Michigan

 September 14: Grand Traverse Bay, Lake Michigan

We had a nice drive from Bay City to Midland to shop for groceries (and a leash for Fleur, which we forgot to pack! This one will stay with the truck!) and #4 double pointed knitting needles so I could start my fiber project. Then, on to Traverse City. It was a beautiful drive, without thunderstorms today. About half of the drive was on nicely paved two-lane country roads that revealed a very sandy soil, lots of birch and a variety of pine and spruce, and reminded us a whole lot of the UP. 

Everywhere we travel, there are HELP WANTED signs. No one is fully staffed, it seems, and service everywhere is slow. TC is no exception. That didn’t bother us, however. After relaxing outside in a mild breeze, with the grey and black squirrels for entertainment, we reheated some leftovers we’d brought from home and had a nice dinner. 

Reading and relaxing 

Knitting and relaxing

After dinner we explored Munson Avenue, which runs along the lake shoreline and separates our state park campground from the beaches. The entire lakeside in our area is filled with motels and resorts. Nice ones, not that old. There’s a really nice pedestrian overpass that allowed us to get to the sand—Munson Avenue is BUSY. We got in a long walk, about 4 miles I would guess. I needed it. Fleur too. She’s been so good. She sat with us outside and never made a move on the squirrels, who were surprisingly indifferent to her!

The beach was clean, the water blue. Lots of long shadows when the sun wasn’t behind a tree!

Dan and Fleur were leading when we came upon a few dozen mallards—lots of young ones in the flock, methinks. Anyway, when they saw Fleur approaching, they made a beeline to the beach….but a few yards behind them, when I came up to where they were, they waddled right back to see me. It was hilarious, because while I paused to take pictures, I had nothing to feed them and THAT was what they wanted. They were just this side of completely tame!

That male mallard closest to me had already turned around to come get food from me (haha: no food to be had!) after running away from Fleur!

He led the charge to try to charm me out of nibbles—it was so funny!

They let me get really close (actually, this one came up to me on her own!).
You’d think they were starving!

The Grand Traverse Bay lake monster

A couple of gulls

She really REALLY wants to go play fetch in the water!
#retrieversgottaretrieve

September: wild asters in the grass at the State Park

Good night from Grand Traverse Bay
See that land across the water? That is a long skinny peninsula that is dotted with wineries. 🍷
We might have to go see what’s up tomorrow…stay tuned!