Southwest Michigan

 We spent Sunday August 27th to Wednesday August 30th in a cottage in Harbert, Michigan. It was a nice change of scenery. We have visited this area in the past, mostly New Buffalo, South Haven, Union Pier, and Saugatuck. Sadly, I learned thru my search on the internet for restaurants that many of them are closed Monday thru Thursday. So, next time (if there is one), we will have to try to stay over the weekend. 

After eating our Sunday mid-day meal at Jaywalker overlooking the Saint Joseph River, we crossed on Highway 12 to New Buffalo. The beach status was Red Flag because of riptide currents and lots of wind. We walked to the beach area, but we had no plans to stay. Our main stop was Oink's Ice Cream. This company has been in business since 1987. The shop is full of things related to pigs and to ice cream.

When you enter, you take a number from the "butler". It was busy enough that we had time to peruse the flavors before our number was called.

I chose Bear Claw which consisted of dark chocolate ice cream with swirls of caramel and cashews. There are only a few tables inside so we ate outside at the picnic tables.

While we were eating, an old model A Ford drove up. It had Indiana plates.

Pretty soon, 3 more cars arrived. After I crossed the street to take a picture of Oink's and some of the cars in a different lot, a green Model A pulled in. I chatted a bit with the driver. He is from Crown Point; this was an outing of some of the club members. 

It was a fun "addition" to our ice cream time.

The harbor and beach were busy.

We were to check into the cottage in Harbert at 4 p.m. We arrived about 3:30, and the cleaning crew was still there. We ended up browsing in an antique shop in nearby Sawyer.

One of the different features of this cottage is the master bathroom with skylights and a walk-in shower with a rain-shower head and jets that come out of the side (which I did not try).

We baked a frozen pizza Sunday night and microwaved breakfast bowls Monday morning. 

We ate breakfast Monday at the game table in the living room.

Monday we drove to Saugatuck where we ate at The Butler Patio overlooking the Kalamazoo River. It was a lovely day to be outside.

The Butler had some unusual hamburgers. I have never seen one served with ham. 

Because big burgers in buns do not go down my digestive tract well, I chose a turkey sandwich on flat bread.

After lunch, we went to the big antique pavilion in Saugatuck. We didn't buy anything though. Next off to Fennville to Crane's Pie Pantry where we had rhubarb/strawberry pie and cherry pie.

We bought an unbaked frozen peach pie at the bakery. We had taken an insulated bag and freezer cooler blocks. We brought the pie home and will bake it in the next month probably.

 On Tuesday, we ate our lunch on the screened-in porch. We bought a sandwich at a grocery store in Three Oaks. We had our hearts set on eggs Benedict at the Oaks Eatery restaurant, but when we drove up  on the 29th it was closed with a note on the door that said they had equipment problems and would not be opening that day. The only thing that we could find open was a McDonald's. 

Sunday evening after getting settled in the cottage, we drove to Harbert Beach to watch the sunset.

Harbert Beach and Cherry Beach were a short distance from our cottage. We took the cottage beach chairs to Cherry Beach Tuesday afternoon. It was cloudy, but the dark clouds stayed in the distance.

The Green Bush Brewing Company in nearby Sawyer was open; we ate supper there Monday. 

Our last day (Wednesday the 30th), we drove to South Haven to buy peaches at the Farmers Market. South Haven is so tourist-friendly. Public restrooms and plentiful free parking are a nice change from other Harbor Country towns. 

We arrived home about noon. It was a nice vacation, but it always feels great to be home again.

"Harbor Country" Lake Michigan

We decided to get away for a few days. We have made day trips to New Buffalo and South Haven previously especially during peach harvest, and went to an art fair on the bluff at Saint Joseph in July a few years ago. This time we stayed 2 nights in Union Pier just north of New Buffalo at Goldberry Woods Bed and Breakfast.

However first we drove to Portage, Michigan, to Air Zoo. It rained most of Tuesday morning as we drove north. At the aviation museum the rain stopped.

The museum has two buildings: a large display of early aircraft, WWI and WWII fighters, a space section, and simulators; a building of classic planes including a few they lifted from Lake Michigan and were restoring.

There were some nice murals that served as backdrops for the static displays.

I found the displays and explanations of the bathroom facilities and food prep areas on the space stations interesting. Lots of ingenious ways to defy the lack of gravity.

The restorers in the East Building were not friendly; although there were only three people in the building, there were no comments about what they were working on or doing. I guess they don't like interruptions.

