It rained during the night Tuesday into Wednesday morning. By the time we left the Inn, the rain had basically stopped. My jacket felt good, though. We started most mornings in the 60s and the highs were in the 60s and lower 70s. About as perfect as it can get.
We had never been in Michigan before. It is a gorgeous state. The highways, both two-lane and freeways, are lined by trees.
We also traveled through Charlevoix as we traveled from Traverse City to Mackinaw City. The curbs on the streets were lined with petunias. It was so colorful. I had never seen anything like it.
I like to watch for quilt squares on barns. I was disappointed that I didn't see more of these. I saw the first one on highway 131 in Michigan and only one other after that. I do think they just add to the side of a barn.
The brush along the side of the roads were turning to their fall colors. There were trees that were beginning to turn as well. It will be another month before that occurs in our part of the country.
James had trouble using the gas pumps. He had to put in our zip code before he could get the pumps to work. I shouldn't laugh because it could have been me. The out-of-state pumps just work differently than they do in Kansas.
We drove through Brookston, Indiana, on our way to Grand Rapids. I taught school at Frontier High the year before Seth was born. The gymnasium was still there but the rest of the high school was gone. They had built a large elementary near this gym. The high school had been moved north to Chalmers.
We loved the Harbour View Inn. They served a very nice breakfast and the room was very clean. Our only disappointment was there was basically no internet access. We do like to surf around first thing in the morning and also after supper some. Because of the lack of wifi, I had to wait for all of my posts until we stopped in Crawfordsville, IN, on our way home. Yes, we survived without wifi. It is the one thing I would have changed about the trip.
I am going to add a few more photos with some comments. Hopefully you have enjoyed traveling with us to Mackinac Island.
Taken from the ferry as we crossed the Mackinac Straits.
The bridge goes from the lower to upper Michigan peninsulas.
Gorgeous hollyhocks all over the island.
Just one type of the many flowers to be found on the island.
They use the horse manure on the flower beds. One of our horse carriage tour guides told us that manure was their biggest export.
These two photos were taken along the boardwalk.
Grand Hotel.
