Since our time in The Great Lakes State is limited, we got the lead out this week and roamed the Beaches and Dunes area of the upper part of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula (got it?), beginning our exploration Monday with slices of the famed cherry pie from the Grand Traverse Pie Company. Hey, “exploring” gastronomical delights counts, too! And we did walk it off with a stroll around downtown Traverse City before driving to the end of Old Mission Point on Grand Traverse Bay.

But what’s the point of driving all the way to the very end of the Old Mission Peninsula? For us, a lighthouse, of course! The Mission Point Lighthouse, in fact, completed in 1870 and decommissioned in 1933. In typical fashion, the Coast Guard now has a single bright LED in its place. Technology!

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Wednesday, we drove 50 miles northwest to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Who knew that the Great Lakes have all these really BIG sand dunes? It is actually the largest freshwater dune system on earth.

Our first stop at any national park is always the Visitor Center to stamp Todd’s National Park Passport Book and chat with the knowledgeable park rangers. Here we learned how the lakes were formed by glaciers and more about why they are now almost devoid of fish, in first part due to over-fishing and in second part due to invasive species like the Round goby, Sea lamprey, Zebra mussels, and Quagga mussels, leaving the Great Lakes as one of the most heavily invaded freshwater ecosystems in the world. But …the water is crystal clear!

On that fairly depressing ecological note, we left to take a hike to the top of the Empire Bluffs. Unlike the challenge at Indiana Dunes National Park a few weeks ago, this was a more sandal-friendly 1.5-mile roundtrip – still predominantly uphill, but no thigh-killing trudge through the sand and no stairs. Whew.

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After the short hike – and lunch (more “exploring”) – it was time for a pretty drive. The Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive is advertised as a tranquil 7.4-mile, one-way loop within the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore area with beautiful overlooks of Lake Michigan and the dunes. Scenic is right. So much so that Susie enjoyed just thrusting her arm out of Pearl’s open moonroof, blindly clicking away at the beautiful day!

“Sleeping Bear” is derived from an Ojibwe legend about a mother bear and her cubs trying to swim across Lake Michigan. The cubs couldn’t finish the swim and became the two major islands (North and South Manitou) while the mother bear became one of the large sand dunes on the mainland as she waited in vain for her babies.

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We were warned NOT to be tempted to go to the bottom of the dunes (as if…), since the climb back up is next to impossible.

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From there, we wrapped up the day with a quick visit to Sleeping Bear Point to see the US Life-Saving Service Station Maritime Museum. Yep, boats! We like to torture ourselves.

So on Monday the 17th, we arrived in Michigan. A new state to explore! Where to first?

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Plan A for our first stop in MI – made some time ago – involved a rental in Bay City (near the crook of the mitten thumb) that fell through two days before our anticipated check-in due to a stove that developed a gas leak (yikes!). We scrambled and came up with a small rental further north in Oscoda, right on the shore of Lake Huron.

Great! All set, right? Well… this cute little freshly renovated cottage had only one of those portable ACs, like what we put in the master stateroom in the boat during that fateful time in he%$, oops we mean Holden Beach, NC, you know, where Todd had the stroke thingy. Anyway, this AC unit was even smaller. So-o-o… after a warm night, the blazing morning sun (we might have been passed out) slowly heated the place right on up. By 10 a.m. it was in the high 70’s outside and the high 80’s inside!

Plan B was melting quickly. We needed a Plan C, pronto! Todd did a quick search – says he’s not sure how – and found us a cute, old-fashioned beachside stay just a few miles north.

Enter, the Sandcastle Beach Resort, which had one available suite. And working A/C! (aaahhh) Thanks, Stacy & Tom!

We checked in, returned to the unfortunately failed Plan B (which was up to 92 degrees inside, even though the little-AC-unit-that-couldn’t was humming away), packed everything up, moved it to Plan C, and unpacked again. Now we were ready. Next morning, “Cue the sunrise, please.”

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After enjoying the beach, with Todd even doing a quick splash into chilly Lake Huron, we passed a few days NOT packing or unpacking, only to pack it all up again Friday. It was time to wiggle across to the other side, almost. Taking the River Road National Scenic Byway out of Oscoda, we passed through the Huron-Manistee National Forests, paralleling the historic Michigan version of the “Riviere aux Sable” (River of Sand), and headed across the state to Fife Lake, near Traverse City.

But first, a side trip (of course) to the Sturgeon Point Light.

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Let’s climb some stairs!

We enjoyed the little museum and tackled the 85 stairs to take in the view of Lake Huron, then clambered back down and went out onto Sturgeon Point to search for Petoskey Stones (Michigan’s official state stone) and/or Charlevoix Stones, both fossilized coral remains.

