Some history on Old Mission Peninsula

This is a terrible map that I lifted from Wikipedia, but let's pretend it's a good map for a second. See the bay up where the "pinky" of Michigan is? That's Grand Traverse Bay. It's separated by that little red line, the Old Mission Peninsula, into the East and West bays. Traverse City is on the west bay, right next to the Old Mission Peninsula, and the other peninsula between Lake Michigan and the West Bay is the Leelenau Peninsula. Old Mission Peninsula is where the wineries we visited are located. Got it?

On Saturday we drove all the way up Old Mission Peninsula to visit the Old Mission Point Lighthouse and found a bunch of very interesting historical sites while we were there. The residents of Old Mission are really proud of their history and very keen to preserve it.


The lighthouse was built in 1870 and decommissioned in 1933. Did you know that Michigan has the second longest coastline in the US? Alaska has the longest.



Michigan has the most lighthouses of any state! Some are still used but are now automated, some have been reopened as museums, and some have been abandoned. Many of the abandoned lighthouses have dedicated groups trying to raise money to renovate them. If you're familiar with the Gordon Lightfoot song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," you know why lighthouses were so vital on the Great Lakes. It was an extremely important shipping route with lots of dangerous shallow shoals, bad storms, and little islands. Lighthouses played a vital role in keeping the sailors (and cargo, of course) safe.


This was taken from a mud flat close to the coast. See how shallow the water is here?


In the same park as the lighthouse is the Hessler Log House, a log cabin that was built between 1854 and 1856 by Joseph and Mary Hessler, some of the first white settlers on Old Mission. They have a really nice audio piece that explains about the cabin and the household items that have been put in it. It's like a mini-museum of the lives of early settlers in this part of the country.


This one was taken behind glass so it isn't very clear but you can see the sort of household implements they would have used. The stove was used mostly for heating. Settlers usually put the kitchen in a separate building or in a separate room so that the house wouldn't get too hot in the summer.


Next we went to the Dougherty House. Reverend Peter Dougherty arrived on Old Mission in 1839 to provide education and religion to the local Odawa and Ojibwa (also known as the Ottawa and Chippewa), who had signed a deal with the government to give up their land to be settled by whites. The house was built in 1842 with help from the local tribes.


The house has been continually used, either as an inn, private residence, or storage, since it was built. The Old Mission Peninsula Historical Society is currently renovating the house and preparing to open it as a museum. We were there on a Saturday so there wasn't any work going on, but I did get to snoop around the property and take pictures.


The back of the house showing the summer kitchen and the storage shed. You can see the ongoing renovation work. There are still a lot of old barns in the area so they often use period wood from those old barns in restoration work.

The outhouse. They made a big deal out of the fact that it's a three seater - two adults and one kiddie seat. One of the few three seaters in Grand Traverse County!

Next stop was the replica of the church and school that Dougherty and the Native Americans built together for his mission work. Eventually the mission was moved to the Leelenau Peninsula on the other side of the bay and the church was moved there too, log by log. If I remember correctly that church still stands and is still used.


Next to the replica of the church is the Old Mission General Store, which has been in this building since 1839! It's very cute on the inside, kind of dark, very old-timey and rather cluttered with things like old lanterns, coon skins, candies, and their homemade cherry salsa and preserves.




We also stopped briefly at Haserot Beach, a small, very picturesque beach located pretty far up the peninsula. You have to know about it to end up there.


There was also a cute playground for the little kids there.

It's been a busy, tiring week. Chemo, ECP, PET and CT scans and a bone marrow biopsy. Yikes! Obviously that hasn't left me a lot of time to post.

But I did want to share that all my scans were clean! I was so worried but it all turned out well. What a relief! Now I get to relax for a few months until the next set of scans....

Moomers and Tall Ships

Moomers is the legendary local ice cream place in Traverse City. They were voted best ice cream shop by Good Morning America Weekend for their signature flavor, featuring - what else? - cherries!


Moomers is actually a few miles out of Traverse City and their adorable shop is right next to the fields where their dairy cows live.


Unfortunately Moomers only has this one little store, but you can buy their ice cream at other shops in the Traverse City area. Otherwise you can order it online and have it shipped to you. We can't figure out why they don't expand and sell their ice cream more widely because it is delicious! Super creamy, not artificially sugary at all, and the flavors are super creative.

The Traverse Tall Ship Company has several different themed cruises around the West Grand Traverse Bay in their tall ship Manitou, which is a replication of an 1800s schooner, complete with masts and sails and everything. They even offer a Moomers cruise where you can sample five different flavors and have a relaxing sail around the bay. This was hands down our favorite part of the trip! The sail/cruise/whatever you want to call it was so relaxing and enjoyable, the weather couldn't have been more perfect, the scenery was gorgeous, and we got to spy on the enormous multi-million dollar homes on Old Mission Peninsula.

