All posts by exploRVistas

We are full time RVers on a mission to find America's story. We feel that by moving our house to a location and living among the locals for a bit, we allow ourselves the opportunity to understand that area's people. Our motto is "Don't just see it...BE it"©
Fulltime RVing, Michigan

Traverse City Wine and Art Festival

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One of the things Northwest Michigan is known for is its wines. On Saturday, we were fortunate to be able to spend the afternoon at the Traverse City Wine and Art Festival.  A friend of ours who works with one of the local vintner’s associations, helped us to secure tickets.  Thank you, Camilla!

 

The annual festival is a combination of wine tasting and education, local gourmet foods, area artists, and music.  One of the bands on this year’s slate was The Verve Pipe, an alternative rock band that is fairly well known.

On the way into the event, we saw this cute, little Airstream trailer.

  
There were three young women there who have been traveling around the state to different festivals, collecting postcards created by people on why they love Michigan.  Diana created a lakeshore scene, and I did my best to recreate Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse, which my great-grandfather built.  They will be displayed along with thousands more at a large art exhibit to be announced later.

  
 The event was held at the Grand Traverse Commons, formerly the Traverse City State Hospital.  This sprawling complex, built in 1884, was one of three psychiatric institutions in the state.  When it closed in the 1980’s, it appeared to be headed for the wrecking ball.  Local visionaries took over and turned it into a conglomeration of shops, coffee houses, restaurants and such.  Talk about repurposing something!

  
There was a good crowd at the festival, right from the start.  As the afternoon headed towards evening, even more people streamed in.

  
 Lee Lutes, head winemaker at Black Star Farms, had the honor of kicking off the festival with a champagne saberage, basically opening the bottle with a saber.  He was surrounded by fellow winemakers from the region.

  
Success!

  
There were three large tents with local wineries represented.  Our tickets included four free wine pours each,  with additional pours available for purchase. Another tent was dedicated to wine education.

  
There were several artists practicing their crafts at the event.  We spoke with a few of them about their work.  It is interesting to hear how they view their subjects and how they convey those images through their artistry. 

   
And the music was outstanding!  Here is saxophonist Phil Denny, cranking out the jazz tunes.  They had two alternating stages, so the sounds flowed as freely as the wine  🙂

It was great to have all of these artists and vintners in one location. If you happen to be in the area next summer, we highly recommend attending the Traverse City Wine and Art Festival. If you can’t make it, try to catch a wine trail event, as they are all very well done and are always a lot of fun. They are held throughout the year. You won’t be disappointed!

Fulltime RVing, Michigan

Getting into the groove

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We are a month and a half into our work camping job, and we feel that we are settling in.  We’ve had a lot going on, as we are having to move Diana’s mom to a higher level of care.  We have been making weekly trips to Grand Rapids, which ends up being 3-1/2 hours each way.  Most times we do it in one day, although there have been a couple of times we have stayed over.  So far it seems to be working well, and allows us plenty of time to enjoy Leelanau County.

  
The park is in full summer bloom.  The lily pads on the pond are blooming and look amazing!

  
The poppies out in front of the office are huge!  I’ve never seen them in bloom before, so it was a treat when they opened up.

  
The lodge looks great with all of the planters full of flowers.  The owners hosted an event last week for a local resident, Joe Herman, who is battling esophageal cancer.  They had a silent auction, dinner and a pancake breakfast the next day.  It appeared that half of Suttons Bay showed up!  Everyone had a wonderful time, and Joe was overwhelmed with the outpouring of support from the community.

The weather hasn’t been ideal for kayaking, as it gets cold up here!  Lake Michigan is slow to warm up in these latitudes.  🙂  We’ve had our fair share of fog lately, also.  That will all change shortly, as the sun is about as high in the sky as it can get.  The next few months should be ideal for getting Ketchup and Mustard out on the water!

