Road Trip – OBX and Michigan

It was been a busy summer, with lots of painting and travel. It’s been a while since I posted, my friend Cyndi redid my website and with all of my blog posts it took a while.

A couple friends and I drove up to Corolla and we stayed at the Sanderling. We loved the pools and the location. They had just finished redecorating and it was beautiful.

We ate at their restaurant, Theodosia, which had just opened. It’s the newest restaurant with Vivian Howard’s name on it. She happened to be there that evening and was even serving food. She stopped by our table and chatted a bit. The building was nice, it’s right on the water. The food was ok but not spectacular I hate to say.

We stopped to see the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. I love the architecture of the Keepers house and the building the gift shop is in. The lighthouse was completed in 1875 and the beam from its light stretched 18 miles.

Over two dozen families stayed in the keepers’ house until it was electrified and made automatic in 1937. The grounds had fallen into disrepair and it was sold to the State of North Carolina in 1952 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

Right next door is the Currituck Maritime Museum, which is new since my last visit. It opened in 2021. It has historic boats, artifacts, and other displays that tell the stories of local businesses and citizens who have lived and worked on the various waterways of the region. It’s a beautiful facility and free to visit.

There are restored boats, photographs, hands-on exhibits, demonstrations and educational programs.

The area started to be developed in the 1920s, before that the Outer Banks were pretty sparsely populated. I remember being out there in the 1970s, and other than around the lighthouses there was very little development even then.

Duck hunting was a big draw which spurred the development.

Edward Collings Knight, Jr., a wealthy industrialist, waterfowl hunter and nature lover, fell in love with the area and purchased a 4.5-mile section called the Lighthouse Hunt Club. He and his wife made plans to build a summer home on the land.

They spent several years in the 1920s building their 21,000-square-foot home, now the Whalehead Club. The Art Nouveau ornamentation of the building is said to be one of the best examples of that type in the country.

By the 1940s both of the Knights had passed away, and during World War II it became a residence and bunker for the US Coast Guard, which was a new branch of the military.

After the war the building became the Corolla School for Boys and the school remained in operation until 1962. At this juncture, the school closed, and the property was leased to the US Government.

The site became a rocket fuel test site under the management of the Atlantic Research Corporation of Alexandria, Virginia, they developed large booster rockets for our space program.

In 1992, Currituck County was able to purchase the property and acquired 39 acres for a park, which included the original residence, the lighthouse, and acres of waterfront property. Renovations to the house began In 1999 and were completed two years later.

We visited the Corolla Village Inn, not far from the lighthouse. It’s a fairly new place, it’s beautiful and I would definitely stay there on another trip.

I really enjoyed walking the boardwalk which extends nearly a mile along the Currituck Sound.

And we stopped for a great meal at Single Fin as we headed home.

I got home in time to head out to Michigan.

Michigan

For the third time, and last, I rented the house I grew up in on Round Lake. It was a resort area while I was growing up there in the ’50s and ’60s. We were one of the few families that lived on the lake year-round. Now a lot of the old cottages have been replaced with beautiful homes.

The reason it’s the last time I’ll stay there is the owners are moving into it. They have been living in Florida the past few years. Their folks live next door and grandma just down the road.

My nieces were there, all but one was able to spend the week. It was a very laidback week of puzzles, swimming, talking and eating, of course. On the way to Michigan I went through Gordonsville, a favorite tiny town north of Charlottesville.

Our big excursion for the week was to the farmers’ market at Cambridge Junction and Walker Tavern.

The area is now a State Historic Park with the Walker Tavern, Hewitt House, a reconstructed 1040s Barn, and an open area where they have vintage baseball games and concerts.

In the 1840s, Sylvester Walker’s tavern was a favorite rest stop for travelers heading west on the Old Chicago Road.

They had wonderful displays about mid-20th century Irish Hills tourist attractions. We all reminisced about our connections to each of the places.

None of us had ever been to Mystery Hill, it’s still going after all these years while Frontier City, the Towers (still there but a shadow of their former selves), and The Prehistoric Forest are long gone.

Two of my nieces worked at Frontier City through High School and rode their bikes 5 or 6 miles each way to do it.

I have a Michigan International Speedway connection because as a teenager and Girl Scout we picked up trash after the races to earn money for a two=week trip we took to Mexico. I think our troop was paid $5,000 for each race. And the commercial printer I worked at in my 20s did all their printing. I worked on many race booklets. Roger Penske came to our shop a couple of times, he was the owner of the Speedway at the time.

And they talked about the Potawatomi Indians that lived in the region. Michael’s ancestors on his father’s side were Potawatomi. His great, great, great, great, great-grandmother’s name was Mnetoqua Nashcah, or Marguerite Bourassa in English.

We went to Mystery Hill, it is a little hokey but we all had a good time nonetheless. The kids especially enjoyed it. And we all got a little vertigo!

Yes, Michigan has BBQ too! The difference is most Michigan BBQ has a sweetish tomato-based sauce, while Eastern North Carolina has a vinegar-based sauce. At first I didn’t like the vinegar based but have come to love it!

Many of the people I went to high school with got together for lunch one day. I graduated in 1969. I have lived away from the area so never went to any of our reunions until our 50th. For that one the class members started a Facebook page. which led me to reconnect with many people I hadn’t seen in all those 50 years. This is the best part of social media! Since then three classmates have visited me in New Bern and I was able to take them on the grand tour.

Speaking of grand tours, my friend Irene flew into Detroit on our last night at the lake house. She had been in the Detroit area before on business but never got to see the state. So I gave her a tour of some of my favorite places. We stopped in Ann Arbor on our way by for dinner and luckily it was during the Ann Arbor Street Fair, one of the top street art festivals in the country.

