Good day today.

6/21/2014

We had a very nice day today.  We left the hotel in Holland, MI and drove about 30 minutes to Grand Haven, MI where we had breakfast at a very nice, very popular locally owned/locally operated cafe - the Morning Star Cafe.

Morning Star Cafe

Pretty mosaic made from broken plates at the Morning Star Cafe

After a good, filling breakfast, we put the top down and headed up the back roads toward Traverse City.  We stopped at Whitehall and Montague, two small towns on the opposite sides of a river.  These were two cute towns with gift and antique shops where we spent too much time and left too much money!

Cityscape in Whitehall, MI

Rexall drugstore in Whitehall!

Parked outside shops in Montague

We continued along the scenic back roads through the busy and picturesque towns of Stony Lake, Manistee, Silver Lake, where we saw the sand dunes, and Pentwater.   As we drove along, we had flashbacks to our trip to Wisconsin where we saw a lot of corn and beans in Illinois.  But here, there seems to be a lot of cherries and asparagus!  We stopped in Luddington for gas and we ate at the House of Flavors-a very old and very good sandwich and ice cream shop.

Yummy ice cream at the House of Flavors

House of Flavors - Luddington

View from bridge of downtown Manistee, MN

We then continued on toward the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore.  The weather today has been great, and very cool!  Eventually, I had to turn the heater on and dig out our jackets from the bottom of the trunk!  The roads have mostly sucked the whole way, with me trying to dodge holes in the road.  I think the front end will need some attention when I get home.  However, along the very huge Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore, the road became very nice.  I think because it is a national park, it must be maintained by the federal government.  The national park is very big so we had good roads for quite a while.  There was a scenic pullout where all you can see is lots of water in Lake Michigan. There was a lot of fog on the lake, so you couldn't see much.  However, we did see a boat on the lake.

Lake Michigan

We finally got to our hotel in Traverse City and checked in.  Just as we drove under the portico, it started to rain lightly, so we put the top back up for the night.  We then got some suggestions on places to eat and on the way to the car, we saw a deer in the lot next to the hotel!  We ate at a very good restaurant call the Apache Trout Grill.  Then, back to the hotel for a good nights sleep, after deciding where we will go tomorrow and where we will spend the night.