  
One nice thing about the cooler weather is that it was ideal for splitting wood.  And, boy did we split wood!  The highlight of my summer was when George, Rex and I spent an entire day splitting and loading up a couple of these racks.  George is our woodsman, and he is a workhorse.  I handled everything he threw at me.  But the best part was that Rex ran the splitter…all day long.  If you remember from our earlier posts, Rex is a 91 year old D-day vet.  He does not have one ounce of ‘quit’ in him.  He was right in there piling wood with us.  The reason he is still able to do this type of work?  He never stopped….that’s why!

Diana has been extremely busy taking care of business in the office.  Only one person staffs the office at a time, so things can get pretty hectic!  At the end of our shift, we are both fairly tired, so we usually go for a drive to unwind and see what’s happening in the area.

  
Last night, we drove past the D. H. Day Farm near Glen Haven. The barns are privately owned, even though the land is within the National Lakeshore. Diana and I both agree that these are our favorite barns ever.  🙂  We will visit Glen Haven and do a post about it, as it is an interesting place.

So, even though we haven’t done a lot of hiking, kayaking or biking, we have definitely experienced the area.  We feel like we are getting to know the locals, breathing the fresh air, drinking the water (and the wine!) and feeling the breeze.  Our motto has always been “Don’t just see it, BE it”… and we really feel this summer has held true to that.

Fulltime RVing, Michigan

Fife Lake / North Country Trail

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On Saturday, we drove southeast about 45 minutes to the village of Fife Lake.  This is a town we have a long history with, as stated in an earlier post.  The Grand Traverse Hiking Club chapter of the North Country Trail Association was celebrating the designation of the village as a ‘Trail Town’.  They were also dedicating the completion of the 21 mile Fife Lake Loop on the 4,600 mile long North Country Trail (NCT), along with a one mile spur trail that connects the NCT to the village. The celebration included a 2.7 mile hike.  We were shuttled out of town and we hiked back in.

  
There were around 40 people on the hike.  The weather was perfect: dry, clear and in the low 70’s.

  
The point that we started from was about 1/2 mile from where Diana’s parent’s cottage was.  We used to cross country ski on this portion of the trail when it was just a local pathway through the woods, so it was exciting for us to see it being administered by the National Park Service now.  More than half of the North Country Trail is complete (2700 miles); an amazing accomplishment, seeing it was just established in 1980.

  
The trail is well marked with blue blazes on the trees.

  
There are also signposts all along the trail, so it is fairly easy to follow.

  
The NCT skirts through Spring Lake State Forest Campground.  Spring Lake is a little body of water that connects by a small channel to Fife Lake.  It is very peaceful in the campground, even though it is fairly close to US-131.

  
After we left the campground, we met Luke Jordan, a gentleman who has hiked the entire trail, even along the incomplete portions.  He is in the process of having his book about the experience published.

  
At one point, the trail crosses the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad.  These tracks are used maybe one or two times a week.  This is the route that Ernest Hemingway used to take on his trips north to Walloon Lake from Chicago.

  
We also traversed a newly completed bridge over a small creek.

  
When we were hiking on the spur back into town, we met Linda Forwerck.  She is the Fife Lake Township Supervisor.  We had a delightful conversation with her about all of the exciting things that are happening in the area.  Fife Lake was a logging center in the 1800’s, and at one time there were three sawmills on the lake.  Today, there are several businesses in town, all doing quite well.  The trail town status will bring even more business to the village.

  
Some are housed in century-old buildings.  Diana’s dad used this hardware store often.

  
The hike ended up at Fife Lakeside Park.  The North Country Trail Association had tents set up, handing out information about the trail and volunteering opportunities.  They also had food and soft drinks, along with a trio playing contemporary music.

  The park has a small beach, and is located next to the state boat launch.  Fife Lake is best described as one mile in diameter, and is fairly close to symmetrical.  There are two small islands in the southwestern portion of the lake.  This photo looks towards those islands, and the cottage Diana’s parents owned is just to the left of the islands and just to the right of the tree in the foreground.
  
The Grand Traverse Hiking Club had their trailer at the event.

  
Inside was just about anything they would need to construct a trail.  They are obviously well organized!

While we were at the park, we heard a commotion by the tracks.  We went over to investigate.

