With so many lakes, rivers and streams dotted everywhere across the state, pursuing some kind of activity on the water takes on a whole new meaning. I mean, why wouldn’t you if you lived so close to the water?

Add-in sandy beaches, historic lighthouses, remote islands, waterfront villages and the nation’s longest freshwater coastline and it would seem somewhat rude not to take advantage of what nature has to offer.

And, what better place to try than Michigan – one of the top states in the country for the number of registered boats and the abundance of amenities for boaters of all types and skill levels – from public launch sites and harbours to high-end marinas.

There is also fishing. Commercial fishing is not permitted on Lake Michigan, but you can charter a captain and his boat and spend a glorious day catching your lunch as we have done many times in Wisconsin and Alaska.

But, as you would imagine, I have come prepared for a water adventure as we are carrying my inflatable kayak and my life jacket! I am hoping that in our next stop in Petoskey, that I will finally take to the waters of Michigan. We shall see …

The marina in Northport where we visited today. It was a super lovely picturesque town, some 20 miles outside of Traverse City and located on the Grand Traverse Bay.

The crystal clear water of Grand Traverse Bay.

Sorry for the lateness of posting this but the internet has only just returned to our RV camp site!

The greater Traverse City area, which includes Old Mission peninsula, where Mike and I visited today, is one of five American Viticulture areas in Michigan. The soil is sandy, with good drainage and a lake-dominated climate allows a longer growing season than most of the US.

The region’s climate also allows for the production of ice wine, which requires an early hard freeze so the fruit, still on the vine, can be harvested while frozen. Northern Michigan wineries follow some of the German practices that govern what wine qualifies as Ice wine. German law dictates that ice wine must be picked only when the grapes are frozen on the vine, while the US allows for wine to be sold as ice wine if the grapes are picked and then artificially frozen. The grapes are generally picked in December after prolonged below-freezing temperatures, to ensure they are frozen all the way through. Ice wine is sometimes referred to as liquid gold because of its high cost to make and purchase and because of the wine’s intense sweetness.

The Chateau Chantal winery, pictured above, sits on top of one of the highest points on the peninsula and has gorgeous views of both the East and West arms of Grand Traverse Bay. 

On the other side of the street is another winery, again with gorgeous views of Grand Traverse Bay. As you can see, the vineyards stretch as far as the eye can see and it really was a spectacular drive through the region.

Built in 1870, the Mission Point Lighthouse is located at the end of the Old Mission Point, a peninsula jutting into Grand Traverse Bay some 17 miles north of Traverse City, Michigan.

For 67 years the light served to warn mariners about the shoals off the point. However, new techniques in offshore construction and the automation of lighthouse illumination made it possible to build a navigation aid on the shoal itself. And so, in 1933 the old lamp was decommissioned.

Famously, the lighthouse stands a few hundred yards south of the 45^thparallel north, halfway between the North Pole and the Equator.

Apologies for the standard of photographs but the day Mike and I visited, a wedding was just about to commence on the beach right in front of the lighthouse. It was impossible to get down onto the beach and take pictures from the front as bridesmaids awaited the bride, a band was setting up and family and friends were milling around, hence the views of the lighthouse from the side and back!

If interested, there is currently a vacancy to “Be a Keeper” living in the Lighthouse and becoming part of Michigan’s Lighthouse Keeper Programme. It is a “wonderfully unique volunteer” opportunity, the job advert reads, whereby you will live in the lighthouse, meet and help visitors from all over the world and run the small gift shop and museum! Not sure about being in this remote spot in winter, regardless of the free WiFi they are touting! 

In 1842, a Presbyterian missionary named Peter Dougherty first had the idea to plant cherry trees in the Traverse City area of Michigan. Everyone told him cherries wouldn’t grow that far north, but Dougherty’s trees flourished as the sandy soil and temperate weather conditions along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan provided excellent conditions for growing fruit. The wind blowing from Lake Michigan helps to moderate the area’s weather by cooling the orchards in the summer and warming them during the winter.

