The skies had cleared a bit on Tuesday but we still had some clouds. Wednesday we awoke to frigid but clear skies. It had gone from the 70s to the low 40s. We donned our winter coats, though we were warm and happy, many of the locals made comments, I think they were amused by us Floridians who thought this was winter.
Our plan was to tour the Leelanau Peninsula and the Old Mission Peninsula, both just North of Traverse City. First stop was Leland or as the locals call it, Fishtown. It’s a fishing village or it was, it’s now a tourist spot that sells the olde time look. It has some quaint shanties, they look very nautical but my sense is the look is for the tourists. It has a locally famous fish smoker. We stopped by but at 10:00 AM smoked fish did not seem like what I wanted to snack on. Like the other towns it’s cute but small. I am not sure how these little towns survive on a few shops.
Our time in town was productive. We saw the fishing boats, the dam, the town bridge, a local painter and bought some chocolate covered cherries. They were locally grown so we had to buy them. The midge flies were out today but while they were annoying they were not as thick as the last trip.
The next stop was just a few miles down the road, the Clay Cliffs Nature Area. It is a short hike through the forest that leads to an overlook of the lake. Before embarking on the hike we put on our boots. This was a great decision. While the trail was well marked, it had several areas of mud.
A few thoughts on the lake. When looking out over the waters, it’s hard to think of it as a lake, it’s so vast. That said, the smell tells you that you aren’t at the ocean. The ocean or even a sea has a distinctive salty smell and feel. The lake on the other hand smells like a glass of water, while the visual is impressive, you feel like you’re missing something. The overlook is good and we enjoyed the hike.
Leelanau State Park was the next destination. It’s home to the Grand Traverse Lighthouse. The park is on the Northern tip of the peninsula and back in the day it was likely important for mariners to avoid the land. These days it’s a tourist attraction. While the lakes are really big, the lighthouses are not.
This one is barely 4 stories and with the elevation it has over the lake, it is visible for only 14 to 16 miles. I guess that is enough on the lake. We took a stroll down by the lake, took a bunch of pictures and ogled the ice cream at the gift shop. In the end I passed on the ice cream but it did look really good. It was a local brand so I felt a certain responsibility to give it a try. Don't worry, I eventually fot the ice cream.
We headed South from the park, it was really the only choice as I was not up for a swim. Northport was next. We strolled downtown and bought some snacks, again there is not much to Northport. One thing I noticed is each of these towns have their own post office, I don’t get it, at home it’s like one location per 100,000 people. They have one for 505 people.
While the post office thing had me steamed, I was soon distracted by our next stop, the 45th parallel. Yes, that imaginary line cuts right through the peninsula. There is a tiny park near it, rear a pull out, and a sign a few hundred feet down the road purportedly on the line. Crossing this line means you are closer to the North Pole than the equator. We pulled over and I pulled out the GPS.
My iPhone’s GPS said we were not exactly on the line. GPS is typically good within a few feet so it was confusing why it showed almost a 100’ error. We pondered this for a bit but like the post office I was soon distracted by our next stop, Sutton Bay, our third small town today.
Sutton Bay has a cool store selling a plethora of art, yard art and much more. We adopted a cool metal flower covered flamingo to commemorate the trip. She will likely live on our porch. We also walked downtown, like Frankfort they had a tiny theatre. We also bought some fudge just to check the local quality vs. our past experience at Mackinack and Whitefish Point. Post tasting verdict was meh. Good fudge but third place in the Michigan Fudge wars.
Our final stop was the North tip of Mission point peninsula to see the lighthouse. Along our drive we had been seeing the famed cherry orchards. Unlike the first two days with cloudy skies, today the orchards looked much brighter and maybe the extra days had moved us to peak bloom. They were pretty but a bit disappointing. We have fond memories of viewing the cherry blossoms in Japan. Hana Mi, or flower watching is an important part of the culture.
These Michigan trees are all small. It’s on purpose though, the dwarf varieties produce more fruit per acre and are easier and safer to harvest. They are beautiful but they lack a certain wow factor. Regardless, we made appropriate comments as each orchard came into view. Maybe we are just spoiled.
This peninsula is shorter than the Leelanau and we soon reached the park. I was hoping we would cross the 45th again but the peninsula came up short by about 3,000’ feet. This peninsula also had a lighthouse and it too was diminutive. Short or not, we still were going to take a look. We took a walk on the beach, took some selfies and noted that the flies were getting thicker. Walking back to the car we saw that the spiders were feasting tonight.
Sightseeing was going well and it was time to start planning our return. The Friday weather had looked terrible all week and while I was getting closer to formulating our plan, it looked like this everlasting front from Texas to Pennsylvania was not going anywhere and we would need to find a way through. I started making a list of various routes and stops and pretty much determined that the final plan would likely not finalize until Friday morning.
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