A weekend 'up north' - JF

The past weekend has been very sweet. Spending time with Victoria and showing her all of my most favoritest parts of Michigan. I got out of work on Friday at 4pm-ish and she picked me up with the truck packed up & ready to go. We headed up HWY 75 north-ward and were quite pleased with ourselves, as we were headed to Traverse City which from Saginaw is only about 3 ½ hours as opposed to 4 ½ hours or so from Detroit and in the previous job, quitting time at 3:30pm was a near impossibility. We were ahead of the masses by several hours.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn on Grand Traverse Bay Friday night, which was very nice. Even though the day was gray and overcast, it turned out to not rain so much. Because we are Gold members w/ Holiday Inn, given our current living conditions which are at the Holiday Inn Express in Saginaw, we were given a $5 gift certificate for use at the hotel. In the morning as we checked out, we picked up 2 beautiful bowls of VERY fresh fruit including cantaloupe, honey rock melon, pineapple, strawberries, peeled oranges and grapefruits, too! I was especially pleased because I had just completed the first 2 weeks of induction on the South Beach diet and a light dusting of Splenda (a sugar analogue with NO calories or carbs) over the fruit was quite fine!!!!

While we had plans to go to Sleeping Bear Dunes to hike the HUGE dunes and then hike over to the beach at Lake Michigan, inclimate weather made us change plans and take a leisurely drive up the western shore to Petoskey, Charlevoix and Harbor Springs (which we just LOVE!!!!!). Chad, if you’re reading….unfortunately, we missed Suttons Bay….but will definitely be back so that we can experience Boones and their lovely whitefish.

We meandered slowly up Hwy 131 north through all the above-mentioned towns and it is a VERY mentally calming thing to nearly constantly see the waters of Lake Michigan to the left for about 4 hours straight (it only takes that long b/c we were driving the speed limit of 25mph). We stopped and had a delicious lunch at “Julienne Tomatoes” in Petoskey which is a very lovely place. Each small town we visited had marinas and boats of all sizes and ilks: sailboats and motorboats of all different sizes. Victoria began to recognize that I wasn’t just being smart, when I told her that Michigan really IS like New Zealand….. “We have a north island (Upper Peninsula) and a south island (Lower Peninsula) with water all the way around…….(well ALMOST all the way round…..)”

I don’t think she believed me……but it seems several of the places we visited brought back vivid memories of her native Middle Earth……bringing a sense of calmness and maybe OK-ness with a new adopted home, which really does seem a reflection of her growing up home (in some places….).

I was pleased that we found a place called Scalawags Fish & Chips (which for all you Michiganders out there….has 2 locations – Harbor Springs & Mackinaw City). Victoria has been wondering aloud lately, “Why doesn’t the US/Michigan have fish & chip shops????” It seems the US is bent on freezing and making more convenient and homogenous the entire experience of life. So instead of having fresh fillets of whitefish slapped into batter and then into blazing oil and then placed lovingly into newspaper, any fish fillets in the US seem to have been frozen and are nearly unrecognizable versions of their previous selves before they get the consumers. Well, I’m here to tell you that Scallawags was a SUBLIME experience. Their whitefish filets were fresh from earlier that morning and included 3 pieces of fish, chips (that’s fries to all Michiganders) as well as a little pot of cole slaw and 2 hush puppies (a bite sized ball of deep fried corn-meal, herbs and onion – best eaten smothered in tartar sauce) . I inhaled them so quickly, even I was shocked. We had to get a second order……and I substituted hush puppies for chips.

We spent Saturday night in Mackinaw City (the most northern city of the lower peninsula) and crossed over the Mackinaw Bridge (was once the longest suspension bridge in the world at 5 miles – spanning the Mackinac Strait, but I think has recently been beaten out) to St. Ignace of the Upper Peninsula of the state of Michigan.

It was cool for me too, because I’ve not been there in many years.

Sunday morning we were thinking of taking a ferry boat over to Mackinac (? French spelling of Mackinaw) Island where there are NO automobiles allowed. So they have horses and carriages and lots of people coming after them to keep things in a semi-sanitized state. Also, not to be missed is FUDGE, FUDGE, FUDGE!!!! On every corner! In fact, there are approximately 4 main vendors:

1. Doug Murdick’s FUDGE.
2. Kilwins Fudge/Chocolates/Ice Cream
3. JoAnn’s Fudge
4. Ryba’s Fudge Shoppe

We did end up stopping at Kilwin’s Fudge so Victoria could have a little look….(ok, taste) and she ended up getting a slab (that’s a slice of fudge weighing approximately a half pound – which I’m told is a ridiculous quantity to a person of Kiwi origins) of … Yecccchhhhhh, Maple nut fudge. Thank goodness, it doesn’t tempt me a bit.

I ended up getting a slab of chocolate and a slab of peanut butter for the x-ray technologists and other workers at work on Monday…..

We did not make it to Mackinac Island because the Weather Channel was issuing advisories of SEVERE weather for all day Sunday and we didn’t want to be caught in gale force winds/driving rain/or waves while attempting to enjoy the island which by the way was featured in the movie, “Somewhere in Time” (which I’m told is a good movie).

We did however, get up in the morning and stop at a little shop, just next to the hotel where they make a creation that no trip to “Up North” (what all natives call trips to the Northern reaches of Michigan) would be complete without experiencing, the “pasty/pastie” which is a meat (beef or chicken, but now also vegetable filled) and potato and rutabaga filled pastry pocket. I am sad to say that it does not compare in an reasonable way to a New Zealand meat pie which are like a little slice of heaven on earth.

We on Sunday, we made our way back through Harbor Springs and back to our home away from home, Holiday Inn Express, in Saginaw. When we drove in, the skies were beginning to look rather SEVERE (see comments regarding the diversion from “the Island”)…..as I was unloading things from the truck and V. was checking in, the wind was gusting so strongly it blew over a much too heavy bag and was becoming a bit scary.

I heard sirens going off in the distance, which were evidence that we had driven into not a tornado watch (meaning conditions are good for poor weather) but a tornado WARNING which means that a tornado has either been sighted or touched down in the near vicinity.

We not allowed to go to our room but instead were herded into the inner-most rooms of the hotel which happened to be the locker rooms of the pool and the sauna (which as you can guess was HOT) to wait out the storm.. This was quite an experience as the hotel’s front-office manager (a cheery young bloke named Josh who looks about 19 yrs old) was looking rather pale, pacing back and forth and was heard to ask on the phone ‘what is our tornado policy?’. After about 40 min we were told that the tornado had hit about 3 miles away and was receding but that there was still an alert out until 8pm. We zoomed out for a quick bite to eat and anxiously watched the sky as we ate. Just as we pulled up back at the hotel for Victoria to get out in the dry under the awning, we heard the ominous sign of the siren again and Josh ran outside saying Dr Finch, Dr Finch, don’t park your truck, just leave it right there and come inside. It was only 6.30pm the sky was as dark as if it was 10pm and there was lightning all over the place. This time obviously the tornado policy had been located and we were put in a corridor instead of by the pool (which incidentally has a plastic/glass ceiling!). This time there was less wind but more darkness so less scary, more eerie….. Thankfully at the time of writing, all has gone and we are cleared for the night.

If you are still reading in one go, you have great stamina and we admire you greatly!!

Signing off for now….J (& with a little bit of assistance from V, too)