Living a Manistee, Michigan Day

We usually make road trips from our camping spot, exploring the entire new area around us. Over a series of several days, we did a good job of finding the gems of northwestern Michigan. One day we made a trip to the thriving town of Manistee. After a successful trip through the local farmer's market, we walked the two-mile river walk that leads from Lake Michigan into town.

We saw some of the fishing charter boats just coming in around noon. This large group of friends had a competition to see which boat-load would land the most salmon this morning.

They were posing for pictures with their catch, but it had been a slow trip. They made their first catch within five minutes of leaving the dock, and their second (and final) catch a couple of minutes before returning. So that makes those two fish pretty expensive for the six guys that paid $250 each for the experience.

Our long walk took us to the Manistee North Pierhead Lighthouse, which guards the entrance into the river channel. We shared the pier with more fishermen, who weren't having any luck this morning either.

The town of Manistee has a wide white-sand beach along Lake Michigan. It was a cool day with highs in the upper 60's, so there weren't many people at the beach. Plus, we found out that the water has just "flipped." That means that the sunned-warmed top layer of water is now at the bottom, and the cold bottom water is now at the top. The fishermen explained that this wreaks havoc with fishing, as the fish change depths to get to the water temperature they prefer.

The town of Manistee has a very nice historical downtown, and we noticed that every store front was full and thriving. The center of downtown is the recently-restored Vogue Theater. Now ran by volunteers, it features 25-cent matinees for the children on Saturdays, and $2 classic movies for the seniors on Wednesday.

But playing right now is the first-run of "God Bless the Broken Road." Filmed here in Manistee, it includes scenes shot right here on Main Street. Best of all, Dove.org (a Christian entertainment review web site) calls the movie, "a courageous tale of faith and hope."

After loading up on local produce, we headed out to the state park just north of town for a picnic.

We had been looking for local smoked white fish, and we found it this morning. We are dining on smoked white fish spread and chips, local plums, and a slice of carrot cake from the local bakery.

It's another beautiful weather day, and we have a great view for a picnic as we look out over Lake Michigan from the park.

This is Orchard Beach State Park, named because--you guessed it--there's an orchard here right on the beach. We picked a few more apples to finish up our meal.

We continued down the road for a stop at a bird sanctuary. The wildflower blooms are almost head-high in this audubon nature preserve.

After the short hike through the preserve, the count of birds was zero, but the count of butterflies was two--this hungry monarch,

and this tattered butterfly.

The trail took us to a remote Lake Michigan beach for our favorite new hobby--scanning the lake rocks for Petoskey stones.

We didn't find any at this stop, but we are still fascinated with the beautiful stones that come ashore in the Great Lakes. When you add a bright red maple leaf, it feels like we have wondered into another of God's wonders.

While we're in the area, we also decided to visit the Manistee River. The view of the river was best from the 245-foot wooden suspension bridge.

Right across that bridge is a pleasant walk through the woods. That's one of the things we love about our transient life-style--getting to walk through new lovely areas on a regular basis.

Occasionally that trail would come out of the trees for views of the river below.

We've been traveling along the coast to spend more time at Lake Michigan, but we are finding that this state has many beautiful inland lakes and rivers too.

The Manistee River Trail continues for 11 miles. We might be avid hikers, but we don't have time for the 22-mile hike that it would take to go to the end and then back. It eventually joins with the North Country Trail, and we took a picture at the intersection. The North Country trail is a 4,600-mile trail that spans from New York to North Dakota. We definitely don't have time for that trail today!

We love the big and little treasures that we find as we explore another shore town along Lake Michigan. It has been fun exploring Manistee, Michigan today!