Downtown Traverse City

Front Street is the main shopping street, although walking through the town it’s easy to find places that beckon for a further look. In addition to intriguing art and gift stores, Cherry Republic and particularly Cherry Stop offer everything cherry. My personal favorites are the cherry salsa – sweet and tart and delicious -- and the dried cherries. The National Cherry Festival is held from the first Saturday of July for 8 days.

Although there are excellent wineries in the area, if you just want to pick up a bottle of wine while in town, the Blue Goat and Cherry Stop have a full range of local wine.

While on Front Street stop by Momentum. It’s a wonderful discount store to stock up on outdoor and sports clothing. We managed to fill our luggage with rain gear, t-shirts, sweats, and more.

Day Trips

Old Mission Peninsula
Take a drive through the Old Mission peninsula just outside of downtown Traverse City, and enjoy the general store, picnic areas, easy hiking trails, and lovely pastoral landscapes. Buy the luscious local strawberries, raspberries, and of course, cherries from the farms and orchards lining the road. For lunch try the Old Mission Tavern and Grill and enjoy the attached art gallery.

Sheltered by Lake Michigan, this area also offers a temperate climate and fertile land for grapes. Vineyards abound, making for great days of wine-tasting. Although known for Chardonnays and Pinot Grigios, their Rieslings are some of the best in the country. The Wineries of Old Mission describe the five wineries tucked around the island and the trail makes for a intoxicatingly good outing.

The other winery area is the Leelanau Peninsula, just outside of Traverse City, and is also fertile land for wineries with over a dozen at last count. You can get a map of the area at LPWines

The northern edges of the Old Mission Peninsula also are a rich hunting-ground for Petoskey stones – a variety of Calcite formed by the fossilization of a type of ancient coral called Hexagonaria. Searching the shores of Lakes Michigan and Huron for these distinctively patterned stones is a popular activity. In May, there’s a Petoskey Stone Festival in Antrim County in honor of the rock that is the official Michigan stone.

Sleeping Bear Dunes
Another excellent day trip is a visit to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Park, named so because one of the huge dunes was said to resemble a sleeping bear. Buy a picnic lunch at one of the markets in Traverse City and have a picnic along a bluff. One of the highlights is the seven-mile Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive that takes you from the forests to the dunes with great photo opportunities along the way. Save some energy for one of the most popular activities -- climbing the huge towering dune. Climbing up is hard and running down is easy, and everyone seems to do it. Hiking trails, and a visit to the coast guard rescue station round out a full day.

Water Fun
Traverse City also offers all the water activities that come with being on one of the Great Lakes – parasailing, canoeing, kayaking, and fishing. Plus you can book a trip on a real schooner, the Tall Ship Manitou. The offer sails with boxed lunch or dinner as appropriate. Passengers can help raise sails, and steer the ship. I felt a bit like a sea captain as I stood peering into the distance, keeping my ship on course through the protected waters of the bay. It was a lovely fantasy, as I was watched over by the schooner's real captain to make sure I didn't steer us into the wrong harbor.

Eating

If you judge a destination, in part, by its food, know that there’s plenty of good eating in Traverse City. Scalawags offers excellent fresh seafood in a fun and very casual nautical atmosphere. Both their Whitefish reuben and the fried Whitefish and shrimp combination were excellent and came with hushpuppies, fries, and cole slaw. Their chowder was a delicious starter.

Bubba’s is another casual, family favorite with good pub food – burgers, burritos and beer (and a bit more) This place gets crowded and tables become quite scarce so if you don’t want to wait, get there early.

Amical provides excellent and sophisticated food with an eclectic French flair. Menu changes seasonally with highlight local produce.

310 Restaurant located on the Boardman river, is a perfect place for lunch and enjoying a glass of wine, or one of their specialty beers and drinks while you people watch, or river watch. For dinner, they offer small plates and tapas as well as full plate entrees.

Picnic lunches are easily put together with food from the Bayside market and Jack’s market. And, for ice cream, go to Moomers in the rural outskirts of town. Made from the milk of their own cows (and they had some of these grazing near the picnic tables) their ice cream in a gratifyingly large variety of flavors is a local and visitor favorite.

Lodging

There’s definitely no shortage of places to stay, including chain hotels, a historic city hotel, B & Bs and resorts along the lakeshore. We stayed at the Bayshore and the Sugar Beach Resort. Sugar Beach, named because of the sugar soft sand, had comfortable and fully equipped rooms. Breakfast was provided on the breezeway with a dining on the outdoor balcony option.

Somewhat more formal and elegant, but still family friendly, the Bayshore offers an expanded breakfast and a wooden deck sitting on the sand with tables and chairs. Rooms at both places were large and comfortable with some offering lake balconies.

If You Go
For more information on Traverse City, Michigan call 1-800-TRAVERSE (1-800-872-8377) or visit VisitTraverseCity.com

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