We woke up Friday, ready for another beautiful day, but I'm not sure if it's because we were on the turning point of the side of the Mitten, or because there was a storm system coming up from Louisiana, but it was windy! Not any colder than the day before, and not much less sunny, but that wind!
We ended up starting 20 minutes late (I forgot to factor in that John likes to take full advantage of the free breakfast), and we ended up chasing that time for several hours. No worries though--we knew we had more good stuff to see!
Manistee was 40 minutes away, and because we'd started early, the sun was really just coming up. And glory be that the pier was built high and the waves were low--we could actually go OUT to the light. And you can appreciate how yesterday we racked up almost five miles of walking just going out to the lighthouses--it's quite a distance there and back, repeatedly!
It felt like we just couldn't take a bad pictures of the lighthouse. Everyone talks about the photos with the sunsets, but I'm a fan of the sunrises.
There weren't many shops open at that time in the morning, nor during the off-season, but we found a cute little jewelry store. I mean a cute little rock store. Okay, it was both, and knowing how much John loves both rocks and jewelry, he got lost in there for some time....which in 30 years of marriage, I've learned to just wait because in the end, I'm going to end up with something nice <3
After this, it was just 15 minutes to the Frankfort Light.
Let me tell you a little bit about Frankfort. All those summers I worked at Interlochen, my friends would tell me, "Oh, you need to go out to Frankfort. It's such a cute, fun town." Did I EVER listen? I can't even believe that all of this was within a half hour of Interlochen, and I never discovered any of it. Ugh!
I think the Frankfort Light stands out in my memory the most. Let me tell you why.
We discovered that the fascination of lighthouses is similar to the fascination some people have with railroads. If you look up the information on any lighthouse, there are all kinds of facts about the shape, the height, the constructions, the lens used, how far away the light shows (the range) and its time intervals, and whether or not the light is currently in use or if it's been decommissioned.
Well the Frankfort Light is rather unusual (at least for the lighthouses we saw) because it's pyramidal. Yep, it's shaped like a pyramid. And holy smokes, its pier is double the length of any other we saw.
On the way, however, we could see a bunch of fisherman all crowded around which usually meant that something exciting had happened. As it turned out, a pretty young guy (every other fisherman we'd met was older...and possibly missing teeth) had caught the biggest Steelhead Trout of his life: 33 inches long, and 16.5 pounds. All the men were pulling out their scales and measuring tapes and helping him get it out of the net. It was a glorious thing to behold, and I wondered if he was going to eat it, but my question was quickly answered when he said, "That's going on the wall!" I had to love it when another fisherman pulled out a picture of his friend who had caught a similar one last year. The men were all trying to play it cool, so I just went over the top congratulating him...and several of us sent the pictures onto Dave Carlson who funnily enough thought that WE had caught it ;-)
Frankfort must not take much pride in its lighthouse, because there really was nothing around celebrating it. However, our next lighthouse, the Port Betsie Lighthouse (again, only minutes from Interlochen) was pimped out with a gift shop and tours, so they had the Frankfort Light covered ;-)
Port Betsie is owned by some kind of organization which means there is a museum, gift shops, and thank heavens, their website is current and informative. I was so glad because I've seriously not known what I know I should know about all of it. We had been reading for a day and a half about the "Fresnel" lenses used in the lighthouses, so when I went into the museum, I mentioned it to the docent because they had an actual light in the museum. He very kindly looked at me and said, "Well, actually Augustin-Jean Fresnel was French, so it's pronounced Fruh-NEL. But it's okay--you can call it what you want." Thanks for giving me that out, friend <3. But it was good to understand the difference between a "first order" Fresnel lens and a "sixth order". And despite being the smallest lighthouse so far, we actually got to go up in it with our docent friend and listen to whatever he found interesting at the moment. And he had me when he pulled out a map to describe the location and how the lighthouse worked for the boats.
