Reporting from Emmet County, MI
LAT 45 deg 27 min
LON 84 deg 47 min
We awoke at “The Inn” at Northport, a tiny town on a peninsula of Lake Michigan. We took our time, walking over to a bakery a block over for donuts, before heading out.
Onto a tale of two cherry pie pans, in Traverse City and Charlevoix. Each was once the world's largest, but both have been surpassed by a Canadian variant.
Also, the pie made in the Traverse City pan was made without a bottom crust--so is it really a pie? Hmmm...
Elk Rapids provided a woolly mammoth in front of a taxidermy/museum, both of which have seen better days. The town also hosts Tallulah the Swan, built to carry beauty queens.
This area is loaded with wineries/cideries. We stopped at Royal Farms so Mindy could enjoy a wine flight, while I had a cherry cider shushie. We also shared a pastie, which is an Upper Peninsula staple, and something Mindy enjoyed when she was there for college.
Here’s one of The "Hobbit Houses" of Charlevoix, designed in part by an artitect to allow all the snow in UP winters to easily slide off. $511K on Zillow, although it's not for sale.
Winery #2--Maple Moon, an interesting variation that uses maple sap as a prime ingredient. This resulted in both wine and syrup tastings. I had an excellent maple root beer, and we ended up buying more syrup than wine.
The lodge we stayed at tonight provided coupons for local restaurants. We've figured out that said restaurants are actually owned by the same people who own the lodge and other hotels in the area. Surprisingly, the food was actually decent. Mindy had a Reuben and I got Fish and Chips.
Back to the lodge for the hot tub and a fire pit (the latter was a bit too warm, plus lots of tiny bugs), then crashing for the night.
Tomorrow, we should be crossing our northern terminix.