  
We saw these little restored railroad service cars coming down the tracks.  After a little investigation, we found out that they are part of an organization called the North American Railcar Operators Association.  They are all privately owned, and they take tours on local railroads.  This particular event had 40 cars and went on a round trip from Traverse City, through Petoskey and Cadillac.  It cost each car a little over $500, and that included two night’s lodging.  We’ve never seen anything like it.  Their air horns were particularly amusing!

  
After the event, we took the Escape out on the two-track seasonal roads south of town. We were curious to see some of the outlying portions of the trail.  

  
This is Headquarters Lake, which is a large wetland.  It is fed by Fife Lake Creek, which is the outlet from Fife Lake.  The water finds its way from Headquarters Lake into the Manistee River, then into Lake Michigan and eventually the Atlantic Ocean. The NCT runs alongside the creek and Headquarters Lake.

  

We used to snowmobile and ski along these two-tracks. It was a lot easier to find our way this time, as we had Google Maps to guide us!
  
At the southern end of the loop trail, we came to the Old US-131 State Forest Campground.  It is located on the Manistee River.  Part of our reason for checking it out was to find a kayak take-out point on the Manistee. The canoe launch looked like it might be difficult to use to disembark.

  
We did find this trail sign though.  Looks like an easy 2400 miles to go to get to the eastern terminus of the trail in New York!  Eventually, they will link it to the Appalachian Trail in Vermont.

After leaving the campground, we headed down to the rest area on the new portion of US-131.  There is a boat launch at the south end of the rest area, and it has a nice concrete ramp. We decided that this would be an ideal place to use as a kayak take-out. Plenty of parking to stage a vehicle also.  We talked to the owner of Missaukee Paddlesports at the ramp, as she was waiting for a group of paddlers to come in.  She tipped us off to a put-in a little ways up the river. Looks like a paddle day is in our future.

  
On our way out of the rest area to go check out the put-in, we noticed this sign for the NCT.  Looks like an easy 2200 miles to the western terminus of the trail in North Dakota.  There it links up to the Lewis and Clark Trail.

All in all, it was a tremendous day to get out in the woods.  What made it better was the fact that we were familiar with these pathways, and to see them being celebrated as a national treasure just made it that much sweeter.

Do you have a favorite trail that you would like to share?  We would love to hear about it!

Fulltime RVing, Michigan

Fieldstones

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Leelanau County, Michigan was shaped during the last ice age by the continental ice sheet that covered the area.  While that geology is a subject I intend to write about at a later date, my focus in this post is the town of Suttons Bay.  This little hamlet has become one of our ‘go-to’ place for services, as it sports a laundromat and grocery store.  It is also home to many unique shops and restaurants, along with a Saturday farmer’s market.  While driving on the back streets of town, we began to notice something very different about the village: the heavy concentration of fieldstone homes.  As many of you know, the glacial ice sheet that covered the northern United States deposited a layer of rounded stones in all shapes and sizes.  The soil in the Leelanau region of Michigan is full of them.  As a result, the local architecture reflects the presence of the stones, as they provided a cheap and abundant building material.

  
This is a charming home that uses natural fieldstone for all of its exterior walls.

  
Many of the homes use the stone for the foundation only.

  
This beauty took that a step further to include a fieldstone chimney.

  
This one appeared to have concrete below the decorative fieldstone. 

  
There was a builder’s trailer parked in the driveway of this home.  It appeared to be in the process of being renovated.

  
One of my favorites was this bungalow.  Take a close look at the detail in the railing of the porch.  The insets in the center of the railing employs the use of smaller diameter stones.  The gargoyles are the ‘piece de resistance’, as this structure really stands out among the others.

  
The stones are also used to construct retaining walls and borders throughout the town.  Wild Cherry Resort has also used fieldstone in this manner.

  
The use of the stones is not limited to older structures.  This is actually a modern home that sports a layer of the rounded rocks.

The crown jewel of the town is Union School on St. Mary’s Street.
 
