Read on, loyal reader, Excelsior!
Tuesday, July 12
Toasted bagels again (with peanut butter and jelly [jelly stolen from J&S Hamburg's table] ) before remembering to put on sunscreen and bug spray before we headed hiking (kinda forgot that yesterday morning on the Lasso Loop). And onward to the Pyramid Point trail we went - which did have a gorgeous overlook onto Lake Michigan...
On the way to the trail, we stopped in Glen Arbor to pick up some fresh goods from a farmers market - local cherries and sugar snap peas. At the edge of the the market, we were asked to sign a petition against PA4. When we told them that we were from out of state but sided with them as we had worked on the SB5 petition. They congratulated us and said that once they saw that we'd gotten 1.3 million signatures, that they knew 'if the Buckeyes could do it, so could we." Good luck, ladies.
After our Pyramid Point trail, we drove down to North Bar lake to see if the rumors of warmer water (Lake Michigan's waters were a bit chilly for straight up swimming) were true. They were, but just barely. Turns out that North Bar lake used to be (millions of years ago) to be a part of Lake Michigan but was separated by a thin sand bar. On the day we visited, the actual separation was less than ten feet of beach. It makes for, however, a gorgeous little lake that presents the best of both worlds - big and small lake opportunities.
Without much else to do at North Bar, we walked the two miles from our camp site to Glen Arbor to try out the food at Cherry Republic (another restaurant that The Girl had looked up in advanced - she's so industrious.) Turns out, however, that a restaurant with all cherry-themed isn't a great idea. I went with the cherry burger (cherries mixed in with the meat) with a side of cherry baked beans and cherry corn bread. The Girl went with the pulled cherry bbq pork, cherry cornbread, and weirdly non-cherry bean/corn/onion salad. We then split pieces of cherry pie and mixed berry cherry pie. We won't be going back to Cherry Republic. We headed onward to the IGA to pick up postcards (the only place we could find postcards, oddly) for the families. No real dinner because lunch came at like three o'clock.
Wednesday, July 13
Bagel...pb...j...breakfast. You've heard it all before.
Off to the Sleeping Bear Point trail for what turned out to be our favorite mainland hike. The hike was mostly over dunes on the lower dune plateau just west of Glen Haven. We even got to see a piping plover nest on the high beach.
The trail also included some minor forest walking where we saw some pretty neat spider webs...
To balance the beauty of nature, we stopped by Glen Haven for a taste of the historical - a general store, a blacksmith, and the rescue station. The coolest of the stops for me was the blacksmith where a retired chemical engineer was doing some real blacksmithery...
To balance that learning (borax, used to absorb some of the oxygen/slag from the iron in order to forge weld two iron pieces together, by the way), we stopped by the Glen Lake Library (so The Girl could check her email) and hit the links for a little over-priced minigolf ('cause what would vacation be without minigolf?)...
By the way, I'm calling shenanigans on that last line - "often eat their weight in cherries and poop pits like a World War II machine gun."
After dinner - sausage, spinach, pasta, bruschetta topping - we walked into Glen Arbor for some overpriced ice cream at the Pine Cone. I went for key lime & peanut butter cookie dough. The Girl stuck with key lime. We walked back to the campground and spent the evening on the beach watching the sunset over Lake Michigan.
Thursday, July 14
Happy Bastille Day, everybody. Happy birthday, Calen.
No more bagels. Down to hot oatmeal and off to the easy part of the Alligator Hill trail - nice overlook of Lake Michigan, weirdly not cleared overlook of Little Glen Lake (that entire lake is no more than twelve feet deep - awesome)...
...and a cool old garage-sized kiln that was used by DH Day (who owned all of the forest and Glen Haven) to turn sawdust from his mills into charcoal...
Then we headed back to the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive to the Cottonwood trail that promised an easier dune hike and an overlook down onto the dune climb. After two bigger, more interesting dune hikes (Sleeping Bear Point and the Dune Climb), we just couldn't get too impressed with the little 1.5 mile loop. Meh...
Back to Platte River for showers and to Glen Arbor (driving this time) for dinner at Art's Tavern - which was outstanding. I had something they called a funky grilled cheese which was outstanding: sourdough, American and Swiss, tomato slices, onion slices, banana pepper rings. Dang tasty. The Girl got a very tasty BLT. Art's is our restaurant recommendation for the trip. Back to Empire, then, for dessert at Tiffany's Ice Cream (same brand as the stuff at the Pine Cone but with bigger scoops and lower prices) and to a program at Platte River about visiting the Manitou Islands (which, coincidentally, we were doing the very next day.) Sadly, the program seemed to be given by Ranger Susan who didn't seem to have ever been to the Manitou Islands. She gave a nice, general background talk which didn't seem to come from a whole lot of personal knowledge.
We did, however, get our Junior Ranger booklets so we could work through those on the island. They're completed, but we've still gotta send those in.
Friday, July 15
Got up earlier to head into Leland ready to catch our ferry to South Manitou Island and catch breakfast at the Early Bird, a couple of blocks up from the Fishtown Dock (seriously, that's what it's called). Their breakfast pita was pretty tasty, and we both went for it. Once we borrowed the key to take care of a little restroom business, we walked back down to the dock and checked in.
I'll leave the ferry ride (no real news there) and the island business for tomorrow's update.
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