On the Manitou








Nice views, huh?



One of the five samples. This one is chocolate peanut butter chunk. We also sampled blue moon (like a blue raspberry flavor), cookies and cream, black cherry, and a special flavor they make for the cruise called Manitou. It's coconut, chocolate chips, almond, and marshmellow swirl.


The pirate in the Tall Ship offices. Arrrrggg!!!


Wouldn't you like to live in one of these?

Cherry Capital

Traverse City calls itself the "Cherry Capital." Even the airport (a few short runways for tiny planes and private jets) is called the Cherry Capital Airport. The northwest corner of Michigan is the headquarters of cherry production in the state, and more specifically tart cherries. We produce 75% of the nation's tart cherry crop and also a significant part of the sweet cherry crop. Basically, cherries are a big deal here and we passed countless cherry orchards on our way up Old Mission Peninsula.

Traverse City even has the National Cherry Festival every summer to celebrate all things cherry. We were there for the cherry festival three years ago. It's a very cute summer festival with golf tournaments, activities for kids, an air show, cherry pie eating contests, cherry pit spitting contests, and of course a parade featuring the Cherry Queen!


You can buy just about anything with cherries on it up here. Literally anything.


This is from The Cherry Stop, where you can buy clothing and household items with cherries on them, cherry lotions and bath products, and of course a variety of cherry food things. They also have a cherry wine tasting room.


Cherry Republic is a company that produces an enormous variety of cherry food things. Cherry jams and jellies mixed with every other fruit you can think of, cherry barbecue sauces, cherry salsas, cherry peanut butter, dried cherries with or without chocolate... lots of stuff.


If you're coming to Traverse City, come hungry!

So far...

... we've done a couple of wine tastings. Yes, there are vineyards in Michigan! Traverse City is almost exactly at the 45th parallel, which apparently is where some of the world's best wine regions (like Bordeaux) are located. Unfortunately Michigan can't boast any wines like that, but we have some that are pretty good! I do not, however, recommend any of our red wines, and not just because I prefer white, but because they are not good. Don't waste your money. The best wines from the area are reislings or specialty cherry flavored wines and liquors.

We drove up Old Mission Point Peninsula and stopped at two different vineyards. There are probably a dozen different ones in the area, but the two we stopped at are supposed to be the best. We started at Chateau Grand Traverse and were not at all impressed with their offerings. We tried wines that had won all different awards but honestly, most of them weren't that good! We ended up buying a cherry riesling and a regular riesling.

We also stopped at Chateau Chantal, which is on a hill in the middle of the peninsula with fantastic views on both sides to the East and West Grand Traverse Bays.

Antique wine pressing equipment

We were much more impressed by the offerings at Chantal and bought a riesling, a pinot blanc, a sparkling cherry wine, and a cherry port. I'm glad that we supported Michigan businesses and that we have all these good wines to drink!

Michigan is the number one producer of tart cherries in the US, and the cherries are mostly grown in the Traverse City area, which prides itself on being the "cherry capital." That's why all of these cherry wines and other cherry products are such a big draw. More on that in another post. We ended our trip by stopping at a roadside cherry stand and buying these amazing cherries, some of the best I've ever had. Fresh and local really is better! The owner told us it's the oldest fruit stand on the peninsula.

The bright red cherries are tart cherries and you use them to make pies

Sweet cherries and golden cherries. I'd never had golden cherries before. They're a little bit tart, very delicious!

On the road again!

This time to Traverse City, Michigan! For a whole week!


I took this picture from the top of the Grand Traverse Lighthouse waaayyyy up at the tip of the "pinky" when we were there three years ago.

Yes, Michigan is shaped like a mitten (the lower peninsula is, at least). Look it up on a map if you don't believe me! Michiganders are famous for using our hands to show you where we're from and where different cities in our fine state are located.

And I realized tonight that this will be the first week since the end of September that I don't have anything to scheduled at the hospital! (knock on wood) Of course if I were in town I would have had scans and appointments and things, but I am going away on vacation, so we put all of those off until next week. Another river crossed!

Hope you all have a good week, and we'll see if I'm motivated enough to post photos while I'm up there.

Happy birthday to me!

A bit of shameless self promotion, but it is kind of a big deal that I'm able to celebrate another birthday today! I'm very happy to make it to 26!


And of course, what kind of celebration would it be without a little ICE CREAM?


Hope all of you have wonderful days today!