After conferring with the “expert” volunteer in the lighthouse gift shop to determine that Susie did indeed have a few of the treasured stones – and Todd had rocks – we backtracked a bit and continued on our way across the state. One of the stops was the Lumberman’s Monument

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With our bellies grumbling about the lateness of the afternoon, the missed lunch, and the fact that we were in a FOREST with scant dining options – unless Todd was going to switch from logging and teaching to foraging and hunting – we made tracks for our destination.

During our first week in Michigan, we’ve already learned a bit of history regarding the lumber and fishing industries (fascinating lack of fish in the Great Lakes) and are soaking up the colloquialisms. We now know that 1) saying someone is “down state” means they are in the Detroit area; 2) we are currently “trolls” because we’re below the bridge (the Mackinac Bridge, that is); and 3) once we travel to the U.P. (Upper Peninsula), we’ll be “yoopers” (pronounced YOUpers).

Now rested and refreshed after the rainy weekend, we are ready to explore the west side of Michigan and learn some more. Oh, and as Traverse City is recognized as the Cherry Capital of the World, we plan to eat our share of those yummy delights!

We spent the last chunk of time cruising through northern Indiana. Think Smokey singing Cruisin’. Of course, our intrepid photographer is always on the draw with her camera. This continued log of our journey is for us as much as it is for our friends and family. As we dash about, we tend to fall behind in the sorting and labeling of photos (from which we build our posts). At the end of this particular ten days, there were more than 300 shots from which to choose.

Don’t panic; we won’t share all 300 (although, they are all fun, of course). 😉 This first gallery is from our week in and around Logansport, Indiana. Including a historic carousel, museums, hiking, a glass factory, and an oddity or two!

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From Logansport, we headed further north and west, to the top of Indiana for a few days in Michigan City, Indiana, which is basically just outside of “south” Chicago. Our first glimpse of the Great Lakes! Everything from a spiritual stop, a zoo, the famous Indiana Dunes National Park (Todd’s first touch of Lake Michigan, even if he was in hiking boots), and of course, a lighthouse. History abounds!

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On Father’s Day, we moved east to South Bend, Indiana. Why? A nice stop at a historic B&B (Oliver Inn), great dinner (Tippecanoe Place), and a visit to the National Studebaker Museum! More automobile history about the largest horse-drawn carriage manufacturer, that happens to be the only horse-drawn carriage manufacturer who successfully moved on to electric and gas-powered cars and trucks.

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Monday morning, we woke bright and early, ready for the six-hour drive to the eastern side of northern Michigan. But first, a quick stop at the University of Notre Dame. The campus is beautiful and HUGE. Fortunately, the knowledgeable innkeeper shared tips on what to say at the university gates to score parking close to the famous spots. Wandering cluelessly about, we happened into a wonderful docent named Nan, who kindly took us under her wing and blessed us with a personal tour!

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After being awe-struck by our quick look at Notre Dame, we buckled up and headed for the border.

Cruisin’…

And with that, our nine weeks in Indiana came to a close.

Funny thing happens when you get “home.” Sometimes you just settle down – and in. Ahhh. For three weeks after our road trip to Alabama, we snuggled into the great little house by Prince’s Lake East. For the record, there was lots of Susie whipping Todd at cards in between cheering the triple crown races. But honestly, we just enjoyed the beautiful weather and the amazing “parade” of wildlife friends.

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Remember the groundhog we nicknamed “Prince” upon our arrival in mid-April? W-e-l-l, it appears “Princess” might have been a more accurate moniker, as we were visited by several little ones in May.

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The young red foxes now have a burrow in the side of the hill by the lake and are often seen coming up over the hill to move through the yard.

This youngster just couldn’t stop moving. Something was clearly biting the poor thing.

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Then there’s Jasper, who would show up at the back door almost daily to request lovin’s and a bite to eat.

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This place is for the birds!

The birds certainly enjoy lake life. Hawks, woodpeckers, bluebirds, cardinals, robins, finches, and so many others. We were especially excited to discover there are six types of hummingbirds in Indiana, so we hung an inexpensive little feeder and saw the tiniest hummers we’ve ever seen, from 20 yards away! Ha! Couldn’t identify which we saw but it was fun.

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We spent a great deal of time buckled down and planning our next few months of travel stops, however, we also made sure to check out the area and get some exercise. Trust us, three-mile walks on the hills in Prince’s Lakes will get you huffing and puffing!

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It’s difficult to believe our seven weeks at Prince’s Lakes are up, but as we settled in, time did what it does, ticking on by and it became time to leave – or buy a house. 🙂 We did meet some awfully nice folks…

Nah. Still too much exploring to do!

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We left Prince’s Lakes on Thursday, for our next stop a few hours north. Of course, in typical Olsen fashion, we took a side-trip, half-hour west “along the way” to see the Tower Tree in Greensburg, Indiana.

Since we’d stopped, we took the opportunity to get some steps in by looking for the various murals painted on the buildings in the historic downtown area.

From there, it was on to the “Wabash River Cottage” for a week in Logansport, Indiana. As the homeowner put it, we, “went from a beautiful lake to a muddy river.”