catamarans that got us to the island in about 20 minutes.  It was a nice, smooth ride and the kids enjoyed sitting on top.

The island has restaurants, shops, hotels, a marina, homes, and the Grand Hotel, a beautiful AAA Four Star resort hotel built back in 1887.  You can't see the hotel from the mainland, but it comes into view as you get closer to the dock on Mackinac Island.  It reminded us of the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia. 

After taking in the beauty of the island as you approach the dock, the next thing that hit us as we got off the boat was the smell.  Horse poop.

Grand Hotel, from the water

You see, Mackinac Island doesn't allow cars or motorcycles or even scooters on the roads.  In the summer, there are bikes, horses and horse-drawn carriages.  Walking from the dock to the main road, we got an idea of what it must have smelled like to live in the 1700's, and I think I can speak for all of us when I say it was a bit stinky.

Throughout the island, whether on the carriage tour or in the gift shops, the jokes about the horse poop abound.  Our first carriage driver cracked jokes about the fudge and horse poop, and now Ruth says she doesn't want to eat fudge anymore.  We also learned that about 1500 pounds of horse manure a day is collected on the island.  It's composted for plants on the island, and what's left over is sent to the mainland.

To get a feel for the island, we took a horse-drawn carriage ride.  It took us through some of the streets, past the Grand Hotel, through the state park, and past a fort dating back to the 1700's and the Governor's summer home.  The house was purchased by the state of Michigan back in the 1940's and governor's have been able to use it in the summer.  Jeff said, and I agree, it's worth being Governor just for the use of the house.

After our carriage tour, we went to the Chippewa Hotel and ate lunch at the Pink Pony Grill.  We had a fabulous lunch there.  Ruth and I shared a cup of tomato basil bisque that was delicious.  Henry and I had the turkey club sandwich and both of us loved it.  Ruth got a cheeseburger and Jeff got a southwestern wrap.  We'd definitely go back there again.

Mackinac Island is famous for its fudge, and there are many fudge shops to choose on the island.  Henry and I took a walk and visited some stores.  We picked up some fudge, caramel apples, and a few t-shirts.  There are the regular touristy shops and a few higher end shops.  We would have loved to have gone into the Grand Hotel to check it out, but unless you're a guest, you have to pay $10.00 a person to take a tour of the hotel.  Otherwise, I'm not sure you can even walk through to check it out.  We looked into their Grand Luncheon Buffet, but while it looked nice, it was pretty expensive.  I'm sure they do that to keep the riff-raff out and let the paying guests enjoy the peace and quiet they paid a lot of money for (an all-inclusive package, including a room, breakfast and a five course dinner in the summer on a weekend starts at about $290 per person per night).  Jeff and I agreed that we would like to book a trip to the hotel in the future to make use of the hotel, spa and golf course.

We all agreed it was a great day on the island, and we hope to come back again.

The main street on the island

View of the island from the boat - colorful water

Mackinac Island Cemetery

Another coastal view of the island -
white church in distance

Henry on the walk by the Governor's
summer home

Ruth's Swimming Report: St. Ignace

Yesterday I swam in both a pool and one of the Great Lakes. First I swam in a pool at our campground, and then we went to Lake Michigan and rode the waves. The sand at the beach was so SOFT!!!!!

The water was super cold when I first got in then I felt fine.  I begged to keep going back in when Mom asked me to come out - in total, I went in three times, and I didn't want to leave.  We're going back later today so Henry and I can go in again.  I just wish we had boogie boards to ride the waves.

I've never really been in a lake so this was super fun. Well, I guess this is it for the pool/lake report.

Bye,

Ruth

Tee Time!

The kids have pointed out more than once during this trip that there have been a lack of miniature golf courses at the campgrounds we've picked.  Finally, they found one at the St. Ignace KOA.  Happiness ensued.

Ruth got a hole in two!

And Henry followed with a hole in one.

Swimming in Lake Michigan

I wanted to go take a walk on the beach of Lake Michigan.  Ruth and Henry wanted to go to the campground pool.  Jeff fell asleep while laying down.

A deal had to be struck.

I agreed to take the kids to the pool while Jeff slept, if they would go to the beach with me afterward, and if they didn't want to go to the beach, I would go by myself and they would stay with Jeff.

After the pool, they stayed in their bathing suits, and the whole family went about 9 miles down the road from our campground in St. Ignace to a spot where we could park and walk down to the beach.

The kids headed straight for the water, and soon found out it was pretty cold.  I'm probably wrong, but I thought the water felt warmer in Lake Superior, which is a bigger lake.  My children are part polar bear, so they were undaunted by the chilly water.  They ran in, walked around a little, and then eventually tried to body surf.  The water is pretty shallow for a good distance, so it wasn't too easy.  But they had alot of fun, and it was difficult to get them out of the water.