Such is the love of cherries that the Traverse City area hosts a National Cherry Festival each July which attracts over 500,000 people for a week long celebration of the little, red fruit!

Sweet cherries are grown primarily for fresh eating and include such varieties grown here as Emperor Francis, Napoleon and Schmidt. Maraschino cherries often used to dress up a cocktail or top off an ice cream sundae are made from sweet cherries.

Tart cherries have a sour taste when eaten fresh, but they are excellent for baking. Montmorency is the most common variety of tart cherry used in jams, juices, preserves and pie fillings. Tart cherries are extremely perishable, so they are harvested quickly and canned or frozen immediately.

Mike and I really enjoyed visiting the Cherry Republic shop today where we loaded up on smoked cherry BBQ sauce, cherry salsas, salad dressings and iced cherry pretzels! Great shop where you can eat and drink your way around all the samples!

Sweet or tart? Answers on a postcard!

When it comes to the list of all the things Michiganders like to brag about, its rivers and lakes are certainly high on the list!

In Michigan, you are never more than six miles from a body of water, whether it’s a river, a lake or one of the Great Lakes. The state has a whopping 11,000 lakes that weigh-in at five acres or larger. It really is incredible that everywhere you drive water is visible in some form.

Considered by many to be one of the most beautiful lakes in the Great Lakes region, Glen Lake actually consists of two large bodies of water connected by a narrow channel, with the larger body to the east being referred to as “Big Glen Lake” and the small body to the west as “Little Glen Lake”. Collectively they are known as Glen Lake.

Big Glen Lake is nearly perfectly round while Little Glen is more elongated. The lakes empty into Lake Michigan via the Crystal River.

Glen Lake is located in a spectacular setting of wooded rolling sand hills just east of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Its waters, filtered by the underlying and surrounding sands, are remarkably clear and pure and glow with an iridescent indigo blue. It’s beauty, purity and lack of waves make it a popular lake for holiday-makers with opportunities for boating, swimming and fishing.

The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is a 35-mile (56 km) stretch of Lake Michigan’s eastern coastline and is certainly worth a visit as Mike and I discovered today.

The park is named after an Ojibwe tribe legend of the sleeping bear. According to the legend, an enormous fire on the western shore of Lake Michigan drove a mother bear and her cubs into the lake for shelter. Determined to reach the opposite shore, after many miles of swimming, the two cubs lagged behind. When the mother bear reached the shore, she waited on top of a high bluff. The exhausted cubs sadly drowned in the lake, but the mother bear sat and waited in the hope that her cubs would finally appear. Impressed by the mother bear’s determination and faith, the Great Spirit created two islands – North and South Manitou – to commemorate the cubs, and the wind buried the sleeping mother bear under the sands of the dunes where she waits to this day!

Over two million years ago, glaciers creeping along like bulldozers moved rock and soil, gouging, carving, deepening and widening existing drainages and rivers. Around 14,000 years ago, temperatures warmed and the glaciers started to melt leaving behind ridges, glacial landforms and the sand dunes, beaten down by wind and weather.

At 450 feet above the shoreline of Lake Michigan it is seriously windy! You need to hold onto your hat, protect your eyes and keep your mouth closed so that you don’t ingest flying sand!

It’s even more fun at 600 feet above Lake Michigan and certainly worth the climb!

Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the U.S. Measuring over 300 miles long, in excess of 100 miles wide and with a shoreline just under 1,650 miles, it is hardly surprising that I struggle to remember that it is a lake due to its sheer scale. It doesn’t help that when enjoying the views or taking photographs there is never any sign of the other side!

In the 19th century, Lake Michigan played a major role in the development of Chicago and the Midwestern US, west of the lake. Over 90% of the grain shipped from Chicago traveled east over Lake Michigan only falling after the Civil War and the expansion of the railroads.

Today, some 12 million people live along Lake Michigan’s shores, mainly in the Chicago and Milwaukee metropolitan areas. The economy of many communities in northern Michigan are heavily supported by tourism, with large seasonal populations attracted by the lake. Seasonal residents often own summer homes along the waterfront and return home for winter.

