Red sun setting as bugle plays taps (Weko beach), pizza 🍕 in the woods (Haymarket), hard-to-find fav cheese found (Emma Hearth), Cobb salad at Mason jar – Bridgman and Benton harbor in southwest Michigan

Such a treat to visit this lovely corner of southwest Michigan that I didn’t know about when I was growing up in southeast Michigan.

Thanks to my sister for sharing it with us. On weko beach at 9 pm, people dot the soft sand, two paddlers drift in Lake Michigan, everyone is looking west at the setting sun (shockingly red last night, perhaps due to smoke from the Canadian wildfires) as a bugler plays taps.

We have become periodic regulars at p hearth in Bridgman, with great pizza and carefully selected gourmet market fare including Cottonwood Cheddar (from Kansas!) and at Haymaket, easy going outdoor dining with 🐕 in a clearing in the woods, with kids rushing over to greet our dog Millie, tables of friends, an older couple playing cards between bites of pizza. The Mason Jar perks up Benton Harbor (Cobb salad, lemonade, spotty service).