East coast of Leelanau PeninsulaSep 6, 2009
|
|
hammock, table, boat - life doesn't get any better than this for...
many dogs were found playing but this black lab didn't know when...
downtown Suttons Bay
The west coast of the "little finger" of Michigan has sand dunes, cottonwoods, pines, maples, and beech trees. So, what's on the east coast and what's in the middle? Let's find out.
Traveling north from Traverse City, there are a few roadside turnouts with picnic tables and stairs to the West Bay. They are good places to watch the boats, biplanes, people, and dogs playing in the water.
Halfway up the coast is a tourist town called Suttons Bay. The above pastimes are good here, but so is shopping and eating. While sitting on a street bench, I heard water gurgling and looked behind me to see a water wheel with a balcony on top a very short block away. I wonder how many people actually see this? No one while I was tarrying here looking at sculptures in the park behind it. I bought a jigsaw puzzle in a burlap bag here, but will wait to do it until I see Mary in Miami. There is no picture, but I know it will have lighthouses in it. What fun that will be!
As I drove further north, I passed the 45th parallel again, vineyards, orchards, fruit and vegetable stands. I have apples, cherries, blueberries, tomatoes, yellow squash - more of all this than I usually eat in a year! Oh - I remembered that I already am fighting those fruit flies in my home. Wait till they see these! It'll be like Thanksgiving for them! Then, I'll be able to end their little lives easier! (insert wicked laugh here)
At the point is the Grand Traverse Lighthouse. This one is in the Leelanau State Park so they get more money to maintain the lighthouse (SP admission fee) and get more money by charging for tours of the house. I already bought a year pass that pays for itself after 4 visits! Here, I took advantage of what there was for free - the grounds and the museum in the old fog signal building - and the views of course.
One lighthouse keeper made a hobby out of building small flower gardens surrounded by a stone wall using the stones collected while walking the beach. Other keepers expounded on this hobby and built extravagant flower "holders" using wrought iron as a base and polishing the stones to keep them from wear by the weather.