Although we have only been here since Monday evening, we are already very smitten with what we have seen. In chatting to locals we believe that we are now in a pretty under-developed area compared to some of the other locations to the north where we will stay in the coming weeks.

Unsalted! All the Great Lakes are fresh water.

Mike and I enjoyed the day taking in the views on our scenic drive.

Manistee County in Michigan offers plenty of natural beauty and historical lore from the days when logging, lumbering and salt mining were in full swing. In fact, the entire town of Manistee, known as Michigan’s “Victorian Port City,” is listed on the National Register of Historical Places.

Much of the downtown Manistee public and commercial buildings are from the 19^th century era when logging was at its peak. The town has 25 miles of sandy Lake Michigan shoreline, three Lake Michigan harbours, inland lakes, 270 miles of rivers and four-season fisheries. Farms and orchards dot the landscape with thousands of acres of Manistee National Forest and quaint villages surrounding the main city.

Uniqueness aside, wherever you are in the world, there is nothing quite like watching the sun set over water. It is magical. The only problem, perhaps, from the perspective of a keen amateur photographer are other people! Oh, my word, do they get in the way of a potential award-winning picture …!

Manistee’s Lighthouse illuminated by the setting sun.

To make access to the light safer during stormy weather, the new light was outfitted with an elevated wooden catwalk running from the shore to the lighthouse.

Located on the west end of the north pier, the light was replaced in 1873, when the new structure was augmented with a combination fog signal and light tower at the end of the wooden north pier.

We have been on the road for a week, covered nearly 1,400 miles so far and have finally entered our destination state of Michigan!

The state is of real interest to us for a second home – somewhere to spend maybe 5-7 months of the year, away from the searing heat of Texas. Do you know that in Magnolia, TX, where we live, this week will see temperatures of 98-101 degrees, again, seemingly with no break in sight – it’s just too darned hot!

Tonight, as we drove into our RV park in Manistee, Michigan, the air was cool, the temperature was a magnificent 67 degrees at 7 p.m. and there was no humidity. Michigan’s tax laws are pretty steep so this would be a second home and we would maintain our primary home in Texas or somewhere with similar favourable tax laws but escape the brutal heat of summer.

Michigan is a hop, skip and jump away from Canada! The state is surrounded by the Great Lakes and where we are now is on the shoreline of Lake Michigan.

Once we were settled, we had a brief drive into town and the surrounding area and I was able to snap a couple of pictures but I can’t wait to explore the area more. I hope you enjoy photographs of water as I suspect there will be many, many more in the coming weeks!

Lake Michigan … it looks like an ocean as there is just no land in sight in any direction!

En route to Michigan, we stopped in Chicago to check-in with the Krywanio side of the family, catch-up with friends, and for Mike, take a trip down memory lane re-visiting where he used to live, go to school and recount stories of his childhood, especially the more outlandish and embarrassing moments which have had me crying in the aisles with laughter.

Today, we re-stocked our Texas gastric juices with a visit to the Hog Wild BBQ restaurant in Midlothian, Illinois. The original Hog Wild restaurant opened in 1985 in a small building at the same location where it stands today. It has certainly grown over the years and offers a very extensive menu, delivered to your table almost before you have finished ordering!

The restaurant’s specialty is its pork chops which two of our party taste-tested … they looked a little like something out of the Flintstones and would bring a smile to any committed carnivore’s face. If several pounds of juicy pork chop is not your thing then the menu is extensive and there is something for everyone’s pallet.

From Left: Ron Krywanio (Mike’s brother), Shari Krywanio (my sister-in-law), the blogger, opposite the blogger is Kevin O’Malley (a high school friend of Mikes), Mike Neary (aka Uncle Mike, Chris’ god father and Mike’s high school friend) and Mike!

Even the famous Pork Chop is on display outside the restaurant and it’s like a life-size replica of what appears on plates!