Thursday, June 7, 2018, Charlevoix return

Joani had done a little research on Earl Young, Charlevoix's favorite architect/builder. She found the historical society had set up something of a museum in the Weathervane restaurant that we wanted to visit. More importantly, today the Cherry Republic was due to reopen their store and I wanted to make sure their products were properly sampled.

Joani talked to the restaurant's manager who was happy to have us view the memorabilia collected on the lower level.

Head down the wide winding stairs to the lower level and then around the corner to the left.

This little used (mostly for storage) room was lined with information about Earl's life and each house he created.

The Weathervane restaurant was originally Argo Milling Co. Earl removed the top two stories and remodeled until the building was unrecognizable. Typical of his style he made liberal use of the area's stone. 

Earl Young designed the roof to resemble a seagull with outstretched wings.

The west end of the Weathervane restaurant facing the Round Lake Channel.

A 15-ton capstone over the main dining room fireplace created a stunning tribute to his masonry vision and skills. The stone had a history of its own. It was discovered as a road was being excavated in Boulder Park. Earl took measurements, moved it, and then left it buried for over 20 years until the place to utilize it presented itself. A hole was left in the roof of the Weathervane to lower the boulder into place. Earl was off on his measurements by 11 inches, so the clearance in the roof had to be enlarged before the stone could be craned into place. He jokingly told the crew that the stone, being buried for so long, must have grown.

While lowering the boulder into place, the floor began to sag under the weight, so back up it went and hung from the crane for four days while the floor and concrete beneath the fireplace were rebuilt with steel reinforcement.

Below the stone is a meteor on the right side that is estimated to weigh as much as the capstone, so maybe dining in the room below could be considered risky.

This fireplace is in the main dining room on the west end of the Weathervane restaurant.

As we walked along Bridge Street, we found the Cherry Republic was indeed open. I exercised some restraint by waiting outside with Sam while Joani went in first. Due to a slight communications mix-up, I thought she was inside an awfully long time, but she had left the store and headed down the street looking for me. She missed the part about us sitting down around the corner. Anyway, I got my turn and, no surprise, the chocolate covered cherries were as good as I remembered - good job Cherry Republic! Oh yeah, we did get another large jar of delicious cherry jam for the road.

Monday, June 4, 2018, Harbor Springs, MI

There was a pretty stiff wind blowing off of Lake Michigan today creating whitecaps contrasted against the deep blue hues of the lake. The rain had cleared out and we had sunshine and blue skies once again. We headed for what one article called the best beach in Michigan - the beach at Petoskey State Park. It was only a few miles from our site at Mangus Park, but the wind (and park rules excluding dogs from the beach) kept us from doing any exploring.

Instead, we made a visit to the Petoskey Visitor's center downtown. Parking was available on the other side of a small park. I fed the meter a few coins and we headed into the beautiful sunshine.

A very nice lady inside the Chamber of Commerce filled us in on several more potential places to see/things to do. The placard below caught Joani's eye and made it clear we don't want to visit this area in the winter! 

One of the recommended drives was the Tunnel of Trees along Michigan highway 119 to the north. The drive held much promise, but ultimately we decided maybe this was a drive for another day. This exact location was labeled on Google maps as the Tunnel of Trees, but we suspect there are many such "tunnels" further along the route. It was also obvious it would be best seen in the fall and we will certainly be back. 

We took a little more secluded route back passing again through Harbor Springs. The deer seemed pretty tame, at least they tolerated our stopping for a picture from the road.

Harbor Springs seemed to be typical of many of the small northern Michigan towns we have visited - Boutiques and fudge shops. There was one exception, however, this town had a large number of huge Victorian homes that were dazzling.

Many appeared to be 100+ years old. As we drove around we used Zillow to get a feel for the home values. Most seemed to be well over the million dollar mark. Keep in mind most of these "summer cottages" are only used a few months of the year.

Some had the look of a turn of the twentieth-century house but were clearly only a few years old. Usually, the difference could be discerned by the windows and the lack of sagging walls and rooflines.

One large section of town we wanted to visit, the neighborhood of Harbor Point, on a very prominent point into Little Traverse Bay where homes were upwards of $7,599,000, was gated to keep people like us out - I can only imagine just how impressive those houses must have been.

Back in Petoskey, we found a new route to our campground that took us by a little park adjoining the biking/hiking trail that fronts the lake in Magnus Park. Kayakers are cautioned to exit the river before they reach the "drop dam" below.

Bear River Valley Recreation Area

Another evening, another beautiful sunset. Everyone brings out their camera and we all discuss our travels as we watch the colors develop and change as the sun sinks into the waters of Lake Michigan.

Saturday, June 2, 2018, Charlevoix, MI

We actually passed through Charlevoix on our last move, so the drive was familiar and not far at all. It had a quaint little touristy downtown area with so many fudge shops and T-shirt shops and bars and restaurants. It had a really good vibe and was interesting to walk around. The boats docked along the water told us there was some money in this town.