This charming structure was built in 1907.  It was recently converted to four condominiums.  Looking at it, I couldn’t help but imagine the children who took this building for granted, only to realize as adults how fortunate they were to attend classes in such a beautiful school.

If you find yourself in Suttons Bay, get off the main road and check these structures out.  It is worth the few minutes it takes to drive through the town.

What sorts of indigineous stone have you noticed being used in the buildings in your area?

Fulltime RVing, Michigan

A great day for a paddle

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There is nothing quite like getting on a lake.

One thing we had been wanting to do for quite awhile is to get out on the water in our kayaks.  We had plans to do so in north central Florida, but we chose to push farther south to Naples instead.  We had an opportunity last weekend, but thunderheads rolled in before we could get out there.  Well, today was the day.  The temperature climbed to 80 degrees, and the rains were supposed to hold off until mid afternoon, which they did.  Time to get out there!  🙂

For today’s paddle, we chose School Lake, located within the boundaries of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

  
School lake is connected to the smaller Bass Lake by a channel that might allow a kayak to get through.  The reason we chose School Lake is that Bass Lake borders right on M-22, and carries some traffic noise.  Except for the boat launch, School Lake is all natural.

  
The launch is decent, even for small, trailered boats.  There were two aluminum boats on the lake while we were there.  The lake itself measures in at approxametely 2/3 of a mile across, and is somewhat round in shape.  The bottom appeared to be sandy, and the water was clear.

  
There is a fairly high ridge that runs south of the lake.  The wind was coming from that direction today, and we found the calmest water along that shore.

  
To the north, there is a large dune that is actually the back side of Pyramid Point, which we showed in an earlier post.  Today, we witnessed a Bald Eagle skimming that end of the lake.  We also saw (and heard) a loon.  Both of those sightings made our day.  🙂

  
Here is Ketchup and Mustard, ready to go!  We did not take any photos on the lake, as we have to still get a waterproof case for one of our phones.  If anyone has recommendations, we are all ears!

  
We asked a young couple who were mushroom hunting to take our photo.  They were kind enough to oblige.

One other thing to note about Sleeping Bear, are the ‘facilities’.

  
This beauty was at the boat launch.  It was extremely clean, had no odor, was handicap accessible, and had fully stocked hand sanitizer and toilet paper dispensers.  The interior is all one piece, no-seam Fiberglas, so they are easy to keep clean.  Very nice, indeed.  🙂

Changing subjects, here is a wildflower update:

  
Diana spotted these Jack-in-the-Pulpit up near the yurt at Wild Cherry.  They were huge!

  
She also spotted these marsh marigolds after we got off School Lake today.  They are popping up everywhere.

One of the places we visited a couple of weeks ago was Good Harbor Beach.  We decided to drive out and take a look today, as it is just up Bohemian Road from School Lake.  We got there, and we were the only ones there. 

  
Hmmmm…  80 degrees, partly cloudy… What is up?

  
Not a soul on the beach…except for the flies.  Tons of them!  Yikes! We know that the northern Great Lakes can be iffy for flies in late May and early June, so we will have to keep tabs on the conditions.  It may have been because there was rain coming in.  At least they weren’t biting, and they were confined to the beach itself.

All in all, it was another great day!  We were able to get the kayaks back in the water, and that was a great thing!

Do you have a favorite body of water you like to paddle?  We would love to hear about it!

Fulltime RVing, Michigan

The Nuts and Bolts of our Leelanau Adventure

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With every destination that is reached in life, there is a spark or impetus that calls you to journey there.  With us, being on the Leelanau Penninsula for the summer can be traced back to the early 1970’s when Diana’s Aunt Ellen bought an old hay barn in the village of Fife Lake, about 20 miles southeast of Traverse City.  She turned that barn into a beautiful home, with an apartment upstairs for her sister Clara.  Upon seeing the area, Diana’s parents bought a cottage on the shore of Fife Lake a few years later.  Over the years, Dad renovated it to eventually make it their retirement home.  As a result, we have a long history in this region, having made countless trips up from downstate Michigan.  We made numerous day trips to Leelanau County, and ended up wanting to spend more time here.

