Saturday, June 6, 2009
Sturgeon River Campground, Wolverine, MI: 5/31-6/4
We couldn't decide where to stay in the Petoskey area. They also had a casino with a free parking lot, but we were feeling the need for a real RV park with electricity (for heat!) and a laundry, since our laundry basket was overflowing. We found a reasonably priced Passport America park in Wolverine, just 35 miles from Petoskey, located near the Sturgeon River (and also I-75!). The weather turned quite cool (lows in the 30s and 29 one night!), so we were glad to have the electric heaters available. The first day was rainy but the next 3 days were sunny & cool, so we were able to get a load of laundry hung out all 3 days, making us almost caught up.
The first night here we attended a concert of the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra featuring Haydn's "Lord Nelson Mass" in nearby Indian River at a place called Cross in the Woods. We won the tickets because we were the first to call the local classical station with the correct answer to the question "How many symphonies did Haydn write?" (104) Doug knows lots of musical trivia like this and surprisingly, we called in time to get a pair of tickets. The Cross in the Woods is a Catholic Shrine, featuring a cross carved from a single CA redwood. It is currently undergoing major renovation, so it's entirely surrounded by scaffolding. The cross is 55 feet high and 22 feet wide. The concert was held in the sanctuary, which had large windows with a full view of the cross. This was a bit distracting as a concert venue, since the musicians were backlit and you couldn't see them well. The acoustics were fairly good, with the exception of a distracting fountain that dribbled throughout the concert. Too bad it couldn't be turned off. Still, it was quite an enjoyable concert.
One scenic drive was along the shore north of Petoskey. Our first stop was at the Thorne Swift Nature Preserve just north of Bay Springs. It is a lovely small area with a couple of 1/2 mile trails that lead to the dunes and small beach area. We were able to see a few interesting birds (Golden eagle and Northern parula were the most exciting), and the whole area was lovely. It was a thickly wooded, moist, almost swampy place that suddenly opened out onto a dune-edged beach.
Farther up the shore we came to the little town of Cross Village, home of the famous Legs Inn. Built on a high bluff overlooking Lake Michigan, Legs Inn is unique in its architecture and decor. Polish immigrant Stanley Smolak fell in love with Northern Michigan and its people and settled in Cross Village in 1921. He created this unusual building from the twisted and tormented forms of trees, roots & driftwood, along with stones washed smooth by the lake and various other items that caught his fancy. The outside is topped with a long row of stove legs, giving it the name Legs Inn. Inside are various whimsical carved characters that were suggested by the odd shapes of wood they are carved from. It is still a working inn, with rooms available and serving Polish food.
We found a local duplicate bridge club that had games at 10 am on Weds & Thurs, and we decided we could play bridge and still have lots of time left for sightseeing. Being so far north, the days are amazingly long. The sun rises around 6 am and sets after 9 pm. There's barely enough dark time for sleeping, and we aren't at the solstice yet. We still can't get used to sunlight streaming in the windows after 9 pm! The first day (in which we did fairly well at bridge) we went to the historic gaslight district of Petoskey and wandered around the shopping area looking at the various shops. We also visited the harbor area and looked for the Petoskey lighthouse. All we saw out in the bay was a large crane. We joked that the crane had taken away our lighthouse. Then later we asked at a shop and found that the crane had actually taken down the lighthouse in order to replace the breakwater. There were no plans to replace the lighthouse, since apparently it was a small one that wasn't very attractive.
The second day (after a mediocre showing at bridge) we returned to the shopping district to eat at a highly recommended restaurant and look for some examples of Petoskey stones. We read that these stones are the remains of an extinct coral that inhabited the area 350 million years ago. We visited a couple of galleries to see what it looked like. They are truly unique, and are the state stone of Michigan. Of course we had to purchase a small sample! We then drove & walked through an area called Bay View, which is a Chautauqua type, which started in 1875 as a Methodist camp. The huge Queen Anne style houses are called "cottages", but they are not at all like the cottages at the Chautauqua in Boulder! The whole area is on the National Register of Historic Places and is quite lovely. We then drove out to Petoskey State Park and walked on the beach for a while, enjoying the sunshine and the waves breaking on the shore.
The first night here we attended a concert of the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra featuring Haydn's "Lord Nelson Mass" in nearby Indian River at a place called Cross in the Woods. We won the tickets because we were the first to call the local classical station with the correct answer to the question "How many symphonies did Haydn write?" (104) Doug knows lots of musical trivia like this and surprisingly, we called in time to get a pair of tickets. The Cross in the Woods is a Catholic Shrine, featuring a cross carved from a single CA redwood. It is currently undergoing major renovation, so it's entirely surrounded by scaffolding. The cross is 55 feet high and 22 feet wide. The concert was held in the sanctuary, which had large windows with a full view of the cross. This was a bit distracting as a concert venue, since the musicians were backlit and you couldn't see them well. The acoustics were fairly good, with the exception of a distracting fountain that dribbled throughout the concert. Too bad it couldn't be turned off. Still, it was quite an enjoyable concert.
One scenic drive was along the shore north of Petoskey. Our first stop was at the Thorne Swift Nature Preserve just north of Bay Springs. It is a lovely small area with a couple of 1/2 mile trails that lead to the dunes and small beach area. We were able to see a few interesting birds (Golden eagle and Northern parula were the most exciting), and the whole area was lovely. It was a thickly wooded, moist, almost swampy place that suddenly opened out onto a dune-edged beach.
Farther up the shore we came to the little town of Cross Village, home of the famous Legs Inn. Built on a high bluff overlooking Lake Michigan, Legs Inn is unique in its architecture and decor. Polish immigrant Stanley Smolak fell in love with Northern Michigan and its people and settled in Cross Village in 1921. He created this unusual building from the twisted and tormented forms of trees, roots & driftwood, along with stones washed smooth by the lake and various other items that caught his fancy. The outside is topped with a long row of stove legs, giving it the name Legs Inn. Inside are various whimsical carved characters that were suggested by the odd shapes of wood they are carved from. It is still a working inn, with rooms available and serving Polish food.
We found a local duplicate bridge club that had games at 10 am on Weds & Thurs, and we decided we could play bridge and still have lots of time left for sightseeing. Being so far north, the days are amazingly long. The sun rises around 6 am and sets after 9 pm. There's barely enough dark time for sleeping, and we aren't at the solstice yet. We still can't get used to sunlight streaming in the windows after 9 pm! The first day (in which we did fairly well at bridge) we went to the historic gaslight district of Petoskey and wandered around the shopping area looking at the various shops. We also visited the harbor area and looked for the Petoskey lighthouse. All we saw out in the bay was a large crane. We joked that the crane had taken away our lighthouse. Then later we asked at a shop and found that the crane had actually taken down the lighthouse in order to replace the breakwater. There were no plans to replace the lighthouse, since apparently it was a small one that wasn't very attractive.
The second day (after a mediocre showing at bridge) we returned to the shopping district to eat at a highly recommended restaurant and look for some examples of Petoskey stones. We read that these stones are the remains of an extinct coral that inhabited the area 350 million years ago. We visited a couple of galleries to see what it looked like. They are truly unique, and are the state stone of Michigan. Of course we had to purchase a small sample! We then drove & walked through an area called Bay View, which is a Chautauqua type, which started in 1875 as a Methodist camp. The huge Queen Anne style houses are called "cottages", but they are not at all like the cottages at the Chautauqua in Boulder! The whole area is on the National Register of Historic Places and is quite lovely. We then drove out to Petoskey State Park and walked on the beach for a while, enjoying the sunshine and the waves breaking on the shore.
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 8:33 AM 
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