Michigan getaway

Missus and I are looking for a quick break in a rural/cottage environment. Like two or three nights. So this means I don't want to travel across the globe.

I tossed out a trip to Mackinaw Island and this seemed to float her boat, so that's one option. Never been there, but its away from here, so good enough for me.

Was wondering if there were other options in that part of the world? I hear all these commercials for "Pure Michigan" but other than the slogan, they are not very useful. We like water, woods and good food.

Well, we are headed up to Lake Leelanau in a month or so. It's near Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes and Traverse City.

Ludington is nice. We did the sleeping bear dunes 2 years ago, beautiful place. Anything on west coast north of muskegon works. We're going back up for 4th weekend.

The whole northwestern part of the LP is nice. Some good driving roads, Petoskey is nice, Traverse City is nice, and plenty of things to see there. Good wine and food in the area too. We stayed at a house just outside Petoskey, and rode out bikes to Charlevoix- nice ride on a great path.

That area is a little less touristy than Mackinaw.

OR go a few hours further, and explore Marquette to Houghton along Lake Superior. Really nice up there, too. Harder to swim, since Superior is colder than Lake Michigan.

my Mom is from the UP.. up by Crystal Falls. We once went up there camping at a lake.. we had frost on the tent in July!

Very pretty though, but watch out for bears

mad_machine wrote: my Mom is from the UP.. up by Crystal Falls. We once went up there camping at a lake.. we had frost on the tent in July! Very pretty though, but watch out for bears

We will not mention the bears. For purposes of this trip, bears do not exist in Michigan. Or anywhere near Michigan. Interesting bear story from my Honeymoon in Alaska that has not been forgotten or forgiven.

I'll add to the voices recommending the the northwestern portion of the lower peninsula. Traverse City is a bit busy/touristy but the region is beautiful. I went on a two night camping trip just outside Charlevoix a couple weeks back and really enjoyed it. Our campsite was bordered by Lake Michigan on one side and a small stream on the other, so the sights and sounds were quite good all weekend. We stayed a couple nights in Traverse City earlier in the spring and that was a great trip too. If you like wineries or breweries, there are many options around those parts. Lots of great wilderness areas, trails and water too.

Every time I visit that area I want to spend more time there.

NOHOME wrote:

mad_machine wrote: my Mom is from the UP.. up by Crystal Falls. We once went up there camping at a lake.. we had frost on the tent in July! Very pretty though, but watch out for bears

We will not mention the bears. For purposes of this trip, bears do not exist in Michigan. Or anywhere near Michigan. Interesting bear story from my Honeymoon in Alaska that has not been forgotten or forgiven.

Right... there are no bears in Mi ;) Just oversized furballs and the DNR swears there are no Cougars either.

If you do Mac Island, you might just want to do one night there.
It is a primo-price type place and the novelty wears off quickly.
We have stayed at Hotel Iroquois and it was amazing. Not cheap but without a doubt, the cleanest place I have ever stayed.
Since we could not get a waterfront view room each night, we did a cheaper garden view room the first night. The Garden view was much nicer. Sure, you could not see the water from the room but it had a huge porch (that none of their other style rooms have) which was perfect for sitting out on this supper comfy furnature they had there.
In the gallery section of their website there is a picture of that porch/garden area. There are two lamp post in the photo and you can see the porch elevated to the right. The brick garden path leads to their restaurant. The second picture in the gallery with the pink flowers and blue chairs is the porch. It is shared by the three rooms on that side but you have distinct, separate furniture.

All told, I am going to mostly recommend to you the Charlevoix/Boyne City/Charlevoix/HArbor Springs area.
This will have you about 1 hour south of Mac Island and does make it very possible to go to the Island for just a day.

JohnRW1621 wrote: This will have you about 1 hour south of Mac Island and does make it very possible to go to the Island for just a day.

IMO, that's all you need for Mackinac Island. It's pretty, and the fort is cool, but it's nothing THAT special. The town consists of 3 things, fudge shops, bars, and tourist trap stores. And there's horse poop, too. It's worth seeing once, but I have no need to go back.

It is the Island of Fudge and Manure. Don't mix up the two.
I have done the sailboat race from Port Huron to Mac Island. I can remember one year we were facing a head wind as we approached the Island. In other words, the winds were blowing across the Island toward us.
I assure you that you can smell the place before you arrive!

