Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Road Trip - Day #2 - My Michigan Adventure - Wednesday 8/2

This is confusing I know, but I had this done ahead of time to announce that I was working on one more patriotic stitch while in Michigan.  And I did spend some time there stitching away on this.

Road Trip Day #2

We began the day by traveling to Charlevoix, MI.
It's a charming little town and most famous for...

Earl Young.  He loved the rocks in the area and collected them to build...

...a series of 31 structures known as the Mushroom Houses.

He never got a formal degree in architecture...

..but he had a vision of how to use rocks in building something organic.

We took a private tour of the homes.

The attention to detail was incredible.

After admiring the local church...

and other non-Earl Young houses...and shopping...
we then traveled further north to Glen Arbor where we shopped and ate at the Cherry Republic - as best as I can tell the Harry and David of Michigan featuring food products made with cherries.  
  
We then headed further north to Mackinaw City and the famous five mile long Mackinac Bridge. We shopped a bit and ate lunch at Scalawags.  It allowed my sister and I to try some regional Whitefish and chips. 

We then crossed the bridge to St. Ignace, MI and visited the Straits of Mackinac State Park.  Yep Mackinaw is spelled two ways - Mackinaw and Mackinac. The park had a Father Marquette informational walk which we did.   

The park had a great view of the bridge and the two Great Lakes.

And nearby was Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse.
Cousin K. was in heaven! 

My sister and the bridge...

Back over the bridge and back to Mackinaw City and a tour of the reproduction of Colonial Michilimackinac an 18th century fort and fur trading village.

It was extremely interesting to see how the French interacted with the Native Peoples versus how the British and later Americans did.

There were folks in period costume performing the tasks that they would have 'back in the day' including tending this garden. 

We then headed to our hotel on the shore of Lake Huron!
We even had our own fire pit.

We could watch the ferries...

...and spy the famous Grand Hotel on on Mackinac Island.

Dusk brought us this wonderful view of the bridge. Time to rest and power up for day three of our road trip.

4 comments:

Maggee said...

You really had a great tour guide, that knew all the great spots around there! Some fabulous shots of fabulous places and things like that bridge. It was just like 'being there'. Hugs!

carol fun said...

Great pictures as always... I LOVE LOVE LOVE the stone houses! It takes an artist to assemble stones in such dramatic fashion.

LDR said...

I'm from Michigan & your trip photos are making me homesick. I love the Great Lakes!

Barb said...

Another great post! I clearly remember the houses. My young sister and I called them the fairy houses! Another of my wonderful Michigan memories!!!