Traverse City, Michigan

I arrived in Traverse City late last night where I’m attending a big family reunion. My mother was from Michigan and there are about 40 of us attending from Michigan and Georgia and England! We’re staying at some lodges and cabins in the small historic town of Fife Lake, south of Traverse City. After breakfast I walked a small loop around town and enjoyed seeing some of the beautiful historic buildings. It was great to see the info signs outside of almost all of them. Someone has taken a great deal of effort to research and display the history of this town. The info board on the left is the same house as the one in the top left of the collage. I love all these historic buildings, especially the homes with big porches. My dream house!

Later on a small group of us drove up to Traverse City and along the peninsula - my uncle Dick and aunt Eloise and cousins Mike & Chris. The main purpose was to go visit the grave of Dick’s first wife, Marion. Eloise was best friends with Marion and so it was special for both of them to visit the grave. Dick and Eloise were widowed about the same time and went on to marry each other and have had over 20 years of happy marriage. See Extra photo.

Michigan is famous for its blueberries and cherries and grapes, and THIS area is particularly cherry and wine country. Oh, and ice cream, of course! We passed by many vineyards but didn’t stop. We DID stop however at a roadside fruit stand and bought some cherries and ice cream for everyone! I very much enjoyed my peanut butter and chocolate ice cream on a stick.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing along the lake front. We were very entertained by this sea-plane landing and later on taking off again. I sure would love to go up in it! We have a pontoon available to us for the days we are here and a small group of us went out on the lake for a ‘sunset cruise’. Very relaxing.

All in all a great day. And the BEST part is just being with family!