A few comments on Michigan which may surprise you, as they have certainly surprised me!

Once you reach the northern part of Michigan on the west coast, the scenery changes, the towns change and it takes some pondering as to what is different!

Here are the thoughts of chairman Abbott:

• in northern Michigan, there are no high-rise buildings. You don’t see anything over three stories, which is unusual, and the closer you get to water it reduces to two and mainly single storey buildings;
• the townships keep all the “chain” restaurants on the outskirts of town – the McDonalds and the like – and there are certainly no golden arches advertising the restaurant chain. Instead the chain restaurants are in keeping with the style of each town with no over-the-top neon gimmicks ruining the landscape.

Miss Poppy outside Poppycocks restaurant in Traverse City, Michigan. I struggle to decide whether this or the venue named below was the best food experience of the trip … no wonder my clothes are a little tight!

Biere de Mac Brew Works by the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan. A local teacher in the area hand carved these miniature replicas of the bridge to hold flights of beer for which the venue is known. As mentioned above, I struggle to decide which of these two venues was my favourite eating experience: a roast beef and pickled carrot sandwich versus a bowl of soba noodles so fresh and zinging with ginger and lime that the hair on my head grew an extra inch!