GOrgeous fall day as we drove the second leg of our trip up north from an okay comfort inn in Joliet to TC. first stop, Crane’s apple orchard empire outside the sweet town of Fennville. “From your Iowa plates, you must not be part of the field trip,” said a cheerful guy directing traffic to rudimentary parking spots near the pick your own orchards. We picked our very own mutsu apples, one of my favorite breeds not readily found in Iowa and also discovered the cameo apple. We stopped nearby at the cranes cider mill and restaurant. Full of fall tourists, good not-too-sweet cider and many pie varieties. The restaurant had a clever “pie flight” with slivers of several varieties but we went on to Saugatuck, a pretty resort town I had somehow never been to. We ate lunch outside at a cute new diner called Grow. Clever food (my fresh take on a Michigan salad had Israeli couscous as well as pulled chicken, dried cherries, goat cheese and greens. Dirck had excellent fish tacos (which I don’t usually like but these had batter fried white fish, which provided some crunch and a good cause that kept them from being dry.)
We hope to stay on our return trip at a cool Airbnb in fennville (“modern cabin in the woods”) that was booked. Next time. There appear to be some cool retro motels that are affordable. Just saw our first birch trees. Now I know we are up north!!
TakeBetsywithyou 