On the Road Again near Traverse City, Michigan

After being away from the motor home for almost two weeks, we have to say that it's fun to be home. We're ready to continue our exploration of Michigan, and more of God's wonders that are waiting for us here. We're still in the northern section of the state as we returned to where we stored the motor home near Traverse City. We're a little disappointed that we arrived here about a month after this city hosts the national cherry festival. We are surrounded by cherry orchards that are now bare of fruit. After eating so many cherries in the state of Washington last year, Denisa was certainly hoping to repeat with Michigan cherries this year. But even though we are late for cherries, the apple orchards in our area look like they are about ready for harvest.

We couldn't help but notice that every row of these tightly-spaced apple trees had a unique tree on the end. The fruit looks like a tiny apple, but with a long stem like a cherry?

We later read that these apple-cherry trees help to pollinate the apple trees. So there is a better percentage of apples forming on the trees because of this unique planting.

The early apples are beginning to ripen, and peaches are showing up in the road-side stands. Mark is getting really good at making u-turns to get back to these stands that we usually don't see until we pass them. This was our favorite produce stand of the day, and we'll be enjoying their fruits and vegetables to fill up our empty refrigerator.

We're heading up the Old Mission Peninsula today. This little sliver of land is 19 miles long, and 3 miles at its widest point. Being a peninsula, it is surrounded by Lake Michigan on both sides. We drove up the west side until we got to the tip of the peninsula where the Mission Point Lighthouse is looking out over the great lake.

No longer a working lighthouse, this area is now a state historical site. Interestingly, we are at the 45th Parallel North--that means we are exactly half-way between the equator and the North Pole. The other claim-to-fame in this little park is the Hessler log cabin. Built in the 1850's a few miles from here, it was moved to this location where more tourists could appreciate seeing how people around here lived 160 years ago.

We made the return trip down the peninsula on the eastern side. This brings us close to the waters of Lake Michigan, which is absolutely calm and beautiful this day. With temperatures around 70 degrees and no wind, it was a picture-perfect weather day in northern Michigan! You don't often see one of the great lakes this calm.

Besides fruit orchards, this peninsula is also home to many vineyards. The grapes love the slopes of this narrow inlet of land as it descends down to the lake.

Many of the vineyards are taking on a ghostly appearance, as they are draped with miles of netting. The grapes are almost ready for harvest, so that makes them look particularly tasty to the resident birds.

Some varieties of vines produce grapes only on the lowest third of the plant. So it takes less netting to protect those grapes.

The one vineyard we visited had a secret garden that we we wanted to see. This valley didn't work for growing grapes, so they planted flowers here instead. Acres of sunflowers were available for cutting for flower bouquets.

These bigger sunflowers are planted for their seeds, but they were still lovely.

They also had acres of lavender plants that had just been harvested.

After our complete circle of Mission Peninsula, we had a nice assortment of fresh fruits and vegetables.

We also made an interesting stop in Traverse City. The visitor center suggested going to "The Village of Traverse City Commons." This large complex was built as the state psychiatric hospital in 1885. It has recently been re-purposed into hotel rooms and condominiums, with shops and restaurants in the bottom floors.

From the back side, we could see the balconies and the beautiful Victorian architecture that made up this asylum. Buildings just like this one stretch on across the complex. In its heydey, all these buildings housed up to 3,000 patients.

The director of the asylum used the land surrounding the asylum to produce enough food to provide three meals each day for those patients. They had a herd of dairy cattle, acreages that provided the fruits and vegetables, and grassland for a beef cattle operation. The large barns have now been converted into an event center; the granary has become a visitor center and gift shop; and this old horse barn is now a flower garden.

Even though the roof collapsed long ago, the rock walls of the horse barn make a lovely background for the flowers.

This late in the season, some of the flowers are past their prime. But this lovely rose was at its peak of perfection.

A very knowledgeable volunteer told us all about the process of changing an old farm with dilapidated buildings into a work of floral art. She also explained that the monarch butterflies were out in force enjoying that floral art.

This project has only been in the works for five years. So all the plantings and most of the trees are less than five years old. But the butterflies have definitely found them, and are enjoying them fully.

In another section of the gardens, we noticed a guy with a  big camera on a tripod. He was set up to catch the perfect shot of the butterflies enjoying these tasty purple blooms.

We have been blessed with beautiful weather today! It's good to be back on the road again with beautiful things to see, tasty crops to sample, and new places to explore as we continue wandering His wonders!