July 28, 2012

There are two peninsulas near Traverse City.  One is takes you to Old Mission and a lighthouse -- we drove this one first.  We stopped on the way at Chateau Chantal Winery and had a sample of four of their wines.  They were OK.  We stopped at the Old Mission Store and a replica of the Old Mission from 1839.  We saw the Old Mission House (1842) and the Old Mission Inn (1869).  Then we drove to Mission Point Lighthouse.  We looked for Petoskey stones here but didn’t find any.  Petoskey stones are fossilized coral and are the state mineral of Michigan.  At the lighthouse is the Hessler Log House from 1854.  We found one geocache here.

On the way back to Traverse City we stopped at the Jolly Pumpkin Brewpub and had a beer and shared a pizza.  This is cherry season and I had a cherry porter.  We drove back through Traverse City and we stopped at Clinch Park and to take pictures of the beach and bay.  There were lots of boats.  We drove to the Grand Traverse Lighthouse on the Leelanua Peninsula and took some pictures, then drove back to the Casita.  The weather was beautiful today, sunny and around 80 degrees.  The world news this morning said the best weather in the U.S. today would be at the Great Lakes.