Our Last Day in Michigan

Thursday was to be our last day in Charlevoix. We went to lunch at a place overlooking the drawbridge.

Afterward we went to the beach to look for Petoskey stones one last time. On our way back to the cabin, there was something in the road. From a distance we couldn't tell what it was. I stopped my car and got out to get a better look.

I'd say it's a turtle, but you could probably talk me out of that. If you'd asked me a day ago if turtles ever have tails that long with big spikes on them, I'd have said NO.

Here's a photo with my kids, showing the scale of this turtle-like thing.  They're keeping their distance.

Relaxing on the Island

After biking all over the island we were ready for a change of pace. We walked through some of the parts of the town that we hadn't seen yet.

It really is a very beautiful place and the absence of cars means that it is quite peaceful.

The kids really wanted to take a ride on one of the horse-drawn buses, but we didn't need to go anywhere.  In fact, at that hour, we needed to stay roughly where we were so that we could meet up with everyone else in our group.

Aunt Terra was the first person we found. My oldest was delighted to wear her hat - the biggest hat I have ever seen ever.

We found a bit of shade and settled in to wait for the group to come together. The kids gathered around the mini-DVD player that I brought along. Terra read a book, and I stared at a crescent moon, watching as it progressed across the late afternoon sky.

Biking on Mackinac Island

Early on Wednesday, we set our sights even further north and left Charlevoix for Mackinaw City. There, we caught a ferry to Mackinac Island. Don't let the spelling confuse you. They're both pronounced with the "w" ending.

Here we all are at the dock.

There aren't any cars on the island, which is accessible by private boat or chartered plane, ferries, or you can wait for winter temperatures to freeze the lake and then you can drive over on a snowmobile. We opted for the ferry.

The ride took about 20 minutes. The boats move pretty fast, creating that jet of water off the back as they go.

Once on land, we rented some bikes and took off on a tour of the island. The two older girls had two wheelers, and my youngest rode on a trail-behind attached to my bike.

I was unprepared for the difficulty of this arrangement. I could barely keep balanced in the beginning and thankfully other riders chose to cut a wide berth around us. After the first mile (it was 8 miles to go all the way around) it got easier, and I decided to try taking a photo of the older girls while I rode behind them . . .

That wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done, and though I didn't crash while trying I decided it was best not to try it again.

Shortly after taking the picture of the kids we had a few really near misses, brief moments of terror followed by frank amazement that nobody broke and arm or got mangled by oncoming bikers. Every few minutes I'd shout ahead to remind the girls to slow down, stay to the right, get away from the center, use their brakes (rather than their feet on the pavement).  Nerve wracking.

We biked around the eastern side of the island and returned down the center, a path the British took during the war of 1812.

This route took us past the airport, a golf course, a battled field and two cemeteries, and the old fort. The whole trip took us three hours.  In the end, I was proud of how well the kids did and delighted to have avoided serious injury.

We celebrated with ice cream. I decided to have some too, settling on the cherry moose tracks which did not disappoint.

Travers City National Cherry Festival

Festivals. They're mixed bag aren't they? They're crowded and hot and everything costs more than it should. And yet it's an experience and it's fun and it's about being there at a limited-time-only event.

The Travers City Cherry Festival had two sections; a cherry half and a carnival half. The kids couldn't resist the carnival.

Here's my youngest, just before her first ever attempt to pop a balloon with a dart. She got three tries and popped a balloon on her last try. She won a small stuffed whale and could not have been happier about it.

Her sister and cousin had a blast on the rides:

But they decided against the Starship 3000 once they saw how fast it went and how long it would keep them spinning.

Our endurance and our money seemed to run out at about the same time, so we returned to the cherry part of the festival where the kids each chose a cherry treat.

We tried the chocolate covered cherries, cherry jelly beans, and here, the kids are sharing a cherry slushy.  There was so much there--cherry flavored beef jerky, salsas and BBQ sauces, pastries, pies, tarts, licorice ropes and cotton candy.  Cherry everything.

Petoskey Stones

One of the things to do in Charlevoix that you can't do anywhere else is hunt along the beach for Petoskey stones. Apparently, you can't find them anywhere but northern Michigan.

Most of the waterfront near Charlevoix is rocky, so that's a good place to start. Here you can see that there's a really wide variety of rocks along the coast of Lake Michigan. I didn't expect that.

We spent the early evening down by the water.

I even found a couple Petoskey stones. They're small, only a few centimeters wide.  It was fun finding them.

The Kids

I must have taken a few dozen pictures of the girls all together, but this is the best one.

We had time to kill and nowhere to go so the kids were playing in the leftover spot between a McDonald's parking lot and the loading zone of a grocery store. And you can tell, you can see it on their faces, they were having a wonderful time because they were together.

Just to the north of downtown, there's a channel that connects lake Michigan with Lake Charlevoix and Charlevoix harbor. It's an Army Corp of Engineers project.

There's a draw bridge over the channel. The blue sign in the background states that it opens on the hour and half hour from 6 AM to 10 PM.

During the day sailboats with tall masts cue up, waiting for the bridge to open.

Nearby, there was this sign:

I took the picture because I'd seen other signs like this sprinkled around northern Michigan, and because I'd never heard of Zonta before. Taking a photo is one of the ways I remind myself to look into things that are unfamiliar to me.

Turns out, Zonta is just like Kiwanis, or Rotary, or Lion's Club, only it's ladies instead of gentlemen.