I'll add to the suggestion of the NW lower peninsula region.

Do you/her like to hike? The sleeping bear dunes region has been ranked one of the most beautiful places in America a few times.

Do you or her like wine? The Leelanau region and Old Mission Peninsula near Traverse City houses multiple wineries, and the views and drive is excellent. M-22 is a great scenic highway and weaves much of the region together. From Chateau Chantel you can can view both east and west traverse bays looking both ways from the property.

For smaller towns with fancy charms, Charlevoix, Petoskey, and Harbor Springs are all beautiful. If you prefer camping, there's some great state parks nearby which are right on Lake Michigan. My wife and I have stayed at Fisherman's Island State Park just west of Charlevoix which encompasses 5 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline.

I also agree that Mackinac Island is a bit more of a novelty than a "break in a rural/cottage environment".

Full Disclosure: My Grandmother was born in Boyne City and my Grandfather in East Jordan. They lived most their lives down state and in Ohio but retired back up there. As kids, this was what we did for vacation. My grandparents have passed and the house has been sold. Though I live at the most southern point of the Great Lakes, I still get back to this area (my spiritual homeland) regularly.

Photo taken from Lake Michigan. The Harbor area is known as Round Lake. Beyond that is Lake Charlevoix that ends at Boyne City 14 miles later.

Photo from a Lavender Farm between Charlevoix and Boyne City. A favorite place of my wife.

A beautiful fall view from south east end of Lake Charlevoix taken from Boyne City's Avalanche Preserve Park
The view is genuinely that pretty and worth the 462 steps that you have to climb to see it.

Some guy's pretty decent walking video of downtown Charlevoix
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_SLmFRVeqs

I like the sleeping dunes idea. Glad I asked. And yeah, I was a bit concerned that the Island was going to be a spin on Niagara Falls tourist trap.

Anyone done the sailboat ride thing out of Mackinaw? I used to love sailing on lake Ontario and am always looking for ways to get on the water.

Lots of food for thought.

you will not be disappointed going to sleeping bear dunes. they have "stay off the dunes" signs, but people always go to the bottom. make sure if you do that you have some stamina as the climb back looks nuts. i stayed at the top.

my FIL has a farm about 20 miles inland from ludington, we stay there and go out to different stuff every day. there is a pretty sweet go-kart track about 25 minutes away, good food, close enough to the dunes, some good roads, and national park. one day i'm going to take the ss badger ferry over to wisconsin just to say i did it.

they lived in the UP while my wife was in high school, i've been to marquette with her. it's too freaking far.

I have raced sailboats for 3 days to Mac Island but never done the tourist sailboat thing there.
I have done the Charlevoix tourist sailboat back when they had the monohull boat. It is now a Caaternaran and I think different owners.
The year I was aboard was the owners first year in business. She grew up on a sailboat around the Keys and her dad set her up with the business in Charlevoix. She was 18 yrs old, very attractive and lived right on the boat (what a life.)
I remember her telling us that at 18, she was the youngest certified sailboat charter captain on the entire Great Lakes. The Coast Guard tried to deny her but she had all the qualifications and passed all the tests.

http://sunshinecharters.com/

Looks like she has married and is still cute as hell.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/sunshine-charters-charlevoix

The one nice thing about sailing out of Charlevoix is that you are much less weather dependent. If the big lake is too rough, the inland Lake Charlevoix will be perfect.

We're planning a sleeping bear dunes, t-city trip in a few weeks. On the way, we'll spend a day at the Gilmore Car Museum. If you do Macinacinaw, you can stay in St. Ignace and take the ferry or a plane across. My wife and I have done that a few times, every time staying at The Colonial House Inn. You can watch the water from there. If you go, if Phil is still the inn keeper there, when talking about the Macinac bridge, ask him "so, when does the bridge swing over to the island?" He told us about being asked that, and "do you take American money here?"

JohnRW1621 wrote: I have raced sailboats for 3 days to Mac Island but never done the tourist sailboat thing there.

really? I wonder if you knew my uncle, Jim Ehrmautraut. He did that race for 15 years or so.