Many people have asked us, “What is it that you will be doing at Wild Cherry Resort this summer?”  Well, how it works is like this:  We work two days a week, generally in a row, 9 to 5.

  
Diana works in the office, taking reservations, checking guests in, managing the office and alerting me to any guests that will be arriving that day.

  
I, in turn, make sure the campsites are cleaned and edged, and the firepits are cleaned out.

  
On the mornings I work, I drive the park, pick up the trash from each site and deliver the newspapers.

  
To start the season, I have been cleaning spillways of matted leaves and doing general cleanup. I’ll also be spraying weeds and driving the golf ball retriever on the driving range throughout the season, along with helping Rex mow the lawns.  So that somewhat sums up our duties.  In exchange for our work, we receive a free campsite for the season. Water, electric, sewer, and newspaper are included.

As you may remember, we had a dream laundromat that we used in Grand Rapids.  We knew that we were unlikely to find as nice a place as that again, but we at least wanted something clean.  There is a laundry in Suttons Bay that is decent, but it isn’t very large.  So on Monday, we set off for a place on the northern fringe of Traverse City.

  

The road to Traverse City, the infamous M-22, runs right along the western shore of the western arm of Grand Traverse Bay.  We stopped along the way at a roadside pull off to have a picnic. 🙂

  
Give me a bag of plain M&M’s and not only will I smile, but my jacket will also!

  
The laundromat was decent, but nowhere near as nice as what we were used to.  The view out the window made up for it.  🙂

I also wanted to pass along an update on the spring foliage.

 
We saw several Jack-in-the-Pulpit in the woods at the park.

  
The Trillium have also bloomed.  We saw these green and white ones, along with the all white varieties.

  
There are thousands of them in the woods in this area right now!

  
The sweet cherry trees are in bloom right now, and they smell amazing! 

 

And the sunsets have been outstanding.  This photo was taken from our campsite.

  
And turning to look behind me, the entire sky had lit up.  We feel so fortunate to be able witness this.

On Thursday night, we drove up to the tip of the Leelanau Penninsula, about 20 miles north of the RV park.

  
This view is looking back along the western edge of the penninsula.  The air temperature was about 80 degrees Farenheit, even at the water’s edge.

  
Grand Traverse Lighthouse has been protecting sailors from this point since the mid 1800’s.  They offer tours, for those interested.  Last time we took it, we thought it was very well done.

We also experienced an interesting phenomenon that occurs around a large body of water called a microclimate.  Within the 20 miles on the drive back home, the temperature fluctuated between 80 and 61 degrees Fahrenheit twice! Luckily, it finished up at 80.  🙂

On Friday, we took a day trip back to Grand Rapids to check on Diana’s mom.  While Diana was tending to her mother’s needs, I ran errands in town. We headed back north by mid-afternoon.  On the way back, we decided to stop at Fife Lake to see what was happening, as it had been awhile since we were there.  We stopped at the cottage first, which had changed hands twice since Diana’s parents sold it in 2007.  It had recently undergone a major renovation, so Diana wanted to knock on the door to meet the new owners and possibly see the renovations.  They were coming out of the home as we were getting out of our car and they invited us inside, once we explained who we were.  They had done an outstanding job on the place, and were very interested to hear about why certain things were the way they were when they first bought it.  They even retained many of the features that Diana’s dad had incorporated into the home, which brought tears to our eyes.  We were glad we stopped.  🙂

Next, we went by Aunt Ellen’s old property.  Being located on a busy intersection, it was recently purchased and the barn was torn down to make room for a Family Dollar store.  The garage was still standing, as it was further off the intersection than the barn was.  To set the scene, Aunt Clara was a flower gardener extraordinaire, and she had planted every flower imaginable around the property.  Of course, when a developer comes in, they practice a ‘scorched earth’ policy, so we weren’t expecting to see anything.  But, to our surprise, there along the garage…..