John could see people on the beach when we were up in the lighthouse (I know, can you believe it? We can SEE THINGS from the lighthouse #gospellesson), and they were looking for Petoskey stones on the beach, so he had to give it a try. I mean something beautiful for FREEEEEE? #signhimup
It wasn't on the itinerary, but we had been making good time, and I figured for a stop at Interlochen, I'd give up something that afternoon. So we made the short drive over to camp, but not before John spotted this:
Yep, we were just driving by, and John yells, "OH MY GOSH, THERE'S A BALD EAGLE! TURN AROUND, ARIS!"
Of course, he got a much better picture, but I think my photo editing skills there are stellar....
Man, driving up to Interlochen. It felt like I had just been there yesterday. In fact, the security guy just waved me through after I told him I worked there for ten summers. It was a bit trippy to see the campus all arrayed in Fall colors, but the buildings are all the same, and that beautiful sense of wonder and magic is still everywhere. I must have said four or five times under my breath, "These kids just don't know how good they have it," and it's true.
The crazy thing was that I was so happy to be walking around that I completely forgot to look for any of my year-round friends. In fact, they commented on my FB post that they would have liked to have seen me. Yeah, fail on my part, for sure.
I wanted to find a black squirrel rummaging around in a trash can so I could take that classic picture for Glo, but I guess the Academy students aren't so free with the Stone food leftovers in the outside garbage ;-)
Next was lunch which WAS on the schedule. There's no place to go but Sleder's for a buffalo burger. I didn't even need to look at the menu, and I had no doubt they would make up a Cherry Pepsi for me (Pepsi and cherry grenadine) which they did.
Unfortunately, I didn't realize at the time that I was leaving my purse at the restaurant but more about that later.
I didn't really want to leave...I mean, when have I EVER wanted to leave that place, but more sights were beckoning.
We were on our way to Charlevoix (which was about an hour away), but there was so much yummy goodness along the road that we really couldn't resist stopping at a couple of places.
John decided to buy a half-peck of "Sweet Tango" apples at an unmanned apple stand (but first he tried one just sitting on the ground in the field). It passed his very high standards which is saying something for my McIntosh-loving man.
And then he wanted to stop and try some cider. And we ended up buying a meat pastie (a nod to his Croatian, copper-mining, Upper Peninsula heritage), and we laughed at the man who asked about the PAY-stees, and John pulled some grapes off a vine in the back of the store. Because, why not?
I know Charlevoix is kind of a shi-shi kind of town, so I expected something pretty phenomenal in the way of lighthouses, but wow, Charlevoix's "lighthouse" is definitely just a "light" and maybe just a "lig" ;-) It reminded us of the top of a Christmas tree that's been cut off to make a mini-tree. It was just a cut-off-the-top-of-another-lighthouse lighthouse ;-)
And it's still owned and operated by the Coast Guard, so it was easy to get out to and it was well-maintained. In other words, none of that rustic, dangerous, death-defying charm.
There were no sand fleas in the sand (I always check), so we laid down again. John sure passes out fast!
Like I said, Charlevoix is made for tourists. It has cute shops and little eateries, and it's probably the one town where I thought I could spend a few days there just exploring. I ended up finding a taffy store. We aren't big taffy eaters, but the ENTIRE STORE was full of barrels of different flavored taffy. I bought a pound to send to the family member who seems to love me the most this week (any takers?) but it didn't take John and me long to delve in because it is truly delicious (and we aren't big-time taffy eaters).
And here's where my itinerary failed me a bit. After all this planning that one night, I had gotten tired and figured I would iron out the rest of the details the next day. BUT, I didn't nail down the details of the tour of the Charlevoix Mushroom houses. And because of that, we got a good look at what trips and vacations would be without my expert planning abilities ;-) We didn't get to go on the tour, but instead just drove around the houses #lame
It was then an hour and 15 minutes up to Mackinaw City where we needed to catch the last ferry of the night to get over to Mackinac Island. So, from Traverse City, when we were eating our buffalo burgers for lunch, we had driven over two hours. Remember this....
