36 | KEEPING IT FRESH IN MICHIGAN ... continued from Page 35
South and North Manitou islands. The park is known for the huge scalable dunes of the Dune Climb. Quaint villages are scattered around as you drive through the area, and we ourselves stopped off in one in Glen Arbor for lunch. Traverse City is known as The Cherry Capital of the World. So for lunch we went to a restaurant called Cherry Republic. The chicken salad sandwich on cherry bread was just what the doctor ordered, but the French fries with cherry dusting were a taste sensation. Even the cherry coffee (which I had reservations about but thought “when in Rome”) was so, so good.
After lunch it was back in the car to head back to the city via the Old Mission Peninsula. This takes us through the Traverse Wine Coast. We stopped off for a quick look at Black Star Farms Winery before heading to Chateau Chantal winery.
Our tour at Chateau Chantal, took in the wine cellars, bottling areas,
production before
going back upstairs to sit at the bar and choose our flight of wines from the menu.
Next stop was Mammoth Distilling: makers of their own whiskey and gin, we were told about how they are also leading the rebirth of Rosen Rye whiskey on South Manitou Island in Sleeping Bear Park, 100 years after it was first planted there. Staying in Hotel Indigo, right in the centre of the city offering views over Lake Michigan,
a n d
www.nitravelnews.com
we were in the prime spot to head out for something to eat. Traverse City’s main street is a throwback to the old days, all locally owned independent stores without a big chain restaurant or company in sight! Dinner was at Artisan, located at the Delamar Hotel. Fine dining at its best, it was a thoroughly enjoyable dinner. Dipping breads and oils and French onion soup to start, it was a hard choice between the veal pasta and steak frites for main, but the steak won.
The following morning, we went to something you don’t see every day: Grand Traverse Commons, located at a former mental asylum,
Traverse City State Hospital. The hospital opened in 1885, closing in 1989 after 104 years of service to the mentally ill. The hospital and its vast number of buildings have undergone extensive renovations and is now known as The Village at Grand Traverse Commons. Tours are offered so you can hear about the area’s history and hauntings, but on this occasion we went for breakfast at Red Spire Brunch House. A lovely breakfast in what can only be described as a unique location. Following breakfast we were back in the car again, and off on another two hour journey,
this time
to Mackinaw City to catch Shepler’s Ferry over to the incredible Mackinac Island.
The island
is world famous for fudge making. There are no cars allowed on the island (other than emergency and service vehicles), so all taxis are horse drawn carriages. We headed to the Grand Hotel, constructed in the late
19th century, and it advertises itself as having the world’s largest porch. The hotel is known for a number of notable visitors, including five US presidents, inventor Thomas Edison, and author Mark Twain. The Grand Hotel, as the name suggests, is a throwback to a simpler but more distinguished time, when men wore a jacket to dinner, and after dinner a live band performed to allow residents to dance. These traditions remain to this day. Upon leaving the hotel, we headed to Mission Point Resort. A family run hotel resort, it offers great views across the water, a great place to watch the morning sunrise. Back on the ferry and back to our car, can
you guess how long the drive was to our final destination, Bay City? Yes you guessed it, another two hour drive. Although this one
July/August 2023
offered snow blizzards along the way to keep the attention focused!
So what do you know about Bay City? Well
yes, it is the Bay City of Bay City Rollers fame, but the band have absolutely no link to the place. They chose their name by throwing a dart at a map. But did you know it was the actual birthplace of Madonna? We arrived in the early evening and checked in to our final hotel of the trip, DoubleTree by Hilton Bay City Riverfront. The next morning, first up on our tour was the new city hall, the very one we enjoyed dinner in the previous evening. Fantastic architecture on the outside with its impressive columns at the entrance. Mandy’s Diner then provided us with a
good, (and very economical) old-fashioned, fried breakfast. A random wee find in Bay City is “Beatles and Beans”, a coffee shop dedicated to The Beatles. We finished our tour (and our trip in Michigan) with a visit to the USS Edison, a retired warship destroyer now docked in the Saginaw River.
Michigan is the perfect “week long adventure” – why not take in a similar path to us and visit all our stops; seven nights would be a great timescale for this and the perfect alternative even, for example, for a family week in Florida.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56
