Michigan,

a great state to travel, not only to enjoy its white sandy dunes along both Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, but to see all the flowers. Now many people have beautiful gardens in their yards and you see the same gardens in the town square. However, as we traveled around the “glove”, we noticed as you drove into many of the towns there were colorful petunias planted between the curb and the sidewalk! That was beautiful and added such a great touch to the little towns across the state. Of course you cannot go very far without seeing Michigan fudge!!! They say you can eat a pound of fudge just from the samples you can get on Mackinac Island alone. Another thing we noticed around the state was the street lights. Instead of having the street lights along the side of the road as you travel into a town, here we saw a wire across the street with a light hanging from it; a different but nice touch. We started in Davidson, MI, close to Detroit. Jack loves castles, mansions and old buildings so we drove to Rochester, MI to Meadow Brook Hall. The Great Estate is Michigan’s newest National Historic Landmark, built by one of the automotive aristocracy’s most remarkable women, Matilda Dodge Wilson. She was widower of automotive pioneer John Dodge and her second husband Alfred Wilson was a lumber broker. The house – more like a mansion- was constructed between 1926 and 1929 and represents one of the finest examples of Tudor-revival architecture in America. This 100-room mansion was built at a cost of $4 million. Most of the home is modeled after English manor houses of sixteen and seventeen centuries. There is also a fantastic garden that is kept up by volunteers. Many weddings are held at this facility. While in this area you should try to visit the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn. We only made it to Greenfield Village, a step back in time that covers 81 acres and sights, sounds and tastes of 300 years of American Life. Henry Fold would buy up actual homes in the 1920s and move them to the Village. One place you see is the workshop where the Wright brothers created their groundbreaking flying machine. Another is Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park laboratory. Then there is the courthouse where Abraham Lincoln first practiced law. As you walk around you will see Model Ts, a unicycle as well as army personnel riding on horseback. You may also see people actually working as they did back in the 1800s; we saw the blacksmith, a seamstress and a couple ladies cooking. Next door to Greenfield Village is the Henry Ford Museum. If you plan to do this, plan for 2 days and comfortable shoes. You just can’t travel without eating at some of the local restaurants. We were told to go to Tony’s on I-75 in Birch Run. Here you can order a BLT and get a pound of bacon!! Now the strawberry shortcake had almost a quart of ice cream. The restaurant boasts that they use 11,000 lbs. of bacon a week! Oink oink. While in this area of Michigan we drove around the “thumb” of Michigan and enjoyed seeing or trying to see Lake Huron between the homes squeezed together on the waterfront. Next campground was in Gaylord, MI. From here we had to make Mackinac Island our first stop. The area was originally known as “Michilimackinac”. It all started when the Native Americans called the hump-backed island in the waters joining Lake Michigan and Huron Milchilimackinac, meaning a place of the great turtle. In time it was shortened to Mackinac. The founders of Mackinaw City opted for the “aw” spelling while the bridge, straits and island stated with the “ac” spelling. However it is always pronounced Mackinaw. Another legend according to Native Americans, Mackinac Island was formed by a giant turtle. Storytellers long ago said that when the world was very young and all the living creatures were wandering over its surface looking for the best place to live, a larger number of turtles came to the marshy southern shore of Lake Erie. Most of the turtles liked the spot so well they settled there. But the leader of the band, a huge turtle was lured northward from Lake Erie by strange lights he had seen moving across the distant horizon. He could not persuade the other turtles to go with him so he made the journey alone. When he reached a point of land that partly divided Lake Michigan from Lake Huron, he could go no further because of the winds were cold and ice begun to form around him. Finally he could go no further and an icy barrier froze him into place, a little black spot on a waste of frozen water. When the spring returned and the ice melted, the shell of the huge turtle remained fastened in place by a tall reed. As the years passed the turtle grew into an island which the Indians named Michilimackinac which means the great turtle. Now most everyone knows there are no automobiles on the island. You get around by walking, horseback riding and bicycling. In additional to Fort Mackinac, there are many boutiques and of course tourist shops. If time be sure to take a horse drawn buggy around the island to enjoy even more history than what I have told you here. One of the places you go by is the Arch Rock. Rising 146 feet above the water it spans fifty feet at its widest point. Geologist say it was formed over thousands of years by wind and water eroding soft rock below, leaving only the hard breccias rock which forms the arch. However a more interesting story is the Indian legend of a young beautiful maiden called Ne-daw-niss (she who walks like the mist) met a handsome young brave who was the son of a sky spirit and fell in love. Her father forbade her to marry the non-mortal. The father beat his daughter and tied her on a rock high on a bluff on the Island of the Turtle. She wept softly and tears flowed down the bluff washing away the stone and forming the arch. In time the brave returned untied her and took her in his arms. Together they returned to the home of his sky people. We did find out that there are about 500 people that live on the island all year round. In the winter they use snowmobiles or helicopters to get back to the mainland to shop. The closest town with a grocery store is Cheboygan – Mackinac does have a grocery store but very pricey as the goods come from the mainland. One of the customs that is still carried on today started back in 1833s when Edward Biddle and his daughter were walking across the ice from the mainland. They got separated in the storm and by the time she was found she had developed pneumonia, which she died from several days later. He