We've been to Mackinac Island enough times now that it's not difficult to navigate the ferry system, and the parking, and our luggage. I mean, they have it down to a science. We pulled up and needed to really pack everything into our luggage since there's no going back one you're on the ferry. Especially since we were racing in the morning, we needed to make sure and have our shoes and jackets and everything else.
We had everything ready to go when I asked John where my purse was. Wasn't it behind his seat? Was it behind mine? It must be hiding under my black coat. This, people, is one of those terrifying moments where you realize your life is going to be changed for a while because of a mistake that lasted only a few seconds #AnotherGospelLesson
I was attempting to not freak out about the fact that my steroids and antibiotics were in there, nor that I would need to replace my passport and everything in my wallet. I was sure, that at some point, the purse had been stolen. But despite the pressure from the ferry people to unload our car and go to the official parking lot, John pulled me into the car and put on a calm that I rarely see in him. My debit card information was stolen this past week, so we only had his debit card....and it was in my purse...and he wasn't freaking out. We started replaying everywhere we had stopped along the way, and we questioned if I had had my purse at each moment. We started calling stores as well with no luck. Finally, I thought, did I leave it at Sleder's? I knew that I had taken it in because I remembered telling John to to leave the booth (with my purse) while I ran to the bathroom, but surely I had used it since then? I got Sleder's on the phone, and no sooner did I start talking than the woman who answered (who also happens to be the owner of Sleder's) told me she had my purse! I didn't know whether to WOOT, or cry, but either way, a wash of relief flooded over me. She then asked me if I would be coming back through Traverse to pick it up?
Um, yes?
It wasn't in the plan, but this seemed like a plan that needed definite changing ;-)
Anyway, we made our ferry. The bib pick-up for that evening was closing in ten minutes as our ferry docked. I pushed John forward and told him to run like the wind, because the last thing I wanted in the morning was to need to get up early to go get our packets. The map showed us the pick-up location was 0.8 miles away, and to his credit, he MADE IT! It sure was fun to see our "sherpa throws" in our goodie bag! I had walked across the street (after landing) to our favorite hotel, The Bicycle Street Inn. John brought our swag home, and we walked over to The Gate House, the little sister of any restaurants at the Grand Hotel. It was crazy seeing how few tourists were there, and how few horses were on the street. I mean, usually when we arrive, it's difficult to get across the street because of all the bicycle and horse traffic, but this felt a bit like a ghost town.
The food, as always, was delicious. We had been eating really healthy for the two days, so it was nice to sink my teeth into fresh fish and chips. And shrimp cocktail. We always have shrimp cocktail at that restaurant (and it always reminds me of the funny face Glo made once when I pushed it towards her ;-))
We fell into bed that night exhausted, but so, so happy. We don't get a lot of moments like that lately, and it was a relief for sure.
We ended up starting 20 minutes late (I forgot to factor in that John likes to take full advantage of the free breakfast), and we ended up chasing that time for several hours. No worries though--we knew we had more good stuff to see!
Manistee was 40 minutes away, and because we'd started early, the sun was really just coming up. And glory be that the pier was built high and the waves were low--we could actually go OUT to the light. And you can appreciate how yesterday we racked up almost five miles of walking just going out to the lighthouses--it's quite a distance there and back, repeatedly!
It felt like we just couldn't take a bad pictures of the lighthouse. Everyone talks about the photos with the sunsets, but I'm a fan of the sunrises.
There weren't many shops open at that time in the morning, nor during the off-season, but we found a cute little jewelry store. I mean a cute little rock store. Okay, it was both, and knowing how much John loves both rocks and jewelry, he got lost in there for some time....which in 30 years of marriage, I've learned to just wait because in the end, I'm going to end up with something nice <3
After this, it was just 15 minutes to the Frankfort Light.
