Traverse City

Winery...typical of many homes on Peninsula

view from winery

Swans on in-town lake

Peninsula point lighthouse

'Stickin Together'

Thursday, August 18th.  We woke up early and not well rested.  Our campground is located in proximity to highway 131 and there was truck traffic all night.  Trucks were either accelerating as they left town or down-shifting as they entered town.  This was much worse than West Glacier!!!   But we got up and got going to Traverse City for our big shopping/sightseeing adventure.  We first found a Best Buy and got the exact replacement camera we lost (only with a few upgrades)  We couldn't use it that day because the battery had to be charged up.  But we have it...WE'RE BACK IN ACTION.  We shopped for a few other things at a WalMart and then found a nice City park adjacent to a lake to have a picnic lunch.  There were lots of white swans on the lake.  My pic doesn't do it justice.  We drove past the airport and it turns out Marty's plane is there.  His partner has it up here from Tallahassee for a vacation.  We then drove thru the downtown...very cool downtown.  Nicely redone with neat lights, street furniture, statuary, small fountains and lots of cool stores.  We didn't have time to stop, but we will go back!!!  On the main street thru town (US 31) it's resorts and businesses on one side and a big state park public beach (sandy and big) on the other.  Very pretty setting.

Just east of downtown is a thin peninsula that leads out to Old Mission Point and Lighthouse.  This peninsula separates the East Arm and West Arm of Grand Traverse Bay.  Unbelievable homes with stunning unbelievable views of the west arm along the road (Peninsula Drive).  It's hard to believe that these huge places are mostly summer homes.  At the very end of the road is the Peninsula Point Lighthouse, established in the 1850's and then built to what is  today in the later 1800's.  Again, beautiful views from that point.  But the water is so big, it's hard to focus on something for a pic.  As we drove down the east side of the peninsula we passed large cherry, peach and grape farms (vineyards).  There were a number of beautiful wineries with tasting rooms.   We went to Chateau Chantel, that had spectacular views of both arms of the bay.  The wineries are every bit as nice as the ones the cousins toured in Chelan.  Interesting enough, the staff there had never heard of the Wenatchee/Chelan/Yakima area for wine.  I guess they're just caught up in their own thing...and they're doing very well.  It was a beautiful day...85 and sunny.  We stopped at a couple of fruit stands along the way back to the motorhome.