  
…Aunt Clara’s Lily of the Valley was popping up, a reminder of hers’ and Ellen’s will and determination.  We miss them both, along with Diana’s dad and Aunt Bernie…four hard working and strong siblings who were great examples to us of how to live our lives.  It is a great history to have as a family, and one I am proud to be a part of.  🙂
 

Fulltime RVing, Michigan

Wildflowers and the dunes

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A wildflower in the spring is an announcement of the approaching summer…

Saturday evening, I took Diana for a ride through Wild Cherry Resort on the golf cart, as she had not seen the outer reaches of the property.  Towards the back of the golf driving range, we discovered a sea of wildflowers blooming.

  
We saw this trillium, one of the first to open.  There are hundreds more that are ready to go.

 
The Dutchman’s Breeches were everywhere.  Notice how they look like they are hanging on a clothes line.

  
While the trees have yet to show their leaves, the weather is outstanding!

  
From the back of the range, you can literally see for miles.  This vista is looking to the south.

  
The setting sun in the leafless trees is a mid-spring treat in Northern Michigan!

Afterwards, we drove down into the lower woods and checked out the tent sites and the yurt.  Along the way, we spied more flowers.

   

I am fairly certain that this is Bloodroot that has not fully opened.

We headed back up to the office to drop off the cart.  We have to be careful pulling into the cart storage, as a robin has found a nice place to build her nest.

  
Good thing the resort owns more than one ladder!  Momma robin has 4 eggs in there.

On Sunday, Diana and I took a drive down the Lake Michigan shore to the town of Empire.  That is where the visitor’s center is for Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.  We were in need of our annual All-Access Pass, which gets the two of us into any national park for the next year.  At $80, we feel it is an amazing bargain.  After securing our pass, we headed back up the shore to our destination for the day: Pyramid Point.  This particular dune forms the western arm of Good Harbor Bay.

  
The 1 mile crushed gravel trail starts out fairly level through a grassy plain.

  
Further into the woods, the trail steepens.  This photo is deceiving, as the temperature was 79 degrees!

  
Diana spotted Yellow Trout Lily blooming along the trail.

  
Once at the top, this sign gave ample warning as to what lay ahead….

  
Per my iPhone compass, we were 420 feet above the surface of the lake.

  
Diana found some firm footing for a photo….

  
….as did I.  🙂

  
While we were there, the Philip R. Clarke steamed by.  This ship is a sister and fleetmate to the Arthur M. Anderson, which was the ship that was following the Edmund Fitzgerald when it sank in Lake Superior.  Both ships are 767 feet long and can haul 25,300 pounds of cargo.  We are able to follow ship passages on the Great Lakes Seaway and Shipping website, making vessel identification a breeze.

This area also is home to many shipwrecks, and there are several lighthouses that aid in navigating the waters.

  
Here is the Manitou Passage Crib Lighthouse….

  
…and the South Manitou Lighthouse further in the distance.  We hope to further explore this sentinal later this summer.

After leaving Pyramid Point, we headed east along the shore to the beach at the end of Bohemian Road on Good Harbor Bay.

  
This is a wide, sweeping bay that faces due north.  

  
Even with the prevailing southwest winds clocking in at 30 miles an hour on Sunday, the water at the shore was dead calm….hence the name “Good Harbor”. The rocks extend a few feet and then the bottom is sandy.

  
As you can see in this distance shot, the water was a bit choppier farther out.

  
From this point, we were able to see northward along the western shore of the Leelanau Penninsula.  The town of Leland is up along there somewhere.  That is where we saw the sunset from the other night in our previous post.

For the first few days of May in this area, the weather has been marvelous. As the wildflowers have announced, Spring has definitely arrived in Leelanau County!

Fulltime RVing, Michigan

North to Leelanau and a slice of paradise

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Oh, my…..it is so much more beautiful that we remembered….

It had been nearly two years since we had found ourselves in Leelanau County, Michigan. On Thursday, we packed up the rig in Byron Center and prepared to head north.
 