What? Another Cherry Republic. I wanted to see if their chocolate covered cherries were up to par, but the store was closed until the 7th of June. I guess I know where we will be next Thursday!

The view from the drawbridge included some of the prettiest blue waters we have seen since we were at Crater Lake National Park.

The Charlevoix South Pierhead Light, also known as the Charlevoix South Pier Lighthouse, still housed the original lens in the lantern. The water was so crystal clear you would have thought we were looking in a swimming pool. The color had me thinking the bottom of the lake was somehow painted blue. Boats pass through this channel to reach Lake Charlevoix.

Every shade of blue-green in the cyan color range is represented.

One of the most famous attractions in Charlevoix is the collection of homes built by Earl Young. His use of thatched roofing prompted them to be known as "Mushroom Houses". We passed the house below on the street leading out to the pierhead light. Apparently, that is real thatch imported from England and it only lasts about six years before it must be replaced. I suspect this is probably the most photographed home in Charlevoix as there was an almost continuous stream of lookie-loos passing by.

The house below was actually the second home Earl built for himself. We found out later the house is currently listed at $895,000. The interior views showed it had not been updated since the 50's so you would have to consider it a "fixer-upper".

This house (below) was my favorite. It was a ranch with a million dollar view of Lake Michigan. The 2,400 sq ft, 3 bedroom, 4 bath house was listed at $2.99M, so maybe that was a two and a half million dollar view of the lake. The interior was nicely updated and move in ready, but we're not ready to settle just yet. When we do, I sure would like to be surrounded with such beautifully intricate stonework.

I captured a few pictures from Zillow that show the interior of this very special house.

Earl Young's homes were clearly more works of art than homes. He certainly was a master craftsman building with stone.

This far north in June, the days are so long that Sam and I both needed a nap after our tour of Charlevoix.

This is Sam's "happy place," perched atop David's beating heart.

Friday, June 1, 2018, Petoskey, MI

An easy drive of 101.0 miles (87,203.9 total) took us from Sleeping Bear Dunes to Mangus Park in Petoskey, MI. It took most of three hours because we drove through quite a few small Michigan towns along the way. Mangus is a Petoskey city park right on the shore of Lake Michigan.

I talked Joani into a walk along the lakeshore to look for more Petoskey stones. We had to wear coats because there was a pretty stiff breeze blowing off the lake (maybe 5-10 mph) and while it was sunny it was only 55 degrees. It was quite a contrast to yesterday's nearly 80 degrees!

In the past week, we were able to find three small stones during several hours of searching on several different beaches. In less than an hour and within 50 yards of shoreline we gathered more stones than we will keep. Now we have to tackle the difficult task of culling the lot to a manageable number of stones. Note that the stones were wetted to bring out the contrast in the fossilized coral.

We finished the day with a beautiful sunset over Lake Michigan and a tall Gin and Tonic while catching up a bit on our blog - that's what I call a good evening!

Our site for the week, 44, is right next to the showers and this is the view out my window in the evening. I'm in heaven.

Wednesday, May 30, 2018, Pierce Stocking Drive

From our campsite at Sleeping Bear Dunes North Platte River campground, we headed north along the lakeshore with our first stop at Esch Beach. Reviews told us it would be a good place to find the elusive Petoskey stones. Another review said it was no longer a nude beach, but as cool as it was I didn't think anyone would bare it all today. As you can see below, Joani found one! It was very distinctive - there was no mistaking it was fossilized coral and it was the right size for our souvenir rock collection.

Our next stop was actually a driving tour called Pierce Stocking Drive. It was a 14-mile loop drive through some very tranquil woods punctuated with dramatic views of the dunes and Lake Michigan.

It is easy to see how this came to be named Alligator Hill.

One stop along the drive was at the top of a dune. Signs warned that it was very steep with a 450-foot elevation drop to the water's edge. Two school buses unloaded kids with no concept of just how tough that climb would be, so after the easy slide down a few kids and a few adults were struggling to make it back up. They needed a lot of help and had not made it back up before we left. I can only imagine how embarrassing it will be. Good thing it is almost the end of the school year so the teasing won't last long.

When we completed the Pierce Stocking drive we decided to check out a few sights south of our campground on our last day before moving on. We visited a highly regarded beach in Elberta that really did nothing for us, but we did walk out a long, long pier to marker lights at the entrance to the Frankfort Harbor (which is where the Betsie river joins Lake Michigan). Below is the Frankfort North Pier Head - I don't know how it differs from a lighthouse, but I trust Google maps has it correctly identified.

On the way home, we stopped at Point Betsie Lighthouse. It was closed for the day, but we had no problem walking around the grounds to find a good shot of this very nice looking structure. Nearby we joined several other people looking for rocks along the shoreline. One local guy found a Petoskey stone that he showed me. When I told him I had not yet found one yet he gave it to me since he had a sizable collection already. I accepted it since it was my birthday although I never mentioned that to him.