Manistee

We woke up with the sunrise sleeping on the beach and waded out knee height in the lake. The sand in the shallows is braided like tiger stripes or the ripple of a sidewinder in the desert and the water; the water is clear as a window and smooth as velvet. Numbing as a glacier...

Driving North we passed through Traverse City up into the Leelanau Peninsula. I've never visited the Leelanau but it is rumored to be beautiful and so I'm excited to finally explore it. A peninsula within a peninsula reaching out like a gnarled side finger off the mitten of Michigan. It is a place dotted with small towns of fishermen, artists, and tourists in the summer. Cherry orchards, vineyards, and dairies abound in the microclimate created in this nook between the waters. Along the way we sampled some wine and picked up a homemade raspberry pie we ate in the park in Sutton's Bay by the harbor.

It was kind of a gastronomic journey through Upper Michigan....and in that vein we continued on for more with a red pepper and goat cheese pizza topped off with asparagus straight from Becca's grandfathers farm for dinner. We ended up staying the night in Leland, once a bustling fishing town and today the waypoint to the islands off the coast by ferry. I had to try the local specialty here btw...they call it a "Chubby Mary", as in a Bloody Mary...but with a smoked Great Lakes chub stuck in it like an olive cocktail (a fish!) Of course the stranger the better and I had to try it. Not bad.

This picture is from Manistee National Forest where the day began. I like the sense of movement the ripples make, the soft smooth lines of water over sand, and the feel of open space. It brings me back.