5/21/07 (Monday): Here we go again--another blog from up north. I'm taking a break from gardening right now. There's a cold front going through, the temperature is in the mid-50's, and it's kind of gray. I'm really feeling the cold (even more so than Wiley), which surprises me. Hopefully, the office will get busy this weekend (since it's a holiday), and I can start putting in some hours there. I like gardening, but we've been hard at it since we got here, and my enthusiasm is waning. Wiley, on the other hand, is in his element. And the garden is really looking nice. I'll take a picture when we're done. It's the first thing campers see when they pull in, so it's important that it gives a good impression.
We took a nice, long walk on the bike path Thursday evening, all the way to Frankfort (about 2 miles, one way). The early flowers (cherry blooms, forsythia, daffodils) are beginning to fade and the lilacs are out. People here don't go halfway when they plant lilacs. Many homes have huge hedges of them along the edge of their property. The fragrance doesn't seem to be as intense as the ones in Maine, though.
This homeowner, whose house is right on the Betsie River--gorgeous view--parked this old bike at his gate and filled the basket with flowers. Cute!
There are lots of different wild flowers, too. And Wiley has been marking the location of all the wild raspberries, strawberries and other edibles.
The man does love to forage!
When we first got here, the lawns were bright, emerald green, and studded with numerous dandelions. I must admit, I think dandelions are some of the prettiest wildflowers. I've never been able to understand why homeowners are so intent on ridding themselves of them. They're pretty, carefree, edible and attract goldfinches. We saw a huge flock of goldfinches feeding on the seeds in the campground.
The bike path crosses the Betsie River near where it dumps into Lake Michigan.
We've been enjoying the birds we can see from the bridge over the river. We've watched the geese and swans raise their young. We haven't seen the young lately. Don't know if they've left the parents already, or been the victims of predation. I read somewhere that Michigan has more swans then any other state. We see a lot of them.
Right after we cross the bridge on the way to Frankfort, we pass this charming farmhouse with a red barn and a big garden. The black cow is almost always lying down, and twice we've seen her stretched all the way out on her side. I've never seen a cow do that before!
One more wildflower picture, and then I'll stop--does anyone know what this is? I've seen them before, but I can't remember the name of them.
On Friday evening, we went to a local seafood restaurant with the campground owners. They have an all-you-can-eat special. It was crowded with locals. We had a great time getting to know Barb and Wilbur better.
On Saturday evening, we had Barb and Wilbur over to eat the chicken and dumplings I had prepared for Friday's dinner and not eaten. We had some fresh asparagus, too, that I'd bought at the grocery. They're grown locally and quite inexpensive. Wilbur and Barb mentioned a stand where you could buy them even more cheaply, so when we passed the stand in our travels on Sunday, we stopped and got some for them as well as ourselves. I like them cooked until they're just tender and sprinkled with Kikkoman soy sauce and a little butter. Yummy!
On Sunday, we took a drive up the Leelanau Peninsula (that's pronounced "lee la now"). Here's a link to a map.
Map We took Rt. 22 up the eastern shore of Lake Michigan through Empire and Leland to Northport. Then we came back south on the East side of the peninsula (still on 22), through Omena, Suttons Bay and Bingham to Traverse City and then home on Rt. 31. Empire is where Sleeping Bear Dunes park begins. We'd already done the lower part, so we drove straight to Leland without stopping (except to take pictures of the beautiful farms. I'm really going to have to try to get back to sketching. I love to sketch old barns, and there were so many picturesque ones on this drive!
In Leland we explored Fish Town, which is a 19th century commercial fishing town located where the Carp River flows into Lake Michigan. The Manitou Islands are about 20 miles offshore (you can see them in the distance behiind the buildings in this picture). The old buildings have been turned into shops and restaurants. It's tiny, but very quaint and fun. We didn't buy anything (no room in the camper), but we did have some lunch in downtown Leland.
We continued north through vineyards and orchards all the way to Northport, where we visited Leelanau State Park. The Leelanau Lighthouse sits on a rocky beach where we looked for Petosky stones (more about them in a later blog). The first lighthouse keeper was really into making sculptures out of the little beach rocks--the birdhouse was only one of many on the property!
While I was waiting in the truck for Wiley, I saw this red squirrel sitting on a big rock in the parking lot. We had red squirrels in Maine, too, but they were very shy and very fast, so I never got a picture of one. They're really cute critters--much smaller than our gray squirrels, reddish colored, and they have a white ring around their eyes.
The trip back along the west arm of Grand Traverse Bay was also pretty country. The bay is the most incredible turquoise blue close to shore, with a distinct demarcation line where it's royal blue in the deeper area. This picture doesn't do it justice--it's hard to find a place to pull over to take a picture because the shore has numerous (expensive) homes on it.
As we got closer to Traverse City, we passed a farm with some antique equipment parked out near the street. I have no idea what it is, but it made me think of my friend, Gloria's, father, who collects old tractors.
I did a double take when we left Traverse City and were almost home--this field is full of buffalo, not cattle as I first thought! I had to turn around and take this picture!
That's it for now. This should be the first busy weekend of the season. Wish me luck as I re-learn how to register campers and run the cash register!
Not too much to report today. I worked in the office all weekend. We had 16 campers who were here just for the weekend in addition to a handful of seasonals who showed up. I felt very comfortable registering campers, taking reservations and selling ice, wood and candy. No stress, and lots of fun talking to campers from all over. A lot of the time in the office I'm just watching TV or gazing out the window. I saw this dove fly in and land on the woodpile outside the window, and it found a cozy spot, hunkered down, and went to sleep! It was still there an hour later when I left!
We've been exploring some of the nearby towns during our time off. This is the public library in Benzonia, about 6 miles from the campground. It was built in 1909 as the girls' dormitory for Benzonia Academy. When the school closed in 1916, it was bought by the Congregational Church and used as a community house.
It's gorgeous inside--even has the original fireplaces. We also walked around Frankfort (our closest town). I liked the birdhouse in front of this old house!
Yesterday, we took a 4-mile walk on the Betsie Valley Trail (that's the one that runs beside our campground). We drove north about 10 miles and hiked the section near Beulah. It's a rail trail, and the old Beulah train station has been preserved. It was a crisp, sunny afternoon, and we had a great walk--didn't see another soul.
The only wildlife we saw was this black squirrel. Most of the squirrels up here are coal black. They're actually the same species as the gray squirrels, but they have melaninism (the opposite of albinism).
Wiley caught another keeper! It's a brown trout about 15 inches long. He ate the whole thing--I didn't like the smell!
The next day, he caught this huge fish, dragged it all the way back to the campground, and then found out it was inedible (a carp). It was still alive, so he drove all the way back to the lake and put it back in. He said it swam away!