We took off early the next day. First stop was lunch in Clare at a sweet restaurant, the Herrick House.

This first day was a real whirlwind. After Clare we continued north to the NW corner of the lower peninsula.

I can’t get anywhere close to Petkosky without driving up the Tunnel of Trees, M-119. We stopped at Good Hart, which has a population of 200 and about 5 commercial businesses.

I kept saying I’ve been coming here for 70 years! Some of my earliest memories are from this area because my dad, like me, had a bit of wanderlust and always wanted to take a new route. So I’m familiar with all of the back roads in the north west of the lower peninsula.

On the way north we passed some new signs. Read more about the tunnel of trees.

We enjoyed a nice chat with two girls from Poland on our stop at Legs Inn in Cross Village, population 69. You can sit on the back lawn and stare at Lake Michigan below. Off in the distance, if it’s clear, you can see Beaver Island, and if you are lucky, both North and South Manitou Islands.

We stopped at Petosky for the night and got up early the next day to visit the great shops in the downtown and were lucky to be there for a very nice art show in the park. We had to go back to Harbor Springs to see all the beautiful flowers.

When we got to Traverse City we stayed at The Baywatch, right on the beach. It was nice.

We visited several of my favorite galleries on our way south and stopped to show Irene the Mushroom Houses in Charlevoix. I did many artshows on the waterfront there.

Beir Art Gallery and Pottery is in an old red schoolhouse. I’m familiar with many of the artists they carry and probably the most famous is Todd Warner, who passed away a couple of years ago.

The other is Twisted Fish in Elk Rapids. They carry the work of Alan Maciag, whose work I admire. I see his work in Sylvania, Ohio, too.

Funny, we saw a woman at the art show in Petosky, saw her at Beir Gallery, and saw her again at Twisted Fish!

When we got to Traverse City we stayed at The Baywatch, right on the beach. It was nice.

We drove up the Old Mission Peninsula and visited a couple of wineries and a lavender farm. The scenery is lovely, rolling hills, you can see the water of East or West Traverse Bay, depending on which side of the ridge you are on. The first winery, Two Lads Winery, was great, the wine, yummy, the second, not so much.

We loved the lavender field and small shop at Brys Estate Vineyard, but were not crazy about the winery or wine there.

I always like stopping at the lighthouses. Did you know that Michigan has the most lighthouses of any US state? Over 150.

The next day we drove around the Leelanau Peninsula. We stopped in Suttons Bay and had lunch at The VI Grill, established in 1871, proudly holds the title of the oldest eating establishment in Leelanau County.

Then we continued around to Leland where we visited Fishtown and met a bunch of women bikers.

Then we started south and stopped at the Pointe Betsie Lighthouse. We used to camp near there as a child on the Betsie River. The campground is now part of the Sleeping Bear Dunes. It is surprising how high the dunes are! They are 460 feet high, and pretty steep. If you go down the dune and cannot climb back up it can cost up to $3,000 to be rescued!

This was my second visit to The Cherry Point farm Market and Labrinth. Earth mounds and lavender plants define the path that spirals around a stone circle which is in the center. Once you are inside there are 36 beds filled with dozens of herbs, each bed having a different theme: medicinal, Shakespeare, Biblical.

We spent two nights in Holland. The city was founded by Dutch settlers in 1847. I’ve been there before but never made it to the Windmill Island Gardens. It is a pretty 36-acre park. The most notable feature is the DeZwaan Windmill. It’s 250 years old, was built in the Netherlands, and relocated to Holland in 1964.

The gardens were developed in the 1960s to help the city celebrate its Dutch heritage. In the spring you will find thousands of blooming tulips. We were late for the tulips but the gardens were still beautiful. The buildings in the center of the garden make you think you are in Amsterdam.

Holland has an outstanding farmers’ market and not far from that is Centennial Park, it’s a beauty, and right across the street are bronze statues of characters from the Wizard of Oz. Why here? It turns out the author, L. Frank Baum, wrote his novel while vacationing at his family’s cottage along the shore of Lake Michigan near Holland. Some of the book’s characters and settings are said to be inspired by the people he met during his time along the lakeshore. 

A fun fact about Holland, the sidewalks in the downtown are heated with hot water pipes below so you never have to worry about slipping.

We went to Saugatuck, which is just a few miles from Holland. Its a sweet town and one of two places I would live if I ever moved back to Michigan, which I am NOT going to do. BTW, the other is Ann Arbor.

We visited a friend that owned GoodGoods, a gallery like my Carolina Creations. We met at shows while looking for new work for our galleries. I think we met 30 years ago? As you know, I sold Carolina Creations in 2017, and she closed GoodGoods in 2024. We always enjoyed sharing resources and giving each other ideas. So good to see her!

We drove through the countryside heading south stopping in Shipshewana, Ohio, and at a rest area with wonderful story boards.

You may not know that Shipshewana is at the heart of one of the largest Amish and Mennonite communities in the US and was named after a Potawatomi chief, Chief Shipshewana.

We spent the night in Dayton in the historic neighborhood of Webster Station. The neighborhood was a center for light industry during the late 19th through mid-20th century. One of the most significant industrial tenants was Delco.

Today, Webster Station features locally owned breweries and loft-style condos in renovated warehouses, alongside newly built townhouses. We stayed at the AC Hotel right next door to the Day Air Ballpark. At the rooftop restaurant, The Foundry, we were able to watch part of the game from above!

My niece went to Antioch in Yellow Springs so I wanted to check it out. It’s an old hippie and liberal town, with an interesting downtown.

Just outside of town is the Clifton Mill. What a beauty! What a great way to finish up a great visit!

Where to next? Colorado and The Pines.