A driving day

Today we drove from Whitmore Lake MI to Weedsport, NY. We enjoyed the beautiful scenery and picturesque farms of these areas. We stopped at a Wegmen's grocery along the way. We have nothing like it at home...closest would be Central Market with Safeway prices. It is fun to see all their offerings. We purchased things for lunches and had a picnic in the car. Weedsport is a charming town about an hour west of Syracuse...lovely old homes...a mansion on the historical registry is for sale for 275,000 but too far from home!!

Tomorrow we head into Boston and I'm excited to see The Public Garden among other things! Blessings!

We spent several hours in the town of Frankenmuth, MI.  This is a darling Bavarian village...think Leavenworth times 3!  We headed straight to lunch/dinner at Zehnders.  They are famous for their Chicken dinners.  It is a Large beautiful building that has at least 4 dining rooms, a café, gift shop and bakery.  We enjoyed walking the town in between thunder showers!  Boy can it rain here...they have had a very wet summer.  This is definitely a place I'd like to return.  Lots of cute shops, and outlets as well...a girl's weekend perhaps.  Tomorrow we head to the state of New York...not doing the city this trip!  Blessings!!

We have had an amazing two days in the Upper Peninsula.  It was so nice to stay two days in one place.  Yesterday started with a ferry ride from St. Ignace to Mackinac Island.  As you may know Mackinac Island is accessed only by ferries or personal boats. There are no cars allowed on the island; however they do allow 1 police car, a fire truck or two and an aid car.  I have never seen so many bikes in one place...as that is how the residents get around and it is a great way to see the island.  The area is very walkable, but a carriage tour is a one time must do.  The tour is very informative and very extensive...lasting about 2 hours.  We also took advantage of touring The Grand Hotel.  It is GRAND! So very lovely...beautiful grounds, interior and exterior.  It is decidedly for the upper crust to stay there...upwards of $350.00 a night.  We also enjoyed walking around town, eating at a local restaurant and visiting the local Starbucks.  It rained on and off so we were glad to have our jackets.  Next time we will visit the fort...we just ran out of time.  We headed back across the lake to our hotel after a great day.  Later that evening we took a drive across the Mackinac Bridge to Mackinac City...wow it was quite different than where we were staying.  We decided we were on the quiet side where the other side was very touristy and very busy with lots of restaurants and shops.  We will go back again someday!
This morning we had planned to stop at a craft fair but with the rain decided to forgo that for a quick stop in Mackinac City.  We walked around a bit and grabbed a coffee and then were on our way.  It was good we didn't stay there too long  because there was much more fun to be had down the road.  I checked my "quilt app" and found the town of Gaylord...a little Swiss village...so walked around there, got gas and traveled down the road.  As we were driving I happened to notice several large Billboards about Bonner's Christmas Village...largest Christmas store in the world in Frankenmuth, MI.  We just had to stop!  It was truly amazing...the founders are devout Christians and they have beautiful displays as well as an astounding selection of ornaments and other Christmas items.  Right next door is a huge hotel and an even larger indoor water park that puts Great Wolf Lodge to shame. 

 

Swiss town of Gaylord MI

A nice town to walk around, cute little shops and a Saturday market too. Picked up some fabric at the quilt shop here.

The city of Norway, MI

The Grand Hotel

Spent a wonderful day on MackinacI Island. 

We are safely tucked inside our lakeside hotel room finally after being on the road since early this morning.  It is good to be at a place where we will stay for more than one night.  After a good night sleep and a light breakfast we began our day with devotions and were again heading east.  As I often do I feel asleep as Steve listened to a new book on cd that only interested him this time.  I woke later to find him pulling into a quilt shop that he had seen advertised on several boards earlier.  I am again collecting fabric to put into the making of a quilt...I still haven't finished the last one...oh well.  This time I'm looking for blues, greens, and yellows...it is fun to stop in these small towns where many of the quilt shops are in old homes.  Our next stop was in Duluth, Minnesota for coffee and a bit of walking around town.  The Duluth Coffee Company makes a great mocha!  Down the street is the Duluth Trading Company.  This pretty funny too!  Steve found a few things and it was back in the car for a long drive.  We skipped lunch today as neither of us were hungry but we were glad for dinner when we stopped around 6.  We are using different apps to help us along the way...Trip Advisor, AAA, and Yelp have been great.  Using Yelp tonight we found an amazing little restaurant, Spiros, in the town of Iron Wood.  Steve had lamb with polenta and I had chicken with a delicious orzo.  We are so glad we stopped!  After another stop for coffee we were on our last leg of tonight's journey...we are at St. Ignace tonight and tomorrow night...PTL!  Tomorrow we will explore Mackinaw Island...I am excited to see the Grand Hotel.  We lost another hour today so now we are 3 hours different from Seattle...so it is late.  Sleep well all!

