Wednesdy, Aug 11th. A day of shopping.

It is already Thursday. I cannot believe this marks one week already that we've been on the road. Today we leave St Ignace and head for Mohawk at the northernmost tip of the upper peninsular. I will pick Red and her pup Sophie up at the airport this evening. It will be fun to have a companion for the next few days.




Yesterday was fun. After deciding on this route specifically so that I might explore Mackinac Island, we decided not to go. The more I read about it, the more upscale Disneyland it became to me. When I was touring Italy several years ago, I decided not to go to Venice because it's purpose had seemed to become to delight tourists. I think that is the purpose of Mackinac Island now as well. Except on Mackinac, there is a charge for everything. Chip and I spoke occasionally of the Grand Hotel, its wraparound porch, it's rocking chairs. If I were with Chip, no question we would have gone over to the island, perhaps even stayed there (tho the Grand Hotel is not dog-friendly) Chip was, himself, a bit of a throwback to the Victorian era, always dressed beautifully, always proper in his public persona. The problem is, of course, that Chip is not with me on this trip and I think going over to the island would have made me miss him terribly. And since there is a charge for everything - including going up to rock on one of those rocking chairs, it would have made me angry as well. So, instead, I loaded the Tramp into the car and we went over the Mackinac bridge onto the mainland and down to Petoskey.



I came across Petoskey in a NY Times magazine article months ago. Petoskey is also a throwback, nostalgic, a place out of time. But its purpose is not tourists. It purpose is to please the residents who live there all year or summer there when the other parts of the state get too hot, too unbearable. Petoskey is authentically charming. All the little towns around are authentically charming. It sits on Little Traverse Bay, a part of Lake Michigan. It is clearly well to do with upscale hotels, restaurants, cafes and shops. Oh, the shops. Janet, how I wish you were with me when I went to Dave's Boot Shop. They carry those clogs I see you wear all the time along with room after room of options. Down in its bargain basement I couldn't resist a pair of waterproof loafers in bright yellow rubber. Living deep in the woods, with rain clearly on its way, I argued to myself that these would prevent me from ruining any of the other shoes I had brought with me. But really it was just the bright yellow and plaid trim that compelled me to buy them. Next to this store was shop after shop of clothing and jewelry and "stuff". No chain stores. No stores that litter every major city in this country and every other country around the world. Here, the owners go on buying trips and carefully cull what they want to offer their customers from the name brands and unknown designers alike. The shops have character. They have personality. And the browsing is pure pleasure.



And, Jo, oh, my, what a bookstore! I think I was there over an hour talking with the owner's son who was helping me pick out new audio books for the rest of the trip given that I had already finished The Help. He, himself, loved audio books and had probably already listened to every offering they had. But he understood that there are some books you must READ, while others are even better when you sit back and listen to the story unfold. We talked and talked until he thought he understood me and then he began his suggestions. I left with 3 new books - I could have purchased dozens more - and a desire to come back to Petoskey often just to go and talk with him more about the latest offerings and what he liked and didn't like about them.



After the bookstore I walked down a cross street and came across a linen shop that had MacKinsey Childs ware in the windows. Now I love Mackinsey Childs and it fills my kitchen. It is happy and friendly and welcoming in its designs. And even while the original husband and wife team that built this company are long gone from it, having gone bankrupt and selling to a large corporation, the designs remain true to the vision and the quality has actually improved, and each piece I see still makes me happy.  While I would happily own any piece of theirs, I have a supplier from Martha's Vineyard who gets me a 20% discount, so I was not about to buy anything of theirs from this store, but the very fact that they carried this brand gave me confidence I would like the rest of their merchandise and so in I went.   I bought a lace hankerchief from them, a thick bright towel (Balsom Lodge does not supply towels) so that I could shower when I got back to the lodge, and a plaque to be a gift for Red and her husband to mount on the walls of their summer home after I drop her and Sophie off there early next week.



All in all I was very pleased with my purchases - new books to listen to in the car; bright yellow rain shoes, a thick plush towel to wrap myself in, and a sweet linen and lace hanki - a piece of clothing that is so reminiscent of the town, old-fashioned, unnecessary in the modern world, and a pleasure to the senses and soul.









We were back at the cottage by around 5. Our neighbors with the husky puppy came home shortly afterward and the puppy came calling for Tramp. They ran and played and swam and amused us all for about 30 minutes and then I left the group to come in for my dinner.



I had driven through the town of St. Ignace before coming back to the cottage. It, too, is a sweet little town, not as old-fashioned and upscale as Petoskey, but comfortable in its skin, and I liked driving around. We stopped for a local food - a Pastie. Pronounced to rhyme with sassy, in fact, at least the one I bought, ate more like the way I want to pronounce it - paste-y. Pasties are single portion meals made by miners' wives for their husbands lunches when they were deep down in the mines. They are baked meat and vegetable pies with the crusts wrapped complete around the filling. Wrapped in linen or newspaper, they stay warm for a long time. The fillings are dense with full-bodied flavor. Eat one and you won't soon be hungry again. The one I had was all vegetables - potatoes and rutabaga and carrots and broccoli. It was also bland. I don't think I'll have another anytime soon, but it satisfied for my dinner and the peanut butter cookie I had for dessert was yummy. That cookie, along with a big glass of ice cold milk topped my day perfectly.



Tramp and I curled up on the bed with my book and we happily spent a quiet evening enjoying listening to rain on the cabin roof and forest leaves. We fell asleep wrapped by the sensation of clean fresh green forest air.