Parked in Petoskey

Bike path to Bay Harbor

No matter how much you want to get a move on, you've got to respect the water. And the weather. 

We know a change is coming during the next week. While heartier sea-folk or those familiar with the lake may press on, we're just not comfortable doing that. And by we I mean me.

Pretty quick we thought Petoskey was a nifty place. Lots of restaurants, nearby groceries, hardware stores, breweries, wine tasting rooms, and other shopping make it stand out among many of the "little towns" we've seen over the last couple of months. 

Brekkie at OPG; dutch baby and 49er flapjacks

On arrival we looked for a place to eat and decided to try the Mexican restaurant nearby. We haven't had Mexican since Mariachi's in Brewerton, NY. Frankly there wasn't any to try. (Turns out Jose's was quite good -- if we have time we will go back). The topic of discussion was what to do: The next two days would be dandy for traveling. But that would put is in a town like Leland or Frankfort when the weather would change. We might be stuck there for a week. Never having been anywhere up here, just didn't know what to do.

Blue and clear waters of the bay

As luck would have it, while returning to the boat we ran in to loopers from B-Side. They're from this area. We put the question to them: If you were going to spend a week in this area, where would you do it? They said Petoskey, hands down. In fact, they already did spend a week here, with plenty of good travel days to do otherwise.

So be it. We have a car rental reserved for a couple of days to pick up tomorrow. We'll drive to visit some of the other little towns around, like Charlevoix and Traverse City, that we planned on missing. When the weather is good, we'll make the run to LeLand.

Gorgeous sunset -- not enhanced at all, I swear!

Yesterday we took a three mile bike ride to the neighboring marina. There was an Original Pancake House there, which is a fave of our. We used the bike and pedestrian path around the Little Traverse Bay. It gave us stunning views of the almost Bahama-like blue waters. Rumors has it that this is the work of an invasive species, zebra mussels. Once they got into the lakes they got crystal clear.