Well we finally made it to Michigan, set off early Saturday 9th July, United Business, flight was over one and a half hours late, they made up some time but we missed our connection in San Francisco, downgraded to coach on the next two legs, San Fran to Chicago, Chicago to Detroit. Our gorgeous friends Tim and Deb picked us up and it was such a relief to see them. Spent the night with Tim and Deb and had a couple of night caps and a pizza and then could not sleep....awake 2am.. up and showered 6am and took off to meet Blake and Suzy in Traverse City which was about a 4 hour drive north from Detroit on the lakes, stunning drive through green forests, cherry orchards and vineyards, it really was a beautiful drive. Blake and Suzy flew from Lafayette Louisiani to Traverse City so met up with them at lunchtime. Tim has a packed itinerary for us all wanting to showcase his beautiful state which we are very appreciative of. 2pm private winery tour, 3 very different wineries all stunning in their own way.... we had a great afternoon drinking wines and tasting plates of the region. Dinner
at the Apache Trout Grill which was so beautiful, scenery and food... Sunday afternoon sitting on the shore of Traverse Bay with a musician playing whilst we waited for a table inside.....daylight hours are great from 5.30ish to around 9pm....the local grilled trout was delicious and then we had 3.8mile walk back to our condo. Dont know whats going on but Jetlag is bad...woken 2am each day so far. Were up at the crack of dawn on the Monday morning for coffee, breaky and be ready for a Sleep Bear Dunes tour at 10am, Matt was our guide and he is so passionate about what he does, works 5months a year up here on The Great Lakes and then down to Grand Canyon for the rest of his year. We have not seen a quarter of this ginormous lakes area but it is a huge expanse, Matt told us today that the lakes take up 20 percent of the worlds freshwater lakes.... just goes to show how big they are. We did a big walk on the Empire Bluff Trail, drove Scenic Pierce Stocking Drive, Glen Lake Overlook and the Sleeping Bear Dune Overlook, what an amazing carving of the
ice glaciers thousands of years ago such an interesting trip. We had a picnic lunch on the beach prepared by a local deli and it was delicious. Photos do not do the dunes justice coz they are long and steep. Weather is superb warm and around degrees though today was a bit dull but was probably a good thing as we did walk quite a way.
Tues 12th July early start and got away before 8am for an over 2hr drive north to Mackinaw City to catch the ferry to Mackinac Island, what a beautiful place this is! Being the peak season it is pretty crowded but once you are off the Main Street and walking around the island it is very peaceful, beautiful and not many people around! Staying at the Lakeview Hotel which is right across the road from the ferry terminal which makes it very easy, checked in and left our bags and off we went for a long walk around the island. It is about 8 mile around the island. It blows your mind aware that this island is really only open for five months of the year as it is frozen in for
a while. There are no cars or vehicles on the island apart from horse drawn, even the horses get taken off the island for the winter, there are so many horses, during the day its tourist drays with probably 40 people onboard, then taxi horses, garbage truck horses and delivery horse drawn trays, it is a hive of activity first thing in the morning with all the deliveries to the shops and cafes etc. So it was great to get here early as we virtually had the whole day and night to explore. Gorgeous dinner at the Carriage House for Blakes birthday but you can imagine everything is top dollar here only been open for a short time, but then on the other hand you could not eat three courses as the servings are huge so it all works out.