A very big thank you to Richard at Woodchip Campground in Byron Center, Michigan for providing such a wonderful resource to the community by keeping the park open through the winter.  We had instances where the temperature dipped to 16 below zero, and we were never without power, water or sewer.  We encourage anyone needing a campground in the Grand Rapids area to contact Woodchip.

We made the three hour trip to Lake Leelanau in the afternoon, arriving at Wild Cherry Resort around 4 PM.

  
Take a look at our site!  We are parked at Latitude 45 degrees, 0′ 28″ north…less than 1/2 mile north of the 45th parallel.  For all intents and purposes, we are halfway between the North Pole and the Equator. 😃

  
And Diana is extremely pleased with her new commute!  Once we were set up, we had a very nice chat with our work camping colleagues, JoAnn and Paul.  We are really looking forward to working with them!

Following our chat, Diana and I headed a few miles west to the town of Leland to catch the sunset.

  
We arrived in plenty of time to watch the sun set over North Manitou Island, several miles out in Lake Michigan.  South Manitou is to the left.

  
Once the sun actually set, we were treated to a spectacular light show in the clouds!

On Friday, Diana worked with JoAnn, beginning the learning process of how to run the office.  I worked with Paul out in the park, setting up the lion’s share of the picnic tables.  Paul also gave me a tour of the resort, which is far larger than I thought.

After we finished up for the day, we were all invited to happy hour by Rex and Nellie.  They were full time RVers for 18 years, before coming off the road.  They have been summering here every season since the park opened, better than 10 years ago.  Rex mows the lawns in the park.  He is a D-Day veteran, and it is an honor to be in his presence.
  
Also present were Rex and Nellie’s son Bruce,  Jim and Sandy, owners of the park, and Camilla, who will be helping some in the office.  She just started a new job as the executive assistant for the Leelanau Peninnsula Vintners Association.

  
Everyone had a great time.  It was a very nice way to start the summer.

We look forward to posting more of our Northern Michigan adventures, as we plan on doing a lot of exploring throughout the summer. Stay tuned as we show this little slice of paradise!
 

Fulltime RVing, Michigan

Summer plans revealed and a work camping opportunity

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Leelanau County, located north of Traverse City, Michigan has always been one of our favorite destinations.  It is home to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, many quaint little towns, a few dozen wineries, and miles of Lake Michigan shoreline. The Leelanau Peninsula is a place that has called out to us.

 

 

No matter the season, we have spent a lot of time enjoying this amazing piece of real estate.  In 2011, ABC’s Good Morning America voted Sleeping Bear Dunes the most beautiful place in America.

 

 

While it is difficult to compare the varied landscapes in America, we do feel the area ranks right up there with the best of them.

 

 

In recent years, the area wine industry has become a major player in Michigan’s economy.  Along wih it, the foodies have descended upon the area. Mario Batali spends his summers here.  The food and wine are delightful!

So, you ask…what does that have to do with our summer?  Well, we are going to be work camping at one of our favorite resorts!

  
Wild Cherry Resort is located between Sutton’s Bay and Lake Leelanau.  Besides us, there is one other couple and room for a third (due to a recent cancellation). This will be our first work camping job, so while we know the park well from staying there, we haven’t seen it as workers.  We have spoken with the staff in the past, and all of them have enjoyed the experience.

If you are interested in spending the summer work camping in an amazing part of the world, contact Jim at Wild Cherry through their website wildcherryresort.com.

  
Hopefully, we will get to enjoy the summer together!

California, Throwback Thursday

Central California – Throwback Thursday

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“The mountains are calling, and I must go.”

John Muir

Yosemite National Park has always been high on our list of places to visit, but seemed out of reach for an RV trip in our working days.  In early 2005, we happened upon round trip tickets to Sacremento from Chicago Midway on Southwest Airlines for $99 each, so we made plans to head west and check it out without the RV. After touring the California state capitol, we headed to Yosemite.  Our base while we were in the area was the unique Penon Blanco Lookout bed and breakfast in Coulterville.  One of the great features of Penon Blanco was the stocked refrigerator in our room.  Each day, we would head out with our cooler packed with their drinks, and they would refill the fridge each day…no additional charge.  They would even replace the beer and wine!  (That policy appears to have changed since then, per their website). We stopped at the local deli each day to stock up on food, which allowed us to picnic outdoors.  As a result, we felt like we were still on an RV vacation!

