Driving up the Lake Michigan coast!

After Ann Arbor, Adam and I headed west. We first went to Holland, Michigan so that we could visit with Joy Love, another soon-to-be Peace Corps Volunteer who will be heading to Ecuador with us in June. It was fun to meet her, along with her sister and brother. She is around our age and I am sure that we will get along great. It's been really good meeting other volunteers that we will probably get to know during training.

After lunch in Holland, we took the scenic drive up the western side of Michigan towards Traverse City. It was a long drive but we saw a lot of beautiful sites. We passed through some small towns (Manistee and Ludington were nice!), visited the Point Betsie Lighthouse (though it was partially closed off so I couldn't actually get up close), drove through the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, and then arrived in Traverse City, the cherry capitol of the US, for the evening (where we searched for a place with some hot soup, since Adam had picked up a sore throat and a bit of a cold along the way.

Something you don't get that often in California- a frosty mug of A&W root beer (easy to find across the midwest)

Lake Michigan from Orchard Beach State Park (north of Manistee)

The fog started to roll in right around the middle of the day

Point Betsie Lighthouse



Sleeping Bear Dunes & Lake Michigan (or as we kept calling it, the ocean)

The next morning, after a few hours at the laundromat (dirty clothes can pile up!), we drove up a part of the small peninsula by Traverse City and saw tons of cherry tree orchards (and a few grape vines and wineries too). As we drove further north towards the Mackinac Bridge and the Upper Peninsula, we saw why it might be gorgeous to come in the fall. All the trees would be vibrant red, orange and yellows in October, but since we were here in May...it was still in winter mode! Not many trees with leaves quite yet. Before we headed into the "Tunnel of Trees", we stopped at a local diner called Bob-In Again for some sandwiches, onion rings, chili and frozen custard. Yum! For some reason I didn't take pix from there...I must have been too hungry!

White cherry blossoms

Entering the Tunnel of Trees, where we passed by some amazing homes, glimpses of Lake Michigan, and a fox too!

And finally- crossing the Mackinac Bridge to get to the Upper Peninsula!

Our overall route from Ann Arbor to the UP- probably a little over 500 miles!