Let me tell you a little bit about Frankfort. All those summers I worked at Interlochen, my friends would tell me, "Oh, you need to go out to Frankfort. It's such a cute, fun town." Did I EVER listen? I can't even believe that all of this was within a half hour of Interlochen, and I never discovered any of it. Ugh!
I think the Frankfort Light stands out in my memory the most. Let me tell you why.
We discovered that the fascination of lighthouses is similar to the fascination some people have with railroads. If you look up the information on any lighthouse, there are all kinds of facts about the shape, the height, the constructions, the lens used, how far away the light shows (the range) and its time intervals, and whether or not the light is currently in use or if it's been decommissioned.
Well the Frankfort Light is rather unusual (at least for the lighthouses we saw) because it's pyramidal. Yep, it's shaped like a pyramid. And holy smokes, its pier is double the length of any other we saw.
On the way, however, we could see a bunch of fisherman all crowded around which usually meant that something exciting had happened. As it turned out, a pretty young guy (every other fisherman we'd met was older...and possibly missing teeth) had caught the biggest Steelhead Trout of his life: 33 inches long, and 16.5 pounds. All the men were pulling out their scales and measuring tapes and helping him get it out of the net. It was a glorious thing to behold, and I wondered if he was going to eat it, but my question was quickly answered when he said, "That's going on the wall!" I had to love it when another fisherman pulled out a picture of his friend who had caught a similar one last year. The men were all trying to play it cool, so I just went over the top congratulating him...and several of us sent the pictures onto Dave Carlson who funnily enough thought that WE had caught it ;-)
Like I mentioned before, it was a windy day, but that wasn't going to stop John....
Frankfort must not take much pride in its lighthouse, because there really was nothing around celebrating it. However, our next lighthouse, the Port Betsie Lighthouse (again, only minutes from Interlochen) was pimped out with a gift shop and tours, so they had the Frankfort Light covered ;-)
 |
| The Fresnel lens (fourth order, people) |
John could see people on the beach when we were up in the lighthouse (I know, can you believe it? We can SEE THINGS from the lighthouse #gospellesson), and they were looking for Petoskey stones on the beach, so he had to give it a try. I mean something beautiful for FREEEEEE? #signhimup
So I might have mentioned that we were only minutes from Interlochen.....
It wasn't on the itinerary, but we had been making good time, and I figured for a stop at Interlochen, I'd give up something that afternoon. So we made the short drive over to camp, but not before John spotted this:
Yep, we were just driving by, and John yells, "OH MY GOSH, THERE'S A BALD EAGLE! TURN AROUND, ARIS!"
Of course, he got a much better picture, but I think my photo editing skills there are stellar....
Man, driving up to Interlochen. It felt like I had just been there yesterday. In fact, the security guy just waved me through after I told him I worked there for ten summers. It was a bit trippy to see the campus all arrayed in Fall colors, but the buildings are all the same, and that beautiful sense of wonder and magic is still everywhere. I must have said four or five times under my breath, "These kids just don't know how good they have it," and it's true.
I wanted to find a black squirrel rummaging around in a trash can so I could take that classic picture for Glo, but I guess the Academy students aren't so free with the Stone food leftovers in the outside garbage ;-)
Next was lunch which WAS on the schedule. There's no place to go but Sleder's for a buffalo burger. I didn't even need to look at the menu, and I had no doubt they would make up a Cherry Pepsi for me (Pepsi and cherry grenadine) which they did.
 |
| This is heaven, right here. |
 |
| And smelt. |
I didn't really want to leave...I mean, when have I EVER wanted to leave that place, but more sights were beckoning.
We were on our way to Charlevoix (which was about an hour away), but there was so much yummy goodness along the road that we really couldn't resist stopping at a couple of places.
John decided to buy a half-peck of "Sweet Tango" apples at an unmanned apple stand (but first he tried one just sitting on the ground in the field). It passed his very high standards which is saying something for my McIntosh-loving man.