We finished up around noon at the museum. A short drive away, we ate at the Grand Traverse Pie Company restaurant. We had eaten at one of these in Petoskey. The concept is similar to Panera. You order at a counter, wait for your order to be ready, then find a place to sit. Besides sandwiches, salads, and soups, the café had quiche, pot pies, and of course delicious dessert pies. I had the combo of Lorraine quiche, pumpkin bread, salad and rhubarb/strawberry crumble pie (my choice). My husband had beef pasty (a turnover type of main dish), salad, and Vernor's cherry pie.

We did have some light rain as we headed west and southwest to New Buffalo. The rain stopped but the wind was so gusty that two red flags flew at the beach meaning no swimming. We browsed in a few shops. We had to give the B&B a check-in time of 4 p.m. or later. In order not to be early, we sat in the public library in New Buffalo awhile.

Goldberry Woods is family run. The owners and their 3 children live in a nearby house on the 28 acres. There are two cottages which can sleep around 10 people each. The main building has 8 rooms as well as a sunroom, living room, kitchen/dining great room. The current owners bought the property 5 years ago. It came with some of the furniture, most notably the handcrafted bed frames made of Michigan woods. Our room was called Sassafras after the type of wood used on the bed.

Our upstairs "wing" of the building had Sassafras and Hornbeam, though Hornbeam was vacant. We shared a deck.

The grounds had hiking trails including one which led to the Galien River (kayaks and canoes available). Also, the owners were trying to run a microfarm so they could use their produce in the breakfasts. The "farm" is still a work in progress.

Julie likes to use her organically grown crops and locally-sourced ingredients in her imaginative healthy meals. Even the sausage came from a local Michigan company. We had   multiple-fruit smoothies, oatmeal pancakes with mango "relish", and the tasty sausage. The second morning we had fruit cups of melon, wonder berries, ground cherries with strips of homegrown mint. The main course was a sausage and bacon frittata, blueberry pecan muffins served on a colorful plate with red currants, cucumber, bi-colored tomatoes and edible nasturtium.

At both breakfasts seconds were offered. A young vegan couple had a scrambled egg casserole and some vegi-based muffins since they had made their preferences known the night before. As we checked in we were shown a white board with the next day's menu and asked if we had any allergies or food restrictions that needed to be accommodated. There was orange juice and coffee, but the coffee was not available much before the breakfast time of 9 a.m. which was not ideal.

After the provided wine and crackers with mango chutney and cheese slices the first evening, we drove back to New Buffalo to dine on perch. The wines were local as there are many vineyards and wine-tasting facilities in this part of Michigan. We drove maybe half a mile to Union Pier public beach to watch the sun set.

Wednesday was gorgeous with sunshine and slightly cool temperatures. We hiked the Galien River County Park canopy trail and lower boardwalk trail.

You could go right down to the river where steps allowed kayakers and canoeists to tie up and walk around.

The wetlands were kind of scummy, but I didn't notice a bad smell.

Not all of the antique stores in the little towns north of Union Pier are open mid-week, but we did visit a handful. They opened at 11 a.m. which was about the time we finished our walk. With such a late hearty breakfast, we didn't eat lunch until after 1 p.m.

Nani's in Union Pier had an innovative hot dog menu. The grilled buttered New England roll really made the hot dog. There were some other sandwich/salad menu choices. We were quite thirsty and enjoyed the frosted mug of root beer as well.

A short nap later, we walked the grounds at Goldberry Woods. Mosquito repellant a must near the river.

Our first evening a man, wife, and their disabled grown daughter were the only other residents at the B&B. Two of the rooms had extra beds (a twin in a sunroom, and a trundle bed in a separate small room). They left Wednesday morning. Wednesday evening a young couple from St. Louis who would go to a Chicago wedding on Friday and a retired couple arrived, though we didn't meet the older couple until breakfast. The weekends are definitely the busy times for the inn and the cottages. It was quite relaxing with so few occupants midweek. The inn keepers were laid-back and the buildings though clean and well-equipped had a rustic vibe.
Each of the guest rooms had fireplaces which were not in use in August but would be cozy additions in cold weather.

Thursday morning we headed for Coloma and bought peaches. I also found a pair of earrings and a small plate at an antiques store in Coloma.

 Less than half the peach purchases. We bought Loring and Coralstar. Also some jams.

We ate lunch at Crane's Pie Pantry in Fennville where we had dined before. Too full for pie so had a bowl of chili and a slice of bread with apple butter. Since I will probably bake a peach pie in the next few days, I didn't buy a frozen pie but did buy two frozen apple dumplings which I put in my insulated bag. Crane's is also a U-Pick place but only on weekends.

The drive home took less time than I thought it would, even with construction in South Bend. It was a great time away.