Pre-Trip The Last Hurrah?

DH: Whatcha doing?

BES: err... Just poking around online.

DH (looking over my shoulder): Oh trip stuff? For Star Wars?

BES: Perhaps. Trying to figure out a good week crowd wise and get the resort I want. I’m tempted to book something for now and then change if I need to.

DH: Sounds good to me. Do it.

BES: Really?

DH: Yeah. The timing doesn’t matter whether I can or can’t go so just book when you want.

BES: Ok. I can cancel or reschedule until early November but at least I have something booked for now. Just to have it.

DH: So then you have it.

BES: Exactly.

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So I’m tentatively heading back to POP from Nov 11-16. 🥰

Shout out to @NessNewt for the TR title inspiration.
 

Back!Elbow!Shoulders!

Omnia mutantur, nihil interit
Premium Member
Original Poster
Day 2: Sunrise Side continued

I set my alarm to view aforementioned sunrise and decided to stay in bed. 😴 Didn’t sleep in for too much longer. Today’s main event was kayaking on the Au Sable River.

The excursion we wanted only left at 2 times. We opted for the earliest one.

No pictures from kayaking because I may have flipped a kayak during a previous trip and didn’t want to chance it with my phone.

Our excursion was about 15 miles long and took about 4 hours. The river was very serene.

Next we went back down the coast a few towns south and had lunch/dinner. I had a flatbread. DH had an Impossible burger and wasn’t super impressed.

Next up was a stop for ice cream. 🍦Then we strolled on a public beach.

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We spent the rest of the day back at the cabin. I spent quite a while reading on the private beach at the cabin.

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Ideally I could have spend the whole week reading on the beach and taking ice cream breaks but alas- it was almost time for the next leg of the trip.
 

Spash007

Well-Known Member
Your Up North reminds me of Upstate in New York. Being from Long Island there are 3 areas of New York - Long Island, the city, and Upstate (which means 90% of the state is "upstate"). I know it's not correct, and it's now a joke between my wife and I as she's from NJ and thinks it's such an odd reference, but I just can't outgrow it!
 

Darstarr

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Your Up North reminds me of Upstate in New York. Being from Long Island there are 3 areas of New York - Long Island, the city, and Upstate (which means 90% of the state is "upstate"). I know it's not correct, and it's now a joke between my wife and I as she's from NJ and thinks it's such an odd reference, but I just can't outgrow it!
It’s correct.
 

Back!Elbow!Shoulders!

Omnia mutantur, nihil interit
Premium Member
Original Poster
Day 3: On the move

Had a leisurely morning in the cabin and checked out.

Bye tiny cabin!
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Bye Lake Huron!
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As we started our journey to the west side of Michigan we decided to take stretch our legs a bit first.

We stopped by a place called Lumberman’s Monument.

Not to see the actual monument:
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But to go down here:
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And to see this:
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This is part of the Au Sable River. Not the part we kayaked on the previous day but a wider part that lumberjacks apparently floated lots of timber down.

Back up the 200 or so stairs and back in the car. Our next mini stop wasn’t too far away.

Oh yay. More steps.
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But totally worth it:
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Then we started to make more serious progress westward.

We stopped for coffee in a neat little place that was a coffee shop by day and a craft brewery at night.

I thought their beer handle things were cool:
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Now we had fuel to make the last leg of today’s journey

Next up: Cherry time! 🍒🍒
 

Back!Elbow!Shoulders!

Omnia mutantur, nihil interit
Premium Member
Original Poster
Day 3: Traverse City

Our final destination for today was Traverse City. We arrived too early for our hotel check in but right on time for lunch.

We went just outside of downtown to an area called The Village at Grand Traverse Commons. It used to be a psychiatric hospital that closed in the 80’s. It has since be repurposed into shops, restaurants and condos.

My tummy had been dreaming of returning to a little counter service place called Spanglish. We were able to order right away but warned the food would be at least 30-40 minutes. 🥺

Luckily drinks and chips and dip type stuff would be ready immediately so we got cherry limeade and chips and.... guacamole enjoy during our wait.

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Very good. A little too cilantro-y for me but the cilantro pieces were big enough to avoid easily. I’m in the camp of people for whom cilantro tastes like soap. I’ve learned to tolerate it but definitely don’t like it.

Our food was luckily out in less than 30 minutes. No pictures as it was demolished too quickly.

After lunch we shopped a bit and then checked into our hotel. It was a pretty standard hotel downtown. I didn’t take it any pictures apparently. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Rested in the hotel for a bit and then walked around downtown. Eventually it was time for a light dinner.

DH’s choice was this place that is a collection of food trucks.

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We split some sushi. I got a Bee’s Knees cocktail. (Gin +lemon + honey= yum)

Next more downtown exploration which turned into bookstore exploration. Many books were purchased.

Eventually we took our books to the public beach area.

Hello Great Lake #2 of the day- Lake Michigan:
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Finished up the night with more reading. (We are wild and crazy travelers.) We had to rest up for tomorrow.

Next up: Sand. So much sand.
 

Back!Elbow!Shoulders!

Omnia mutantur, nihil interit
Premium Member
Original Poster
Day 4: He who controls the spice controls the Universe.

We were up early again today. We wanted to get a jump on the morning’s activity before it got too hot. ☀️☀️☀️

We started with breakfast at a place near our hotel. I had cinnamon roll French toast and eggs. DH had some fancy pancakes and eggs.

Next we drove 30-45 minutes outside of Traverse City. Our destination- Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes National Lakeshore.

There’s multiple sites you can visit within the dunes area. We started with the infamous Dune Climb.

This is the first dune from the bottom:

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And from the top:

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And then there’s several more dunes of varying slopes before you finally get to Lake Michigan.

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You can see the lake early on but it takes forever to get there.

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Success!

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And then you have to hike back. 😳

The hike is 3.5 miles round trip and takes a couple of hours.

On our way back to Traverse City we stopped by another hiking trail called Pyramid Point. It was just over 2 miles.

Got another view of the lakeshore. We obeyed the sign:

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and didn’t go down here:

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Back to the hotel to freshen up and de-sand.

“I don’t like sand. It’s all coarse and rough and irritating. And it gets everywhere.”

I think there is still sand in DH’s car. Any maybe his hiking boots. 😂
 

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