It was around 6:00 p.m., so the sun was starting to set in front of us.  Many of the pictures I took of the kids look like silhouettes, and I liked that.  I also took some videos.  One of them cracks me up because toward the end, you can hear Jeff say "Oh my God."  It's not that he saw something scary - it's the moment he stuck his foot into the lake and got a shock.  We've having trouble downloading the video into the blog from the campground today, so in the meantime, here are a few photos:

Henry's Frustration About the Bears

"Bear, Bear! Dad yelled. I didn't think much of it because I thought they were yelling "Deer, Deer!"

It was a regular morning around 9:00 a.m. on the 9th of August.  On the drive from Medora to Minnesota, I was notified that we were going to skip Itasca State Park, the headwaters of the Mississippi River, because we stayed an extra day in Red Lodge. I was so mad, I stormed into the bedroom of the RV and put the covers over my head. Then a couple of miles later, there was yelling. I thought it was "Deer, Deer!" I didn't get why they were screaming about deer. We had seen plenty of deer so they didn't have to get so happy about it. Then a couple of minutes later, Ruth came back and said: "You missed the cutest little bear." I told her to stop kidding and when she said she wasn't I went up front and said: "Ruth says you saw a bear, did you?" When they said yes, I was still calm, but then the bragging came. Ruth kept telling me that I should have seen that bear. She kept talking how small and cute it was to me only.

A couple of days later, me and Mom decided that we wanted to go to the aquarium in Duluth and drive separately to the next campground where Dad and Ruth were already driving. We were keeping in touch with them because dad worried that something was going to happen to us. Then, as we were heading to the campground, we received a message that said: "So far we have seen a confused squirrel and a huge bear that stopped in the middle of the road in front of us and then left." I was distraught and I started ranting about how maybe for you guys, I should leave so you can see more bears. Right as we got there, I went in the back and Ruth came back and said you should have seen the bear. I finally had enough and told her to stop bragging and to please stop following me and telling me about the bear. I'm still frustrated today about not seeing the two bears.

I hoped to see some in northern Michigan, but nothing so far.

Henry

Tour Day at Pictured Rocks

We drove out to the Miner's Falls and Miner's Castle formation at the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore this morning.

We slept in, and I made pancakes - three kinds, actually.  Since we still have some berries we bought in Bayfield, I made blueberry pancakes and raspberry pancakes, and plain for Henry.  I thought it was wise to start clearing out the fridge, so I cooked some bacon and sausage as well.  It was a hearty and delicious breakfast.

Our campground is pretty close to the national lakeshore, so within 15 minutes, we were at the Visitor Center.  Ruth stamped the passports and we checked out things to do in the park.  We decided to drive out to Miner's Falls and Miner's Castle, but not drive around the entire lakeshore, which would mean another 100-plus mile driving day.  With our nice campsite on the lake, that seemed more fun than driving all day.

The walk to Miner's Falls was 1.2 miles.  Part of it was hilly, and to get to the lower observation deck,  we went down (and thus had to walk back up) about 50 stairs.  The waterfall was beautiful, and walking in the cool, clean air was refreshing.

We then drove to the Miner's Castle overlook, which is one of the few places in the park were you can drive to see some of the Pictured Rocks.  After parking the car, we took the short walk out to the information center and overlook.  The overlook is built on a ledge overlooking Miner's Castle, and the view straight down is a little intimidating.  But the view out to Miner's Castle was spectacular.  Aside from the sandstone formation that looks like a little castle, the water around it was as colorful as some beaches in the Caribbean.  The water along the shoreline isn't very deep, and looks turquoise, and as the water gets deeper, it gets deeper in color.

To close out our sightseeing in Munising, we drove out to Sand Point, which includes a sandy beach across from Grand Island.  From the beach, you can see along the Lake Superior shoreline and across to an old wooden lighthouse.  We enjoyed walking on the soft sandy beach and dipping our toes in the water.

Pictured Rocks Boat Tour

The best way to see the Pictured Rocks is by boat.  A local company takes three boats out throughout the day to see the sandstone formations, the cliffs, the sea caves and the colors on the rocks that are created by minerals, acids and plants.

We took the 5:00 p.m. tour, figuring the sun would add some additional color on the cliffs late in the day.  The sunset cruise departed at 7:00 p.m., and we thought that might be too late for a three hour cruise.  Surprisingly (to us), the sun sets in Munising, Michigan around 9:15 p.m. this time of year, much later than in other places we had been.

This boat was a bit smaller, and the boat stopped a few times so people could see formations, which meant Jeff got a little seasick.  This boat did rock a little more than the last one.  But the scenery was better than the boat tour of the Apostle Islands - there was more to look at.  The boat captain even took us into one of the cave areas - we pulled in, looked around, and then backed out.

This tour was worthwhile for seeing the effects of the water and plants on the rocky shores of Lake Superior, and also for a close-up view of the colorful water.  At times, the water is turquoise, other times sapphire blue.