Charlevoix

Kim’s Korner:

We continued our way from Mackinaw City to Charlevoix. If you remember, the sunrise was stunning and I already posted pictures of the Mackinac Bridge. I’ve included the rest of the pictures in this blog of the beautiful clouds and rainbow during the sunrise. The water was very calm which is almost unheard of in Lake Michigan. This lake is known for getting really nasty very quickly. We arrived at the channel leading us into Round Lake and then Lake Charlevoix and had to wait for the bridge to open. The water was a beautiful color and the town was busy with people which made it very inviting. Gail and Bob from The Good Life found us and we rounded up the six looper boats in the marina and had docktails. Unfortunately, they were cut short as a thunderstorm sent us all running for our boats.

As planned, we picked up a rental car. Gail and Bob joined us and we headed to Castle Farms. Castle Farms was built in 1918 by Albert Loeb, the President of Sears & Roebuck Co as a model dairy farm. The farm was shut down 9 years later and fell into disrepair. In 1962, it was purchased and opened as an art gallery. In 1969, the property was purchased and eventually became a summer concert area – see my photo of who rocked the Castle – very impressive list! In 2001, the castle was bought once again and an extensive restoration project began. Many people tour the castle as we did to see the castle, model railroad, gardens and various collections. It has also become a very popular wedding venue and can accommodate several weddings at the same time using different buildings and gardens. Since we still had some time left, we headed to Petoskey which is supposed to be a neat town that many loopers stop at. We were not disappointed. The town, riverfront, and beaches were all very nice and we visited Petoskey State Park in the hopes of finding a Petoskey stone which is a rock that is composed of fossilized coral formed by glaciers during the ice age. The beaches here contain rocks just like southern beaches contain shells. There were so many pretty rocks that I found myself looking for ones that caught my eye as well as Petoskey stones. Gail and I both found several of the Petoskey stones although they weren’t the really obvious ones that the stores sell for a small fortune. We ate at an excellent barbeque restaurant called Pigs Eatin’ Ribs before heading back to the boat.

Charlevoix had an art festival the following day which was really very nice. I made a few purchases and then we took a tour of the Mushroom Houses with Bob and Gail. The Mushroom Houses, also known as Gnome Homes or Hobbit Houses, are an architectural endeavor of self-taught Earl Young. Over two dozen homes and four commercial properties were built from 1919 to 1970 using a variety of rock and stone found in Northern Michigan. Earl Young is known for his wide, wavy eaves, cedar-shake roofs, “icing” at the top of his chimneys, and diamond shaped window panes. As an added benefit, the hotel he designed which we visited had Petoskey stones for sale so guess who got one? The four of us headed back to the boat and shared dinner before calling it a day.

Today the four of us headed to Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore which was 1 ½ hour drive away. We would be passing this by boat as we head south on Lake Michigan but I wanted to experience it more than simply passing by. Plus we had the time and a car which worked out perfectly! The park covers a 35-mile-long stretch of Lake Michigan's eastern coastline, as well as North and South Manitou islands. Chippewa legend has it that an enormous forest fire drove a mother bear and her two cubs into the lake for safety, determined to reach the opposite shore. When the mother bear reached the shore, she waited for her two cubs on the top of a high bluff. The exhausted cubs drowned in the lake, but the mother bear stayed and waited in hopes that her cubs would appear. The Great Spirit created two islands (North and South Manitou islands) to commemorate the cubs, and the winds buried the sleeping bear under the sands of the dunes where she waits to this day. The park is breathtaking! The sand dunes are huge! I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life! From a distance, we could see this huge sand dune – it looked like a snow ski slope only it was sand. As we got closer, we started seeing specs which turned out to be people climbing the huge dune. Of course, David and I had to climb it! Gail joined us and off we went. Most of you know how hard it is to walk in sand – well try climbing in sand – it isn’t easy! Once we reached what we thought was the top, we realized it was not the top at all. So after a short break, David and I started up the next incline. On the way up, a boy maybe 10 or so, was really huffing and puffing and he asked his mother how were these old people doing this? What? Old people? David and me? Can’t be! And yes – we made it to that top only to find out there was another one waiting for us if we chose. But we did not choose. It was much more fun going down the dune than climbing up! And much quicker too! After that, we decided to visit the Maritime Museum in the park and attend a re-enactment of the breeches buoy rescue drill using a Lyle Gun to save Raggedy Ann and Andy from their shipwreck. The park ranger presenting the re-enactment used volunteers and did an excellent job of explaining how it all worked. We then decided to swing by Leland (also called Fishtown) on the way back to check it out. Leland was a neat place and we may well stop there as we travel south on Lake Michigan. We checked out the town, its history and of course, we had to check out the local whitefish for dinner – we couldn’t visit Fishtown without eating the local fish! The fish was delicious, we were exhausted and we still had an hour drive home. It was another good day!

The rental car went back on Monday and a day of chores kept us busy. We were disappointed to learn the water heater would not be delivered until Tuesday afternoon – ugh! Thursday and Friday forecast bad weather days so if we don’t get to leave Wednesday, we’ll be here until Saturday. Tuesday morning we rode bikes over to Fisherman’s Island State Park and walked on the beach – very nice! We also stumbled onto the World’s Largest Cherry Pie – too bad we couldn’t have a piece!

So the water heater did arrive Tuesday afternoon and the technician began work on it. He continues to work this morning and depending on what time he is finished and how the weather looks, we may leave today. We had some fellow loopers who also have a Kady Krogen Manatee contact us yesterday and they are arriving in Charlevoix today so if we stay, we plan to meet with them. So stay tuned…

Pictures!