gathered up pine trees and stood them up in the ice to form a path to the mainland. To this day after Christmas and once the ice has formed, the town people stand the trees in a line across the ice to the mainland so you can follow the path of trees. It would take another week or more to go to the UP but we did drive up to Sault Ste. Marie one day and saw the locks. We did manage to see two ships in the locks but one was on its way out. From here we drove to see the Upper and Lower Tahquamenon Falls. Upper Falls is the second largest waterfalls east of the Mississippi. It was nice walk to each of them and you could walk from one to another – 4 miles – and a shuttle would drive you back for a fee. We continued to drive around to Newberry and then back to St. Ignace before calling it a day. Along the way in the upper part of the “glove” of Michigan we noticed all the snowmobile trails that are clearly marked with poles and even have stop signs. Many places you will see concrete paths across the road for the snowmobiles to cross on without hurting the pavement of the highway. Bound and determined to drive all around the “glove”, we headed out to Cross Village in the north western side of the “glove” by Lake Michigan. The town had just finished having a music fest which we understand is a very big event each year. We were told to go to Legs Inn to see the restaurant that serves polish as well as American cuisine. Legs Inn is a monument to nature listed as a State of Michigan Historic Landmark, built on a high bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. A Polish immigrant Stanley Smolak created this stone and timber landmark. He fell in love with Northern Michigan and decided to settle in Cross Village in 1921. The dining rooms, tavern, balcony and game parlors are filled with an intriguing collection of nature and hand-carved furniture. Whimsical creations made from f tree stumps, twisted limbs and roots, natural sculptures of driftwood and several huge stone fire places are found throughout the restaurant. In addition to Polish food, you have a selection of 100 varied beer choices. There are also cottages you can rent. From here we drove along Lake Michigan to Harbor Springs, Petoskey, Bay Shore and Charlevoix. Each town was full of quaint boutiques and beautiful homes. At one home we even saw an amphibious plane parked alongside the cottage. Now that is just way too much money there! Continuing down the Lake Michigan coast, and enjoying all the boutiques and antique stores we drove in and around Grand Traverse Bay, stopping in Suttons Bay and Traverse City. Way too many boutiques for Jack to handle but I was in shopper’s heaven! Time to move to next campground in Mears/Hart, MI and explore that area. Continuing our goal of traveling around the outside of Michigan we headed to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park and Frankfort, another booming place with large beach areas along Lake Michigan. By now we are just plain envious of the people and their homes/cottages around the lake. But feel sure it is another story here in the winter while we enjoy the sunshine in Arizona! One town we spent few hours in is Manistee, a small Victorian town connected to Lake Michigan by boardwalk, and was also listed as one of the top 100 Best Small Town Getaways. It is a cute town that needs a lot of revitalizing. The town people are in the process of building or rebuilding a movie theater back into the 1930s. They are halfway there with funding and hopefully will succeed so that the town can grow again. On to Ludington where you can get a ferry and ride the 4 hours over to Wisconsin for a considerable fee, which told us we would not be going on that trip. Pentwater is another quaint town with boutiques and again the flowers. Silver Lakes Dunes was a fun place to go and here you could walk the dunes much easier than Sleeping Bear Dunes – and we did. You can rent a dune buggy and ride the dunes or you can also drive your motorcycle, SUV, pickup or anything that has 4 wheel drive and you are crazy enough to ride in that sand. But it was a blast to watch them, including the pickup that got stuck and had to be towed out (ooops guess he was not laughing). On to Muskegon to complete this part of our adventure. Next campground was outside Kalamazoo, MI. From here we traveled from Grand Haven, known as the “Coast Guard City USA” down to New Buffalo, MI. Each town had their special attractions but all were unique and again most had those petunias planted between the curb and sidewalk. Holland seemed to have more antique stores than boutiques which was a good change for Jack. There is also the Dutch Village for the children. Saugatuck and Douglas seemed to be my favorite in this area but of course the boutiques were there. Have you ever seen a hand powered chain ferry? Saugatuck had one that would carry you across the harbor. Now we have seen Farmer’s Markets before but we were fortunate to go to South Haven on a Saturday and the whole town turns out for the Market. Also our timing was great in the fact that Allegan had their annual Antique Show while we were in the area and we enjoyed seeing everything from antiques to junk from over 400 dealers. Finished up the coastline another day heading to Benton Harbor, St. Joseph and New Buffalo. There are other places to see besides the coastline and we did. Drove to Grand Rapids to see Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. The complex is named in honor of Frederik Meijer and his wife who collected sculpture and liked the idea of sharing it with the public. They donated 125 acres and their entire sculpture collection along with financial resources to developing this regional treasurer. The park opened in 1995 and is an oasis of wetlands, woodlands, meadows and gardens plus an internationally acclaimed sculpture collection. There are over 120 pieces of sculpture. In addition, there is an indoor 15,000-square-foot tropical forest which houses orchards, bromeliads, cacti and other succulents plus some very unusual plants that we have never seen such as a sausage tree. To see the outside acreage suggest you take the tram ride to get an overview of the area. There is also an unbelievable children’s park complete with water fall to play in, a water way representing the 5 great lakes where the kids can float their sail boat, just to mention few things for them to do. Time to move on but we can say we saw many many things the state of Michigan has to offer. We will no longer think of the state as just dunes, Mackinaw Island, fudge and the UP.