The next stop on our trip was based on a recommendation from Aunt Johanna, who asked if we were planning to see the Mushroom Houses in Charlevoix. We had never heard of them before, but it turned out that Charlevoix had several points of interest.
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While prepping to leave Sleeping Bear we had a minor bit of equipment failure: our tire pump burned out while we were topping off the air in our last tire. Luckily it looked like we'd be back in the land of Amazon pick up locations (which aren't as plentiful/common as you might think they are) soon, so we ordered a new one to be picked up in Marquette the next week.
After a brief stop in Traverse City 40 minutes east for a Walmart run, we drove another hour northeast to the city of Charlevoix - home of the World's Largest Cherry Pie (*). Well, the pie itself isn't actually there any more - that would be kind of gross since it was baked in 1976; but the pie tin used to bake it still is. 😉
(*) Ironically, we found out later that an even
bigger cherry pie had been baked in
1987 - dethroning Charlevoix's - in Traverse City, of all places. So had we known, we could've stopped to see
that pie tin while making our earlier Walmart run as well. But from the sounds of it the Charlevoix tin - with its concrete slice of cherry pie inside - is the prettier of the two, so we're happy with the tin we ended up with.
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While in Charlevoix, we also drove out to see the Earl Young Mushroom Houses. The houses are far from common looking, and many look like something you might find in the Hobbit Shire.
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From there we headed downtown to the Cherry Republic store, to sample all sorts of goodies made with Michigan cherries. A bag of dark chocolate covered cherries ended up "coming home" with us.
We browsed the downtown area, and walked the path along the Round Lake Channel.
The Weathervane Terrace Inn was another Earl Young creation.
From Charlevoix, another hour (53 miles) northwest brought us to the Mackinac Bridge, which looks kind of like a mini-Golden Gate Bridge. Our crossing was probably a little less scenic than usual since "our" side of the bridge was in the process of being repaved, so we ended up driving down what would normally have been the other side's fast lane.
Once on the far side of the bridge, it was just a short drive to St. Ignace where we planned to stay the night in the Mackinac Island Ferry parking lot. Confusion reigned, though, when we arrived at the parking lot indicated on the website and "Day Parking Only" signs were posted all over it. We drove over to the ticket office to get clarification, but the teenager behind the counter was even more clueless than we were. We noticed, however, that there was a ferry overnight parking lot across the street so we went and found a spot over there - amongst many other vehicles.
We had dinner from the T42's stores, and then settled in for the night. Tomorrow would be an early-ish day to get in line for our ferry to Mackinac Island.
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