Traverse City, Sleeping Bear Dunes and the Campfire!

The title of this entry seems to say it all. I am going to condense the rest of this week since we saw and did a variety of things and I want to highlight the more interesting of those entities.

We had to make a Walmart run and the closest store was in Traverse City. We decided to make a day of it and headed off onto some back roads the GPS lead us down. I guess it was in the mood to see some of the little known sites (and roads) so it finally got us to Traverse City and let me tell you, it was a busy place. We learned that this week was the week of the Traverse City Film Festival. The festival brings an enormous amount of people into that area and the retail stores were in heaven! After going to Walmart, we drove along the shore of Lake Michigan and noticed the small beach areas and numerous parks. After a short cruise, we parked the car downtown behind the stores and walked onto the main street.

The streets were buzzing with activity and most of the stores were open and filled with customers. A large banner stretching across the street proclaimed The Traverse City Film Festival and we were amazed at how many little shops there were with such a variety of unique things for sale. One store caught our eye, since it was cherry season, so we went inside. It is called the Cherry Republic and had everything that could be made from cherries. We sampled the various cherry sodas, chocolate covered cherry pieces, cherry wines and a host of other samples. They even had a Sangria made specifically for cherry soda. Of course we again helped the economy of the area with our purchases.

We traveled around town and was told one of the better places to eat was only a few blocks up town at Bubbas. So we started walking...and walking...and walking some more. I guess the girl in the Cherry Republic store must always take her car there because this was no short walk. We finally found Bubbas and went in. We ended up eating at the bar where the drinks came quick and the the food was also quite fast. I had a burger and Peg had a Chicken Quesadillas. Both were very good. We carbed-up for the lengthy walk back to the car!

The next night we drove to the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes and took the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive up to the top of the dunes. You park and walk about 1/4 mile to the edge of the dune and a view to die for! You look over Lake Michigan from the dunes and the suspended viewing platform/walkway. It was a great sunset that evening as you can see by these two photos. Quite a number of people apparently thought the same thing since the area seemed to be a popular place. I was shooting video while Peg took photos. I got my phone camera out and snapped a few shots as well.

On day three (Thursday) we hung out at the campsite at Indigo Bluffs. I worked on the American RVer show for August and and Peg watched some TV and made some cherry tarts (go figure) and some rice pudding for one of our meals.  So, since we had an uneventful day, we decided to have our campfire tonight. One of the things I noticed about this area is the lack of bugs. At night, there were few mosquitos and it was really pleasant to sit out by the fire. The air was cool, just right to watch the flames jump up towards the sky and feel the heat. Of course we had to make some s'mores (a diabetic's nightmare) which we chased down with our newly purchased wine. A nice ending to that day.

Our vacation at Indigo Bluffs was really nice but it ended too soon. I hope to go back up there another summer and check out more of the area and maybe even go swimming in Lake Michigan. Tomorrow we follow RV friends Millie and Jerry Cohen north to Hearthside Grove in Petosky, Michigan. Hearthside is supposed to be a very high end RV Resort and we have heard a lot about it. Since we are this close, and we could get a free night there, we decided to try it out...