When we arrived in Yosemite Valley, we were awestruck.

  

Yosemite was everything we had hoped it would be.  The vistas were simply amazing.  As a bonus, we were fortunate to be able to experience the valley with the waterfalls flowing heavier than they normally would be in the summer months.  This was due to the heavy snowpack in the Sierras from the previous winter. What a difference between then and the drought conditions that exist now!

  

Here is El Capitan standing proud against a gorgeous blue sky.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with Yosemite, El Capitan is the largest granite monolith in the world.

  

From the lookout at Washburn Point, visitors really get a sense of the magnitude of the valley.  Here is a profile photo of Half Dome as viewed from the west.

  

Looking north from the northern edge of Glacier Point, Yosemite Falls can be seen across the valley.

  

Looking back east, the valley appears in all of it’s grandeur.  It is easy to see why Ansel Adams loved to use Yosemite as a subject of his photographs.

  

Yosemite is also home to a stand of Giant Sequoia trees.  Some of the trees in the Mariposa Grove are 3000 years old.  Looking up at one of these beauties really puts things in perspective, in terms of a human’s lifespan.

While we were there, we decided to spend one day exploring the eastern side of the Sierras.

  

On our way across on Tioga Road, we saw this view of Half Dome from it’s eastern side.  Most Yosemite visitors don’t get to see this side of the landmark.

  

Heading across Tioga Pass, we encountered leftover snow from the previous winter.  It is always fun to see the white stuff in mid summer!

  

Our destination for the day was the old mining town of Bodie, California.  Now a state park, Bodie is well preserved by the dry conditions that exist on the east side of the Sierras.  We definitely want to spend more time in this town!  On our way back, we encountered a young couple who were hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.  They had gotten off the trail to get supplies, and we’re trying to get back to camp before sundown.  We had rented a Ford Expedition and had plenty of room, so they got a ride from us back to camp.  They were fairly ‘ripe’ from hiking, but it was fun to talk with them about their experience. We don’t usually pick up hitchhikers, but it seemed pretty obvious to us that they were thru-hikers.

Once we left Yosemite, we headed to San Francisco for a few days.  Our base in the City By The Bay was the Marriott Fisherman’s Wharf.

  

Here is Lombard Street, which is billed as the ‘crookedest street in the world’.  It was fun to walk down the sidewalk, and was even more fun to drive!

  

Getting a chance to ride one of the famous cable cars was a special treat for us Midwestern kids.  🙂

While we were there, we ventured up Columbus Avenue to a restaurant called Mama’s.  Our breakfast that morning became the benchmark to which all others are measured for us.  Simply outstanding.

  

Across the street from Mama’s is Washington Square Park.  Each morning, the local residents begin their day with Tai Chi.  It was fascinating to watch.

Once we left San Francisco, we headed north along the coast.  The coastal fog was very thick that day, so we asked a local if there was any chance at seeing the sun.  We were told to drive north to Tomales and if the fog hadn’t lifted by then, head east to Sonoma Valley and skip the coast.  That is what ended up happening.

Sonoma was enchanting, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there.  We toured many of the shops in the area and visited a couple of wineries.

  

We took a tour of the Benziger Family Winery, which was very interesting.  Here is a photo of their cellar.

  

It was here that we learned how a winery uses the topography of it’s property to produce various types of grapes.  It all has to do with the amount of sun a vine receives each day as to what variety is grown on a specific parcel.

After we finished up at Sonoma, we headed to Napa Valley to tour more wineries.  Once we got there, we realized that Napa was geared more towards production and was not as quaint.  Next time through, we plan on focusing more of our time in Sonoma.

So thanks to some great airfare, we made a trip that might have otherwise been delayed until our retirement.  John Muir’s words struck a chord with us, and we are glad we followed in his footsteps.