I know Charlevoix is kind of a shi-shi kind of town, so I expected something pretty phenomenal in the way of lighthouses, but wow, Charlevoix's "lighthouse" is definitely just a "light" and maybe just a "lig" ;-) It reminded us of the top of a Christmas tree that's been cut off to make a mini-tree. It was just a cut-off-the-top-of-another-lighthouse lighthouse ;-)
And it's still owned and operated by the Coast Guard, so it was easy to get out to and it was well-maintained. In other words, none of that rustic, dangerous, death-defying charm.
There were no sand fleas in the sand (I always check), so we laid down again. John sure passes out fast!
Like I said, Charlevoix is made for tourists. It has cute shops and little eateries, and it's probably the one town where I thought I could spend a few days there just exploring. I ended up finding a taffy store. We aren't big taffy eaters, but the ENTIRE STORE was full of barrels of different flavored taffy. I bought a pound to send to the family member who seems to love me the most this week (any takers?) but it didn't take John and me long to delve in because it is truly delicious (and we aren't big-time taffy eaters).
It was then an hour and 15 minutes up to Mackinaw City where we needed to catch the last ferry of the night to get over to Mackinac Island. So, from Traverse City, when we were eating our buffalo burgers for lunch, we had driven over two hours. Remember this....
We've been to Mackinac Island enough times now that it's not difficult to navigate the ferry system, and the parking, and our luggage. I mean, they have it down to a science. We pulled up and needed to really pack everything into our luggage since there's no going back one you're on the ferry. Especially since we were racing in the morning, we needed to make sure and have our shoes and jackets and everything else.
We had everything ready to go when I asked John where my purse was. Wasn't it behind his seat? Was it behind mine? It must be hiding under my black coat. This, people, is one of those terrifying moments where you realize your life is going to be changed for a while because of a mistake that lasted only a few seconds #AnotherGospelLesson
I was attempting to not freak out about the fact that my steroids and antibiotics were in there, nor that I would need to replace my passport and everything in my wallet. I was sure, that at some point, the purse had been stolen. But despite the pressure from the ferry people to unload our car and go to the official parking lot, John pulled me into the car and put on a calm that I rarely see in him. My debit card information was stolen this past week, so we only had his debit card....and it was in my purse...and he wasn't freaking out. We started replaying everywhere we had stopped along the way, and we questioned if I had had my purse at each moment. We started calling stores as well with no luck. Finally, I thought, did I leave it at Sleder's? I knew that I had taken it in because I remembered telling John to to leave the booth (with my purse) while I ran to the bathroom, but surely I had used it since then? I got Sleder's on the phone, and no sooner did I start talking than the woman who answered (who also happens to be the owner of Sleder's) told me she had my purse! I didn't know whether to WOOT, or cry, but either way, a wash of relief flooded over me. She then asked me if I would be coming back through Traverse to pick it up?
Um, yes?
It wasn't in the plan, but this seemed like a plan that needed definite changing ;-)
Anyway, we made our ferry. The bib pick-up for that evening was closing in ten minutes as our ferry docked. I pushed John forward and told him to run like the wind, because the last thing I wanted in the morning was to need to get up early to go get our packets. The map showed us the pick-up location was 0.8 miles away, and to his credit, he MADE IT! It sure was fun to see our "sherpa throws" in our goodie bag! I had walked across the street (after landing) to our favorite hotel, The Bicycle Street Inn. John brought our swag home, and we walked over to The Gate House, the little sister of any restaurants at the Grand Hotel. It was crazy seeing how few tourists were there, and how few horses were on the street. I mean, usually when we arrive, it's difficult to get across the street because of all the bicycle and horse traffic, but this felt a bit like a ghost town.
The food, as always, was delicious. We had been eating really healthy for the two days, so it was nice to sink my teeth into fresh fish and chips. And shrimp cocktail. We always have shrimp cocktail at that restaurant (and it always reminds me of the funny face Glo made once when I pushed it towards her ;-))
We fell into bed that night exhausted, but so, so happy. We don't get a lot of moments like that lately, and it was a relief for sure.
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