Old Mission, me and him............................................

Just the two of us, I have to get him trained to go out now. Gerry is about to "retire" and I am determined to not just sit around the house and do nothing. If he is not working then he has to learn that we can do stuff together. Try to have fun. Whatever..........so, as I had sore feet from my adventure with Edna last week I was not up for walking. I wondered if there was still Cherry Blossom out on the Peninsula.
It is called Old Mission Peninsula and divides East and West Grand Traverse Bay. It used to be full of Cherry Orchards. Now it has been taken over by Vinyards. Oh my, you should see the huge mansions being built out there.
Anyway, the views are good even though the sky was rather hazy.


Everything was lovely and green, but blossoms gone. There are Apple orchards towards the end of the Peninsula and other fruit orchards. We saw workers in the strawberry fields, but by far the most now is devoted to Hops and Grapes. I can not count the number of new Wineries.



There are three main roads that dissect the Peninsula, one either side and one up the Middle. We normally go up the middle and come back on the West side but this day we took the branch off on the East side. That takes us right into Old Mission. A very small "town". Actually all that is there now is the store and mission.

So much lilac on the old farms

Lovely country roads

I had not intended to eat out but I was telling Gerry about the fantastic Reuben Sandwiches we got when I took Gabby. So we stopped and went inside.It has been many years since Gerry was there. He enjoyed looking around and of course he wanted a sandwich.




The place was bustling so it was quite a wait for the sandwich, but, bread from the oven and made especially for us. No fast food here so be patient. They are busy and it's worth the wait. Lots of folks came for ice cream.
Gerry waiting patiently.

It was well worth it. We could only eat half so Gerry enjoyed his other half later that evening. I still have my other half


I do not usually eat meat so that was a very special treat and I apologize to my bovine friends. Once in awhile I do give in to temptation and I am sorry for that. I am weak.
The ride back was probably more comfortable than it would have been if we had finished the rest. Phew............Bowers Harbour on West Bay

People enjoying their boats. Something we will probably never do now, not at our time of life. I don't think we would have the money or equipment.

A nice crop of Dandelions in this orchard.


It was a very nice afternoon. We didn't get out at the lighthouse. My feet too sore and a load of people. Prefer these places when we have them to ourselves. It is the beginning of our summer once Memorial Day comes around and then it's tourist all over the place, more every year. Sigh but it funds our local economy. As they say, the rich get richer and the poor can no longer afford to live here. The taxes now push out the locals from places they have had for years and in come the wealthy to take over and change everything that was what made the place attractive. Lucky for us it's just the beginning and our backwards sleepy town is no more but not yet quite completely spoilt, won't be long though.

Suttons Bay with Edna.......................................

May 24 out with Edna to Suttons Bay. Boy was it a hot one. 89 when we had lunch and got back in the car.

You may recall we were there last week with Tristen. Unlike when the hubby is around, Edna and I look at shops. She has wanted to go to the quilt shop and so that's where we started.

Lucky me, I didn't find anything. I still have the stack of quilts to do the bindings and my machine is gathering dust while I work in the garden.
We went to some of the gift/knick knack shops and enjoyed that except for it being so hot.


I had my eye on a few things, especially the stained glass. They were 50% off but what would I do with them?
This was rather interesting, I often wonder what the story is............why?

everything bright and cheerful, and expensive.

some adorable things

I will do a post in English Spirits Pretty things on the glass shop. Wow I love that place.

One does wonder sometimes......sure this will be popular.

We stopped for lunch and shared some fried chicken and home fries. Edna does all the driving so I buy lunch and treats. If we go any distance then I pay for gas. Can't say lunch was that good so won't go there again. We should have ordered the Pizza. Edna wanted ice cream and we were too full, note that we still ate it all. So we went back home via Cedar via Lake Leelanau where we stopped at the Thrift shop. I got a nice bouquet of flowers for 6 bucks so that was good. This for the front porch somewhere. Fake flowers are so expensive and especially for outside so thrift shops is the way to go

It was good to see that at least in Leelanau County there are still a number of Cherry Orchards. Most have been turned over to Wineries.


We stopped in Cedar so Edna could have her ice cream.

Laura and I always stop there. Edna found a new place I guess because she loved her butter pecan ice cream. I just had a milk shake. It was good and so was our day out. My feet hurt from the heat and walking but it was a good day out. My toes look like strings of sausages.

Tristen's weekend........................

We had Tristen for a short time this weekend. They dropped him off at about 3PM Saturday afternoon and picked him up at 10am today Sunday. Short visit but at least we saw him. He is doing well and is somewhat more settled these days. Still says he wants to be here but not quite as sad. They are taking him to Puerto Rico this Winter. He is a lucky boy, he went on a cruise this Spring.
So with not a lot of time, after he had played on his computer for a time we asked if he wanted to go for a drive. That's what we did. We took him to Suttons Bay. There is a shop there called Enerdyne.

We like to go there because they have unusual things. They have science stuff, some toys, rocks, puzzles and other fun stuff. He bought two planes and some other things. So when we went down by the water he took them with him and met some little kid. He always does. They played for awhile and then we headed off towards Empire.


This tree was in bloom and very pretty.


The little stream that runs by near Enerdyne was not resistable I guess because he got right in, shoes an all.


Started to get hungry at this point. These pretty Daffs growing by the water


Off we went with the intention of going to the play area in Empire but Tristen wanted to climb the dunes. Well it's about half the size it used to be now. Still a good climb and it tires the kids out haha. It was on the way.

Running back down without falling is a challenge

We decided to eat first. Kids hate to wait so I gave Tristen a handfull of quarters.

When we were done we took Tristen to the play area and I walked around taking pictures.
South Bar Lake


The May Flies were out, at least I think thats what they were.

There were too many to walk on the beach and he was not happy about playing but when some kids showed up off he went.


It would have been a lovely evening if it were not for the bugs.



On the way home we saw several deer by the road, almost upon them before we saw them.

We went home and watched a movie and it was nice. I went to bed a little later than Tristen did and went in to kiss him goodnight. I could not find the little bugger. Turned out he was under the covers and half way down the bed.