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The weather turned oddly cold and moody, but thankfully no rain. Still, not a beach day so we drive along scenic M22, stopping at a small gallery with ceramics, Good Harbor Gallery, at a rural intersection north of Maple City where I found a wedding gift! we drive through traffic and tourist clogged Leland and it’s famous fishtown to the pretty village of Northport, where a farmers market along the lake was concluding.

Back south, we met up with the grandsons and parents for the annual port Oneida fair at six historic farms, offering lots of old timey kid friendly farm and craft activities, although the kids favorite was an earlier outing to feed alpacas in Frankfurt. In one farmhouse, the 70s cult novel Jonathan Livingston seagull was allegedly written. (I thought it was an east coast ocean seagull.)

Also happened to learn from an old friend about my family’s rabbinical and yenta roots in Traverse City!

When the young baker at the farmer’s market in the tiny village of Honor told me she was returning to school soon, I almost asked which college. Turns out she’s a first grade teacher…who makes a mean cinnamon roll. She was one of the few food vendors at the Tuesday market. The rest were selling low key crafts. We did buy some red haven peaches and tomatoes from what appeared to be native Americans.

We rode our bikes twice on the Betsie River trail along Crystal Lake, which was a different series of colors each day, ranging from coral blue to navy blue.

The trail is about 18 miles round trip and very pleasant, mostly flat with a variety of surfaces and terrains, starting with crunchy crushed gravel as we peddled past waterfront cottages with pretty gardens and the lake, then pavement through the woods, dotted with the occasional white birch (my favorite), then through a marsh wetlands/Betsey Lake past Elberta into the tourist town of Frankfort, with its restaurants, T-shirt shops, and occasional classy decor/gift shops. There is also a L’chaim sandwich shop in Frankfort, where we shared a hearty Ruben sandwich.

In Empire, we made an obligatory stop at the Grocers Daughter for gelato. Esch beach was calm and packed, with warm water and sunshine on our first outing, then windy and less packed, with frigid water and white caps after a stormy night.

We’ve been here enough that we know the lay of the land, and have our old favorites. While the younger gens did the dune climb at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park, we did a short, more sedate hike north of the village of Empire that landed us at Pyramid Point dune with yet another dazzling view of the lake and manitou island in the distance. We drove a little further on M-22 to near Maple City, which was a reminder of how pretty that area is and might be worth planting ourselves during future visits. Bucolic farmland, historic farmsteads and pretty old country homes.

Glen Arbor was packed with tourists, as was Cherry Republic but it’s got good food (cherry chicken) and good service so worth the one hour wait? The kids played cornhole and other games available on sight while the adults shopped for cherry everything and anything in the shop.

We are near the Benzie County Democrats so Noah and I dropped by to see where volunteers are most needed in this battleground state during the upcoming presidential race. The office had just closed but we met a funny and engaging democrat (the lone one on the county commission, she told us). Benzie has a surprisingly robust democratic presence she told us, and is purple. So help is needed. Grand Rapids also needs help from democrat volunteers. She wasn’t sure about the New Buffalo area, which is most convenient to Chicago.

On to Port City Smokehouse for some fresh whitefish and smoked whitefish spread. Nice helpful staff.