It's been a long two days but we are glad to be settled in for the night.  We traveled 450 miles yesterday and 770 today...needless to say we are a bit saddle sore but we have seen a great deal.  I use to think as a child that Montana was a boring, barren state...but changed my yesterday as we traveled through beautiful mountains, grasslands, lakes, as well as that barren land.  We are finding Highway 2 to be a delightful way to see the country as it meanders through small communities, towns and larger cities.  It is not heavily traveled in Montana and therefore we can go at our own pace.  We enjoy stopping for short breaks to take pictures as well as to stretch a bit.  As we travel we have been listening to the audio book, "The Boys in the Boat". It has made the time go faster and we both highly recommend it.  The book tells the story of UW crew team that went to the 1936 Olympics in Germany.  We stopped short of our goal last night as we were both tired and hungry and stayed in Havre, MT.  This morning started early as we knew we had a long day and wanted to be able to stop along the way.  So we set out at 5:45(4:45 Seattle time) to begin our journey.  Steve drove as I settled in with my blanket and pillow for a little longer sleep.  We drove in the dark for awhile and then came the most beautiful rose colored sunset.  What a lovely start to the day.  We made good time and entered into North Dakota early in the day.  As most of you probably know...they have experienced quite the growth as the result of the oil boom.  Even the small towns were busy with construction, apartment, home building, and RV parking for the many new workers who have come to live and work in the area.  It was amazing to see the many "work camps" they have set up with barracks or mobile home type buildings.  We didn't see many cars in the area but lots and lots of trucks!! In the midst of the oil rigs and such there are still farms.  I've been fascinated by all the varieties of barns and out buildings and am enjoying taking pictures of them. Today we have seen a variety of crops, corn, sunflowers, sugar beets as well as wheat and alfalfa.  We enjoyed two stops today...The Scandinavian Heritage Park in Minot, ND and The Pioneer Museum also along the way in North Dakota.  Both stops afforded us time to walk, relax, and take a few pictures.  This evening we ate at Japanese Steak House and last night it was an Irish pub...trying to not eat at restaurants we have at home.  Hope you are all well...until next time...many blessings!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yummy appetizer in Iron Wood Michigan

Fabric Gathering

Tonight we find ourselves in the town of Bonner's Ferry Idaho.  It has been a long day but one filled with beautiful scenery...mountains, valleys, rivers, farm land as well as orchards.  We started the day out a little later than we wished.  But by 7:45 we were headed to Everett to begin our journey on Highway 2.  It was a beautiful drive to Eastern Washington...enjoyed driving through Leavenworth...they have a drive through Starbucks now!  Stopped in Wenatchee for gas and coffee at Dutch Brothers...then onto Spokane Falls at Riverfront Park in Spokane, WA.  It was a nice spot for a picnic lunch.  Wished we had stopped at Sandpoint, Idaho for a quick walk around town...another time. We had a great dinner tonight at Kootenai Brewery...I had a delicious grilled Salmon salad...our goal is to eat healthy this trip.  Tomorrow we have an early start...blessings to you!

 

 

 

 

 

Spokane Falls Spokane WA

Dry Falls

Packing and getting ready

In less than two days we are off on an adventure.  It seems hard to believe that this trip is finally happening.  We have spent the summer ending long time careers, celebrating new beginnings and enjoying old and new friends.  It has been an incredibly busy but blessed time.  

I have been packed for days...Steve has not started.  We have some travel days planned and a general idea of where we are headed.  We look forward to sharing our travels with you as we visit new places and taste great food.  Our plan is to travel Highway 2 from Everett, WA to Bar Harbor, Maine...then travel down the East Coast to Florida and back across the country...hitching up to Route 66 along the way. I'm going to try and write and post pictures at least every other day...please pray for us as we travel along.